Freedom Daily Archive

Unleashing the Dogs of War

by Matthew Harwood February 1, 2020

Presidents of War by Michael Beschloss (New York: Crown, 2018); 752 pages. Even with power in the hands of a political philosopher and statesman who understood the rabid nature of war, President James Madison couldn’t help but embroil the young nation in a conflict it wasn’t ready for. Unlike Thomas Jefferson, his ...

Socialism in America

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2020

Lost in the ongoing debate in America as to whether the United States should embrace socialism is a discomforting fact: America embraced socialism a long time ago. The problem is that many Americans have simply not wanted to accept that fact and instead have preferred living a life of denial. A complete socialist system would be one in which the ...

U.S. Foreign-Policy Perpetual Perfidy

by James Bovard January 1, 2020

The Washington establishment was aghast in October when Donald Trump appeared to approve a Turkish invasion of northern Syria. The United States was seen as abandoning the Kurds, some of whom had assisted the United States in the fight against ISIS and other terrorist groups. But the indignation over the latest U.S. policy shift in the Middle East is ...

Ice and Fire

by Laurence M. Vance January 1, 2020

The relationship between conservatism and libertarianism is a tenuous one. However, such was not always the case. Fellow travelers of both groups were united in opposing Roosevelt’s New Deal. The work of the late economist Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) on the “Old Right” is indispensable here. After World War II, the political right was generally opposed, not only to ...

Defending the Foundations of Freedom for 30 Years

by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 2020

This January 2020 marks the 30th anniversary of The Future of Freedom Foundation’s monthly publication, Future of Freedom, which at its beginning was called Freedom Daily. Three decades means a total of 360 issues, containing even more hundreds of articles. Virtually every important policy issue, foreign and domestic, was written about as those months and years went by. The world ...

The Long Shadow of World War I and America’s War on Dissent, Part 2

by Danny Sjursen January 1, 2020

Part 1 Upon U.S. entry into the war, in 1917 the Wilson administration proposed and a compliant Congress almost immediately passed the Espionage Act, a direct attack on American press freedom. The law criminalized newspaper journalists who dared to oppose the war, question the official narrative, or encourage dissent. Massive fines and stiff prison sentences were dealt out with ...

Freedom and Prosperity: The Importance of Sound Money

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2019

Sound money is a key to a free and prosperous society. That principle was clearly reflected in the monetary system that the Constitution established when it called the federal government into existence. Our ancestors didn’t trust government officials with power. They believed that the greatest threat to their own freedom and well-being lay not with some foreign regime but rather ...

Gun Seizures Could Lead to Civil War

by James Bovard December 1, 2019

“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15,” declared “Beto” O’Rourke at a Democratic party presidential candidate debate in September. Compelling Americans to surrender their so-called assault weapons is “the newest purity test” for Democratic presidential candidates, according to the Washington Post. O’Rourke and other Democratic presidential candidates, including Cory Booker, Kristin Gillibrand, and Bill de Blasio (now withdrawn ...

Unlibertarian Libertarianism

by Laurence M. Vance December 1, 2019

Just like liberals, conservatives, progressives, populists, and constitutionalists — but certainly not as bad — libertarians are not always consistent when it comes to libertarianism. In fact, what some libertarians propose is unlibertarian libertarianism. Libertarianism Libertarianism is the philosophy that says that people should be free from individual, societal, or government interference to live their lives any way they desire, pursue ...

Understanding the Freedom We Have Lost

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 2019

Few people can really understand what life is like in a totalitarian state unless they have lived there or have had the opportunity to visit such a society for an extended period of time. For most Americans it seems like an impenetrable world that is not easily comprehended. How can you imagine living in a society with virtually none ...

The Long Shadow of World War I and America’s War on Dissent, Part 1

by Danny Sjursen December 1, 2019

Part 2 “War is the health of the state.” So said the eerily prescient and uncompromising anti-war radical Randolph Bourne in the very midst of what Europeans called the Great War, a nihilistic conflict that eventually consumed the lives of at least 9 million soldiers, including some 50,000 Americans. He meant, ultimately, that wars — especially foreign wars — ...

A Limited-Government Republic versus a National-Security State

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2019

The worst mistake that the American people have made in the entire history of the United States was to permit the conversion of the federal government to a national-security state. That conversion has played a major role in the diminishment of limited government and the destruction of our liberty, privacy, and economic well-being. What is a national-security state? It ...