Sheldon Richman | The Libertarian Institute

TGIF: The US Empire’s 72-Year War on Iran

by Sheldon Richman | Jun 27, 2025 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, History, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

The likely temporary Israel-Iran ceasefire notwithstanding, if you need proof of how despicable Donald Trump is, consider this: When asked last week if he would ask Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to stop bombing Iran, which had already said it would stop retaliating for Israeli attacks, Trump said, “I think it’s very hard to make that request right now. If somebody is winning, it’s a little bit harder to do that [than] if somebody’s losing. But we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran. Israel is doing well, in terms of war, and… Iran is doing less well. It’s a little...

TGIF: This Is America First

by Sheldon Richman | Jun 20, 2025 | Foreign Policy, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

The Trump battle cry is America First. Revealingly, it is not Americans First. The former signifies, implicitly if not explicitly, national collectivism; the latter, individualism. To the extent Trump has a political worldview, it is not individualist. We cannot doubt that. All of this is abundantly clear in his Iran policy, which is not just about Israel and Iran. This is not new. His seeming antiwar stance was an opportunistic political ploy. The Republican and Democratic wars of the 21st century were palpable fiascos, so of course he had to distance himself from them if he was to become...

Be Careful What You Ask for

by Sheldon Richman | Jun 17, 2025 | Blog

You wanted America First. You got it. Did you think it wouldn't be conceived in national collectivist terms? The clue's in the name. It's America First, not Americans First.

Phony Noninterventionists

by Sheldon Richman | Jun 17, 2025 | Blog

Call me naive, but I increasingly suspect that much of today's "left" is not antiwar on principle. Rather, it's anti-American war because, in its view, America (not just the government) is rotten to the core: bourgeois, racist, patriarchal, heteronormative, blah, blah, blah. If left-wingers (Marxists, heavy or light) were in charge, they'd likely support foreign intervention under the right conditions, e.g., fighting apartheid in South Africa (which indeed was bad) or Pinochet (also bad) in Chile, or saving Maduro (bad too) from a middle-class uprising in Venezuela. In the 1960s and 70s the...

TGIF: Magna Carta Day

by Sheldon Richman | Jun 13, 2025 | Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

I wrote this in 2015 to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, or Great Charter. In light of current events—featuring a president who aspires to unchecked power, despairs of the rule of law, and has discussed suspending the right of habeas corpus—the posting of this slightly modified version seemed appropriate. Magna Carta is remembered, somewhat fuzzily, for reining in the power of the government, for substituting the rule of law for the arbitrary rule of a man, and for a faltering step toward a decent system of justice (presumption of innocence, burden of proof, trial by jury, and so...

TGIF: On “Public Property”

by Sheldon Richman | Jun 6, 2025 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

A dubious theory held by some libertarians has been knocking about. It goes something like this: The claim that government-controlled land is actually unowned—and thus not properly subject to government rulemaking—would lead to consequences that reasonable people would find abhorrent. Therefore, in the U.S. case, such land should be regarded as owned by Americans with the government as their representative. While privatization is the best course, it is unlikely to occur anytime soon. In the meantime, the government should make policy as though it were a private owner or the agent of private...

Immigration Conversation with Jacob Hornberger

by Sheldon Richman | Jun 4, 2025 | Blog

TGIF: The Worst Are Already on Top

by Sheldon Richman | May 30, 2025 | Featured Articles, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

After Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made a fool of herself by defining habeas corpus as "a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country," Justin Amash, the libertarian former congressman, posted an apt quotation on X: Since it is the supreme leader who alone determines the ends, his instruments [staff] must have no moral convictions of their own. They must, above all, be unreservedly committed to the person of the leader; but next to this the most important thing is that they should be completely unprincipled and literally capable of...