The 'Goldwater' Institute

When Hillary Clinton lashed out in 1998 at "the vast right-wing conspiracy," most people laughed. I certainly did. Then I returned to Phoenix two years later to see how correct she was. Exhibit A was the "Goldwater" Institute, motto: "Where freedom wins." Before he died, Barry wanted his name removed from the organization, but he backed off because it was dear to his brother. So I have always referred to it with Goldwater in quotes or as the Bob Goldwater Institute. Either way, it has played a pivotal role in damaging Arizona and holding back progress.

After its founding in 1988, local media accorded the institute respect as a "think tank." Robert Robb, a political operative who came out of the "Goldwater" Institute, was hired as an editorial columnist for the Arizona Republic. After the departure of Ricardo Pimentel and me, he became the only real editorial columnist after the 2007 newsroom organization. Unlike most entrusted with a position of such influence, Robb did not spend 20 years gaining experience and accolades as a journalist for a major newspaper. He was always a member of "the vast right-wing conspiracy." And the institute itself was regularly quoted in news stories as an authority on virtually every issue.

The trouble is that the "Goldwater" Institute is not a think tank as conventionally understood, an organization where scholars pursue research with open minds and produce material that is vigorously peer reviewed (think The Brookings Institution). Instead, it is an advocacy organization such as the NRA or the Sierra Club. It is rarely identified as such in the media — unless I am writing about it, which I try to avoid, aside from one takedown in the early 2000s.

The institute first tried to get my mind right, sending emissaries to meet me over lunch and coffee. I was invited to soirees at its Midtown headquarters, an ironic location considering its anti-city bias. When this failed, it made me a regular target of attacks on its Web site and its publications as a tax-and-spend liberal enemy of freedom, as well as pressuring the Republic to silence or fire me (it joined a long line). My sins included pointing out that Arizona's tax revenues were inadequate to the needs of a populous, highly urbanized state; that the "conservative" policies followed through the previous decade had left the economy narrow and uncompetitive outside of housing; that they had ensured the state would be on or near the top of every measure of social and environmental ills, and my support of such public projects as T-Gen, the Phoenix Convention Center and light rail (WBIYB). I was the one voice demonstrating how these policies had utterly failed. I remember early in the 2000s, a source told me of a high-level meeting of economic-development leaders and other officials looked at the data and one exclaimed, "My god, Talton is right."

The "Goldwater" Institute is unwilling to approach any issue with an open mind, assessing the most trusted data and evidence, looking at the situation on the ground and reaching conclusions. Instead, it starts with the conclusions — basically, government and taxes are always bad, charter-schools racket and privatization hustles good — and cherry picks evidence and arguments to support it. Still, as stated above, this has been treated with great respect by the media. ASU's Morrison Institute for Public Policy, which was a real think tank, is considered the "liberal" alternative to "Goldwater," even though Morrison doesn't use the same modus operandi and its only dogma is to avoid antagonizing the Real Estate Industrial Complex, hence cheerleading for the "Sun Corridor" (the reader should know that I had a one-year fellowship at Morrison).

Back when I was considered by some a conservative commentator, I had friends at the Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute, both of which do have some able people and at least a veneer of conventional scholarship. They laughed indulgently about the "Goldwater" Institute, considered it bush league. It took me awhile to realize that the institute was not really about intellectual inquiry, even from a stunted, one-sided approach. It was just a cog in a national machinery.

"Goldwater's" conclusions and talking points bear a close resemblance to those of think tanks seeded in virtually every state in the 1980s and 1990s by "conservative" money. They are intended to look like grassroots local organizations. In fact, they are part of the — let's put on a more precise definition — vast right-wing infrastructure. Together with Fox "News," talk radio and organizations such as ALEC, they turned formerly competitive states red, red states more extreme and even hold great power in many supposedly blue states. ALEC, you will recall, writes reactionary corporatist legislation to be passed, as is, in states throughout America — it was especially effective in Wisconsin, but the template is applied nationwide.

Who is really behind the "Goldwater Institute"? It has worked hard to keep its backing secretive. Yet the Center for Media and Democracy recently published a helpful Reporter's Guide to the Goldwater Institute. Shamrock Farms and Norman McClelland, its CEO, give a good deal (make your shopping choices accordingly). But out-of-state donors are instructive; they include the Koch brothers and the Walton Family Foundation with its Wal-Mart heir money. Another biggie is the Donors Capital Fund, which gives big money to these right-wing pods nationwide and is a major player in climate-change denial propaganda. So much for the claim that the institute is funded only by individual donations. Every Arizonan should read this exemplary piece of investigation.

