Free Thoughts

How much of a role did media coverage play in Donald Trump winning the Republican primary? Is Trump’s brand of conservative populism and identity politics here to stay? Would a Trump loss in November be an opportunity for libertarians to reshape the philosophy of the American right?Ben Domenech shares his personal theory that explains Donald Trump’s rise to prominence on the political stage.Show Notes and Further ReadingHere’s Domenech in 2015, predicting the path of Donald Trump’s candidacy and on the emergence of Trump’s brand of identity politics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How much do we know about Confucius? What type of world were the Taoists and early Confucians living in? Were early Confucians pro free-market and pro individualism as we understand the terms today?Roderick T. Long joins us this week for a discussion on the thought of the early Confucians, who were precursors of modern libertarians.Show Notes and Further ReadingLong’s new book is Rituals of Freedom: Libertarian Themes in Early Confucianism (2016). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is an economy like a machine or a tropical rainforest? Is it more like a mechanical device that can be maintained by an exogenous force (government), or is it more like a diverse ecology, one that includes government actors?Richard Wagner joins us this week to discuss his new book, Politics As a Peculiar Business: Insights from a Theory of Entangled Political Economy (2016).Wagner concludes that modern governments function much the way a business enterprise does, albeit a strange one. He also theorizes about what happens when government becomes entangled in the same incentive structures it claims regulatory power over. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What’s a pretextual police stop? When do police need your consent to a search, and are these searches unconstitutional? Jonathan Blanks joins us this week to share his findings on how police searches disproportionately affect minorities.Show Notes and Further ReadingJonathan Blanks’s “Thin Blue Lies: How Pretextual Stops Undermine Police Legitimacy” appears in Volume 66, Issue 4 of the Case Western Reserve Law Review.Here’s a previous Free Thoughts episode with Blanks on police misconduct. Listeners may also be interested in this Free Thoughts episode with Adam Bates and Matthew Feeney on how new technologies are changing law enforcement.Blanks mentions this article by George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson in the March 1982 issue of The Atlantic, which originated the “broken windows” theory of policing.Aaron mentions watching the 1971 Don Siegel film Dirty Harry, starring Clint Eastwood. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most Americans believe that democracy is the most just, fair, and equal form of government we’ve come up with thus far. Is that overselling it? Does democracy produce the results we need? Can anything be done about voter ignorance?What is the symbolic value of the right to vote? Is political participation good for us as individuals and as a society? What would a better system look like?Show Notes and Further ReadingJason Brennan’s newest book is Against Democracy (2016).Brennan is also the lecturer for one of our Libertarianism.org Guides, An Introduction to Political Philosophy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why are Americans so fascinated with our third President? What did Jefferson’s contemporaries think of him?Robert McDonald joins us this week to talk about the life and ideas of Thomas Jefferson.Show Notes and Further ReadingMcDonald’s book is Confounding Father: Thomas Jefferson’s Image in His Own Time (2016).There is a conception that politics was more civil at the turn of the 19th century; this Reason.tv video proves otherwise. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Was the success of the Star Wars franchise inevitable? What does Star Wars have to teach us about politics, revolution, and constitutional interpretation?Cass R. Sunstein explores the critical and financial success of the Star Wars movies.Show Notes and Further ReadingCass R. Sunstein, The World According to Star Wars (2016)This is a previous Free Thoughts podcast with Ilya Somin on the politics of Star Wars.Cato scholar Michael F. Cannon has written a column for Libertarianism.org on Star Wars and the nature of evil.Trevor mentions a previous episode of Free Thoughts on originalism featuring Randy E. Barnett.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If the Constitution were interpreted according to its original meaning, how libertarian would that Constitution be? How do we decide what the original meaning of the Constitution is?Randy E. Barnett explains why popular sovereignty resides in individuals rather than in any notion of “the will of the people.”What would America look like if judges interpreted the Constitution according to the original intent of the Founders?Show Notes and Further ReadingHere is Barnett’s latest book, Our Republican Constitution: Securing the Liberty and Sovereignty of We the People (2016).He also mentions his book Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty (2013).Here’s an earlier episode of Free Thoughts featuring Randy Barnett, “The Structure of Liberty.”Trevor mentions the previous Free Thoughts episode with Gary Gerstle on his book Liberty and Coercion: The Paradox of American Government from the Founding to the Present (2015). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What are historians to make of the paradox of American government? On one hand, Americans claim to value freedom from government interference in their lives, but on the other, Americans have also clamored for government interventions that have done everything from redistributing wealth to imposing a particular set of views on marriage, abortion, and religion.Gary Gerstle gives a chronological history of American governance from the founding of the country to today. How has governance changed in America over the years? What role has the Constitution played in this?Was the Constitution meant to protect liberty, or establish federal power? How did an early reliance on agriculture affect governance in early America?Show Notes and Further ReadingGerstle’s book is Liberty and Coercion: The Paradox of American Government from the Founding to the Present (2015). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is free market existentialism? Why have adherents of existentialism so often chosen Marxism as their political philosophy?William Irwin joins us this week to discuss his book, The Free Market Existentialist: Capitalism without Consumerism (2015).What purpose or meaning can we give life, if we start from a place where we take as a given that there is no inherent or divine purpose to life? Why should libertarians also be existentialists?Show Notes and Further ReadingWilliam Irwin’s book, The Free Market Existentialist: Capitalism without Consumerism (2015) challenges assumptions about morality, natural rights and the role of government using insights from thinkers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, Robert Nozick, and F. A. Hayek. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.