This is the 25th anniversary of the publication of Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, which St. Martin’s Press described as a “bestseller” for at least a decade after its release. Thanks to everyone who bought the book and double-thanks to everyone who whooped it up. I especially want to thank folks who wrote […]
Mises Institute, February 7, 2019 Trump’s Absurd Claim that Americans Are Free from Government Coercion by James Bovard In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Trump received rapturous applause from Republicans for his declaration: “America was founded on liberty and independence — not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free, […]
Mises Institute, January 17, 2019 FDR’s Worst Perversion of Freedom: The “Four Freedoms” Speech by James Bovard Franklin Roosevelt did more than any other modern president to corrupt Americans’ understanding of freedom. Last week was the 75th anniversary of his 1944 speech calling for a second Bill of Rights to guarantee economic freedom to Americans. […]
Mises Institute, September 26, 2018 The Supreme Court: The Dog that Didn’t Bark by James Bovard The furor over the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh is spurring many commentators to bewail that the Supreme Court has become too powerful. But the real problem is that the Court is now often little more than a fig leaf […]
The Hill, June 29, 2018 Another ‘state of democracy’ report ignores real cause of plummeting trust by James Bovard The 937th report on the crisis of democracy in the Trump era was released Tuesday. Half of Americans polled believe that the U.S. is in “real danger of becoming a nondemocratic, authoritarian country” and two-thirds believe democracy is […]
The Mises Institute reposted a 1999 article I wrote for Sheldon Richman at The Freeman on how government handouts can subvert freedom. That piece was adapted from my book, Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Individual (St. Martin’s Press). Looking back on this 20 years later, I am […]
This week is the 15th anniversary of the Bush administration’s attack on Iraq. The nation has not recovered from the calamities that war inflicted at home and abroad. Here are some of my epigrams in response to the Iraq war and the war on terrorism in general, pulled from Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice […]