Allied with this money and ALEC, the institute has exerted tremendous influence in the Legislature. It has been at the forefront of holding back funding for education and gutting the public schools to use taxpayer money for the charter-schools racket. It has carried on a vendetta against cities — local power is only good for "freedom" when it in the hands of reactionary Republicans. Thus, it was instrumental is getting highly restrictive bills on use of eminent domain and other measures passed, which would likely preclude cities from using tax-increment financing to help their downtowns or to compete in providing economic-development incentives. It is working to gut sales taxing power by cities. Measures to protect workers or respond to climate change are affronts to "economic freedom." The institute can thus claim credit for perpetuating and exacerbating virtually every problem in the state.

A few years ago, the "Goldwater" Institute came out of the closet and began filing lawsuits to further its dogma and do the bidding of the plutocrats. Any project of state or civic betterment faces the possibility of being hauled into court by the institute. I admit we were on the same side in opposing the CityNorth fiasco. But in general, the institute's efforts are nearly always reactionary and the chilling effect is real. And nevermind that Arizona is a creation of activist government, a net taker state, and Barry supported every bond issue ever done by the city of Phoenix. The institute retains the strange respect accorded by the media. If anything its power keeps growing, despite the failure of every right-wing policy. "Liberals" or even reality minded people have nothing to match it.

The "Goldwater" Institution did overreach recently in threatening to sue Gilbert over a city recreation center it claimed was competing against private-sector health clubs. Yes, you dupes, city parks, recreation centers, libraries and especially "government schools" have us well along on the road to serfdom. Gilbert has Mormons and other influential white people to push back.

The rest of Arizona will keep paying the price of "freedom."

Read more about the (mostly fixable) mess in the Grand Canyon State in Rogue's Arizona's Continuing Crisis.

 

 

Comments

[soleri]

Libertarians are the perpetual teenagers of political discourse, insisting that their philosophical purity trump all empirical evidence. It's why their natural habitat is the Republican Party where believers of all stripes find a common nest. Why? Because believers are, shall we say, credulous. You might think Ayn Rand is a better God than Jesus, of course, but once they're married and produce children, you won't be able to tell the difference.

Libertarians fight back against the charge that they're anti-intellectual dimwits by throwing around lofty names - to their ears - like Hayek and von Mises. But even this idolatry is an inch deep and a mile wide. It's little more than the faux-marble veneer of concentrated wealth, the belief that the rich not only know better but are in their pampered lives, really better than you and me.

There are ways to measure the decadence of any society, and ours is, in my opinion, the boorish worship of wealth. Someone tears down an old house in Arcadia and puts up a McMansion, and the rubes swoon. Scottsdale, of course, is the civic emblem of well-heeled white people creating a Shining City on the Hill. It's Jack Williams, Zig Ziglar, and Paul Harvey playing golf in Sansabelt slacks and making jokes about the groundskeepers.

Arizona got here faster than the rest of the nation because there were fewer buffers and institutions to eviscerate. The Goldwater Institute swoops in after the fact with its preppy cohort of John-and-Jane Galts in order to write the the HOA rules for our now privatized public square. The rules stipulate zoning for the Haves in a place with many more Have Nots. Which is why God helps those who help themselves with law suits, low taxes, and toll roads.

[PJ]

Fantastic observation from someone who has been in Arizona trenches long enough to know the real story. It is truly disheartening to watch the Goldwater Institute work. I feel like we are turning the societal clocks of progress backwards by decades with every endeavor the pursue.

What is equally disheartening is to see the throngs of angry white boobs cheer them on and parrot their misinformative talking points as if Goldwater is here to look out for interests of the average taxpayer.

Hopefully the recent event of Goldwater being sent home from Gilbert with its tail between the legs marks the beginning of people being able to see through the veil of "where freedom wins".

[eclecticdog]

Selma Hayek is OK by me. HOAs not (the most despicable coworker I've ever had the pleasure to work with was president of an HOA).

[Diane D'Angelo]

Dear Soleri: I think I love you.

[PJ]

Agreed, Soleri's post was outstanding.

[Loash]

Ummmm, charter schools are public schools in the State of Arizona. Not sure where that portion of the story was going?

[Lynn Boddy]

Good article. I have lived in Arizona since 1977 and have been waiting for someone to write this. As a retired teacher, I would like to see the involvement of the Goldwater Institute exposed where Charter schools are concerned. We know that in other states, charters have been exposed to be handling funds inappropriately. Most people don't understand that charters can cherry pick. They don't have to take students with learning disabilities or behavior problems. Public schools do have to take these children. Both charters and public schools receive public funding, so both should be taking all children and doing the best we can for them. With charters taking funds away from public schools, the public schools can't provide what is needed for students. The Goldwater Institute would like to privatize all schools and have no more public schools.

