Well, first of all, it wasn’t named after Cato the Younger…it was named after the Cato Letters. And while that might be how you see Cato, in the 17th and 18th centuries, that wasn’t how Cato was seen. He was seen as one of the heroes of the late Republic, as a martyr for freedom and against tyranny. Addison’s 1712 play, “The Tragedy of Cato” was a major success in Enlightenment England, and some famous lines came from it. Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death!” was a quote from the play, as was Nathan Hale’s reputed last words “I regret I have only one life to live for my country”. In addition to Cato’s Letters, in the debates over the Constitution, a major anti-Federalist author wrote essays under the pseudonym Cato. As recently as 1940, a group of English authors wrote a condemnation of the Chamberlain government called “Guilty Men” under the pseudonym Cato.
So I think you have a false idea of what Cato represents in the Anglo-American sphere of ideas.
In this case it’s a reference to Cato’s Letters, which were letters written in Britain in the 1730’s arguing in favor of classical republicanism that went on to have substantial impact on American political though leading up to the Revolution.
Fair enough. But everyone should be skeptical of global warming research funded by Exxon Mobile and The American Petroleum Institute or fiscal policy championed by a think tank funded by corporations and the richest 400 Americans.
Below are just a few examples of foundations created from private family wealth that are listed in the annual reports of conservative think tanks. Corporations are listed, but they also create charitable trusts and foundations to hide policy lobbying.
Carthage Foundation – Richard Mellon Scaife
Castle Rock Foundation – Joseph Coors
JM Foundation --Jeremiah Milbank, Bordons Milk
The Earhart Foundation --Henry Earhart, White Star Oil
DeVos Foundation –Amway
Pew Charitable Trusts – Sunoco Chemical heirs
John M. Olin Foundation – Olin Chemical
The Koch Family –David and Charles Koch, Kotch Industries
Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, Kotch Industries
Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation –Oil and Biotechnology
Walton Family Foundation
Gates Foundation
Hell, it was founded by Charles Koch with two others, but he’s the money behind it. Koch is the billionaire son of a John Birch Society founding member and just happens to run KochIndustries, the first or second largest (depending on which way the wind is blowing that day, and how Cargill happens to be doing) privately held company in the U.S. If you look at the largest grants they’ve received over the past dozen years or so, you’ll see that they’re all from him. The next largest are from his fellow “think-tank” buying buddies, “Scaife and Friends.” Want to guess why Cato takes certain positions on government regulations and global warming?
They publish a magazine, Reason, to which a libertarian friend of mine bought me a subscription. It’s basically a libertarian magazine for the business conservatives who have left the party over social issues and spending. It feeds them some red meat but keeps them in from straying too far at voting time.
Reason Magazine isn’t published by Cato. It’s published by the Reason Foundation, which is a libertarian thinktank out in California, and not affiliated with Cato. Cato’s main publications are the “Cato Policy Report”. which comes out bimonthly, the Cato Journal, coming out three times a year, and Regulation Magazine, which comes out four times a year.
