Thursday, August 30, 2012

Percentage of Political Contributions by Brookings Institution Members Going to Democrats?

Try 97.6%.............http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/03/03/think-tank-employees-tend-to-support-democrats............And in terms of overall contributions, they were easily number one amongst U.S. think-tanks. Centrist, my ass.

14 comments:

The Prophet Dervish Z Sanders said...

So, only Conservatives like you can be centrist?

What Liberal Democrats does Brookings donate to?

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

So, all 97.6% of these donations went to guys like Jim Webb (whose conservative rating as dmarks has accurately pointed out is only 34.8%)? I don't know, wd, they didn't list the specific candidates but since every Democratic Senator had a conservative rating of less than 50%, it's really hard to imagine the scenario that you're hypothesizing here.

The Prophet Dervish Z Sanders said...

Jim Webb is a Conservative Democrat. I suspect the donations went to Moderate Democrats. That makes the most sense, since Brookings is a Moderate organization.

The Prophet Dervish Z Sanders said...

It's hard for you to imagine because you think "moderate" means a Conservative who's adopted some moderate positions. Like David Brooks, for example.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

So, a 34.8% conservative rating is considered conservative by you?......And there you go again with the "suspecting".

The Prophet Dervish Z Sanders said...

Will: So, a 34.8% conservative rating is considered conservative by you?

I don't believe the rating.

Will: And there you go again with the "suspecting".

You said, and I quote, "they didn't list the specific candidates". Since they are moderate it is very reasonable to suspect they donated to moderate Democrats. Why would I suspect a moderate organization donated to Liberal Democrats???

Les Carpenter said...

wd, just for the sake of suspecting... because you suspect so damn much.

I would suspect.

The Heathen Republican said...

WD, your problem is you think Moderate Democrat = Moderate. A Democrat is still on the left. Even a conservative Democrat.

Similarly, a liberal Republican is still on the right. Moderate is in the middle of the spectrum; Democrat is on the left; Republican is on the right.

You're playing with definitions to win an argument. Do you have any capacity for honesty?

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

You don't think that the National Journal is a reliable source, wd? They gave Barbara Boxer and Sherrod Brown a 14.5% conservative rating and Ron Johnson and Mike Crapo a 94.2 and 90.8 respectively. Those sound about right, too. Maybe this is just yet another example of you not being able to handle the objective facts and trying to weasel.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

He does this all the time, HR; FDR and collective bargaining, Bush and his refusal to hand bin Laden over to some Islamic council, the fact that the Tax Policy Center made some very questionable assumptions about the Romney Budget, etc.. He's exceedingly difficult to reason with. 97.6% contributions to Democrats and he's spinning over that!

dmarks said...

I used one of those "conservative vs liberal" ratings comparisons from a liberal group, and, according to them, like all of the others, Jim Webb came out on the liberal side.

Barack Obama, whom WD said was conservative, has one of the strongest liberal voting records.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Pryor from Arkansas probably comes the closest to a Conservative Democrat and even he's only hovering around 50%. Me - I'd probably come in somewhere between 40-55 (40 on the social issues, 55 on the economy). Where would you be, dmarks, high 60s, low 70s?

dmarks said...

I found Ben Nelson when looking. From Nebraska.

No idea where I would be. I'd have to test one of those indexes.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

And don't you think that the Brookings Institution, if in fact it were truly "centrist", would have given far more than 2.4% to Republicans from 2003 to 2010; Olympia Snow, Susan Collins, Rob Simmons, Arlen Specter (back when he was a Republican), Lincoln Chaffee (prior to his becoming an independent), Governor Romney (prior to his conversion), Charlie Crist (prior to his becoming an independent), Mike Castle, etc.? 97.6 is just a little too hard to explain away, I think.............Look at this. We're having a reasonable conversation and nobody's out to sabotage it. How refreshing, huh?