When Tyranny Comes to Main Street


“Which is better,” Boston clergyman Mather Byles is reputed to have asked, “to be ruled by one tyrant three thousand miles away, or by three thousand tyrants not a mile away?”

Many loyalists and fence sitters during the very early days of the American Revolution pondered that very point.  It did not mean they were in love with George III by any stretch of the imagination but only that they were just as wary of homegrown despots.

In our present predicament, it seems we have both – a tyrant in the White House and a multitude just down the road in our local courthouses.  We must ever be mindful that local governments can oppress the rights of citizens just as effectively as Washington, DC. Continue reading “When Tyranny Comes to Main Street” →

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The FDA’s War on Health Choice


In 1906, President Teddy Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drug Act into law, which eventually led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a new regulatory agency that would ensure that the American people would consume only the best food and pharmaceuticals.

To conservatives who distrust government power, liberals are fond of asking, “Why oppose such a benevolent government program?” But if you understand the nature of government, as true conservatives do, then you realize that such a venture could eventually evolve into an instrument of tyranny.

According to recent reports, the Obama Administration is now using the FDA to ensure that “we the children” only choose the foods and medical treatments that our government parents approve of, and they are using the most vicious tactics to see to it that you obey. Continue reading “The FDA’s War on Health Choice” →

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Independence Forever!


On a warm summer afternoon, June 30, 1826, nearly fifty years to the day of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a small, informal delegation led by the Reverend George Whitney paid a visit to 90 year-old John Adams in his Quincy, Massachusetts home.  In four days the town would celebrate half a century of freedom from British rule.

Though the Founding Father was very old and feeble, and certainly unable to attend the ceremony, the delegation sought from him a toast to be read on his behalf.  Seated in his library, the former President gave them a simple phrase, “Independence forever!”  Astounded, the visitors asked if he might like to add something to his meager statement, to which Adams replied, “Not a word.”

What President Adams understood, that his visitors obviously did not, was that his toast was far from simple; it was a powerful declaration of American sovereignty.  Such a treasure was priceless and Adams had lived through the entire struggle to gain it.  He desired nothing more than to see the United States of America, a free and independent nation, endure throughout the ages. Continue reading “Independence Forever!” →

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The Return of Sedition


“The whole aim of practical politics,” wrote famed journalist H. L. Mencken, “is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Truer words were never spoken, which begs important questions:  Will our “War on Terror” ever end?  Will our need for national security ever diminish?  Most likely not, as Washington is always on the lookout for more ways to protect us from our “enemies.”  As Vice President Biden told recent graduates at West Point, “Prepare for new threats.”

But new laws designed for our safety threaten to reach deeper and deeper into our private lives with more intrusive surveillance, as many in our government have taken to heart words attributed to Cicero, “In times of war, the law falls silent.” Continue reading “The Return of Sedition” →

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A Three Stooges Economic Plan


This column was published in the Laurel Leader Call (Laurel, MS) on Tuesday, June 12, 2012:

As a young grade-schooler in the 1980s, I was fond of watching The Three Stooges show before departing for another eventful day of fun-filled learning at my local government school.  I hated getting up that early, and still do, but at least a little slapstick comedy while eating breakfast would lessen the pain.

I remember one episode fondly.  Moe, Larry, and Curly embarked on a duck-hunting trip on a nearby lake.  While sitting in the boat awaiting the ducks, Curly, earnestly trying to get his gun to fire, accidentally shot a hole in the bottom of the boat.  As water gushed in and pandemonium ensued, Larry devised a quick solution:  He shot another hole in his end of the boat to let the water run out!

Now we all know how monumentally stupid such a move would be, but our Obama-led government has been doing exactly the same thing in fighting our current economic recession for the last three years, using a Three Stooges approach.  A severe economic downturn caused by too much spending, too much debt, too much borrowing, and too much inflation is being fought with more spending, more debt, more borrowing, and more inflation, with no end in sight. Continue reading “A Three Stooges Economic Plan” →

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Clearing Up the Confusion of Party Ideology


When discussing the history of the two major political parties and their ideologies, most people have a tendency to get very confused and with good reason.

Both major parties of today have their origins in the early 1790s, coming out of disputes in George Washington’s Cabinet between Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.  Jefferson opposed Hamilton’s entire fiscal program, arguing for a limited federal government and a strict interpretation of the Constitution.  Hamilton wanted the new government to expand beyond its constitutional powers, the Constitution becoming what he hoped would be a “fail and worthless fabric.”

