Progress Report for Liberty: 2018
A libertarian radio host reflects on a year of hidden victories
2019 is already off with a bang, but before we get tied into knots fighting over the immigration football in the “shutdown showdown,” I think we ought to take a breather and look back on the year that was.
We’ll go month by month, but first I want to point out three trends that I think are representative of the year as a whole.
First the bad. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s election to the House of Representatives was a continuation of the electorate’s embrace of populism — both left-wing (socialist) and right-wing (nativist). Neither of these is a good development. While I’m not worried about Elizabeth Warren winning the Presidency in 2020, it is worrisome that she may have earned political points by proposing legislation in the WSJ that effectively amounts to the nationalization of all large industry in the United States. Richard Epstein laid out the gross illogic of her “Accountable Capitalism Act,” and I had him on the show to explain why it could never work.
Next the good. Vox.com reports that marijuana is now legal in 10 states (plus DC). It is legal for medicinal purposes in 32 states and has been decriminalized in another 13. This is a prime example of federalism in action — where the Federal government has failed to deliver common-sense drug reform, the states are taking back their constitutional powers to experiment with their own policies. This is the theme of my new book, *Power to the States: How Federalism 2.0 Can Make America Governable Again.*
And last but not least, the ambiguous. Amazon became the first company to reach $1 trillion in market capitalization. Many will point to this is as a threat of monopoly, but people said the same thing about A&P decades ago, and now most people hardly remember that name.
Capitalism is far more resilient than we give it credit for. As tumultuous as it may seem from a glance at the front page of the newspaper, we should always remember that humanity’s inclination to “truck, barter, and exchange,” serves as a unifying force against the insanity and political divisions we create.
And now we begin to look back at the year that was:
January — By now you’ve probably forgotten that 2018 also began with a government shutdown over (you guessed it) immigration. Back then, the dispute was over DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Once again, the most vulnerable members in our society — children — are being used as pawns in a political struggle.
In March, I spoke with KPFA’s progressive talk show host Mitch Jeserich about the disastrous consequences of our government’s failure to naturalize new immigrants — both for the migrants themselves, and for the business owners that wish to provide them jobs. It’s a horrible catch-22 and there’s no good excuse for inaction. Columnist Joe Mathews proposed a unique solution in which states like California could practice “immigration federalism” if the Federal Government fails to act.
Just last month I revisited the issue of immigration with the The Constitution Center’s VP, Sheldon Gilbert in light of Trump’s proposed executive order to end birthright citizenship.
Unfortunately, a large swath of the country believes our nation’s identity hinges on the ability to exclude newcomers, when in fact it vitally depends on welcoming immigrants — the ultimate entrepreneurs — into our borders. This issue isn’t going to go away, and you can expect me to continue to make it a centerpiece of my shows in the New Year.
February–– SpaceX successfully launched the Falcon Heavy, its most powerful rocket to date. Technology marches forward. Enough said.
March — Tragedy struck Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in the form of another school shooting. After students organized a march in protest of guns, the media seized on the spectacle to silence dissent from proponents of the 2nd Amendment. For those who would rather hear analysis than soundbites, I recommend my interview with David Harsanyi — author of *First Freedom: A Ride Through America’s Enduring History with the Gun* — featuring the actual history of firearms, gun violence, and the constitutional issues at play in the gun rights debate.
Also in March, California’s High Speed Rail Authority increased its estimated cost of the train from $77 billion to nearly $100 billion, and pushed back its estimated operation date back to 2029. This led one of the original authors of the legislation, Quentin Kopp, to say it’s “almost a crime.” The retired judge and former Chairman of the High Speed Rail Authority joined me to explain how the high-speed rail has gotten so far off track.
April — The U.S. and its closest allies launch airstrikes in Syria over an alleged chemical weapons attack by Assad and his government. We’ll be watching this region to see if Trump follows through on his recent promise to withdraw troops. Let us hope!
May saw the beginning of Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling. We may never know for sure how big of an impact it had on President Trump’s election, but our Russian friend Andrei Illarionov at the Cato Institute informed me and my audience about the much more devastating effects of Russian meddling in their own economy, post-communism:
Illarionov, a former advisor to Vladimir Putin, counseled sound monetary and fiscal policy but resigned when it became clear how the new government was being run.
