John Hood
@JohnHoodNC
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Foundation prez, columnist, TV talker, author, garbage disposal, #FreeCon . Visit for info on my series of fantasy tales set in early America.
Raleigh, NC
Joined December 2014
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Pinned Tweet
Is my novel “Mountain Folk” a historical tale of the American Revolution with star turns by George Washington & Daniel Boone? Or an epic fantasy with thrilling escapes, terrifying monsters, & a blade-wielding dwarf queen?
The answer is YES. More here:
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The conclusion of
@BenSasse
’s powerful essay in
@TheAtlantic
about the past, present, and future of higher education:
“To keep America’s universities the envy of the world, we need to make our institutions welcoming homes for those who are passionate about the glorious mission
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NR's Ramesh Ponnuru is quite right in his response to the Wall Street Journal editorial page's poorly reasoned and nasty attack on Rubio-Lee. WSJ used to be a go-to source on tax policy, but they simply don't know what they are talking about here. but
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The
#UNC
employee abusing power in this way should be terminated immediately. This is not some clueless or misguided student.
#ncpol
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My freedom is not some generous gift by a magnanimous ruling class. It is my birthright as a human being, as your freedom is yours. I'll thank politicians who respect it. But I won't beg them for it.
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Today's wisdom from Calvin Coolidge: “It is characteristic of the unlearned that they are forever proposing something which is old, and because it has recently come to their own attention, supposing it to be new.”
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Is my novel “Mountain Folk” a historical tale of the American Revolution with star turns by George Washington & Daniel Boone? Or an epic fantasy with thrilling escapes, terrifying monsters, & a blade-wielding dwarf queen?
The answer is YES. More here:
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This is a pathetic response from a governor and fmr attorney general. You know what would have avoided the dangerous incident of last night? Deploying law-enforcement officers to protect the State Capitol grounds. Making excuses for & rewarding a mob doesn’t make us safer.
#ncpol
If the legislature had repealed their 2015 law that puts up legal roadblocks to removal we could have avoided the dangerous incidents of last night. (2/3)
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On this date in 1789, North Carolina ratified the U.S. Constitution and joined the reconstituted American union as the 12th state. The vote was held in the old State House in Fayetteville — the establishment of Raleigh as North Carolina’s capital city was years away.
During the
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Just noticed same thing. Today, NC's DHHS revised its dashboard to erase rolling-average trend line from death count. Still has it on other counts. Should we treat the past 2 weeks of data as incomplete? Sure. But erasing this yellow line was political, make no mistake.
#ncpol
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It took some doing — faulty light strands were the primary culprit — but I finally got this year’s Fraser Fir placed and trimmed. It stands a bit over 12 feet high and is fuller than usual at the top. As you can see, faithful Woola is watching approvingly from her usual
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Yesterday made it official: UNC-CH trustees elected me to the board of WUNC Public Radio LLC. I also serve on the foundation board for the UNC Hussman School of Journalism & Media. Both roles allow me to give back to institutions that played a significant role in my early career.
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By the way, I've been in graduate school for the past two years. And now I'm not — just completed my M.A. in liberal studies at UNC-Greensboro, where I also earned a graduate certificate in nonprofit management. I'll be writing more about these excellent programs shortly.
#uncg
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I know it's not the most popular thing to do with a budget surplus. But NC still needs to increase savings.
#ncpol
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If you don’t subscribe to your local newspaper, print or online, you should. If you don’t listen at least occasionally to news on your local radio station, please do. There’s no scarcity of national news, but state & local news is a different story.
#ncpol
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Dr. Mandy Cohen is a real asset for the Cooper administration. Her presentation was thorough and informative. Particularly good explanation of why decreasing caseload and hospitalization are NOT necessary to ease restrictions soon.
#ncpol
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I am considering the idea of putting a sign above my office door that states “abandon hope all ye who enter here.” Setting low expectations is a valuable tactic.
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“Social media” can’t make you do anything. You decide what to post & how to engage others. Are face-to-face discussions less likely to devolve into idiocy? Yes. Human nature contains temptations. It sets probabilities. But you get to choose who to be. Choose to be your best self.
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If you think of Washington as one big high school — full of cliques, pubescent groping, and kids blowing their parents' money — it helps.
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To say our politics needs more civility is not to say we shouldn't robustly debate our differences. I'm not going to surrender my deeply held views. Neither should you. Mature behavior is not capitulation. It is confidence.
