Free Society

Has America Become a Dictatorship Disguised as a Democracy?

by John W. Whitehead October 25, 2018

“The poor and the underclass are growing. Racial justice and human rights are nonexistent. They have created a repressive society and we are their unwitting accomplices. Their intention to rule rests with the annihilation of consciousness. We have been lulled into a trance. They have made us indifferent to ourselves, to others. We are focused only on our own ...

You Want to Make America Great Again?

by John W. Whitehead October 18, 2018

“If the freedom of speech be taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”—George Washington Living in a representative republic means that each person has the right to take a stand for what they think is right, whether that means marching outside the halls of government, wearing clothing with provocative statements, ...

Out-of-Control Government: How, Why, and What to Do

by Richard M. Ebeling October 17, 2018

There is always a variety of government programs and activities that people either think are not worth the money or should not be the business of government in the first place. Yet it seems almost impossible to rein in government. It keeps growing in size and scope in one direction after another. Why? And is there any way to ...

What Should Be Illegal?

by Laurence M. Vance October 15, 2018

Like many Americans, on a recent trip to Washington, D.C., I stayed in Virginia because hotel rooms are cheaper in places such as Arlington than in Washington. After a day of sightseeing in the nation’s capital, I noticed while driving back into Virginia a large overhead sign at the Virginia state line reading, “Radar Detectors Illegal.” It turns out ...

Why Stop with Truman?

by Laurence M. Vance October 1, 2018

The RMS Titanic left Southampton, United Kingdom, on April 10, 1912, headed west to New York. It was the ship’s maiden voyage. There were an estimated 2,224 passengers and crew on board. Four days later, and only about 375 miles south of Newfoundland, the ship hit an iceberg and sank within three hours. More than 1,500 people ...

Empire of Lies

by John W. Whitehead September 26, 2018

“Back in the heyday of the old Soviet Union, a phrase evolved to describe gullible western intellectuals who came to visit Russia and failed to notice the human and other costs of building a communist utopia. The phrase was “useful idiots” and it applied to a good many people who should have known better. I now propose a ...

Freedom Frauds: Obama’s Forgotten Constitutional Depredations

by James Bovard September 19, 2018

Bureaucratic bulldozing? Groping TSA agents? Federal secrecy and aggressive prosecution of journalists? This is the legacy that Obama passed to Trump. Go to the audio podcast. View other episodes of Freedom Frauds.

What I Don’t Like About Life in Post-9/11 America

by John W. Whitehead September 12, 2018

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”―Edward Abbey, American author Life in a post-9/11 America increasingly feels like an endless free fall down a rabbit hole into a terrifying, dystopian alternative reality in which the citizenry has no rights, the government is no friend to freedom, and everything we ever knew and loved about ...

The Ongoing War on the American People

by John W. Whitehead August 24, 2018

“A government which will turn its tanks upon its people, for any reason, is a government with a taste of blood and a thirst for power and must either be smartly rebuked, or blindly obeyed in deadly fear.”—John Salter Police in a small Georgia town tasered a 5-foot-2, 87-year-old woman who was using a kitchen knife to cut ...

Libertarian Lessons: Conscription

by Scott McPherson August 23, 2018

Authoritarians love conscription because it turns human beings into resources, for the factory or the battlefield. The idea receives support from across the political spectrum, either (a) to fight wars abroad, or (b) for the development of a “youth corps” providing “free” services at home. Neither excuse justifies enslaving young people to serve the interests of the political class. At ...

The Walter Lippmann Colloquium and the Meaning of Liberalism

by Richard M. Ebeling August 15, 2018

The world has always been an uncertain place, and this is no less true today. After the collapse of communism in the 1990s, there was confidence that democracy had won and the market economy had shown its superiority to government planning. This is no longer the case, with the rise of populism, a rebirth of nationalism, and a reawakened ...

There Is No Right to Read a Newspaper

by Laurence M. Vance August 10, 2018

The newspaper industry has been waning over the past few decades. Dozens of newspapers have folded since the advent of the Internet. According to the Pew Research Center, local newspaper circulation has declined by 27 percent over the last fifteen years and the number of statehouse reporters has fallen by nearly 40 percent. The latest victim is ...