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Help Support America's Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited You can support my efforts to promote this book through PayPal: or by becoming a patron at Patreon. I hope you'll consider it. Thanks! From the back cover: This book challenges the assumption that the Constitution was a landmark in the struggle for liberty. Instead, Sheldon Richman argues, it was the product of a counter-revolution, a setback for the radicalism represented by America’s break with the British empire. Drawing on careful, credible historical scholarship and contemporary political analysis, Richman suggests that this counter-revolution was the work of conservatives who sought a nation of...

By Sheldon Richman Vote8 8

Did Donald Trump on Inauguration Day intend to remind us of the European despotisms of the last century?Who could miss signs? They adorned from the speech from brim to dottle with its invocations of solidarity, unity of purpose, devotion, patriotism, "loyalty to our country ... and to each other," "total allegiance," national striving, nationalism, and assurances that the state would protect us from enemies -- including even those would bestow low-priced goods on us. Then, to boot, he followed it all up with a decree that the day be known as the “National Day of Patriotic Devotion.”Where the hell are we? And what...

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

The Washington Post's article on Donald Trump's border wall does something unusual: it takes into account Trump's planned assault on property owners along the Mexican border. Note:In Texas, almost all of the land along the border is privately owned. When former President George W. Bush tried to build border fencing starting in 2006 he faced stiff opposition from local ranchers and farmers, many of whom took the government to court on plans to use their land. In many areas along the Rio Grande the fencing is built well inside the United States, as far as a mile north of the Rio Grande,...

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

On this day of all days America’s priestly political class can extol the great glory of the Almighty State without restraint — but Donald Trump is the one being crowned.Atom

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

Despite my utter disdain for Donald Trump, I am uneasy about many who oppose him. My specific concern is that they apparently believe that, because of the kind of person Trump is, they may dispense with all constraint when fighting him. Thus the common-sense rules of just conduct and decency that are normally honored at least by lip service, if not by strict observance, are not regarded as binding when Trump is the target. It is a bad -- not to mention shortsighted -- idea.Read the full TGIF at The Libertarian Institute.TGIF (The Goal Is Freedom) appears on Fridays. Sheldon...

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

Although the Grateful Dead told us that "every silver lining's got a touch of grey" (lyric by Robert Hunter), it's my nature to look for one anyway. At the risk of being accused of gross naivete, I'd like to hope that the Trump presidency (I still can't believe I have to type those words) will once and for all sour people on government and politics.Read the full article at The Libertarian Institute.TGIF (The Goal Is Freedom) appears on Fridays. Sheldon Richman, author of America's Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited, keeps the blog Free Association and is executive editor of The Libertarian Institute. He is also a...

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

Donald Trump says:“Being a great president has to do with a lot of things, but one of them is being a great cheerleader for the country. And we’re going to show the people as we build up our military, we’re going to display our military.“That military may come marching down Pennsylvania Avenue. That military may be flying over New York City and Washington, D.C., for parades. I mean, we’re going to be showing our military.”This is just one way, he says, he'll show he's making American great again.Heaven help us.Atom

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

John Pilger has some choice words for those who worship Barack Obama and now fear the end of civilization with the coming of Trump.Obama "bombed the poorest people on earth, in Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan," Pilger writes.Where was the progressives' indignation the last eight years?Read Pilger's article here.Atom

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

One can reasonably argue that Washington started the practice of cyber-warfare and has been a long-time practitioner of both regime change and election tampering in its relationship with much of the world…. Stepping back a bit, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that anything Russia did or is suspected of doing in 2016 pales in comparison to what the United States has been doing for much longer and on a much wider scale.”–Philip Giraldi, “Washington Invented Hacking and Interfering in Elections”Atom

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“Judgments are not intended to imply that we have proof that shows something to be a fact.” — “Declassified Intelligence Community Assessment of Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections,” Annex B, Estimative LanguageAtom

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

Hats off to John Batchelor, the radio talk-show host and podcaster, who has countered the raging Russophobia and Cold War revival by regularly interviewing the eminent Russian scholar Stephen F. Cohen. (Links to the podcasts are here.) Cohen, who taught Russian history and politics for many years at Princeton and New York universities and who is affiliated with the pro-detente American Committee on East-West Accord, is a rare voice of calm good sense on Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the hacking of the DNC and John Podesta email accounts. Batchelor is a hero for having Cohen on his program about once...

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

This week, thanks to the Independent Institute (which lists me as a research fellow), I was interviewed by NPR's Marketplace for a piece on Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on goods that come from China. (It's the first story for the January 3 show here at 2:44.) The interviewer wanted to look back at the effects of the Reagan administration's protectionist policies against Japan. (In 1988 I wrote a paper for the Cato Institute on Reagan's appalling protectionism.)I've done many media interviews, but this one really drove home the media's lack of interest in informing their listeners and viewers on important economic...

