Do Right-Wing Intellectuals Always Obey Their “Corporate Masters”?
No:
[Roger Milliken] was one of the great philanthropists of the conservative movement–he was an early and significant supporter of National Review, back when a young Bill Buckley, a fellow Yale alumnus, was looking for donors who shared his vision. Milliken went on to back Barry Goldwater and other GOP candidates. In time, he broke with many of his friends over trade–he was strongly against free-trade agreements such as NAFTA–but he remained broadly loyal to the movement he had helped create.In other words, they did not obey their alleged master when it came to free trade, in contrast to what some clowns seem to think.
2 Comments:
Hmm. Since "some clowns" links to a post of mine, let me respond. The main thrust of my post was condemning the think tank explosion that has occurred. I mentioned free market libertarians as being a part of this explosion and that think tank blogs and articles has contributed to an increasingly hostile tone in our discourse. You identify yourself as libertarian on this blog and refer to "some clowns." Don't you just love irony?
Corporations and free markets are mutually exclusive in many ways, not least is the huge dependency of a corporate economy on big government to function. Google "laissez faire court" and start studying up on some of the Supreme Court decisions of the nineteenth century, without which corporations would not be able to compete successfully with proprietorships that are so much more independent of government.
You might be surprised to learn that this "clown" favors free markets and less government. I differ from many a "free market libertarian" in that I actually understand the basic free market and corporate stock models and how they conflict in basic principles. One other conflict revolves around buyer v. seller beware, and there are more still.
One other thing, you open this post with a question and provide one anecdotal case as contrary proof. That's only convincing for a think tank or interest group.
I have already discussed how to tell the think tanks from the hacks.
I have read some of the literature on objections to the late Laissez-faire court (discussed here) and I'm underwhelmed. OTOH, I don't regard the Supreme Court of that era as infallible. For example, I disagree with Nix v. Hedden.
As for hostile, I think the common assumption that anybody on the right side of the political spectrum is a corporate shill or part of an "astroturf campaign" counts as hostile. (On some rare occasions, there are astroturf campaigns and then the hostility is justified.)
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