State of the Nation: Progressives, Conservatives, and Trump

Richard Ebeling emails:

Dear Bob,

My latest article on the website of the Future of Freedom is on, “State of the Nation: Progressives, Conservatives, and Trump.”

 A year on into Trump’s term of office as president of the United States, and a visitor from Mars could easily think that America exists in “alternative political universes” listening Progressive and conservative pundits. Except for one common feature, a belief in and enforcement of intrusive government.

“The left” gnashes its teeth, convinced that Trump is one tweet away from transforming “Amerika” into a fascist state. The conservatives are assured that everything is right and good in America, now that a “big, beautiful” tax bill has been passed. And, at the same time, Trump presides in the White House tweeting his buffoonery and determined to “Make America Great, Again” through economic nationalism, protectionism, and primitive notions that trade is harmful to America unless managed by a “genius” like himself.

What Progressives, conservatives and Trump all share in common is their particular variations on the collectivist and interventionist themes that government must regulate, restrict, and manipulate how people live, work, act and spend their money.

Left out of this “debate,” alas, is that other alternative that could, in fact, make America free and prosperous: classical liberalism and free market capitalism. Something Progressives, conservatives and Trump neither understand nor really care about.

https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/state-nation-progressives-conservatives-trump/

Best,

Richard