Michigan’s Mackinac Center. What is a think tank? And what is just a bunch of cranky old union haters with Koch brothers’ money?
I don’t have a problem with a bunch of people who have friends with deep pockets calling themselves a think tank and hustling a paycheck out of it..
As for myself. I have always had to actually work for a living. I’m kind of proud of that. But that’s me.
But if calling yourself a think tank is just a scam, a cover for old-fashioned political lobbying, that’s different. I’ve got nothing against lobbyists. The IEA has them, and my only problem with them is that they lobby for things like Senate Bill 7 when they should have lobbied against it. But I pay dues money to have my Association lobby. Although they call themselves Government Relations, nobody confuses IEA Government Relations for a think tank.
Lobbyists do have an image problem. They kind of have a dubious rep. That’s mostly the fault of oil company lobbyists and pharm industry lobbyists and Wall Street lobbyists who are kind of scummy. But there are
