by Randy Persaud
Guyana Journal, July 2009
The Heritage Foundation has been lost in the dark for a long time. This super conservative and jingoistic organization has failed miserably over the years. The proof of this catastrophic failure is so wide-ranging it would take volumes to document. Yet, there is an easy way to document the irrelevance of this marginalized organization. Despite all its touting of conservative causes, most of them adopted by the Republican Party in the last election, the Democratic Party trashed Heritage ideology at the polls. Americans no longer subscribe to the vindictive personal responsibility type of capitalism and state/society relations advanced by Heritage. The Heritage Foundation vision of what America should look like is now in the dustbin of history.
Heritage Foundation type policies led to the catastrophic collapse of the United States economy. This collapse has precipitated global financial pain on the world, Guyana included. Regulation is a bad word for Heritage. Instead of governments putting rules into place, Heritage wants corporations to make the rules, and observe them voluntarily. This comes under the fanciful rubric of corporate social responsibility. This is the same CSR (among other things) that has facilitated the stratospheric rise in corporate corruption in the United States. Institutions like the SEC are not respected by Heritage. They are thought of as instruments of big government. Had the SEC been doing its job, there is a good chance the world economy would not have been in the current mess.
Attempts by President Obama to reign in the economic wild-west casino capitalism in the United States will no doubt meet with disapproval from conservative organizations and conservative personalities. Rush Limbaugh, who is a sort of radio talk-show version of Heritage, has publicly expressed the hope that President Obama will fail.
But don't worry. President Obama will not fail. He has mobilized American support in a way few Presidents in history have. He has inspired people all across this huge and interesting country. The bad news for the other side is that right now, the ideas of the Republican Party, most of which are Heritage Foundation (and CATO) type ideological drivel, have lost appeal in the United States. Reaganomics is dead.
Having lost the war of ideas in the United States, Heritage Foundation wants to go fish elsewhere. It has this flimsy ranking of countries regarding economic freedom. The purpose of this ranking is to carry out a war of position against countries like Guyana that refuse to drink the Foundation cool-aid.
Only the ideologically driven and the uninformed will buy into this bogus survey. America and the world will move on; the Heritage Foundation and mouth pieces like Rush Limbaugh will be left behind.
Dr. Randy Persaud is Director, Comparative & Regional Studies, SIS, American University, Washington, D.C.
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