Degradation of the craft of journalism in favor of punditry is why novels like The Cuban Affair and Use of Force come across as a more solid source of information.
Focusing on the long-term causes of California’s plight the New York Times is offering its readers the journalistic equivalent of comfort food.
Brexit’s hope for the UK was in becoming a country of greater liberty and responsibility, there is scant evidence of that happening.
From the Blog
The judge is always caught in an intricate dance of power between opinion and the Constitution.
The increase in political polarization in this country reflects the decreasing sectional attachments that rose from the Civil War.
Focusing on the long-term causes of California's plight the New York Times is offering its readers the journalistic equivalent of comfort food.
Bitcoin's market power will grow as it is traded in futures markets.
Progressive faith in government ignores the abuses of power that people with power commit.
Fourth Amendment rights could be better protected through certain actions by state governments and private agreements.
Liberty Law Forum
In his 1936 essay “The Crack-Up,” F. Scott Fitzgerald proposed that “the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined…
Responses
Professor Goldman begins his Liberty Forum essay by urging a striking, but probably unworkable, reconception of the fundamental divide in conservative ranks. Rather than “the familiar distinctions between libertarianism and traditionalism, neoconservatism and paleoconservatism,” he proposes, it’s a conflict between “liberalism and reaction.” Reaction—meaning reactionary politics such as Trumpism—is, according to Goldman, not easily compatible with…
Samuel Goldman has written a bracing Liberty Forum essay suggesting that the Right side of the political spectrum is split, perhaps hopelessly and irrevocably, between classical liberalism and reaction. The roots of the divide are deep and enduring but what brings the problem into bold relief is our political moment and, above all, the rise…
Samuel Goldman has written a wide-ranging and thought-provoking Liberty Forum essay on the current sorry state of American conservatism. This sorry state is especially sorry for those of us who, like Dr. Goldman, believe that classical liberalism is the best part of American conservatism. It is an assessment, he says in conclusion, which he hopes…
Samuel Goldman has made a stimulating contribution to our political discussions. “What is the Future of Conservatism?” is thoughtful and thought-provoking. In light of the feud between Never Trump conservatives and Trump-supporting conservatives, it is well worth pondering if Goldman is right that we are witnessing a conservative “crack up.” This concern is not new. He…
I am grateful to David B. Frisk, John O. McGinnis, Matthew Mitchell, and Richard Samuelson for their generous and thoughtful replies to my Liberty Forum essay. Speaking broadly, we agree that the American Right is in a bad way. We also think it would be a mistake to abandon classical liberal commitments to constitutional government,…
