My research shows that "tort reform" is actually just one part of a broader, coordinated, ideological "movement," that consists of a network of hundreds of "conservative" organizations, all receiving funding from a CORE GROUP of wealthy donors. (Recently there have been several books, studies and articles on this subject, such as the new Axis of Ideology report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.)
Why one wonders does the same core group lobby for tax reductions, deregulation, and tort reform? Also for grassroots philanthropy? (Thousand points of light? Armies of Compassion? Faith based Initiatives? ) Connecting the dots one sees a society in which freedom means the freedom of non-natural persons endowed with immortal life (i.e., corporations) to do as they please with impunity, beyond the reach of law suits, regulation (what they call "purity laws"), or "confiscatory taxation." Those who control such wealth can create 100 year plans for family dynasties, their corporate interests, and for our nation. They can hire some (not all) of the best minds to fabricate the ideology of unchecked market freedom, and to promote it to rest of us, as "ordered liberty," while sparing corporations any such moral order, other than whatever the execs admire in the washroom mirror. Giving in that context means what? To these compassionate tightwads, what means "beneficence"? A Cakewalk at the Big House? That is the story they have not yet gotten straight, but I look forward to sharing whatever thoughts I have toward an ethic of giving that encompasses both liberty and justice for all, while ordering the licentious liberty of corporations, disciplining them to give mightily for the commonweal. (All of which is a way of saying thanks to Lenore Ealy, of Beneficence, for coming to the Open Space Giving Conference and trading ideas. By this point, I am sure she will chuckle reading this,and see it for what it is, an invitation to conversation.)
I have offered to Lenore that if she can get a list of even 200 compassionate curmudgeons, preferably billionaires, from the top donors to Heritage, Cato, American Enterprise Institute, Hudson, Sagmore, or the Liberty Fund, we can with good planning, good poetry, and moral remediation, change the world, one tightwad at a time. Though we might have to work with Tracy Gary to change it back before we end up with Plutocrats ruling freely a dead planet, while their Think Tanks minions sing hosanna.