[Linda Abbott]

The Gilbert Town Council is occupied by supporters of the Goldwater dogma. They are extreme in their ideology= Tealiban. The Goldwater Institute thought strategically that with the invitation of some of Gilbert's council that the Town would not vigorously defend the rec center. The Council got an eye opener when the community insisted that the rec center, which had been approved by voter bonds, was an integral part of the community and valued by citizens. The Council members called Goldwater Institute operatives, and hence the issue has been dismissed. Now it is time for others to insist that these ideologues be run out of their community as well and to stand up against the extremism that is prevalent within the State.

[headless lucy]

"The "Goldwater" Institution did overreach recently in threatening to sue Gilbert over a city recreation center it claimed was competing against private-sector health clubs."

A large part of the rationale for corporate crony capitalism free market capitalism is that it is ALWAYS more efficient than a government program -- so it always mystifies me that conservatives who smoke pot Libertarians and Republicans start hyperventilating when they have to compete against them.

According to their ideology, it should be a cakewalk.

[Donna Gratehouse]

Ummmm, Loash, if you want to push the charter school racket here I can guarantee it's not going to go well. But, by all means, proceed.

[Donna Gratehouse]

As was his former employer GI vis a vis City North, Bob Robb is right twice a day like a stopped watch. Lately, though, he's spouting propaganda in support of voter suppression and rejecting the Medicaid expansion. I was recently treated to the vomit-inducing experience of watching Robb interview retired Senator Jon Kyl at the ASU Cronkite school. You would have thought Robb was a tween and Kyl was Justin Bieber. And of course the Republic helped elect another Goldwater hack, Jeff Flake, narrowly over Carmona with that obsequious endorsement. That's working out well.

[morecleanair]

Watching the Republic's Editorial Board kissing up to a smirking, patronizing Jeff Flake was enough to make me sick to my stomach about how they endorsed him over Carmona.

[sconosciuto]

I had the misfortune recently to work with a person from out-of-town who knew one of the principal directors of GI in college. She had breakfast with him and I got to hear all day long during down time about the wonderful things GI was doing for the people of Arizona and the cause of libertarianism in general.

It took two weeks for my tongue to heal. Unfortunately, the work I was doing for this person did not involve handling or preparing their food.

[sconosciuto]

@Donna: Bob Robb, as awful as he is, is a Marxist compared to that bitter old piece of beetle dung Doug MacEachern, who still occasionally sharts out a bile-infused opinion piece for the Republic.

[Edward Jensen]

A quick note on charter schools, for what it's worth: There are people in downtown communities and downtown circles who think that the solution to improving K-12 education opportunities for their children is through the charter school movement. One of the most self-evident problems is that charter schools cannot reserve slots for students based on geographic region...so a family who lives in Ahwatukee or Anthem or north Scottsdale has as equal a chance for their child to get into a charter school as someone who lives in Willo, Roosevelt, Garfield, or south of downtown. In addition, some charters ask for a so-called "equalization fee" to bridge the gap between what the school get from the State of Arizona in per-pupil funding and what the school thinks it needs. Although the schools can't require such payment, it might be interesting to see if there's any self-selection going on and parents not applying over the payment of that fee.

[George Fallar]

Well done.

[Andrew Knochel]

I came across a job listing from the Goldwater Institute recently for an investigative journalist. It mentions the SPJ's Code of Ethics: http://goldwaterinstitute.org/opportunities-goldwater but leaves out any mention of editorial oversight, publishing partners or platforms, or what's meant by "looking out for the little guy."

Very interesting.

[Humberto]

I love this, as a hockey fan of the Coyotes and their peddling over BS that is nothing but making possible owners of the team steer clear putting the team at risk of relocating and the anger it causes us.

Thank you for writting this. That garbage show should be abolished.

Screw the Goldwater Institute, and that Darcy jerk.

[sconosciuto]

meh, the GI does take on one or two cases that are worthy. I thought the Coyotes case was one of them. Another was the tattoo shop in Mesa.

Stopped clock, yada yada.

I would like to clarify that I would not actually taint somebody's food, no matter how offensive their beliefs are to me.

Sure was fun to think about, though. "What is it that bit of Latin that libertarians love so much? 'Caveat Emptor!'"

[sconosciuto]

Random thoughts and then I shall stop spamming this comments thread, pinky swear:

1) a libertarian is what you get when a hipster goes conservative.

2) in defense of HOA presidents like myself, some of us are just trying to do the job as best we can, a job which would exist regardless but could be done a lot worse by someone prone to being a petty tyrant.

