Politics

While the libertarian tradition of Murray Rothbard has supported individual rights, the modern idea of civil rights and the laws behind them are a different matter altogether.

Government not only has a monopoly on law enforcement and “justice,” but it also protects that monopoly against anyone who might seek justice outside the purview of the state. 

Although New York mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani has made some very popular promises, his litany of free stuff will run headlong into economic reality soon enough.

Foreign affairs operate in an anarchic environment where deterrence, not morality, secures order. Under ULT Realism becomes not a rival to libertarianism but its external application.

President Trump’s attempts to remake federal agencies has generated fierce opposition from progressives, who believe that government led by experts can solve most of our problems. Reality tells us something different.

Portrayed as a socialist system that is established through the democratic voting system and not imposed by revolutionary violence, democratic socialism leads to an ossified, bureaucratic, iron-fisted system.

Discussions about black suffrage following the Civil War usually are focused upon black voting rights in the South. However, during that same time, northern states passed laws limiting black suffrage, something that often escapes the history books.

While people might speak of the “business of government,” there really is no way to compare the two. Business is voluntary; government is coercive.

In this week’s Friday Philosophy, Dr. David Gordon reviews The Woke Revolution: Up From Slavery and Back Again by H.V. Traywick, Jr., and finds Traywick’s observations have much credibility.

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.