New Dem Think Tank: American Majority Institute

[Q]

Dems vs. GOP: Best Weapons Are the Facts

By Walter Williams
Walter Williams, a professor emeritus of public affairs at the University of Washington, is the author, most recently, of "Reaganism and the Death of Representative Democracy."

August 4, 2003

Excerpts...

Next month, progressive Democrats will open a new think tank, the American Majority Institute, that has an expected yearly operating budget of at least $10 million. This level of support means the institute can challenge the conservative Republican policy shops that in recent years have been much more heavily funded and have clobbered their Democratic counterparts in selling ideas to the public. The key question is whether the new institute has to emulate the Republicans from President George W. Bush on down in using deceptive information to mislead American citizens about their policies. Its decision whether to employ such chicanery goes to the fundamental democratic issue of informed consent.

It's no use trying to finesse the shameful cowardice of the Democrats during most of the Bush presidency. The biggest problem for the new institute and the party is not finding honest numbers, but finding the courage to use them. The Republicans have been zealots without regard to veracity or consistency. Yet, the Democrats have been fearful of taking on the popular president and the partisan think tanks that have supported his distorted claims. These unscrupulous practices also can be the Republicans' Achilles heel.

Exposing the dishonesty, however, requires that the American Majority Institute attack the Republicans with a hard-nosed relentlessness. It should use the available honest numbers to expose the legerdemain on the tax cuts for the wealthy and other clear policy deception. Now that the Democrats have challenged the Bush administration's deception on the missing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - and drawn blood - hard-hitting critiques of the fraud in other Bush policies can be reinforcing.

Continued Democratic timidity will fail. Nor are Democrats likely to out-spin the Republicans. Forceful use of honest data is the best option. The Democrats have a mother lode of reliable information that shows the pattern of calculated deception of the Bush administration. It is a rare opportunity that can be used effectively by a tough think tank that is scrupulous in analyzing and packaging data and commentary that can help Democrats in attacking the Bush administration. Both the Democrats and the Republicans need to recognize this basic point: For a nation that aspires to lead the Mideast toward democracy, lying to the American people about major policies is the antithesis of constitutional democracy. - http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpwil043401278aug04,0,641483.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines

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[vi5]

1. This makes me very happy....

I've been saying we need more "think tanks" for years since every time I'd turn on the news there would be some yahoo from some institute where you wouldn't know which side of the aisle he was on just based on the name and then next thing you know he's spouting some conservative bunk.

Sad as it is, we need to counter with the same thing.

[Q]

2. Agreed...that we MUST have and use these kind of think tanks...

...but as the article suggests...we need only to use the truth to defeat the lies and deception of the Right.

- And we must relentlessly pound this truth into the minds of the American people.

[CWebster]

3. Honesty is ultimately the best policy

That the establishment Dems would have to fund a 10 million dollar think-tank to tell them that - rather than use Smirk's example to follow, just goes to demonstrate how clueless the present party is. No leadership roles for any of this lot- if they need to be told which path to follow.

[Q]

4. The idea of a think tank...

...goes beyond advising the party. One of their 'jobs' is to get the truth about the other side out to the people. This is even more important at a time when the American media has sold out to the corporate party.

[CWebster]

5. Q, you more than anyone

know the current leadership won't stand for it because they fear that by promoting the truth they will be perceived as moving to far to the Left. The truth itself has been successfully tainted and the Democrats have been complicit by accepting the Right's spin rather than challenging it.

[iamalevi2]

6. Help me!

Is this the same Walter Williams that sometimes subs for Rush Bimbo?