A CONSERVATIVE BROOKINGS….The Pew Charitable Trust plans to forge a “bipartisan” consensus about social mobility in America by bringing together analysts from both liberal and conservative think tanks. Ezra Klein has the right comment:
This bespeaks a certain political naivete on Pew’s part. It is certainly true that Brookings and Urban are more liberal than AEI and Heritage, but they are not proportionately liberal. Brookings…is a centrist, establishment think tank, while Urban is just a few ticks to the left of it. AEI and Heritage, conversely, are hard right, movement conservative organizations….A wiser study would have tapped the Economic Policy Institute and the Center for American Progress.
I don’t know that I’d insult EPI and CAP by putting them in the company of AEI and Heritage, but I’ll let Max Sawicky beat up Ezra over that. Instead I have a different question: are there any conservative versions of Brookings? That is, big, well regarded, and centrist conservative in background but still fundamentally dedicated to honest research rather than simply advancing a partisan agenda. Nothing really comes to mind. Ideas?
