ARE CATO INSTITUTE MEMBERS MERELY A BRANCH OF THE RNC ?

[powergirl]

My brother-in-law gave me a YEAR LONG subscription to their newletter for a joke bday gift (just to torture me!). From what I read and what I saw on their website, they worship Clarence Thomas and John Stossel. They complained about the Democrats "stalling" Bush's judicial appointments, etc. They're website is noticeably silent on the abortion issue. I've confronted a CATO person about this and they insist that they are independent and are different from Bush. But I don't see that. What do you think?

[K-W]

1. intellectual incest both ways

I honestly believe that they dont think they are. These people have very convoluted thought procesees.

[Radical Activist]

2. CATO is RW corporate propoganda

I think they are seperate from the RNC. They will criticize Republicans if they start to stray from the desires of their corporate masters. But no doubt CATO is pure evil, so they share something in common with the Republican party.

[rogerashton]

3. They are free marketeers.

To be a sincere free marketeer, one has to believe that "free markets" are a possibility -- so you start off from a great capacity for self-delusion. That said, though, I don't thing the Busheviks care a hoot in a hailstorm about free markets, except as convenient political symbolism. So thre is a difference.

[reprehensor]

5. Indeed. n/t

[reprehensor]

4. CATO is Libertarian.

Largely right-wing. Against big government.

If they support Bush in any way, they will go the way of the dodo.

Unrestricted Anarcho-capitalism is about as workable in the real world as Communism.

In other words, it's as fallible as the people who run it.

[K-W]

10. Id say much less workable than communism.

Communism relies on unfounded assumptions, libertarianism relies on false assumptions.

But the Cato instititute is very much tied to the republican party, and it is evidenced in alot of thier work.

[drumwolf]

6. they are free-market ideologues but not lockstep RNC party line

Cato was largely opposed to the Iraq war and has been quite critical of the neocons' foreign policies from the start.

They have not at all been afraid to take Bush to task for his reckless fiscal irresponsibility. And they are socially liberal.

They have the same ideology as the folks at The Economist and Reason.

[Sir Craig]

7. Faux News runs Cato Institute editorials and viewpoints on their site

'Nuff said

[peacetalksforall]

8. They state something that you could agree with about 7% of the time.

On the average.

[Martin Eden]

9. CATO is not RNC

CATO is Libertarian, and opposed the invasion of Iraq.
Here are a couple of CATO articles I've bookmarked and found useful in Iraq debates with right-wingers.
http://www.cato.org/dailys/03-05-03.html
http://www.cato.org/dailys/07-07-03.html

[salvorhardin]

11. CATO not so bad

They're definitely not the RNC. As others have pointed out, they are hard core libertarians or anarcho-capitalists. This puts them much closer to traditional conservative ideology than the current day RNC. I can usually have intelligent conversations with libertarians and quite a bit of what CATO publishes is actually pretty darn good. Now, please understand that I am not a libertarian. My personal beliefs lie closer to radical leftist philosphy, while in practicality I come off as a secular humanist or old-school liberal. The DNC is almost as reprehensible to me as the RNC. Almost. I'm still voting for Kerry though.

[swinney]

12. Ed Crane President of Cato on Bush Gang

On C-Span--"Everthing this adminstration does is political".

Cato is Libertarian--Littl federal govt.