Later on in May, Harvey Weinstein was charged with rape and other offenses, and released on bail. While he has yet to be convicted, the market and court of public opinion have been swift in their retribution. Professor Richard Epstein joined the show to raise the bar on this discussion from mere gossip and voyeurism to an intellectual conversation on the appropriate remedies for sexual harassment and the market’s role in punishing bad behavior.
June was the first meeting between a U.S. President and a leader of North Korea, and many hailed it as a promising first step towards peace on the Korean Peninsula. John Glaser of the Cato Institute was quick to point out, however, that the meeting was mostly made possible by a number of concessions made by U.S. diplomacy. Despite the spin from both parties, the recent summit was neither a vindication of Trump’s tough-talk (as Republicans claim), nor was it a mistake (as Democrats say). Glaser believes that the negotiations were a step in the right direction — a move towards removing some sanctions and giving North Korea some of the respect it craves on the international stage.
However, Glaser gives most of the credit to South Korean President Moon Jae-in for providing the assurances to Kim that primed him to attend the meeting.
July — Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court.
August — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to Congress for scraping data from its users. I interviewed the CEO of a competing social media organization, Minds.com, about how my listeners can Free Their Minds From Social Media Censorship and data harvesting. Bill Ottman developed Minds.com to be free and open-source. They even have a Bill of Rights for their users. What an exciting time to be alive!
September — The Trump administration also negotiated a new trade deal with Mexico and CANADA to replace NAFTA. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or U.S.M.C.A., generally reduced tariffs, and my distinguished guest Stephen Moore explained what he thinks is driving Trump’s “long game” bargaining strategy to reduce tariffs worldwide.
November — In California, we had terrible wildfires that polluted our air for weeks. Governor Brown blamed climate change. Trump blamed poor forest management. We’ll never know precisely what started the fires, but if PG&E or some other government entity was responsible it wouldn’t be the first time that government tried to deflect the blame to private actors. My interview with Joel Engel on his book *Scorched Worth* tells “A True Story of Destruction, Deceit, and Government Corruption” as the Federal Government accused Sierra Pacific Industries of starting a 65,000 acre blaze in the Sierra Nevadas. It was a riveting story and a great interview.
December — Most recently, we saw Trump withdraw troops from Syria. I hope this will be the beginning of a less interventionist foreign policy, and an associated reduction of military spending. Jonathan Bydlak joined me last year to propose some areas in which we could cut the Pentagon Budget without compromising national security.
Let’s hope someone in the Trump administration is listening.
Numerous Supreme Court cases were also decided in 2018 in favor of liberty, including Janus v. AFSCME. Not everyone was happy about that ruling, which settled that teachers’ free speech rights are violated when they are forced to pay dues to politically-active unions. Progressive podcaster Jonathan Tasini was gracious enough to join my show following the decision to explain why he thinks competition is a bad thing in the context of teachers unions.
I wasn’t convinced, but you might be.
There were other Supreme Court victories for liberty, including cases in which the right to digital privacy was upheld (see Carpenter v. United States), as well as the correct understanding of voluntary association (see Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission). In the latter case, the baker who did not comply with a gay couple’s request for a wedding cake, was held to have been mistreated by the Civil Rights Commission of Colorado due to remarks made by one of its members that were deemed hostile to the baker’s religion. I would argue that it doesn’t matter the reason for refusing to bake the cake or for fining the baker — religious or otherwise.
Simply put, individuals should have the right to refuse business with whomever they choose not to do business with.
While this may result in the evil of discrimination in some cases, it is far more dangerous to trust government to determine what counts as illegal discrimination. We see this most clearly in the debate over Title IX, in which the Office of Civil Rights has flipped the original intent of the act on its head. What was meant to level the playing field for female athletes has been transformed into a tool for policing universities’ policies around sexual harassment. It has redefined sex to mean gender identity, and created possibilities for brand new forms of sexual harassment (think biological males in the women’s locker room).
Such is life in 2019. The good news is that President Trump has mostly been following through on his promise to restore power to the states (and to the people) and taking it out of the hands of the bureaucrats and administrative agencies.
All in all, it was a good year for liberty at the state level.
That wraps up my Progress Report for Liberty: 2018 edition. If you’d like to understand why I think federalism is the best chance for liberty in our lifetimes, check out my new book on Amazon (available for just $2.99 on Kindle):
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