Freedom Daily Archive

The Legal Origin of the State Secrets Doctrine

by David S. D'Amato May 1, 2017

In the United States, a citizen may sue the government. It is fortunate that it should be so, because, as libertarians like to point out, government is society’s single worst offender. The ability to hold it to account in the courts helps safeguard the rights of the individual, the consistent protection of which is the meaning of a free ...

Militarism or Isolationism?

by Stephen Wertheim May 1, 2017

Under Donald Trump, American foreign policy is returning, many commentators say, to the isolationism that preceded World War II. This line of interpretation (and often attack) emerged during the election: While Hillary Clinton warned that her opponent would “tear up our alliances,” an array of experts supplied such fears with a historical pedigree. As Council on Foreign Relations president ...

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 ...

Obamacare Reform and Paternalism’s Pratfalls

by James Bovard April 1, 2017

One of Donald Trump’s first actions as president was to issue an executive order to reduce the regulatory burden of the Affordable Care Act. Obamacare has been intensely controversial since it was enacted in 2010. The battle over its reform or replacement will very likely continue for most of this year, if not most of Trump’s term in office. ...

The Conservative Mantra

by Laurence M. Vance April 1, 2017

Conservative godfather Russell Kirk (1918–1994) wrote lengthy philosophical treatises on “the six canons of conservative thought” and “ten conservative principles.” Throughout his writings on conservatism he praised natural law, order, virtue, restraint, custom, convention, continuity, tradition, prudence, permanent things, an enduring moral order, property, and voluntary community, while he disdained hasty innovation, collectivism, uniformity, egalitarianism, utilitarianism, and those who ...

Donald Trump as Carnival Hawker and His Leftist Enemies

by Richard M. Ebeling April 1, 2017

Politics has a strange influence on people. People who in their daily lives seem to act quite normal are driven into various forms of madness by politics. For instance, I have friends and acquaintances on both the political Right and Left, with whom totally normal conversations and interactions may be had — unless it turns to politics. Donald Trump is ...

The Assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2017

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In July 1976 the U.S. ambassador to Paraguay, George Landau, received a request from a high Paraguayan official to expedite visa applications from two Chilean officials who wished to travel to the United States. The passports that were submitted as part of the application contained the names and ...

Obama’s AWOL Anti-War Protest

by James Bovard March 1, 2017

Barack Obama campaigned for the presidency in 2008 as a peace candidate. He signaled that he would fundamentally change America’s course after the reckless carnage unleashed by the George W. Bush administration. However, by the end of Obama’s presidency, the United States was bombing seven different foreign nations. But Obama’s warring rarely evoked the protests or opposition that the Bush ...

Free the Airports!

by Laurence M. Vance March 1, 2017

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), U.S. airlines and foreign airlines serving the United States carry about 900 million passengers per year systemwide on more than 9 million flights (domestic and international). The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) projects that the total number of enplanements will grow to 1.2 billion by 2036. More than ...

In an Ideal America

by Leonard Read March 1, 2017

Every person should be free … to pursue his ambition to the full extent of his abilities, regardless of race or creed or family background. … to associate with whom he pleases for any reason he pleases, even if someone else thinks it’s a stupid reason. … to worship God in his own way, even if it isn’t “orthodox.” … to choose his ...

American Progressivism in Its Epoch

by Joseph R. Stromberg March 1, 2017

After 1865, rapid industrial consolidation and concentration of wealth, aggravated by the Panics of 1873 and 1893, provoked the Populist farmers’ movement, the labor strife characteristic of the mid-to-late 19th century, and the anti-trust movement. As historian Nancy Cohen has shown, the Liberal Republican reformers of the 1870s, disgusted by corruption under President Ulysses Grant, wanted to address the ...

Prohibition and the Socialist Ideal

by Ludwig von Mises March 1, 2017

Under the capitalistic system, the ultimate bosses are the consumers. The sovereign is not the state, it is the people. And the proof that they are the sovereign is borne out by the fact that they have the right to be foolish. This is the privilege of the sovereign. He has the right to make mistakes, no one can ...