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If you disagree with me, I simply think you are mistaken. I don't automatically assume you are dishonest or evil. How about reciprocating?
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Great story from Carolina Journal today about Gov. Roy Cooper’s all-virtual press conferences. Most of the nation’s governors hold in-person, socially distanced press availabilities, which reduces their ability to screen out unwelcome questions.
#ncpol
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Today's wisdom from Orson Scott Card: “If people only react to the way that others treat them, then nobody is responsible for anything. If your sins are not your own to choose, then how can you repent?”
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I’m in
@thedispatch
today discussing JD Vance, National Conservatism, Freedom Conservatism (
@FreeConTalk
), and political labels:
“The
#FreeCon
statement’s 10 paragraphs addressed most of the same issues, agreeing with the NatCons in some areas while drawing sharp contrasts in
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Journalists working for North Carolina news outlets have done crackerjack work on the 9th District story. But so have national outlets. This Politico piece is fascinating, fair-minded, and thoughtful (I would have preferred “election fraud” in the head).
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If some human action, event, or conflict strikes you as unprecedented, that is probably a sign you need to read more history.
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Are there any limits to Gov. Roy Cooper’s asserted power? Can he really shut down entire swaths of North Carolina’s economy for as long as he wishes? Till September? Till next year? No one possesses, or should possess, such power in a free society.
#ncpol
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Have you ever changed your mind about an issue, or known someone who did so, after being harassed or ridiculed? It's a rare event. Respectful conversation can be a powerful tool. Smash-mouth, potty-mouth politics is just for fan service (and separating fans from their money).
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North Carolinians watched “public-health experts” beclown themselves by issuing a political statement. And they watched Roy Cooper walk in solidarity past a protesting crowd, his mask dangling uselessly from one ear, surrounded by unmasked aides.
#ncpol
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On this date in 2012, Traci Hood was married in Raleigh, NC. That made her related by wedlock to many peculiar people. To date, she has suffered no significant public embarrassment because of this. That's why I love her.
Well, it's one of the reasons. But it ranks pretty high.
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Politicians tell people what they want to hear. Leaders tell people what they need to hear, even if they don't want to listen.
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If you don't have a good friend with whom you disagree on at least one major political issue, it's time to go make some new friends.
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Stop comparing legislating to sausage-making. That insults a noble enterprise that produces great benefits for humanity, like bratwurst.
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In a recent
@NRO
essay,
@jackbutler4815
underlined an inconvenient fact: National Conservatism isn’t winning.
Few political champions of right-leaning populism have “been able to secure office successfully, a necessary prelude to genuine and durable political influence,” wrote
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Most agree we have a leadership deficit. But what does that really mean? We have a surplus of people who want to gain, exercise & maintain power over others. We have a deficit of people who empower others to make decisions for themselves. The latter are leaders worth following.
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You have the right to demand that I respect your liberty and property. You have no right to demand that I approve of your values or decisions.
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Wisdom from Milton Friedman: “A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it … gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.”
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Government is not charity. Government is not a parent or spouse. Government is not a source of meaning. Government is simply a social institution that, when properly administered, uses coercive means to finance a limited set of public goods. That's it. Don't romanticize it.
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As a conservative who came of age politically during the Reagan era, I chuckle whenever a Republican critic responds to my longtime advocacy of redistricting reform by questioning my conservative credentials. I am following President Reagan’s lead.
#ncpol
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Today's wisdom from Benjamin Franklin: “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.”
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If your political plan is for government to take stuff from "those people" to give to "your people," my plan is to stop your plan.
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If your political plan is for government to take stuff from "those people" to give to "your people," my plan is to stop your plan.
#ncpol
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For five years, since the escalator, I have repeatedly exactly what I thought of this creep. Pushback? Hate mail? Yep, I got my share. But here we are. “Remember this day forever”? Yes, of course we will. A shameful day. An attack on our Capitol, by a mob you incited. Grotesque.
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If only there were some set of docs, written by insightful leaders of an emerging republic, that explored the temptations of power and the need for checks, balances, and constraints on government. If only we could read and apply such timeless insights today.
#FreeCon
BREAKING: NatCons respond to the FreeCon statement of principles.
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When people show you who they are, believe them.
Saw a couple others post this, so I had to verify. The post is still live on UNC SJP's Instagram. For those who don't know what the big deal is, Hamas terrorists used paragliders to swoop down on a peace concert in Israel where they raped and murdered hundreds.
