The Good Intentions License for Tyranny by James Bovard “He who saves his country violates no law,” tweeted President Trump in February. He was echoing a line often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte. His supporters were electrified by Trump’s tacit invocation of a right to boundless power. The Trump presidency is already spurring legal battles across […]
Here’s a piece I wrote in 2003 after the President George W. Bush’s initial victory laps on the Iraq War: “The Folly of Invading Iran.” That piece concluded: “If Bush advisors want to conquer Tehran, let them do it themselves.” Same is true today for Trump and his bellicose bootlickers. The Folly of Invading Iran […]
We Never Got to Torture Congress by James Bovard, May 26, 2025 Folks who believe the current political atmosphere is uniquely hateful have forgotten the boundless vitriol prevailing a few decades ago. During the George W. Bush administration, Republicans relied on push-button rage to suppress all criticism of the war on terror. After I appeared […]
March 28, 2025, Counterpunch Intellectuals are Washington’s Biggest Bootlickers James Bovard Facebook Twitter Reddit Bluesky Washingtonians become vested in Leviathan the same way that residents of other big cities become vested in their local NFL franchise. Fashionable ideas are the intellectual equivalent of lapel pins of the American flag. Anyone who recites the […]
Leviathan Logic versus Individual Liberty by James Bovard, March 24, 2025 The failure to think clearly about government is one of the greatest sources of tyranny. The history of liberties lost is the history of patterns of abuses ignored and inductions not made. People talk about the importance of ideas in politics. Often, it is […]
Power of the Pen The president uses signing statements to decree which laws apply to him. James Bovard , American Conservative July 17, 2006 For generations, Republican politicians have spoken reverently of the rule of law. But since 2001, this hoary doctrine has been redefined to mean little more than the enforcement of the secret […]
Richard Morrison of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and I smacked around the feds and bantered over the prospects for Trump, Musk, DOGE, and ever putting a leash on federal agencies. https://x.com/JimBovard/status/1877422695073058948
