For years, public discourse has been dominated by division, partisanship, and a winner-take-all mentality that has often alienated citizens, broken bonds among friends and family, and discouraged solutions-oriented policymaking. Yet, many Americans are embracing a new chapter rooted in a renewed focus on individual liberty and responsible governance.
This "Fourth of July," let's recognize just how much we need the principles from our founding and recommit ourselves to ringing the bell of economic liberty loud and clear.
What does it mean to be free? Many disputes about specific issues originate from the fact that people don’t answer this question in the same way.
It might sound odd to hear this from someone who’s been writing a syndicated column on politics for nearly four decades, but politics has become vastly more important in our lives than it should be. Virtually every decision we make in our ostensibly free society is now subject to review, refinement, and reversal by some...
I was 17 and a senior at Habersham Central High School in Georgia. I had just finished my first-period Human Anatomy class and was walking into my second-period class. As I entered the room, I looked to my right and saw, surprisingly, that the television was on. It was playing a video of an airplane...
Last month I joined dozens of other writers, scholars, activists, and leaders across the country in declaring ourselves “Freedom Conservatives.” What do FreeCons stand for? You can read our statement of common principles at FreedomConservatism.org. Of course, virtually all Americans value freedom. But they don’t necessarily define the term in the same way. Nor do...
In North Carolina, the political label “conservative” is more popular than the terms “liberal” or “progressive.” In the most recent John Locke Foundation poll, for example, 46% of likely voters described themselves as conservatives, with 25% picking the liberal label and the rest either “moderate” or nothing at all. If we broaden out to include...
It was a great television piece that would help shape American conservatism for the next 35 years. In a 1979 interview, Phil Donahue and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman discussed political power, capitalism, and greed. To counter Donahue’s argument about the problems with an economic system and society based on greed, Friedman responded, “You know, I think you’re...
In a nationwide survey of Yelp reviews on homeowners associations, Raleigh tied for the city with the lowest ratings. Yelp’s lowest rating is 1 star out of 5, and Raleigh’s HOAs averaged 1.00 stars. Dissatisfaction with HOAs can cover a wide range of topics: from micromanaging the appearance of a member’s property, to increasing fees,...
In the almost 17 years I’ve spent working for conservative, free-market public policy organizations in North Carolina, I’ve devoted much of my time to one consistent theme: state legislators should reduce taxes and rein in spending. But why is this so important? First and foremost: it’s your money. Beginning with the concept of self-ownership, we...
One of the consequences of writing a syndicated column on politics and public policy for more than three decades is that I am constantly told what I think and why I think it. You may find this consequence perplexing. Isn’t my job here to tell readers what I think and why I think it? Sure....
