Politics

Truth Is an Outlaw in Washington

by James Bovard January 1, 2019

“Truth isn’t truth,” declared Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal attorney, on Meet the Press last August. Giuliani’s comment was the “Trump era’s epitaph,” according to a Washington Post columnist. But truth really is defined differently inside the Beltway — when it is not in total hiding. Trump could face a “perjury trap” from Special Counsel Robert Mueller because of the ...

John McCain’s Disastrous Militaristic Legacy

by James Bovard December 1, 2018

When Sen. John McCain passed away in August, he was lauded far and wide for his long career of public service. Rep. John Lewis, the famous civil-rights activist, hailed McCain as a “warrior for peace.” In reality, McCain embodied a toxic mix of moralism and militarism that worked out disastrously for America and the world. In his funeral eulogies, McCain ...

Libertarian Angle: Election Day!

by Future of Freedom Foundation November 6, 2018

Jacob Hornberger and Richard Ebeling discuss why it doesn't make any difference, insofar as liberty is concerned, whether you vote Democrat or Republican.

Donald Trump’s Authoritarian Opponents

by James Bovard February 1, 2018

President Trump has said and done many things to appall the friends of freedom. From Trump’s pro-torture comments to his praise of police brutality to his cruise-missile barrage against Syria to his threat to annihilate North Korea, there are ample signs that he scorns a freedom-and-peace posture. Unfortunately, many of Trump’s opponents are even more statist than the president. Marking ...

Government Shutdowns, If Only It was True!

by Richard M. Ebeling January 22, 2018

The media once more has been agog with the terror and fear of the government shutdown that occurred following the failure of the Congress to pass another stop-gap spending bill, when federal spending approval officially ran out at one minute past midnight on Friday, January 19, 2018. This is all smoke and mirrors because: (a) the government has not ...

State of the Nation: Progressives, Conservatives, and Trump

by Richard M. Ebeling January 8, 2018

Anyone reading the news and especially the political “liberal” and conservative commentaries might easily conclude that he is living in a world of two parallel political universes. It is as if modern American liberals and conservatives are, respectively, occupying alternative realities about how they look at the economy and culture of the country, and evaluate Donald Trump and his ...

If Political Candidates Advocated Liberty

by Richard M. Ebeling October 23, 2017

In modern democracies, political cycles never end. As soon as one election is over, those in government office or aspiring to such an office are already running for the next election. Having recently attended a public forum of state-level candidates looking to the 2018 election, I wondered what a real friend of freedom might say if he was offering ...

The Political and Economic Mystiques of State Power

by Richard M. Ebeling September 25, 2017

One of the great political mysteries has been the success of governments in ruling over societies with little opposition and resistance from the vast majority of the population, even when those governments have been brutal tyrannies and openly dictatorial in their control. This has been true, no less, under democratic regimes, as well, under which levels of taxation have been ...

Global Corruption and the Role of Government

by Richard M. Ebeling July 24, 2017

The corruption of government officials seems to be as old as recorded history. For example, the ancient Roman senate passed laws against such political corruption in the first century, B.C. They defined a corrupt act as “whenever money is taken and a publicly-conferred duty is violated.” Local magistrates in the Roman Empire were permitted to legally receive cash gifts of ...

Politicians are in “Crisis,” Not the Ordinary American

by Richard M. Ebeling May 23, 2017

Reading or listening to the mass media, it would be easy to assume that America is gripped in a major national crisis due to the words and deeds of Donald Trump in the White House. Democrats stonewall Congressional legislation and dream of impeaching Trump out of the presidency. The Republicans are in panic mode that they will lose their ...

The Irrelevancy of Trump’s Cabinet Picks

by Laurence M. Vance May 1, 2017

President Trump has nominated the members of his cabinet and they have gone through the Senate confirmation process. Democrats, predictably, have been critical of many of his appointments. Conservatives, and some libertarians, have praised some of Trump’s appointments for things that they have done and statements they have made that seem to be at odds with the mission of ...

Trump Will Not Make America Great Again

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2017

President Donald Trump’s signature campaign slogan in the 2016 presidential race was “Make America Great Again.” The mantra touched the chords of millions of Americans and helped get him elected president. At the risk of raining on Trump’s parade, however, it just isn’t going to happen. Trump is not going to make America great again, because his conservative philosophy ...