Free Society

How to Make America Great Again

by Laurence M. Vance February 1, 2018

It has now been a year since Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the forty-fifth president of the United States of America. Among other things, he said in his inauguration speech, From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first, America first. Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, ...

Limited Government and a Free Society, Part 3

by Gregory Bresiger February 1, 2018

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Franklin D. Roosevelt was up for reelection in 1940. Toward the end of the election campaign, wanting to reassure the considerable isolationist sentiment, he promised not to send U.S. troops to Europe. “I have said this before. But I shall say it again and again and again. Your ...

Get Up, Stand Up, Speak Up for Your Rights

by John W. Whitehead January 17, 2018

We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds: we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretence; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open; intolerable conflicts have worn us down and even made us cynical. Are we still of any use? ...

Justice Denied: The Government Is Not Going to Save Us

by John W. Whitehead January 10, 2018

“The warlords of history are still kicking our heads in, and no one, not our fathers, not our Gods, is coming to save us.”— Journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled: it will not hear the case of Young v. Borders. Despite the fact that a 26-year-old man was gunned down by police ...

Limited Government and a Free Society, Part 2

by Gregory Bresiger January 1, 2018

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Unfortunately, the classical-liberal tradition that Carl Schurz represented is almost gone today. The men and women who supported it were consistent opponents of the imperial presidency, no matter the party in power. (Schurz, for example, was a Republican who broke with the Republican Grant administration.) That’s because the ...

The FBI Is an Enemy of Freedom

by Scott McPherson December 13, 2017

Former FBI special agent Clint Watts has responded to tweets from President Trump critical of the FBI by branding the president an “enemy of the state.” Watts claims Trump's tweets will “sow doubt” and “hurt” the abilities of the FBI, “so he is an enemy of the state whenever he is pushing against the FBI in ...

John Lennon Was Right

by John W. Whitehead December 8, 2017

Militant nonviolent resistance works. Peaceful, prolonged protests work. Mass movements with huge numbers of participants work. Yes, America, it is possible to use occupations and civil disobedience to oppose government policies, counter injustice and bring about change outside the confines of the ballot box. It has been done before. It can be done again. For example, in May of 1932, more than 43,000 people, ...

Limited Government and a Free Society, Part 1

by Gregory Bresiger December 1, 2017

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Presidential use of the executive order, along with its relative, the executive agreement, has become the “very definition of tyranny” and an affront to limited government. The use of executive orders has dramatically increased over time. George Washington issued about one executive order a year. However, by ...

America Breaks Down

by John W. Whitehead November 8, 2017

This country has been having a nationwide nervous breakdown since 9/11. A nation of people suddenly broke, the market economy goes to shit, and they’re threatened on every side by an unknown, sinister enemy. But I don't think fear is a very effective way of dealing with things—of responding to reality. Fear is just another word ...

Capitalism and the Free Society, Part 2

by Richard M. Ebeling November 6, 2017

Part 1 | Part 2 The free enterprise, or capitalist, system has done more to improve the material condition of humanity than any other economic arrangement of human cooperation in all of recorded history. Yet, “capitalism” constantly stands condemned and accused of being the cause of humanity’s wows, while in reality nothing is further from the truth. In ...

One Year Later, Is Trump a Blessing or a Curse to the Deep State?

by John W. Whitehead November 1, 2017

Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President? … We’ve come to a point where every four years this national fever rises up — this hunger for the Saviour, the White Knight, the Man on Horseback — and whoever wins becomes so immensely powerful … that when you vote ...

Sarah Grimké and Angelina Grimké Weld: Abolitionists and Feminists

by Neera K. Badhwar November 1, 2017

The American women’s rights movement was born in the bosom of the abolitionist movement. The 19th-century abolitionists and feminists Sarah (1792–1873) and Angelina Grimké (1805–1879) were the first female agents of the American Anti-Slavery Society, as well as pioneers of the American women’s rights movement. Their arguments for women’s rights anticipated many of John Stuart Mill’s arguments in The ...