Opinion
Robert Doughton’s big government legacy lives on from NC to DC
Doughton’s destructive policies impacted North Carolina and the country at large in the so-called “Progressive Era.”
Opinion
President Biden’s Supreme Court reforms would set dangerous precedent
President Biden’s proposals threaten a cornerstone of the American republic — an independent judiciary that is unwaveringly loyal to the rule of law and immune to the whims of political power.
Opinion
NC should be 20th state to call for Convention of States
Delegates from around the country, almost all of whom were state officials, arrived in a steamy legislative chamber 237 years ago. They were sent by their respective states to Philadelphia with the charge to “render the federal constitution adequate for the exigencies of the Union.” Fresh from their revolutionary and victorious fight for freedom from...
Opinion
The debt ceiling agreement revealed where the real power lies
Was there ever really any doubt? This is the question being asked now that President Biden has signed into law an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, brokered among leading Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. According to politicians in Washington, no, there was never a doubt that they would eventually agree to raise the...
Opinion
Conservatives must continue to champion free-market capitalism
Last week, I conducted a Twitter poll asking a simple question: Does American conservatism require some level of belief in capitalism and free markets? With 434 votes cast, 79.5% said yes — an overwhelming supermajority that would melt the brains of NCPOL journos if it were Republican General Assembly election results. What does this anecdote...
Opinion
Alcohol prohibition’s little-known tie to NC’s white-supremacist Wilmington Massacre
Nov. 10, 1898, is an infamous day that forever exemplifies a tyrannical government’s capacity to murder and terrorize, even here in North Carolina. Most are unaware that this day also helped spawn many draconian laws that carry the echoes of terror even today. These terrorists and their sympathizers eventually implemented liquor prohibition, alcohol-control state laws...
Opinion
The blowback on student loan forgiveness
Even if one only counts Carolina Journal opinion submissions, there is tangible anger over President Biden’s student loan forgiveness order. The administration is receiving plenty of backlash on multiple fronts. Those include the graduates that worked and paid back loans on their own, but the more politically damaging group is the working class that never even went...
Opinion
Robert Doughton and the Blue Ridge Parkway
One of my favorite drives around the U.S. is the Blue Ridge Parkway through North Carolina. Mountains and valleys covered in trees, a sight to see any season but especially during summer and autumn. Some of my fondest childhood road trip memories were with my grandparents, while my grandfather drove and told stories about the parkway or...
News
N.C.’s Right to Work law turns 75, experts weigh in on workers’ rights
North Carolina on Friday, March 18, will celebrate the 75th anniversary of its Right to Work law. The purpose and meaning of Right to Work are explained in a new report, “Pro-Worker, Pro-Growth Making Right-to-Work Permanent in North Carolina,” by F. Vincent Vernuccio and available on the website of the John Locke Foundation, which commissioned...
Opinion
Economic liberty depends on judges who respect the Constitution
A lawyer who specializes in defending economic rights touts North Carolina's constitution and court precedents.
Opinion
Forgotten men and women: ‘the unvaccinated’ also includes the naturally immune
“The forgotten man” was how President Franklin Delano Roosevelt characterized ordinary people who needed his New Deal policies to build back up the American economy around them. In her history of the Great Depression titled “The Forgotten Man,” author and economics commentator Amity Schlaes showed that the forgotten men and women were harmed by all...
Opinion
Remove barriers instead of erecting new ones
Have you ever noticed how social reformers often want new government regulations to do away with behavior and outcomes that past government regulations helped create? For as much as they talk about the greed of capitalists and the power of government to change society, they seem to miss that people do change their behavior in...
