Published June 17, 2013 on The Conservative Heritage Times website. Red Phillips is an IPR contributor and paleoconservative activist and writer.
You can’t make this stuff up.
The defense of the NSA program by these two authors is of particular note because of the authors’ affiliation with the Cato Institute that describes itself as “dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace” and having a “strict respect for civil liberties and skepticism about the benefits of both the welfare state and foreign military adventurism.” The authors’ article is providing valuable cover for the advocates of the mass spying program.
The authors of the article Kristol is promoting are Cato Institute Center for Constitutional Studies President Roger Pilon and Cato Institute Adjunct Scholar Richard A. Epstein who wrote an attempted sweeping exculpation of the National Security Agency (NSA) and all the branches of the US government for the NSA’s mass spying on phone calls.
Legally, the president is on secure footing under the Patriot Act
Umm … not if the Patriot Act is unconstitutional. And even if a Cato scholar believes the Patriot Act to be technically legal, he should be bashing it as an obnoxious overreach, not using it in an apologia for another obnoxious overreach.
Regarding whether or not the coup at Cato was for the better or for the worse, I think it is safe to say that the verdict is in.
As many have noted, Pilon and Epstein hold a minority view at Cato and a number of other Cato scholars have publicly voiced their disagreement. Cato is still a net positive for liberty.
I’ve been leery about the Cato Institute for a long time. They tend to be lap dog “libertarians”.
Cato Institute has done far more to promote libertarianism than the commenters on this post who are criticizing it.
Cato has been around since 1974, and it has produced numerous books and monographs in opposition to a broad range of statist policies. It has, as an organization, unfailingly promoted non-interventionist foreign policy, opposition to the war on drugs, and defense of civil liberties and economic freedom.
It does employ scholars who agree with some part of the libertarian program, and bring their expertise to that part, while not always agreeing with the complete Cato version of libertarianism.
Ahem, “useless”.
I’ve never really trusted the Cato Institute. Too Republican friendly. But they were okay I guess.
But now they’re totally usless. How can you trust a “libertarian” organization run by John A. Allison IV, a member of the Ayn Rand Institute, a group that called libertarianism ‘evil’ (http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=objectivism_sanctions)?
And one of their own is running a libertarian group? Of course they’re going to post anti-libertarian stuff like this.
Cato has been far right conservative with a few libertarian eccentricities for a long time.
orangeline,
Thanks for that link.
For those who don’t follow that link, I’ll quote from the last sentence:
“…I at least hope that readers who look to Cato for guidance on these questions will recognize that theirs is not the position held by all—or, indeed, most—Cato scholars.”
There is no one party line at Cato; it’s kind of like a university that way. Here is a differing opinion :
http://www.cato.org/blog/reply-epstein-pilon-nsas-metadata-program
Cato is not libertarian except in their own deluded minds–just like Wayne Allyn Root, Bob Barr, and a horde of similar wannabes.
Done.
That would be my best guess.
@1
I didn’t no what else to file it under. Uncategorized?
Roger Pilon is a committed Republican, who favored changing Senate rules to limit filibusters when he thought Republicans would control the Senate for a long time.
Richard Epstein is a legal scholar who has a career quite separate from Cato Institute. They list him as an adjunct scholar to impress people who are aware of Professor Epstein’s reputation as a serious legal scholar. Epstein has however taken stands in support of the War on Terror since 9/11.
The Cato Institute has many adjunct scholars associated with it, who broadly agree with Cato’s commitment to limited government. But individual scholars often take positions at odds with the stated positions of the Cato Institute. In this case Cato has been critical of the NSA, not supportive.
Filed Under: Third parties, general
Please explain. Cato is libertarian (small l) but not Libertarian (big L).