The Police State

Thomas Paine, perhaps more than the nation’s official “Founding Fathers,” understood that government will deteriorate into tyranny unless those it governs are vigilant to keep that from happening.

In his 2024 campaign, Donald Trump sought libertarian support by promising to protect cryptocurrency and its users. His Department of Justice, however, is looking to criminalize crypto.

While libertarians, and many conservatives, often rightly discuss problems of government intervention, there is a counterintuitive category where the government simultaneously monopolizes, taxes, and refuses to provide promised services.

Trump’s recent actions recall earlier episodes of US industrial policy, such as wartime production controls and financial crisis interventions, when governments assumed temporary stakes or direct control over private enterprise.

The popular game, Rock-Paper-Scissors, operates according to a firm set of rules. However, when government sets the rules or refuses to properly enforce rules, then so-called limited government simply turns into a government power play.

For all of the talk about the need for “limited government,” we should always remember that the government has a legal monopoly on violence, and it uses that legal privilege often.

In this age of the growth of the state, free speech increasingly becomes a casualty. However, elites are unwilling to protect free speech rights and, all too often, it is the elites that are suppressing speech in the first place.

Few really understand why these blue cities are crime-ridden. It’s not merely a lack of resources or even progressive ideology. At the root of the problem are governments working hard to maintain a monopoly on a service they then refuse to provide.

This week, Connor O'Keeffe, Bill Anderson, and Tho Bishop examine how state overreach and political opportunism shape America’s crises.

After the tragic 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the FBI rolled out the usual “lone nut” narrative about who did it. However, much evidence exists to show that FBI informants and agents embedded with white supremacy groups may well have been involved.