#ncpol
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Now that the US Supreme Court has clearly identified redistricting reform as a realm for state action, it’s time for North Carolina to proceed on its own — instituting constraints on redistricting via constitutional amendment.
#ncpol
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In recent years, we've been through so many unfolding investigations that it really ought not to be necessary to say this. Alas, it is: Leaping to conclusions about the Moore County power-grid attack — and broadcasting them on this platform — is foolhardy & irresponsible.
#ncpol
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@TravisFain
Under no circumstances should a state treasurer invest pension funds to “make the world better.” It’s not the treasurer’s money. It’s essentially a form of stealing from public employees, who have a right to receive maximum returns with which they can do whatever they like.
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If you find yourself acting online in an entirely different way than you would act if face to face with someone else, resist the temptation.
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There's nothing wrong with changing your mind based on new information — as long as that information isn't simply which party is in charge.
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I’ve had a busy day. It turns out that self-carving pumpkins are still years away from widespread deployment. So I had to proceed the old-fashioned way. Here’s the first one I completed. I’ll post the rest on Halloween, as usual. Tradition!
#Halloween
#SleepyHollow
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Freedom cannot be sustained and expanded solely by legislation or litigation. Unless there is a culture of freedom — a strong and active community of people who cherish and defend our founding principles — policy gains and courtroom victories will prove fleeting.
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If some human action, event, or conflict strikes you as unprecedented, that is probably a sign you need to read more history.
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Read Matt Bales on the changing (downward) death counts and hospitalizations expected from COVID-19 in North Carolina. Set aside any snap partisan take on these improving projections for the moment, and just be glad things aren't going as badly as initially feared.
#ncpol
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If you favor a policy when one party is in power, then disfavor it when another party takes power, you render yourself irrelevant.
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@keudy
@JimBlaine
Ken, you have better sense than to make such a ridiculous argument. Medicaid expansion would have kept the mob from tearing down statues? Has some kid stolen your phone? Please urge Gov Cooper to defend the rule of law. And be a grownup.
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Here is my response to suggestions that I seek political office: I'm running. I'm perfectly happy to confirm that I'm running. In a sense, I have always been running. For years, my personal and professional decisions have all been consistent with the idea of running. Far away.
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The new nationalists hope that by stiff-arming the libertarians, conservative politicians can more than replace their numbers with populists by stressing immigration restriction, protectionism, and cultural conservatism. Perhaps, but I tend to doubt it.
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Constitutions do not "grant" you the basic human rights of life, liberty, and property. They can only recognize them — or fail to do so.
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On this date in 1776, the Fourth Provincial Congress of North Carolina adopted the Halifax Resolves, making NC the first colony explicitly to authorize independence. Representing Mecklenburg County in that Congress was John McKnitt Alexander, my first cousin eight times removed.
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Was just looking at my latest course evaluation. My favorite commendation from a Duke student: “He consistently managed to keep me engaged for two and a half hours and I have narcolepsy, so I give a ringing endorsement.”
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What a lovely surprise! One of my longtime viewers on “NC SPIN” saw me tweet about my love of Edgar Rice Burroughs books and memorabilia. So, in the mail today, I received a box of ERB hardbacks, that had been a cherished collection of the viewer’s late father. I am honored.
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When NC SPIN began in 1998, our goal was to provide North Carolinians with in-depth analysis of state politics and public policy from a variety of political perspectives. We’ll continue the tradition on UNC-TV during the pivotal 2020 election cycle.
#ncpol
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Getting ready for the North Carolina Symphony’s production of “Revolution: The Music of the Beatles.” Happy birthday to me!
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If I headed a college, any student trying to “take over" a building or office would be removed & punished. Thus I will never head a college.
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Government monopolies always look simpler and more straightforward than messy markets. They are simple, straightforward ways to deliver less for more. Markets are complex, roundabout ways to deliver more for less.
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You know those friends or relatives of yours whose political views you abhor? Complement them for their passion. Then, by all means, argue — but without bickering or bitterness. Do your part in leading us out of our current political thicket.
#ncpol
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In the Greensboro News & Record: Tom Campbell is one of the most thoughtful, creative and decent people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I have learned a lot from him. So have generations of North Carolinians. Well done, sir. And thank you.
#ncpol
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5/5 We'll see what happens with UNC-TV in the coming weeks and months. But rest assured: editorial independence & breadth of viewpoint have been hallmarks of “NC SPIN” and will continue to define the program in whatever form & forum the program will employ in the future.
