Ned Ryun is a columnist and guest on TV news – and I’ve
become a fan. I am posting an extract of his recent column at American Greatness, as it’s another
skeptical look at “conservative” organizations that probably come looking for
contributions from you by mail or email:
It’s about time we had a
conversation about the racket in D.C., though it’s probably not the one that
springs first to mind. I’m talking about Conservatism Inc.—that ecosystem of
mostly worthless and ineffective think tanks and conservative organizations
that are part and parcel of the swamp. They came riding into town, some decades
ago, all gung-ho about breaking up the administrative state and restoring
constitutional government and now, lo and behold, discovered that the swamp
could start to feel like a warm, soothing hot tub.
By any metric with which you could
measure effectiveness (simply existing doesn’t count) can anyone really tell
you why Conservatism, Inc. even exists? A back of the napkin estimate shows
that every year, hundreds and hundreds of millions fund these entities, but to
what end?
Certainly not to be effective. Over
the last 30-40 years, in the supposed heyday of the conservative movement, the
size of government has exploded; our national debt has risen from roughly $1
trillion to nearly $23 trillion.
These conservative organizations
likewise have grown from relatively grassroots-type groups with budgets of a
few million dollars to massive entities, like the Heritage Foundation, with
annual budgets approaching $100 million a year. They build swanky office buildings
with marble lined bathrooms, employ French chefs, give themselves expense
budgets, including even personal drivers, and generally live very comfortable
lives, and then sell BS lines to their donors about how they’re changing the
world, saving America, and blah blah blah.
. . .
Why do we allow people like the
Kochs and the Singers of the world to be identified with conservatism or the
GOP? Their bastardized version of capitalism and the free market could very
well be the undoing of the party and the movement.
How have we come to this point?
Greed is one explanation, with people willing to pimp themselves out and give a
veneer of “conservative respectability” to causes and ideas that have almost
nothing to do with conservatism.
There are many reasons for how we got
here, but the great irony of it all is this: the best hope we’ve had in a
generation to give ourselves a chance, Donald J. Trump, didn’t come out of the
ecosystem of Conservatism, Inc. So beyond the worthless, corrupt behavior of
it, will someone please explain to me why it still exists? Because if it merely
exists to pimp out the ideas of Big Tech and pharma and vulture capitalists,
the entire thing should be burned to the ground.
The column is here. (Our household contributes to Judicial Watch.)
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