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Joseph L. Bast is known for his work “discovering, developing and promoting free-market solutions to social and economic problems.” As founder of The Heartland Institute, he led that powerhouse until retirement in 2018.
But as many have discovered before him, retirement doesn’t necessarily mean rest. He has since added to his impressive curriculum vitae the titles of cofounder and content manager for the Wisconsin Patriot’s Toolbox, a website providing tools for effective political action.
His new activism evinces his transition from “policy to politics,” as he describes it, driven by a realization that the social and political problems we face are driven not so much by ideas as by devious people, who have infiltrated and destroyed our traditional institutions. Bast believes we must focus on removing the infiltrators rather than debating them on subjects (like climate change) in which they are already aware their arguments have no merit.
Bast also serves on the boards or steering committees of the Liberty Alliance of Wisconsin, Northeast Wisconsin Patriots, and Wisconsin Conservative Coalition. A celebrated publisher/author in conservative and libertarian circles, he has also recently edited “Hot Talk, Cold Science II” with the late S. Fred Singer, and “Climate Change: What They Rarely Teach in College” with Steve Einhorn. He also coauthored and edited the latest volume in the “Climate Change Reconsidered” reports of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change.
