Soft privatization

Max Sawicky sawicky at epinet.org
Wed Aug 12 07:26:52 PDT 1998



>>
>> A really un-American group is this anarchist Cato Institute; they are a
real bunch of crazed potential terrorists. I wonder if they have any connections in Africa.
> . . .

I've had numerous dealings with a number of Cato folks. I've yet to meet one that would hurt a fly.

Their philosophy is libertarian. They oppose most any sort of state incursion on individual life. Now you could say the harm to people resulting from the lack of a public sector is violence, but that's a far cry from 'terrorism.'

Cato caught a lot of flack from some of their backers by taking a principled stand against any U.S. military action in the Gulf, before during and after. In the same vein, they take a jaundiced view of the "war on drugs" and the standard cliches about law enforcement. They consistently propose to eviscerate the military budget far beyond the proposals of most liberals.

The more hard-right outfit is the Heritage Foundation, but even there are some people who are really closet libertarians and don't buy a lot of Heritage theocratic crap.

Unlike some 'spin' artists, they are pretty forthright about their views.

Moral of the story: save your condemnations of personal character for people you really know. Newt is a good place to start.

Cheers,

MBS



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