[Ruben A. Perez]

Which came first? The kooks sitting around a campfire, with the GI helping to feed the fire. OR, Did GI build the fire and invite kooks to come roast their marshmallows?

There are a bunch of campfires burning in rural AZ, thanks to the wood being provided by "letters to the editor" in small town AZ newspapers.

[D Ryan]

A came across an article and a dialogue from some well respected observers and commentators. They could have been talking about Arizona where the in-state and out of state oligarchs pull the strings unnoticed by most of the population. At the grass roots level we end up with scorched earth approaches from left and right to resolving issues. How do we move back to civil discourse??

From David Brooks " ... we have oligarchic economics and libertarian moral values — a bad combination."

From Bill Moyers we have stories of how oligarchy plays out ... the ultra rich growing rapidly and with the middle class falling away.

[Donna Gratehouse]

1) a libertarian is what you get when a hipster goes conservative.

For you, sconoscuito:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/07/connor-kilpatrick-its-hip-its-cool-its-libertarianism.html

[headless lucy]

"1) a libertarian is what you get when a hipster goes conservative."

I've got a great screen-name that you might want to use on conservative blogs:

W. Klingon Skousen

It's yours, if you want it.

[eclecticdog]

Wolfswinkel cashes in with a $1.4M judgement thanks to our future gub'nor and Sheriff Joke.

Brewer signs bill outlawing destroying guns purchased in buy-back programs. WTF?

[Petro]

Brewer signs bill outlawing destroying animals collected in shelters.

/counterfactual

[eclecticdog]

Thanks for the link to Naked Capitalism Donna. Great read!

[m]

The fact the Goldwater Institute does not have to register as lobbyists at the the Capitol says volumes about the game they play. Clearly, they lobby, but hide behind their educational wall. After Senator Goldwater retired, I used to talk to him at a car wash we both used on Saturday mornings. He was clear he disliked the use of his name on this organization. He was also very clear on how much he disliked Senator McCain. But, as a good Republican, he would not openly say bad things about others. Although I did not agree with many ideas of Senator Goldwater, he always treated me with respect and we had interesting discussions. He was always interested in making Arizona and America a better place.

[cal Lash]

'u can tell who is going to heaven based on the accumulation of wealth'

[headless hucy]

I know I'm going to heaven, 'cuz I've already been to Utah.

[Emil Pulsifer]

Side-note: a follow-up comment on the subject of the American Care Act and its effect on hiring has been added to the "Rogue Open Thread".

http://www.roguecolumnist.com/rogue_columnist/2013/04/rogue-open-thread.html

[Emil Pulsifer]

Spot on commentary about the Goldwater Institute.

As for Robert Robb, he actually seems to have evolved some. He now strongly supports Governor Brewer's Medicaid expansion plan. (One can speculate about the reasons for this support, but there is no question that it isn't shared by the Goldwater Institute.)

This support has appeared in unambiguous, indeed, enthusiastic terms, in several of his columns over the last few months. (I don't know what Donna Gratehouse could be alluding to above.)

In one of the most recent, arguing that a referral of the issue to voters would bypass a recalcitrant legislature, he also argued that it would weaken the arguments of opponents who might litigate if the hospital tax is passed by a simple legislative majority rather than the supermajority called for by law:

"One of the opponents, the Goldwater Institute, doesn't feel right if it hasn't sued someone in government before breakfast."

That doesn't sound like a hand-puppet of the Goldwater Institute.

[Emil Pulsifer]

P.S. One wonders how the nearly billion dollars worth of tax cuts passed by the Arizona legislature over the last couple of years will play out in the approaching period after the expiration of the temporary one-cent sales tax.

[Emil Pulsifer]

Mr. Talton wrote:

"My sins included pointing out that Arizona's tax revenues were inadequate to the needs of a populous, highly urbanized state; that the "conservative" policies followed through the previous decade had left the economy narrow and uncompetitive outside of housing; that they had ensured the state would be on or near the top of every measure of social and environmental ills, and my support of such public projects as T-Gen, the Phoenix Convention Center and light rail (WBIYB). I was the one voice demonstrating how these policies had utterly failed."

This is great. Don't break any laws in Arizona, though: you might end up in a private prison. Darcy Olsen looks nothing like Struther Martin, but I'm sure she has hired help to do the dirty work: and you've got a whoppin' lot of "failure to communicate" to answer for.

[Tommy 2-Horne]

Don't break any laws in Arizona, though: you might end up in a private prison.

Yeah but the good news the private guards will have lower wages, worse benefits, and be less educated. That should make them easier to bribe.

[Petro]

The nagging and lagging regret of Sandra Day O'Conner, a disappointment of Reagan-esque proportion.