Letters to the Editor
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Mother's Milk
I worked for more than fifteen years for the darkside, if you will, to paraphrase Dick Cheney. I saw how over the years many of the old grant-making foundations were taken over by the neo-conservatives. And, in turn, they used the money spigot to achieve a remarkable change in what were once traditional conservative think-tanks. It's even worse than you describe. Just as these "nepotistic tough guys" preach the values of capitalism and conservatism, they operate in a realm totally apart from the average American.
All of these characters are beneficiaries of the largesse of large grant-making foundations. They operate in the largely "un-regulated" zone of think-tank non-profits. The non-profit realm is not anything akin to the free-market. These people are not answerable to any "market forces" and operate win the knowledge that their secure sinecures will not be threatened. I left this arena after realizing that the world of conservative think tanks could use a little of the "creative destruction" they were advocating for the Middle East themselves.