It's Woodrow Wilson's Fault

Cracking Down on Presidential Power, Newsday, July 22, 2018. "The power of the presidency has grown at the expense of Congress. President Donald Trump’s trade policy is the latest illustration of the fact that the chief executive in the United States is over-mighty. Unfortunately, the progressive left likes it that way."

Yet Another Brilliant Idea from the Bureaucrats

Let’s Send Your Tax Forms To China!, Forbes, May 26, 2016, "There are bad ideas – such as making our tax code so complicated and intrusive that compliance costs billions, yet we can’t be sure what we owe, or that we’re not paying too much. Then there are really bad ideas – such as taking the tax forms of any American who does any international business and sending them to the People’s Republic of China or Russia."

Spend It, and They Won't Come

Blame Washington for Skyrocketing College Costs, Newsday, January 16, 2016. "In a matter of days, college applications will be due. No family can look at those applications without thinking of the opportunity college represents. But they also can’t look without thinking of the bills. A new research paper helps explain why those costs are so high."

The Decline and Fall of British Liberalism

Election Reveals Battle for Britain’s True Liberal Soul, Yorkshire Post, April 17, 2015. "THE debates between the party leaders have made one thing clear. The election isn’t just a struggle between the Tories, Labour, and the rest. It’s a moment that reveals the state of British liberalism. By liberalism, I don’t mean the nanny-statism that today passes for liberalism, with its identity group politics, its ravenous appetite for state spending in the name of appearing to care and its 
love of top-down control."

Of Ghosts, Ghasts, and Liberals

Haunting Liberal Superstitions, Newsday, October 31, 2014. "On Halloween weekend, everyone pretends to believe in ghosts. But a recent Chapman University study found that liberals are more likely to really be quaking in their boots. The supernatural doesn't scare me. But I am afraid of liberal faith in policies that make as much sense as astrology."

Not Change, But Who's In Charge

Liberals Speak, A Conservative Responds, Newsday, July 11, 2014. "Just before the 4th of July, the Pew Research Center released a fascinating study of Americans' political beliefs, dividing them into seven categories from "steadfast conservatives" to "solid liberals." But what separates liberals and conservatives isn't always what they believe. It's why they believe."

U.S. Promotes Corporate Crony Capitalism in Africa

This Isn’t the Africa Policy Americans Need, Newsday, July 5, 2013. "Every presidential trip abroad is designed to produce signature moments and deliverable achievements. President Barack Obama's recent visit to Africa was no exception. His deliverables will do little to help Africa -- but they will fatten big business at home."

Against All Enemies, Mostly Domestic

Obama Sets His Sights on the Enemies Within, Yorkshire Post, June 26, 2013. "We want safety, and not just from terrorists, which is reasonable. We want it everywhere. The vast bureaucracies of the modern world, whether they are intelligence agencies or benefit payers, are all about trying to prevent unpleasantness. It is a strange kind of mind that finds this troubling when it comes to our security, but still welcomes the advance of the state everywhere else."

The New Nixon

"Nixon and Obama . . . Two Presidents, Two Eras and the American Path They Share," Yorkshire Post (UK), not available online, January 9, 2013. "With the exception of George Washington’s on February 22 – now shamefully amalgamated into Presidents Day – Americans have never paid much attention to presidential birthdays. So Richard Milhous Nixon’s one hundredth anniversary on January 9 will occasion no parades. But Nixon is relevant nonetheless. President Obama’s admirers like to compare him to Franklin Roosevelt, to John F. Kennedy, or – most commonly – to Abraham Lincoln, an allusion that Obama echoed by opening his campaign in 2007 in Springfield, Illinois. The comparison to Kennedy – an iconic figure with an exaggerated reputation – is not bad. It’s certainly better than Newsweek Editor Evan Thomas’s celebrated 2009 declaration that Obama is “sort of God.” But best of all is the comparison to Nixon, America’s disgraced president."

In the American Campaign, The Delicate Balance Against Freedom

"The Fight for Freedom Cannot Be Outsourced," Yorkshire Post, July 27, 2012. Not available online. "What we need in the U.S. is not an anti-business agenda. Nor is it a pro-business agenda. Backing business is not the same as supporting the free market, and top-down decisions by a few are no more efficient, and less moral, than decisions by the many. Outsourcing, giving back, and infrastructure are all distractions: what we need are voices across the political spectrum speaking up for freedom."

Why Your Cell Phone Doesn't Work

Big Government and the Spectrum Problem, Contentions, March 8, 2012. "Larry Downes has a remarkable column on CNET news about the shortage of spectrum for use by mobile broadband. It is a catalog of government ineptitude, incompetence, regulatory capture, and short-sightedness."

