Letter from the President, Peter Goettler

On the night we presented the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty to Charles Koch, I was reminded of a conversation I’d had with Charles on this very topic. In 2023, I asked him if we should be optimistic or pessimistic about the future of liberty. I was sure he’d tell me I should be optimistic because liberty, free markets, and free enterprise are the only systems that allow humans to flourish and to create prosperous lives of meaning and purpose. But his answer surprised me.

Charles said, “The thing you’ve got to be is dedicated! I wouldn’t worry about optimistic or pessimistic—you need to focus on what you can do. Ask yourself, what can I do? What can Cato do that will make the biggest difference in the direction of the country, on the biggest threats and the biggest opportunities?”

He’s right. Optimism breeds complacency, and pessimism breeds despair. And each will impede us from accomplishing our mission and goals.

We need to be dedicated—to making the work of liberty the priority in our lives it needs to be. The greatest gift we were all given is a free country where we could make the very most of the opportunities available to us and the opportunities we’ve created for ourselves. Passing on that same freedom to future generations—so they, too, can create their own opportunities and script and realize their dreams—is the most important responsibility we have. And this is a moral responsibility.

We need to be dedicated—to making the work of liberty the moral struggle it so clearly is. The moral dimensions of our work course through Cato’s Statement of Principles. Yes, we need to debate policy and our point of view on the basis of facts and reason and analysis and outcomes. But if that’s the only thing we do—and we don’t make the moral case for liberty—we’re ceding moral high ground that belongs to those who advocate for freedom.

We need to be dedicated—to the principles in which any moral struggle must be rooted. One of the great legacies those of us at Cato have inherited is the Institute’s reputation for principle, and we intend to sustain that reputation. In that same conversation with Charles two years ago, he shared the words of Frederick Douglass: “Stand by those principles. Be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.”

Standing by our values and principles at all times means we will unite with any official of any party with whom we can advance policy based on these principles. But it also means speaking out against anyone who contravenes these principles.

When presidents use unconstitutional means to cancel student debt or ignite inflation by recklessly spending trillions of dollars, we must speak out and oppose it. And when presidents disappear people without due process or impose extralegal tariffs that threaten prosperity and livelihoods, we must speak out and oppose it.

We’re celebrating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution: a revolution that was largely about executive power. Are we not sick of the image of presidents of both parties sitting at tables and signing executive orders as if they were kings? We need to be dedicated to making this spectacle disappear from America again, just as the Founders once did.

Margaret Thatcher is an inspiring role model for us. An example of the difference one dedicated person can make. Thatcher famously said she couldn’t bear the idea of Britain in decline.

Well, I can’t bear the idea of my grandchildren’s economic future being buried under mountains of debt. I can’t bear the idea of government bureaucrats pushing them around in every aspect of their lives. Most of all, I can’t bear the idea of passing on to them a country that’s any less free than the one my grandparents passed on to me. Above everything else, we have to be dedicated to this commitment: giving future generations a country as free as the one given to us. It’s simply the moral responsibility of our lives.

And, yes, we will accomplish this not through endlessly debating whether or not liberty will be advancing, but through the dedicated effort that will make it happen.

Peter Goettler
President and CEO