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

President-elect Trump complains that trade with China is "one-sided." Does he speak English or what? One-sided trade is like one-sided triangle: you can say it, but you can't mean (think) it. Chinese folks deliver goods to Americans (through Walmart, etc.), and we willingly buy them. The Chinese then invest some of their proceeds in the United States. Well, I guess that is one-sided -- but wait! They later reap rewards from their successful investments.It's two-sided after all, isn't it?Perhaps Trump means that the United States has fewer barriers to Chinese goods than China has to American goods, i.e., American consumers'...

By Sheldon Richman Vote1 0

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By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

I love when dichotomies are transcended. The world abounds in false alternatives:rationalism/empiricismnominalism/realismmaterialism/idealismanalytic/syntheticdeontology/consequentialismdualism/reductionismreason/faiththeism/atheism (!)In this holiday season, may all your bogus dichotomies be transcended. (Read more here.)Atom

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

My newest least-favorite phrase in the English language is things-in-themselves. Oh the fallacies packed into that innocuous-looking phrase. There is no such thing as things-in-something else, and it cannot be that to have a specific method of perceiving reality ipso facto means one cannot perceive reality. (See two posts by Roderick Long here and here).Atom

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

Secular and religion-based political systems can bear an uncanny resemblance. Observing their respective dogmas, catechisms, and sacraments, we might even wonder, with William Cavanaugh, whether the divide is as sharp as we commonly think. Recent events certainly call the distinction into question. We see that a secularist can be as much a fanatic who is willing to denounce heresy and impose his will through violence as any religionist.Read the article here.TGIF (The Goal Is Freedom) appears on Fridays. Sheldon Richman, author of America's Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited, keeps the blog Free Association and is executive editor of The Libertarian Institute. He is also a...

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

My old friend and mentor Ralph Raico has died. He was 80. I cannot adequately describe how much I learned from him over the years: about liberalism, about how to be a historian, about how to lecture, about how to be an honest scholar. I will miss his wisdom, his humor, his encyclopedic knowledge. I will cherish many good memories.Several of his lectures are online. A good place to start is here:Atom

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

"They who propose to influence by force the traffic of the world, forget that affairs of trade, like matters of conscience, change their very nature if touched by the hand of violence; for as faith, if forced, would no longer be religion, but hypocrisy, so commerce becomes robbery if coerced by warlike armaments."--Richard CobdenAtom

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

Should free-market advocates applaud the deal Donald Trump brokered to keep some Carrier jobs from being transferred to Mexico? I believe the right answer is no.Read the rest at The Libertarian Institute.TGIF (The Goal Is Freedom) appears on Fridays. Sheldon Richman, author of America's Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited, keeps the blog Free Association and is executive editor of The Libertarian Institute. He is also a senior fellow and chair of the trustees of the Center for a Stateless Society and a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. Become a Free Association patron today!Atom

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

If someone is A) skeptical about climate-change alarmist claims and B) favorable to the use of fossil fuels, why do the media and others automatically assume that B is the cause of A rather than the other way around? This is a form of bigotry: no one can doubt alarmist claims without being either corrupt or anti-science.Atom

By Sheldon Richman Vote0 0

Available Now! — America’s Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited Mar 29, 2016

TGIF: Trump Nation Jan 27, 2017

Trump's Wall and the Assault on Private Property Jan 26, 2017

Cognitive Dissonance Jan 20, 2017

TGIF: A Principle for All Seasons Jan 20, 2017

TGIF: The Man Behind the Curtain Jan 20, 2017

With Trump You Get Military Parades Jan 19, 2017

He Bombed the Poorest People on Earth Jan 18, 2017

US Created Cyberwarfare Jan 12, 2017

Your Tax Dollars at Work Jan 12, 2017

Batchelor and Cohen Counter Anti-Russian Hysteria Jan 10, 2017

TGIF: NPR Blows a Chance to Teach Sound Economics Jan 6, 2017

Prof. Wittgenstein, Please Call Your Office Jan 3, 2017

Merry Christmas Dec 25, 2016

Transcendental Meditation Dec 23, 2016

Things-in-Something Else? Dec 23, 2016

TGIF: What's a Secular Heretic to Do? Dec 16, 2016

Ralph Raico, RIP Dec 14, 2016

Commerce Promotes Peace, But … Dec 13, 2016

TGIF: Trump, Carrier, and the Corporate State Dec 9, 2016

Climate-Change Bigotry Dec 8, 2016