Re: Declan as a Budding Washington Insider

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

At 10:10 -0700 6/16/97, Tim May wrote:
>Some of you, including Declan, have read too much in my comments. I did not
>say he _had_ sold out, I said in several places there is a well-known
>danger of becoming assimilated by the Washington system. Reread what I said.
>
>(By the way, I've never suggested Declan would lose his ideological
>bearings. Democrats and Republicans who become assimilated remain true to
>their roots, but they see everything as part of a larger system, a
>negotiation. They lose their ability to see in outside the Beltway simple
>terms. The giveaway will be if and when Declan begins to say that things
>are not so simple.)

What I found interesting about Tim's comments above is how he neglects to
mention libertarians. Certainly he realizes my "ideological bearings" are
much closer to libertarianism than conservatism or modern liberalism.

Do the folks at the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute,
IFJ, IHS, or AEI "lose their ability to see in simple terms?" I suggest not.

-Declan

PS: Details about negotiations and who's-backing-what-bill and what the
political tradeoffs will be are often astoundingly complex. But the
underlying principles remain crystal-clear: government out of our private
lives.