http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpwil043401278aug04,0,641483.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlinesDems vs. GOP: Best Weapons Are the Facts
By Walter Williams
Walter Williams, a professor emeritus of public affairs at the University of Washington, is the author, most recently, of "Reaganism and the Death of Representative Democracy."
August 4, 2003
Next month, progressive Democrats will open a new think tank, the American Majority Institute, that has an expected yearly operating budget of at least $10 million. This level of support means the institute can challenge the conservative Republican policy shops that in recent years have been much more heavily funded and have clobbered their Democratic counterparts in selling ideas to the public.
The key question is whether the new institute has to emulate the Republicans from President George W. Bush on down in using deceptive information to mislead American citizens about their policies. Its decision whether to employ such chicanery goes to the fundamental democratic issue of informed consent.
But it makes sense for the institute to emulate the conservative policy shops in three ways. First, a big annual budget is needed in the face of the well-funded array of right-of-center think tanks.
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