Join Jim and Greg as they celebrate the end of the Bernie Sanders campaign, knowing an avowed socialist will not be president. They also weigh in on the thorny debate over how much our private health data ought to be available to the government as it navigates the COVID-19 crisis. And after forgetting Lincoln Chafee was running for president as a Libertarian, Jim and Greg comment on his second straight campaign implosion.
Vermeule’s Gleeful Illiberal Legalism
Few have been brave enough to flesh out what the Ahmarist, or “anti-Frenchist,” vision of the common good should be. Some have said articulating specifics is beside the point, that Ahmarists’ refreshing achievement is unapologetically asserting a common good exists, even if they decline to say what, exactly, it is. And then, there are guys like Adrian Vermeule, writing in The Atlantic, brave enough, at least, to flesh out a vision of sorts. Vermeule calls it “common-good constitutionalism”, which he describes as “an illiberal legalism that is not ‘conservative’ at all, insofar as standard conservatism is content to play defensively within the procedural rules of the liberal order.” When Vermeule writes,
[U]nlike legal liberalism, common-good constitutionalism does not suffer from a horror of political domination and hierarchy, because it sees that law is parental, [emphasis added] a wise teacher and an inculcator of good habits. Just authority in rulers can be exercised for the good of subjects, if necessary even against the subjects’ own perceptions of what is best for them—perceptions that may change over time anyway, as the law teaches, habituates, and re-forms them. Subjects will come to thank the ruler whose legal strictures, possibly experienced at first as coercive, encourage subjects to form more authentic desires…
Nothing but crazy martinis today! First, Jim and Greg react to news that former Republican, Democrat, and independent Lincoln Chafee is now a Libertarian and thinking about running for president with his new party in 2020. They also slam the Democratic National Committee for recoiling at the idea of Politico’s Tim Alberta asking questions at the December presidential debate because he spent a year writing for National Review. And they examine South Dakota’s attention-grabbing drug prevention campaign entitled, “Meth. I’m On It.”
How My Political Views Helped Me Grow Spiritually
I think most politically involved Christians would say that their politics are influenced by their faith. This is true for me, as well; however, I’ve realized recently that the opposite is also true: my growing political views have actually helped me to grow as a Christian.
Even from childhood, I’ve often been a judgmental Christian. I have a history of being hard on myself and others. I remember being very upset with my parents one Sunday because we weren’t going to go back to church for the evening service; weren’t we supposed to be there every time the doors were open? I also nearly broke down in tears once because my sister was talking about buying a two-piece bathing suit.
“AnCap Has Never Been Tried!” and Other Myths
One of the great myths I hear from people who believe in a utopia is that things like Communist, Socialist, and, yes, Anarcho-Capitalist (AnCap) societies “Have never been tried”. This is, of course, nonsense. The USSR, China, Venezuela, Romania, Cambodia, and countless other nations give lie to the idea that a Communist Socialist society has not been tried. Dr. Jordan Peterson says it well here:
Richard Epstein on Classical Liberalism, the Administrative State, Free Speech, and Silicon Valley Regulation
For this week’s Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast, I had legendary classical liberal legal theorist and longtime professor at University of Chicago Law School and now at NYU Law — and prodigious Ricochet podcaster Professor Richard Epstein on the podcast to discuss among other things:
You can find the episode on iTunes, everywhere else podcasts are found or download the episode directly here.
I’m Struggling with Personal Freedom Today
The Libertarian in me is struggling to stay consistent in my desire for personal freedoms, especially where personal property is concerned. Mustangman and I put our house on the market a couple days ago — we’re moving to Dayton, OH in a few weeks. The Portland market can only be described one way: hot! Most houses listed below $400,000 are under contract within a week, and we have been hoping for a fast sale.
This weekend, we packed up the kitties and took a trip up to Yakima to see Ryan M and his family while our realtor did open houses and a ton of showings. Everyone loved our house with one glaring exception. Here’s where we take a step back.
A funny thing happened to America’s libertarian movement – it expected a champion to emerge in the 2016 election; it may or may not have one in Donald Trump. Richard Epstein, the Hoover Institution’s Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow and the voice behind “The Libertarian” podcast, grades the Trump presidency from a libertarian vantage.
John Stossel: Kids Aren’t Learning, So I’ll Teach Them
John Stossel joins the Whiskey Politics Podcast just as we were setting up at Freedom Fest (apologies for the few audio glitches). John spoke on regulations, entitlements, the ongoing drug war, the impact of legalization, why he despises Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and how to ensure future generations will be taught about the benefits of free markets. John can now be found on Reason TV and is focusing on teaching students basic economic principals at Stossel In The Classroom where students can get free DVDs.
Stop the Funeral Dirges for Academic Rigor, Please
I admit to being a hopelessly disorganized individual, and working in a cluttered corner “office” in my home. The “logical (to me) chaos” of my workspace right now says something meaningful about the state of academic rigor today, thanks to a couple of completely coincidental items. On my desk there is a pile of paper that represents the first 50 or so pages of a nearly 500-page manuscript, and an iPad with a somewhat related book in my Kindle queue waiting for me to complete.
The book is The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters, by Tom Nichols, and the manuscript is on a theory of “political Darwinism.” They are definitely polar opposites on just about any scale one would like to use to compare them, which makes them remarkably similar. Nichols is pointing out how society — particularly America — has shifted to a point where all experts are considered untrustworthy. The author of the manuscript is showing how the shifting trends in politics are actually following a fairly logical evolutionary process that needs a severe interruption if we prize freedom at all. The similarity between them lies in both their serious tones of warning against the track our society is following now, and their extreme attention to detail in an academic sense. The other item of note about them is that the book is authored by someone who is generally conservative, and the manuscript’s author is essentially a libertarian.
Rick Berman: Thank You for Voting
How would you feel being labeled “Dr. Evil” in USA Today, which is then repeated across national media including a 60 Minutes interview? When you fight against drinking and driving laws, smoking regulations, tanning bed restrictions, motorcycle helmet laws, minimum wage increases and of course unions, you can be called many things and for the most part none of them kind. Meet Rick Berman, a lobbyist public affairs advocate whose successful firm Berman and Company most recently worked for the Trump Campaign (after working for Ted Cruz during the primary). If you haven’t seen the 2006 movie Thank You For Smoking (trailer below) you missed one of Hollywood’s better films detailing (in a humorous and entertaining way) free speech, individual choice, and libertarian philosophy. It’s been said the movie, based on Christopher Buckley’s book of the same name, portrays Rick Berman who has testified before numerous committees of various state legislatures, the Senate and the House of Representatives. In this interview we discuss the issues Rick’s firm works on to “change the debate,” his role in the 2016 election, and the media hits he’s taken (and welcomes) including four straight nights of being attacked on Rachel Maddow’s program to which he responded by flying up on his own dime and defending himself on live television.
Ricochet Editor-in-Chief Jon Gabriel welcomes his new co-host Stephen Miller of National Review. They discuss their dueling articles on leaving the GOP, the rise of Donald Trump, and who will be banned from their conservatarian Pirate Ship.
Follow them both on Twitter at @ExJon and @RedSteeze, and check out Stephen’s personal website, The Wilderness.
