All Posts Tagged With: "elections"
Exercise Your Right to Vote!
Some might argue that the right to vote entails the obligation to vote, perhaps because they heard somewhere that every right entails an obligation.
2Nov2010 | Sandy Ikeda | 31 comments | ContinuedMalts in the Cafeteria
When I was in sixth grade, three of my classmates and I ran for student council president. The entire student body would vote, and the one with the most votes would be president; second-most, vice president; third, secretary; and fourth, treasurer. Looking back, I suppose the other three offices were mostly for show. The presidency [...]
22Oct2010 | Tracy Stone Lawson | 2 comments | ContinuedMalts in the Cafeteria
“Elect me and we will have malts in the cafeteria … every day!”
2Aug2010 | Tracy Stone Lawson | 14 comments | ContinuedHumility or Hubris
Sheldon Richman is the editor of The Freeman and “In brief,” and author of “Fascism” in The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. TGIF appears Fridays. Comments welcome. Another presidential election has come and gone, only this time the results are astoundingly and, yes, satisfyingly historic. In light of our racial history and leaving aside political philosophy, [...]
7Nov2008 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedWhat’s So Good About Democracy?
It was once said that “democracy is the most promiscuous word in the language; she is everybody’s mistress.” Indeed, political regimes of widely differing institutional features label themselves democracies, as did totalitarian communist orders. Often, the best guide to a country’s democratic credentials was that it didn’t call itself democratic: compare West Germany’s Federal Republic with the East German Democratic Republic.
1May2003 | Norman Barry | 35 comments | ContinuedSeeing the World Plain
Doug Bandow, a nationally syndicated columnist, is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and the author and editor of several books. Washington, D.C., is filled with professions of good intentions by politicians and bureaucrats as they steadily strip away Americans’ liberty and money. The political class uses even the most serious social problem to [...]
1Feb2003 | Doug Bandow | 0 comments | ContinuedThey Don’t Make Revolutions Like They Used To
Another national election is here and will soon be gone. When you consider the resources sunk into elections, it’s remarkable how little they accomplish. Shakespeare’s phrase “sound and fury, signifying nothing” comes to mind. The latest evidence for electoral indifference issues from Cato Institute analysts Stephen Moore and Stephen Slivinski, who write that the “Republican [...]
1Nov2000 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | ContinuedCampaign-Finance Reform Will End Corruption?
People with an investment in government power will torture logic like a medieval inquisitor rather than face the facts. Consider campaign-finance reform. The standard reformist wisdom is that campaign contributions corrupt the democratic process: Candidates need money to run for office. Corporations and wealthy folks offer to provide the money in return for favors when [...]
1May2000 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | ContinuedTwo Indispensable Lessons
The 1900s are now history. I say “1900s” rather than “twentieth century” to avoid irritating those sticklers for precision who note that the final day of the twentieth century is December 31, 2000, and not December 31, 1999. I agree, too, with sticklers of another sort who point out that, because time measurement is a [...]
1Jan2000 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | ContinuedWhy Honorable People Avoid Politics
Supporters of campaign-finance “reform,” meaning, supporters of greater government financing and central planning of electoral campaigns—routinely lament the fact that politicos must raise large sums of money to run for office. This requirement not only risks making elected officials indebted to the interest groups that fund their campaigns, but it also is said to dissuade [...]
1Oct1998 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 6 comments | ContinuedThe Market: The Only Trustworthy Pollster
Under the heading “What People Really Want,” the May 3 issue of The Economist reports results of a recent British poll. Among the allegedly genuine desires of British citizens are higher taxes (“to keep down inflation”) as well as greater government expenditures on health, education, and welfare. Most Britons apparently also want to ban fox [...]
1Jul1997 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 2 comments | ContinuedThe Failure of Politics
As my Cato Institute colleague Ted Galen Carpenter has pointed out, people once thought that the President’s primary duty was to represent America in foreign affairs. Today many people think he is supposed to be national nursemaid. Instead of expecting their pastor to feel their pain, many Americans want the President to empathize with them when they experience hardship, help them cope with tragedy, and give meaning to their lives.
1Feb1997 | Doug Bandow | 0 comments | ContinuedMaking the Case for Liberty Stick
Rolling back an intrusive, overweening government is no simple task. A remarkably tenacious creature, it spares no expense as it struggles to retain its grip on society. It is greatly aided in that fight by many of those who rely on transfer payments for all or part of their livelihood. Meanwhile, the liberty of all [...]
1Dec1996 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedHow Important Is Your Vote?
Don’t get me wrong. I cherish the right to vote—so much so that I don’t want it belittled by those who think that just showing up at the polls is all it takes to assure the survival of representative government. There are some people who should vote, and then there are others—millions of them, unfortunately—who would do representative government a big favor if they didn’t.
1Jan1995 | Lawrence W. Reed | 1 comment | ContinuedA Matter of Principle: The Second American Revolution?
Mr. Bidinotto, a Staff Writer for Reader’s Digest, is a long-time contributor to The Freeman and lecturer at FEE seminars. Criminal Justice? The Legal System Versus Individual Responsibility, edited by Mr. Bidinotto and published by FEE, is available at $29.95 in cloth and $19.95 in paperback. Please see page 64 for details. In the November [...]
1Jan1995 | Robert James Bidinotto | 1 comment | Continued-
The Latest
Contraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
Update below. Controversy rages over the Obama administration’s mandate that all employers – including... Read More
The Snow Plowers’ Petition
The following might have happened in a small college town in upstate New York… In a cold and snowy... Read More
Super Bowl versus Education?
In the spirit of Super Bowl weekend I’d like to deconstruct a Facebook status update that a friend... Read More
Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
Picking on New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is one of the largest participation sports on the Internet.... Read More
