Brad Pearce | The Libertarian Institute

America is a Democracy (That’s the Problem)

by Brad Pearce | Apr 24, 2024 | Featured Articles, Politics

Our rulers constantly talk about “our democracy,” often while justifying doing things which are profoundly anti-democratic. A common midwit response is, “America is not a democracy, it is a republic.” While your ninth grade history teacher may have felt smart telling students that, it is neither a meaningful nor accurate statement. For one thing, those terms are not in contradiction. More importantly, America was founded as a balanced, mixed government but has become a democracy over time, and in its current form is a de jure democracy. This is the source of our miseries. The claim that the...

World War III Isn’t Preordained (No Matter What They Say)

by Brad Pearce | Apr 4, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

A recent survey from YouGov found that 61% of Americans think a world war within the next five to ten years is “very likely” or “somewhat likely,” while only 21% say that such a scenario is “not very likely” or “not likely at all.” It’s notable that Democrats, who are much more likely to view Russia as the source of the world’s evils, are less likely than Republicans to believe a world war is coming by a strong margin; although it is still only 28% of Democrats in the two “unlikely” categories. At the same time, Republicans who may want rapprochement with Russia mostly see this as a way to...

In Defense of Inaction

by Brad Pearce | Mar 27, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Libertarianism

On March 17, The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by a woman named Mary Anastasia O’Grady titled, “Giving up on Haiti Isn’t a U.S. Option.” She argues, in short, that Americans don’t have a choice but to continue doing all the things that have failed in the past while being aware that these strategies have been a failure. This type of thinking is common among America’s ruling class, where there is an enormous “bias for action,” often with disastrous consequences. Though the proverb “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” is well known, our ruling class behaves as if...

The CIA Admits Its Long-Time Presence in Ukraine

by Brad Pearce | Mar 13, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

On February 25, The New York Times published an article titled “The Spy War: How the CIA Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Putin.” This report was not the result of any leak, but was clearly authorized from the highest level: the CIA brought reporters in to tell the story. Though many spoke on the condition of anonymity to “discuss intelligence matters and sensitive diplomacy,” they do not even create the pretense that this is a story that the CIA doesn’t want the public to know. The clear purpose, stated almost explicitly near the end of the article, is to guilt the Republicans in Congress into...

No Man Controls Everything in a State

by Brad Pearce | Feb 28, 2024 | Featured Articles

The constant screeching about various “strongmen” from America’s media and think tank classes seem to have created a widespread misunderstanding about how governments, or really any large organization, work. We perhaps see this the most with Russia, where we hear the constant refrain that “Putin personally approved” what are routine matters for states. We also saw it with Donald Trump in both his business and political life, where people found it impossible to understand that a large team of lawyers and accountants handle his taxes and other such matters. The reality is that a man only has...

Ukraine’s Corruption has Poisoned America

by Brad Pearce | Feb 21, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics

The U.S. Congress is working towards a bill which would fund Ukraine into 2025. This, of course, is into the next presidential term. As Senator JD Vance recently explained to Tucker Carlson, the idea behind this is that if Donald Trump is again elected it will obligate him to continue supporting Ukraine and bring about an opportunity to impeach him if he does not. Many have wondered why the U.S. political class is so obsessed with Ukraine, but I believe the answer is simple: money. I used to have a relatively elegant theory of NATO’s grand strategy, developed over a long period of...

Beware of Expats Bearing False Loyalty

by Brad Pearce | Feb 8, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar recently found herself at the center of a controversy after her remarks to a Somali group were mistranslated and widely shared. The reality of the situation is that the main thing she said reflects a U.S. policy pre-dating her entry into the country, and most of it shouldn’t have been controversial. However, as Juan Villasmil, who wrote an article about the situation for The Spectator, said on Twitter, the American right go “psyopped” by activists from the breakaway African state of Somaliland, who cynically released and spread an inauthentic translation...

Western Media’s Blackout of Israel’s “Hannibal Directive”

by Brad Pearce | Jan 30, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Editor's note: The Libertarian Institute's Executive Director Scott Horton recently spoke with Brad Pearce about the subject of this article and Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel. Their interview can be found here. In the time since the October 7 invasion of Israel there have been suggestions both from within Israel and from alternative media elsewhere that Israel used a version of a military protocol known as "The Hannibal Directive” that day, and perhaps has continued to operate upon that protocol since. The “Hannibal Directive” is a military order which was created in 1986 in response to...