Politics

The Hero’s Hero

by Sheldon Richman March 2, 2000

We can judge a person by his heroes. John McCain would no doubt agree. Revealingly, the hero McCain most often invokes is Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt, a Progressive Republican, was a key figure in America's passage from a Jeffersonian republic to a Hamiltonian despotism. He embodied the late-19th- and early-20th-century vision in which the citizen is ...

Tell All, or Else

by Sheldon Richman March 2, 2000

The Census Bureau wants you to tell it all sorts of things about yourself, but there's one thing it doesn't want to tell you: You may be punished if you disobey. You will search in vain through the census materials you receive in the mail for notice or details of that threat. The notification letter makes ...

Count Me Out

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 2000

I got a letter from my friendly federal government the other day. It notified me that in about a week I will be mailed my U.S. Census 2000 form. Why they didn't just send the form instead of the notice, I can't fathom. But that's the least of it.

Ask Not

by Sheldon Richman February 2, 2000

John McCain tells people he is the one presidential hopeful "who can inspire young people to commit themselves to causes greater than their own self-interest." I will resist wondering whether the cause McCain has in mind is, well, McCain. No doubt this standard line of McCain's is regarded as mere boilerplate, a trademark slogan no ...

Freedom and the 21st Century

by Sheldon Richman January 1, 2000

Perhaps the ultimate indictment of the government's schools is that most people think year 2000 is the 2001st year and thus the start of a new century and millennium. This is not mere quibbling. Next time someone owes you five bucks, insist that he start counting from zero, as people ...

Why Does Buchanan Scare Them?

by Sheldon Richman January 1, 2000

The hysterical reaction to Pat Buchanan's presidential bid is highly revealing. It says little about Buchanan but much about his critics. There is much in Buchanan's platform to object to, but it plays a small role in understanding the criticism. Buchanan is, to be sure, a protectionist. He falls for all the hoary protectionist fallacies that have long been exploded. ...

Short-Circuit the Internet Tax

by Sheldon Richman January 1, 2000

The wish to tax sales over the Internet has only one explanation: greed. I use that word advisedly. It is typically thrown around promiscuously to smear business people who earn fortunes by making consumers better off. That's a bad use of the term. But if by "greed" ...

King of Chaos: The Fiasco of Floyd

by James Bovard January 1, 2000

Hurricane Floyd was quickly labeled "the King of Chaos" by southerners. Unfortunately, foolish evacuation orders and foul-ups disrupted the lives of far more people than were seriously hassled by the hurricane itself. Not surprisingly, the spin is on to portray "the largest peacetime evacuation in the history of the United States" as a triumph. Clinton administration officials wasted no time ...

Public Master

by Sheldon Richman December 2, 1999

First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton apparently wants to represent New York state in the U.S. Senate. She says she wishes to serve the people of New York. Read that carefully. She wants to be their servant . Does anyone believe that? What I'm about to say does not apply just to Mrs. Clinton. It applies ...

Moderation: Virtue or Vice?

by Sheldon Richman October 2, 1999

The death of Rhode Island Senator John Chafee provides an occasion to look at some fundamentals of what passes for political philosophy in the United States. Chafee was one of those Republicans best loved by big government advocates everywhere, including those at the editorial pages of the establishment newspapers. When he died of heart ...

The Myth of Public Service

by Sheldon Richman October 1, 1999

The death of John F. Kennedy Jr. filled the airwaves with much rhapsodizing about "public service." Never mind that Kennedy did not go into public service, but rather launched a for-profit enterprise, George magazine (although it glamorizes public service). That didn't stop commentators and politicians from lavishing praise on the Kennedys for, as Vice President Al Gore put it, ...

Group of Odd People

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 1999

What a sorry lot the GOP is. The frontrunner, Gov. George W. Bush, bases his campaign on the slogan "prosperity with a purpose." Pardon me? I have no idea what that means, but I don't like the sound of it. A president of the United States, and the irants ...