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Sheldon Richman Articles

TGIF: Trump Assumes Command of the American Church

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 3, 2017

As Donald Trump demonstrated in his first address to Congress, no matter how loathsome a ruler may be, he can bring an assembly of politicians to its feet and disarm some critics simply by invoking the quasi-secular faith -- Americanism -- and eulogizing the latest...

TGIF: In Defense of Extreme Cosmopolitanism

by Sheldon Richman | Feb 24, 2017

Cosmopolitanism is under assault from across the political spectrum, both in the United States and abroad. Just yesterday President Donald Trump's chief strategist, alt-right leader and self-described economic nationalist Steve Bannon, told the Conservative Political...

TGIF: ‘Isolationist’ Trump Rattles His Saber

by Sheldon Richman | Feb 10, 2017

A few libertarians and other principled opponents of the warfare state assured us we likely would sleep easier with Donald Trump, rather than any neoconservative or humanitarian interventionist, in the White House. How's that working out? Not so well. I'm hoarding...

Where Have You Gone, Mario Savio?

by Sheldon Richman | Feb 3, 2017

No true anti-fascist interferes with free speech or threatens to burn books. I condemn the perpetrators of violence at Berkeley, first, for perpetrating violence and, second, for bringing attention to Milo Yiannopoulos.

TGIF: Trump’s Blueprint for More Government

by Sheldon Richman | Feb 3, 2017

Donald Trump remains blinded -- willfully or not I cannot say -- by his absurd narrative of America as an aggrieved nation. It's a narrative that will stimulate the growth, rather than the diminution, of government power. As he told this week's national prayer...

TGIF: Trump Nation

by Sheldon Richman | Jan 27, 2017

Did Donald Trump on Inauguration Day intend to remind us of the European despotisms of the last century? Who could miss signs? They adorned the speech from brim to dottle with its invocations of solidarity, unity of purpose, devotion, patriotism, "loyalty to our...

TGIF: A Principle for All Seasons

by Sheldon Richman | Jan 19, 2017

Despite my utter disdain for Donald Trump, I am uneasy about many who oppose him. My specific concern is that they apparently believe that, because of the kind of person Trump is, they may dispense with all constraint when fighting him. Thus the common-sense rules of...

Thank You, Mr. President

by Sheldon Richman | Jan 16, 2017

"With only days until Donald Trump takes office, the Obama administration on Thursday [January 12] announced new rules that will let the NSA share vast amounts of private data gathered without warrant, court orders or congressional authorization with 16 other...

Not Much of a President

by Sheldon Richman | Jan 16, 2017

Jeffrey St. Clair of CounterPunch on Barack Obama's failed presidency: "Obama is a master of gesture politics, but he tends to flinch in nearly every pitched battle, even when the odds and the public are behind him. His political instincts drive him to seek cover in...

Do We Need a Superstate?

by Sheldon Richman | Jan 15, 2017

If the state is required to overcome the free-rider problem, what's required to overcome the free-rider problem inherent in the state?

Hypocrisy over Interference in Elections

by Sheldon Richman | Jan 14, 2017

Jonathan Marshall, a first-rate foreign-policy reporter and analyst, exposes the hypocrisy of American concern over alleged Russian manipulation of U.S. democracy in "Who's the Real Manipulator of Elections?" This is must-reading for those who want to understand this...

TGIF: The Man Behind the Curtain

by Sheldon Richman | Jan 13, 2017

Although the Grateful Dead told us that "every silver lining's got a touch of grey" (lyric by Robert Hunter), it's my nature to look for one anyway. At the risk of being accused of gross naivete, I'd like to hope that the Trump presidency (I still can't believe I have...

Br’er Rabbit and the Neocons

by Sheldon Richman | Jan 13, 2017

Considering the hawkishness of Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense-designate James Mattis, the neocons' opposition to Donald Trump looks more like Br'er Rabbit's opposition to the briar patch.

Obama Administration Hoped Islamic State Would Bring Syrian Regime Change

by Sheldon Richman | Jan 12, 2017

According to a leaked taped conversation between Secretary of State John Kerry and Syrian opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, the Obama administration watched the Islamic State grow in the hope that its presence in Syria would force Assad to negotiate and,...

Search and Replace

by Sheldon Richman | Jan 12, 2017

The declassified intel report on the hacking of the DNC/Podesta accounts contains this sentence: “By their nature, Russian influence campaigns are multifaceted and designed to be deniable because they use a mix of agents of influence, cutouts, front organizations, and...

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Sheldon Richman

Sheldon Richman is the executive editor of The Libertarian Institute and a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He is the former senior editor at the Cato Institute and Institute for Humane Studies; former editor of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education; and former vice president at the Future of Freedom Foundation. His latest books are Coming to Palestine and What Social Animals Owe to Each Other.

What Social Animal's Owe to Each Other

by Sheldon Richman

Book Animalssm

These essays, written over the past 20 years, have a single underlying theme: namely, that we human beings, as social animals, need individual freedom to fully flourish.

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Coming to Palestine