#ncpol
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Ilya Shapiro (
@ishapiro
) is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the
@ManhattanInst
. His books include “Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America's Highest Court” (2020) and “Religious Liberties for Corporations?” (2014).
In a recent
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Rapid, sustained economic growth will reduce federal deficits by boosting revenue and curtailing some expenses. But not enough. If you oppose massive indebtedness and higher tax rates, you must favor spending cuts, including on entitlements — or else you’re not being serious.
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NC GOP netted 2 county commissions and 19 commission seats this year. Party now controls 54 of 100 commissions, highest share ever.
#ncpol
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Richard Reinsch (
@Reinsch84
) is editor-in-chief and director of publications at the
@aier
. He is also a senior writer at
@LawLiberty
, a journal he founded and for which he served as editor for 10 years.
The former director of the Heritage Foundation’s B. Kenneth Simon Center for
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Avik Roy’s latest plan for truly market-oriented health plans is well worth a read. Essentially, it’s a strategy for transitioning to a Swiss-style system.
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In the McDowell News: We must tell all activists, including those whose goals we may share, that no matter how much they may be frustrated by electoral or legislative outcomes, they have no right to take the law into their own hands. Period.
#ncpol
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I respect the fact that, despite repeated mishaps, Wile E. Coyote never sued the Acme Company for faulty product design. He took responsibility for his own actions — and often had a long, long, long time to think about each one before getting to the bottom of the issue.
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1/6 On this date in 1789, North Carolina ratified the U.S. Constitution and joined the reconstituted American union as the 12th state. During the ratification debates of 1788, NC was the only state to hold a convention and then decide not to ratify the new constitution.
#ncpol
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My syndicated column runs in 50 daily and community newspapers, including Gannett properties in North Carolina. So, my nationally themed pieces appear occasionally at USA Today. That’s what happened here, with a piece I wrote last week about the unfortunate similarities between
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Liberality with your money is virtuous. Liberality with other people's money is vicious. Saying you don't know the difference is suspicious.
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Government is not charity. Government is not a parent or spouse. Government is not a source of meaning. Government is simply a social institution that, when properly administered, uses coercive means to finance a limited set of public goods. That's it. Don't romanticize it.
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An attorney, computer scientist, and former Federal Trade Commission official,
@neil_chilson
now serves as senior research fellow at
@cgousu
.
Chilson is frequently quoted by the press and his work has appeared in such outlets as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA
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On this date in 1750, Alexander Erwin was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Like many other Scotch-Irish settlers, he and his family moved down the Great Wagon Road through western Virginia into western North Carolina. Alexander Erwin ended up near present-day Morganton, NC
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If your approach is to figure out where the crowd is going, and then successfully maneuver to place yourself at the head of that column, you may gain in multiple ways. But you are not a leader. You are a follower.
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Of all the publicly released polls taken in the last two weeks of the U.S. Senate race in North Carolina, the one that came closest to pegging the actual vote was the
@JohnLockeNC
Civitas Poll. Its final poll had Ted Budd up 3.8 points over Cheri Beasley. He won by 3.6.
#ncpol
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I am currently at the beautiful, snowy Broadmoor in Colorado Springs for a gathering of 1200 fellow advocates for freedom. It is cold. The people are warm and friendly. And the cause remains a flaming torch held high.
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There's nothing wrong with changing your mind based on new information — as long as that information isn't simply which party is in charge.
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Today's wisdom from Calvin Coolidge: “To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.”
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Politicos always think they're playing chess while their foes play checkers. Actually, most are just playing Candyland — and haven't a Clue.
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Freedom is the birthright of all human beings. America has gone further than most in recognizing that birthright — which is why we should all proudly celebrate Independence Day — but, of course, the journey continues.
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If you are a conservative or libertarian and find yourself fixated on politics all the time — working it into every social-media conversation, having partisan talking points pop into your head after every news event — then, respectfully, you're doing it wrong.
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Giving people more freedom from government dictates — to make their own decisions, devise their own plans, and live according to their own beliefs — won’t solve or ameliorate every social ill. But it should be our default position, for both philosophical and practical reasons.
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To say our politics needs more civility is not to say we shouldn't robustly debate our differences. I'm not going to surrender my deeply held views. Neither should you. Mature behavior is not capitulation. It is confidence.
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