Cato and the Kochs

Cafe Hayek ^ | March 4, 2012 | Don Boudreaux

[OddLane]

Like many in the liberty movement, I’m disheartened by the current goings-on involving the Cato Institute, namely, the power struggle between, on one side, Cato’s co-founder and President Ed Crane, and on the other side Charles and David Koch. (Of course, there are many other people on each side of this dispute, but these are the main representatives of each side.)

The immediate source of this dispute is the disposition of the shares in Cato that belonged to former Cato Chairman Bill Niskanen, who died late last year. The Kochs believe that they, the Kochs, are entitled to those shares; Ed Crane believes that the shares should remain with Bill Niskanen’s widow.

For the much more detail, see this useful post by Jonathan Adler, and the several useful links that it contains. I agree (as far as my knowledge of these matters permits me to judge) with the factual record as laid out in Jonathan’s post and in the other sources he sites. And I certainly do agree with him, Jerry Taylor, Ilya Somin, Steve Chapman, and others who argue that – regardless of the legal niceties of this case – the Kochs are, with this action, most imprudently and unwisely threatening the long-term health of the liberty movement. (I do not question their motives, only their judgment in this matter.)

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Mr Boudreau, you seem to be a wonderful person but you are what Joseph Stalin, or was it Lenin, would call a useful idiot. You do not understand the enemy we face. They are ruthless. They honor lying as a reliable aspect to accomplish the “revolution.” The revolution, once accomplished, means death to people like you and me.

Learn the enemy. Research Communist Goals, the Frankfurt School, Saul
Alinsky, and track their record of success through this centrury. Then see what you think.

The Koch brothers are a beacon of hope to protect your sorry ass.

[Timber Rattler]

Ed Crane wants to continue Cato’s long-standing policy of nurturing ideas, including those whose effects play out only over the long-run.

Crane wants CATO to remain a debating society, whereas the Rats have melded their think tanks and liberal academics into a formidable, networked political weapon. No wonder we always lose, with Crane's tea-sipping mindset.

[OddLane]

You may have a point there.

[FourPeas]

Of course, I speak as an idea-person (a college professor, writer, blogger, speaker, and, above all, bookworm) rather than as a political operative. I’ve never advised candidates; I don’t attend political rallies; and I never publicly endorse candidates. I don’t even vote. My reasons are that I emphatically do not believe that the identities of the holders of political office matter all that much.

Those who can't, teach and apparently do some work for Cato as well.

[OddLane]

He has a point.