The Cato Institute has long excelled at originating and disseminating policy ideas. As libertarians, however, we tend to be uncomfortable with the hard work of advancing those ideas through the levers and gears of the policy world, since that typically entails give-and-take compromises and partial victories at best. As Richard Rorty put it, “In democratic countries you get things done by compromising your principles in order to form alliances with groups about whom you have grave doubts.” This is not inherently appealing to anyone and is especially unattractive to many libertarians who tend to place great emphasis on following their principles to their logical conclusions. But if we want to see our ideas implemented, we need to engage not just with policy ideas but with the policy process as well. And that is how I found myself sitting in committee meetings for 72 hours over the past couple of months helping to write federal regulations.

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