Economic Freedom Means More Than Austerity

In Europe, Reducing Spending Necessary, But Not Sufficient, To Restore Economic Freedom, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 17, 2012. "If the 2012 edition of Heritage’s Index of Economic Freedom has bad news for the United States, the news for Europe is not much better. The 43 nations of the European region did manage to lose less economic freedom than did the United States, but a decline is still a decline. And the European decline was broad-based: Only nine countries made gains, and every one of the top 10 declined—in some cases, dramatically. The underlying driver of the declines in many cases will come as no surprise: higher levels of government spending."

The Price of Big Government That We're Not Paying

Government Must Be Both Limited And Competent, Yorkshire Post, December 27, 2011. "In his 1978 essay on “The Power of the Powerless,” the late Vaclav Havel wrote eloquently about the importance of that sign. Under Communism, a greengrocer puts a “Workers of the world, unite!” sign up in his window. He doesn’t care what the sign says, he cares what it means. And what it means is that he’s willing to say the conventional thing, to be obedient. He knows he’s sacrificing tomorrow, but he’s gaining security today. Havel wanted elections, and it was the glory of his life that he got them, and won them. But in a democracy, an elected government exists to govern. And that is where we are failing. We are excellent at holding elections. What we do not do is govern. Our system is not like the Communist regimes that Havel detested. But we want what the greengrocer wanted. We want a quiet life. The cost of that today is the sacrifice of tomorrow."

Why Obama's Coalition Is Collapsing

Obama Goes Back to Base As Support Ebbs Away, Yorkshire Post, October 27, 2011. "It’s a good thing for the President that he has the power of incumbency, because he doesn’t have much else going for him. The coalition that won him the 2008 election has fragmented, and it cannot be pulled back together again. Many of the individuals in it will undoubtedly support Obama in 2012, but the broader sense of purpose is gone."

Taking Bentham Seriously

No, Utilitarians Are Not Nice, Contentions, September 27, 2011. "It is all very well to suggest that legislation should seek to do more good that harm. But the problem with applying utilitarianism to legislation, in Bentham’s day or ours, is that someone has to decide which ends serve the greater good, just as the Ivy League experiments require someone to decide who lives and who dies, and just as top-down legislation in the progressive tradition requires wisdom that no single person possesses. This vision presumes the goal of legislation is control and direction, not the promotion of freedom under law."

The Decline and Fall of Victorian Values

Riots Reveal to World How Britain Has Lost Its Values, Yorkshire Post, August 31, 2011. "As the liberal media are always eager to remind us – because it promotes moral relativism – Britain before the Victorians was a drunken and disorderly place. The Victorians couldn’t solve this problem completely, but they did enough to recast the British character, and to make it more than a stereotype. In modern Britain, this Victorian order has been broken down."

Wanted: Flexibility

Google, Wisconsin, and Distributional Coalitions, Big Government, March 25, 2011. "Over the past month, Google made waves with the announcement that it has tweaked its search algorithms to penalize ‘content farms.’ These are “low quality sites whose main goal is to attract search traffic by piling up (mostly) useless content.” The lesson from Google is simple: no system devised by the mind of man is immune to being gamed by other men. Google’s merit is that it can respond quickly to thwart the gaming. That will, in turn, breed more gaming, but Google will, if it is attentive, not fall too far behind. If it slacks off, it will quickly be overtaken by a more nimble rival. The same, unfortunately, is not true of society as a whole."

Restraint and Containment

The Other Thing Containment Requires, Contentions, February 16, 2011. "Excessive taxation and borrowing hands over an ever-increasing portion of our economy to government control. This is incompatible with the strategy that won the Cold War, and completely incompatible with any future U.S. use of that strategy. We are not just borrowing the next generation into oblivion, as Pete points out. Our lack of restraint is reducing our ability to play future foreign-policy problems long: playing it long only makes sense if you’re gaining in relative economic strength."

More State-Centered 'Solutions'

Two Cheers for David Cameron on Multiculturalism, BigPeace, February 10, 2011. "I am slightly less encouraged than some commentators by British Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech on “the doctrine of state multiculturalism.” The speech is certainly worth two cheers, and the fact that Cameron has said much of this before is no reason for him not to say it again, especially since he has never said it so clearly."

Eisenhower and Washington

Like Washington, Eisenhower's Farewell Address Counseled Balance, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 17, 2011. "Fifty years ago, on January 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his famous Farewell Address. The speech ranks, as Eisenhower intended it to, with Washington’s Farewell Address as a masterpiece of American rhetoric, of balance, and of prudent, far-seeing counsel. It is the fate of such masterpieces to be much quoted but seldom read. On this anniversary, therefore, before you read further, we encourage you to read the speech."