According to the old saying, the two things regular people don't want to watch are sausage making and law making. This has been true for decades, or actually centuries. But three people have changed this in the past year. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul have made watching politics fun again. Or fun for the first time, as the case may … [Read more...]
Government Secrecy Kills Freedom – Oliver DeMille
September 25, 2013 by 5 Comments
It's one of the main plots in Hollywood movies and popular TV dramas. The government knows some secret information, but won’t share it because it might cause panic in the regular people. This is the justification for modern government secrecy, spying on its people, and even torture. In the name of security, apparently everything is okay for the … [Read more...]
“The One Big Thing”: The Big Battle Behind All Political Skirmishes – Oliver DeMille
September 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
At the beginning of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, he announced his intention to make the federal government’s finances so clear and easy that any farmer could understand them. Today this seems impossible, but Jefferson had two things going for him. First, these were the same farmers who read the Federalist Papers and understood them clearly. … [Read more...]
Electionocracy
June 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
We now live an Electionocracy. This means that the elections never end. Once a person is elected to office, especially at the national level, he or she doesn’t get to stop campaigning and focus on governing. Instead, everyone in office is required to keep campaigning even as they serve. One the one hand, this is a negative development in a … [Read more...]
When NOT to Settle Down
May 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
After every major U.S. election, there is a gradual wind-down of passion for a few months. For over a year now, people of all political views have been at high pitch on politics. They geared up for the Republican primaries, then the question of who would be the Vice President, and then the general election dominated the fall season. The … [Read more...]
Decline or Reboot? The Future of the Republican Party
April 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The internet and social media are drastically changing our politics. It all boils down to community versus individuality. The Boomer generation was split down the middle between those who wanted government to take care of us, versus those who wanted government to protect us from foreign attacks and domestic criminals and otherwise leave us … [Read more...]
How the Next Two Weeks Determine the Future of Freedom
March 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Two weeks from now we’ll know. Once and for all, we’ll see where the nation is headed for the next four years. It may seem like a little thing, but it isn’t. If Congress caves in to the White House in the next two weeks, or to its perception of what the voters really want, we’re in for a marathon of decline. If not, if Congress shuts down … [Read more...]
Rand Paul’s Filibuster: A Giant Step for Mankind
March 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Okay, the subtitle of this article is a little overblown, but I heard something I found just plain fascinating the other day. In fact, it is something I haven’t heard for a long time. I was researching in a university library, sitting at a table looking for data in a stack of scholarly journals, when I heard the most unlikely thing in such a … [Read more...]
Emotion and Politics
February 19, 2013 by 1 Comment
By Oliver DeMille In all the commentaries about the president’s 2013 State of the Union address and the responses by Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, one really stood out.[i] Democratic thought-leader Van Jones said it outright: “Marco Rubio is dangerous for Democrats.”[ii] Why? Because he gets emotional about the issues, and, as Jones … [Read more...]
The Republican Presidential Candidate of 2016
February 13, 2013 by 1 Comment
Conservatives keep saying two things in the aftermath of losing the 2012 presidential election to Barack Obama. First, they talk a lot about the 2016 election, but there is no real front runner to be the Republican candidate. In fact, the few people who are mentioned as possible nominees aren’t drumming up much excitement. But the second … [Read more...]
