15 years ago
April 2008
“Would [Ron] Paul have won more votes in New Hampshire, vaulting him to a better position in subsequent states, with a more foreign policy–based libertarian message? Consider that he finished second overall among voters who did not consider terrorism a big problem—19 percent compared to McCain’s 39 percent. Voters who prized their personal liberty more than they feared the threat of a suitcase nuke in Nashua liked what Paul had to say. But the campaign simply wasn’t confident that there were enough of these people to make a real stand. ‘Our voters are conservative Republicans,’ Jared Chicoine, Paul’s state coordinator, said a few days before the primary.”
David Weigel
“Evolution of a rEVOLution”
20 years ago
April 2003
“Given biological realities, it may be impossible to come up with a solution that wouldn’t be unfair to someone. The current situation is indeed inequitable to men. But allowing a paternal veto raises the disturbing specter of giving a man authority over a woman’s body. Allowing men to renounce paternity obligations means that a woman who wants to avoid unwanted parenthood has to undergo surgery or drug treatment while a man merely has to fill out some forms. One could argue that 21 years of child support is a greater burden than nine months of pregnancy, but bodily autonomy is generally seen as a more fundamental value than the financial kind.”
Cathy Young
“Aborting Equality”
25 years ago
April 1998
“One thing I learned in Arizona is that, from an educational standpoint, charters make the question of whether the alternatives to conventional public schools are public or private less pressing. In terms of creating better schools, the key is that parents have wide choices and that the schools are as close to independent as possible. When I asked Susan Heller, principal of Gan Yeladeem, if parents were happy with her school, which she founded in 1996 and which already has a waiting list, she said simply, ‘Well, if they aren’t happy, they have the choice to leave, and nearly every child has stayed.’ So far, Arizona’s minimal academic requirements haven’t played mischief with the charters’ diverse personalities and approaches to learning.”
James Glassman
“Class Acts”
40 years ago
April 1983
“There is a political reason for the scary forecasts, also, and it is more ominous. There’s a huge constituency for big government in this country. It includes big banks, much of the Fortune 500, road builders, home builders, farmers, and most of the lobbyists, law firms, and government employees in Washington. By seeking to shrink the role of government, Ronald Reagan has posed the most serious threat to that constituency in 50 years. So it is hardly surprising that this constituency—and its forecasters, consulting firms, and media house organs—is raising the specter of uncontrollable deficits. Their political purpose is to undo what remains of the Reagan experiment.”
Robert Poole
“Recovery Saboteurs”
45 years ago
April 1978
“The German response, in the light of the Keynesian revolution, was terribly naive. The Germans theorized that an increased money supply would simply cause inflation and that the employment problem was frictional, fueled basically by the stream (still flowing) of millions of refugees. The resultant policy was a strict balanced-budget fiscal framework and a conservative monetary course by the Deutsche Bundesbank. Unemployment dropped steadily—to six percent in 1952, three percent in 1956, and one percent by 1960. By that year the Germans could boast of an inflation rate of 20 percent—not for the previous year—but for the previous decade. The Soziale Marktwirtschaft had produced the economist’s Garden of Eden: full employment without inflation.”
Thomas W. Hazlett
“The German Non-Miracle”
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