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Washington Post: Rich Liberals Vow to Fund Think Tanks
Submitted by salvador on August 7, 2005 - 10:32pm
From the "better late than never" department, here's some good news from today's Washington Post:
At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute $1 million or more apiece to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up over the past three decades.
Of course, the righties will still be outspending progressives by a ratio of 5-1 on think tanks and related entities, but it's a start.
Great news, but..
...wouldn't it be nice if the WaPo ran detailed stories on the personnel and funding sources of some of the rightie network of think tanks etc.? There is a story in today's O. business section along the same lines on the anti-Wal-Mart advocacy groups--they practically list the resume of every key staffer in these groups along with where their money is coming from. How about equal scrutiny for the other side?
It's not that the stories are bad, and our side certainly has nothing to hide; it's just that the other side doesn't seem to get the same kind of scrutiny. Or maybe I have just missed the stories on Sinclair, Hoover, Cato, Heritage, etc. ad infinitum. Maybe the network is so vast that reporters are daunted by the complexity of trying to describe it.
Someone on Kos, I think, made the excellent point that a huge role the right-wing network plays is to nurture and find jobs for young conservatives coming up.
Check out this "job bank" page on the Heritage Foundation's site--do we have anything comparable? I hope we soon will.
http://www.heritage.org/About/JobBank/index.cfm
I found this by googling "conservative think tanks" and found there is a whole page on think tanks within the Conservative Politics section of About.com Funny thing, the Liberal Politics section has no such page.
Job bank
We sure do. It's called Democratic Gain:
http://www.democraticgain.com/
I've been using it over the past few years. Unfortunately, they have not received enough monetary support and have to go to a paid model. You still have access of some items if you don't pay, but not everything.
It's too bad it costs money to participate, as progressives who work in that field typically are strapped for cash much of the time. I know I can't afford to pay to participate in the site. They do their membership levels according to the amount you make a year and your experience level.
Many of us who are at the higher levels (I've worked on more than 2 election cycles) aren't necessarily at the higher income levels. Many of us are underemployed or unemployed.
It's too bad this site hasn't received enough support from the progressive community so that they don't have to charge for anything except the top level services (such as Legal Advice, Tax Advice, and Eligible to Serve as a National Advisory Council Member).
Jenni Simonis