Though the Founders yearned for a nation without parties, or factions, as they called them, inevitably they did form.  One was the Federalist Party, founded by Hamilton, which lasted from 1792 to 1816, the last year it ran a candidate for President, having succumbed to the might of Jefferson as well as its opposition to the War of 1812.  The other was Jefferson’s Republican Party (sometimes referred to as the Democratic-Republicans), lasting from 1792 to 1824.  The two parties in existence today can be traced to these two original organizations. Continue reading “Clearing Up the Confusion of Party Ideology” →

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Safeguarding Our Minds


This column appeared in the Laurel Leader Call (Laurel, MS) on May 22, 2012:

“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”  So said Thomas Jefferson, the architect of American liberty and its greatest champion.  Throughout his entire life, he fought every attempt by government to control the lives of the people, in thought, speech, and deed.

Today we should be just as vigilant, whether a form of tyranny originates in Washington, Jackson, or the local schoolhouse.  We must be ever mindful that state and local governments can be just as tyrannical as Washington, DC. Continue reading “Safeguarding Our Minds” →

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A Short History of Presidential Second Terms


This column was published in the Laurel Leader Call (Laurel, MS) on May 15, 2012:

As Barack Obama seeks a second term in the White House, one must wonder why he would even want one.  Amazingly, almost every presidential second term has been wrought with severe problems, especially in our modern era.  And almost every chief executive seeks to go home long before the final curtain closes on his final administration.

The only exceptions to second term malaise are George Washington, who did face serious public opposition and outrage over the hated Jay Treaty in 1794, though most of the anger was directed towards John Jay, and James Monroe, whose first term was wrought with several crises – Missouri’s admission as a slave state and the Panic of 1819, but his second was relatively quiet.

We may also count Calvin Coolidge, as a second Harding-Coolidge term, where the Roaring Twenties was in full swing, and Silent Cal saw unemployment reach the unheard of level of just one percent in 1926.

As for the rest, there was no smooth sailing on the turbulent sea of statecraft. Continue reading “A Short History of Presidential Second Terms” →

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Jeffersonian Solutions for America’s Problems


The United States faces an abundance of problems, a weak economy, an abundance of public expenditures, out of control entitlements, and an over-expansive foreign policy, to name a few. These issues are getting worse, not better, with no end in sight. In recent decades, politicians of nearly every conceivable stripe have offered solutions, all to no avail. The only real solution to America’s woes is a return to Jeffersonian principles.

Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, and D.R. Francis standing on a porch circa 1903. Courtesy of the POTUS Flickr archive.

Since the days of Grover Cleveland, who ended the harsh Panic of 1893 in less than a full term in office, the federal government has used Keynesian economic theory, or intervention, to fight every economic downturn. The results have been less than spectacular. What began as a severe recession in 1929 became the “Great Depression,” the worst economic calamity in American history. Many people will be surprised to learn that the Great Depression came after the government stepped in with its bag of tricks. It did not end until the latter half of the 1940s.

After the Panic of 2008, the government bailed out Wall Street to the tune of $700 billion. In 2009, the Obama administration kicked in another $800 billion in a stimulus designed to jump-start the sagging economy. A total of $1.5 trillion in stimulus money has been apportioned. The economy is still in a state of mild depression with a net job loss during the Obama presidency. Continue reading “Jeffersonian Solutions for America’s Problems” →

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Some Advice from a First-time Author


This column was published in the Laurel Leader Call newspaper (Laurel, MS) on May 8, 2012:

Recently, I published my first book, The Last Jeffersonian: Grover Cleveland and the Path to Restoring the Republic.  It re-examines the life of a great, but largely forgotten President and extolls the policies he used to solve the political problems he faced in his day, which are many of the same issues we now confront.

I am now working on a couple of book projects for future publication, one on the history of the Democratic Party since Grover Cleveland and a defense of another tarnished President, Warren G. Harding.

I’ve had many questions from people who are also interested in writing a book, seeking my advice and guidance, for whatever it’s worth.  I’m often asked questions like, how long it took me, how I found a publisher, and how hard it was to actually produce a book manuscript.

So, rather than producing yet another opinion piece on the sad and frustrating state of our politics, and on the recommendation of friends, I wrote today’s column to answer some of these questions. Continue reading “Some Advice from a First-time Author” →

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