Politics
The Never Kevins are right that too few legislators wield too much agenda-setting power in Congress right now, but the sudden ascendance of this faction may simply replace one “tyranny of the minority” with another. Reforms need to be spearheaded by lawmakers who are virtuous in the classical republican sense of the word: putting the common good before self-interest, and embodying what Irving Kristol has referred to as “public spiritedness.”
In order to prevent the shift of our perceptions of what is right and wrong that may occur, it is important to retain in our collective memory the recurring nature of evil and its true character: something Tolkien reminds us to do through his works
Together, a scientific approach to politics and policy analysis based upon Popper’s “piecemeal” approach to social engineering and a correct understanding the original contours of our system of checks and balances allows us to steer between the Scylla of policies designed to create utopian social change and the Charybdis of a policy system in which the filibuster makes it impossible for us to understand why some public policies worked and others did not.
Woke ideology’s totalitarian character is reflected in the fact that it insulates itself from criticism by labeling all other explanations of problems in society as a form of bigotry and instead imposing a single idea to social reality.
The essential feature of a free and open society is implementation of new ideas in practice and learning from mistaken policies, effective communication and incorporation of voters’ opinions by politicians, and, most importantly, removal of bad leadership without violence — something that the two-party system, for all its limitations, is best capable of achieving.
By producing outcomes that do not always conform to the views of the majority, the electoral college propels minority opinions into national debate, highlighting the issues facing less densely populated parts of the country. By forcing candidates to appeal to the geographically broader and more diverse electorate, it prevents majority rule.
At the top, all societal problems seem abstract, and we do not grasp the abstract as efficiently as we do the emotional and the physical. Many of the problems the United States — and, indeed, the world — can be resolved if decentralization and localism are implemented. Let people, and not bureaucrats, rule.
Free competition in markets contributed to tremendous economic growth in recent decades. This, in turn, powered unprecedented increases in human well-being around the world. The marketplace of ideas is the best engine of sorting truth from falsehood. Defending freedom of expression is therefore essential to the normal functioning of any open society’s error-correcting mechanism and to its continuous progress and development.
The Keystone XL pipeline offers an opportunity for Joe Biden to do something he has promised during his campaign: create more good-paying blue-collar jobs, improve relationships with allies, address climate change, and disentangle America from the Middle East. President Biden should re-examine his decision to kill the project.
To make the Electoral College relevant again, we need to decentralize federal power and localize the process of decision-making, making politicians closer and thus more accountable to their constituents. Instead of changing the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College, it would be much easier — and much better for the health of our republic — to reduce the size of the federal government so that the Electoral College operates in the environment it was designed for.
The American system of checks and balances is imperfect because it has failed to stop Trump in many respects, and the Biden administration needs to heal and reform the system to limit the ability of future presidents to wreak damage.
Protection of even the most radical, pseudoscientific, and irrational ideas is necessary to prevent the distortion of truth. When ideas that seem unacceptable are stamped out, this narrowing of the range of “politically correct” opinions sets us on a path toward gradual winnowing of hitherto admissible beliefs. What has not previously been considered as an extreme opinion becomes so.
In both economics and politics, we need free competition and the dispersal decision-making power, since they encourage better governance by allowing people to “vote by their feet,” limit the influence of the center on people’s lives, allow for small-scale social experiments, and empower local communities.
America’s decentralized system of governance—powered by free markets and the dispersal of power among local, state and federal actors—has allowed it to make huge strides in fighting climate change. Biden’s plan has many positive sides—especially in light of the fact that the Trump administration does not seem to care about the challenge at all. But, in order to slow down global warming, we need to rally all players, rather than rely entirely on federal government.
The current crisis does not necessarily imply that the idea of small government should be thrown into the dustbin of history. Rather, it is proof that the power of the executive branch should be decreased, and regional and local authorities, private companies and individuals should be empowered. We should embrace decentralization and localism and reduce the size and power of central government.
Recent developments not only demonstrate the righteousness of the libertarian belief that more often than not the government is incapable of acting effectively during crises, but that the decentralized model of government allows private individuals, civil society, big businesses, states and municipalities to take action that can offset the federal government’s missteps. Federalism thus facilitates a more effective response to crises.
The coronavirus pandemic has impeded the shale revolution. But sooner or later the recession will end, and shale oil companies will once again recover and bolster America’s energy independence, create new jobs, and redefine geopolitical order in the Middle East—provided, of course, that they survive the current crisis.
Big Tech is not a threat; it is an inevitable aftermath of technological evolution. Trying to break it up will not only restrict innovation and growth but will also entail severe geopolitical risks. It is critical to adopt a more balanced and pragmatic approach to dealing with Big Tech.
Blind adherence to utilitarianism does not only force us to focus on the wrong aspects of reality and human nature; what is worse, in some cases, it goes against the natural forces that shape humankind. Government officials should avoid trying to increase society’s happiness; instead, they should focus their efforts on fostering the conditions in which the individual’s pursuit of happiness can best flourish.
The dangerous tendency towards the accumulation of power among the swing voters is being greatly amplified by the use of AI. Nowadays, politicians are increasingly using machine learning algorithms to sway the outcomes of elections – mainly through targeted political advertisements.
Washington should strike the balance between the two; for prioritizing one over another inevitably means that important aspects of the US policy are condoned. An overly globalist approach, which encourages extensive international use of the dollar, harms the US economy, thereby endangering America's stability and prosperity. At the same time, Washington must retain some part of political power that is derived from the dollar’s role, for the security of US depends on successful foreign policy and the viability of the liberal world order.