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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy Libertarian Organizations Like The Cato Institute Love The NSA Outrage
http://shoqvalue.com/why-libertarian-organizations-like-the-cato-institute-love-the-nsa-outrage/Glenn Greenwald's daily fixation about the perils and abuses of executive power have always been widely supported and promoted by the Cato Institute, the libertarian "think tank" founded by the now infamous right-wing industrialists known now as simply "The Koch Brothers." Glenn's latest number one fan on Twitter is Cato's (and Reason Magazine's) Julian Sanchez (@normative). The two of them have recently been the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb of the NSA/Snowden outrage machine, gleefully trading-off with and echoing each other's efforts to keep the topics of the NSA, Ed Snowden and Bradley Manning in the forefront of the media's attention span. And the Kochs just couldn't be happier.
This paragraph will help you understand why:
From: The Machine: A Field Guide to the Resurgent Right by Lee Fang
Perhaps the most insidious strategy of the Koch brothers has been their ability to co-opt social liberals. The Cato Institute is known for its promotion of gay marriage and support for immigrant rights. In fact, a small number of libertarian fronts that receive funding from Koch charitable foundations do not toe the orthodox conservative line when it comes to issues like evolution or even drug policy. But these otherwise laudable causes are mostly a ruse. While the Koch brothers fund seemingly reasonable social libertarians with one hand, they finance a set of vicious social conservatives with the other. Peggy Venable, a longtime Koch operative, helped mastermind the crusade to rewrite the history textbooks in Texas to promote antigay bigots and to censor references to immigrant civil rights leaders like Cesar Chavez.6 Americans for Prosperity spent considerable resources promoting Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce and Colorados Tom Tancredo, two of the leading anti-immigrant politicians in America. Koch also gives heavily to antigay groups like the Heritage Foundation. In fact, Charles attends meetings of the Council for National Policy, the nations largest meeting group for far right social conservative donors, and in a speech posted on the groups website, pledged an alliance with the social right to change American society. Essentially, Koch will fund both conservatives and liberals when it comes to social policy. Because for them, social initiatives are more often a Trojan horse for imposing their radical economic views.
[bold emphasis added]
Like most of the Right's calculated maneuverings, organizations like Cato are fond of any effort that attacks any institution of power which far right authoritarians like the Koch's don't now control. For decades, they have paid for an orchestrated effort to destroy the American people's respect for goverment, and thus, any authority that can pass social legislation aimed at greater wealth equality and social justice, which are both outcomes vehemently opposed by the Kochs and their plutocratic brethren. It is not an accident that Progressive civil libertarians and socially-regressive Ron and Rand Paul supporters have come together to noisily protest the evils of the "surveillance state," as Greenwald so lovingly refers to it. It's a strategy long in coming.
I urge you to read Lee Fang's book and understand just how systemic the plutocratic influence has become in America, and why it is leading to what George Packer calls "The Great Unwinding" of the American way of life. It is not that the strident voices like Glenn Greenwald's are not discussing matters important to liberals. They are. After all, Progressivesor at least, those claiming to be progressivesare his market and drive his income. But it is the way they are discussed that is working at cross-purposes with the larger goals of the American left. They rely on a ginned-up outrage directed mostly at mere tokens of authority, such as black Presidents like Barack Obama, and not at the true causes of our problems: the plutocratic elites like the Koch's who are only too happy to promote and pay for this distracting, hyperbolic antipathy toward elected representation and executive power.
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flamingdem
(39,313 posts)The Machine: A Field Guide to the Resurgent Right
by Lee Fang
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)If they would listen to truth and know when they are lied to it would be an easy decision of what logical reasoning is.
CakeGrrl
(10,611 posts)Who'da thunk it?
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)Though he scoffs at the label Libertarian this is clearly who he is.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)...between a civil libertarian, a left libertarian, and the capital L Libertarian Party?
Civil libertarian: The ACLU, for example.
Left libertarian: Probably includes many Democrats. End the drug war, stay out of our bedrooms, stop the foreign wars, and create social justice by defanging corporate power.
Libertarian Party: All power to the private sector! Plus end the drug war, stay our our bedrooms, stop the foreign wars.
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)?
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)You certainly wouldn't do anything like that on purpose, so I assumed some clarification might help ease your confusion. No need to thank me; it's a public service.
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)I implied overlap
leftstreet
(36,108 posts)!!
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)Please share your views if you want
leftstreet
(36,108 posts)Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)Why don't you try defending the national surveillance state instead of basically calling its critics lackeys of the Koch Brothers?
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)Lovely
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)Again. Not a surprise. And not lovely.
I loathe the Koch Brothers. I also loathe the overweening natiional surveillance state and all the creepy Big Brotherism.
Response to flamingdem (Original post)
leftstreet This message was self-deleted by its author.
great white snark
(2,646 posts)Well hell, mission accomplished on DU. Great post, thanks.
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)and described some of what we see here!
mick063
(2,424 posts)There are a small number of issues that we all can align on.
Is the contempt so great, that it is always "They are for it so I am against it" every single time? On every single issue?
The only way this country can repair itself is if people can find common ground on a few issues.
I'm pro choice, anti war, anti privatization, fair taxation, etc. , etc.
I also happen to be anti "blanket surveillance." Personally, I'm thrilled that the Republicans have this one right. It means we may be able to do something about it.
Indeed, the 26 Senators that have banded together on this issue appear to be bipartisan.
This runs counter to divisive Rove tactics. Common ground opens dialog. Dialog opens minds. It is the plutocrat's greatest fear.
If you truly wish to change a few minds, acknowledge the opposition when they are on the right side of an issue.
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)to begin with! Obamacare / Romney care for example
mick063
(2,424 posts)Their purpose in life is power.
I am speaking of American citizens that are bitterly disappointed with our surveillance state. I am in solidarity with them, on that particular issue, regardless of party affiliation.