Scholar tree

Deep intellectual roots help Freedom Conservatives stand firm

Many of the 300 signatories to the Freedom Conservatism Statement of Principles are actively engaged in policymaking and the political process.

They craft messages, draft bills, file regulatory comments, litigate cases, lead activist groups, participate in campaigns, or weigh in as journalists and commentators.

These are essential roles. But it’s also essential that movements be anchored in unchanging truths about human nature, civil society, and the proper role of the state. As George Mason famously put it, “no free government or the blessings of liberty can be preserved to any people, but by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.”

As Freedom Conservatives, one of our strengths is the breadth of knowledge and experience possessed by our fellow signatories. Today we spotlight FreeCons whose scholarship and insights help keep our movement grounded and effective.

Restore sanity and civility

Ryan Streeter is executive director of the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas and a FreeCon signatory.

Previously, Streeter was director of domestic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where he facilitated research in education, technology, housing, urban policy, poverty studies, workforce development, and public opinion.

Streeter has had a distinguished career in government service, serving as policy advisor to a U.S. president, a governor, and a mayor.

He is the co-editor of The Future of Cities (2023), author of Transforming Charity: Toward a Results-Oriented Social Sector (2001), the editor of Religion and the Public Square in the 21st Century (2001), and the coauthor of The Soul of Civil Society: Voluntary Associations and the Public Value of Moral Habits (2002).

Streeter has authored or edited more than 150 articles and papers for outlets including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, USA Today, The Hill, City Journal, and National Review. Streeter has a Ph.D. in political philosophy from Emory University.

In a recent essay for The Catalyst, he decried the effects of politicizing our cultural disputes, abandoning federalism, and drenching ourselves in social media.

Still, “as apocalyptic as our politics can feel, most Americans are still more interested in bread-and-butter issues such as the quality of their kids’ school, crime, the cost of housing, and the quality of jobs in their community,” Streeter concluded.

“Americans across all demographic divides still care more about the American Dream than they do about hot-button issues, and they remain optimistic about achieving it.”

Delegated power

Jonathan H. Adler is the Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and founding director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he teaches courses in environmental, administrative and constitutional law.

A FreeCon signatory, Adler is the author or editor of seven books, including Climate Liberalism: Perspectives on Liberty, Property and Pollution (2023), Business and the Roberts Court (2016) and Rebuilding the Ark: New Perspectives on Endangered Species Act Reform (2011). 

His articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

Adler is a contributing editor to National Review Online and a regular contributor to The Volokh Conspiracy. A regular commentator on constitutional and regulatory issues, he has appeared on PBS, NPR, and “Entertainment Tonight,” among others.

He holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from the George Mason University School of Law.

In a American Institute for Economic Research piece, Adler praised the U.S. Supreme Court‘s recent ruling on judicial deference to administrative interpretation. “The Court is not preventing agencies from regulating,” he wrote.

“Nor is it telling lower courts to reject agency interpretations. Rather, the Court is reinforcing the point, recently made in its so-called ‘major questions doctrine’ decisions, that agencies are only to exercise power which Congress actually delegated to them.”

Valuable resource

Allen Mendenhall is Associate Dean and Grady Rosier Professor in the Sorrell College of Business at Troy University, where he also directs the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy.

A FreeCon signatory, Mendenhall is the author of, among other books, Literature and Liberty: Essays in Libertarian Literary Criticism (2014), The Three Ps of Liberty: Pragmatism, Pluralism, and Polycentricity (2020), the novel A Glooming Peace This Morning (2023), and Controversies Among Conservatives: Conversations on Conservatism, Vol. II (2024) (edited with Marcus Witcher and Kevin Hughes).

His television show, “Success Stories,” airs on local television throughout Alabama, and his segment “Word to the Wise” appears on Troy Public Radio.

Mendenhall holds a B.A. in English from Furman University, M.A. in English from West Virginia University, J.D. from West Virginia University College of Law, LL.M. in transnational law from Temple University Beasley School of Law, and Ph.D. in English from Auburn University.

In a recent essay for Modern Age, he wrote that conservatives have much to learn from Human Action, the “magnum opus” of Ludwig von Mises.

The book explains “how economic knowledge is fundamental to modern civilization, underpinning the moral, intellectual, technological, and medical advancements of recent centuries,” Mendenhall stated.

“This knowledge, Mises contends, is a valuable resource at humanity’s disposal, and the choice of whether to use it wisely lies with us.”

Collectivist cousins

Bill Reddinger serves as an associate professor at Regent University, where his primary teaching responsibilities are in political philosophy and American politics. 

A FreeCon signatory, he also directs the Lincoln Program in America’s Founding Principles, a program that provides special learning opportunities such as reading groups and guest lectures.  

Reddinger previously taught political science at Wheaton College in Illinois and at South Texas College. He received his undergraduate degree from Grove City College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science at Northern Illinois University.

In a recent post for Liberty Fund’s EconLog, he related German scholar Wilhelm Röpke’s prescient warnings in the 1930s about the rise of totalitarianism.

“What distinguished Röpke’s argument,” Reddinger wrote, “was the claim that it was a kind of cultural sickness that explained the rise of Nazi Germany, and it was a sickness that Germany shared with the western powers.”

Both Röpke and F.A. Hayek thought “fascism and socialism” were not “distant and incompatible enemies but as cousins with shared essentials, most importantly collectivism.”

In the mix

• In The Dispatch, James Patterson of Ave Maria University described postliberalism as “a very old idea that has gained newfound relevance.” Put simply, wrote Patterson, it is “an authoritarian ideology adapted from Catholic reactionary movements responding to the French Revolution and, later, World War I.

“Second, it is a loose international coalition of illiberal, right-wing parties and political actors. Third, it is a set of policy proposals for creating a welfare state for family formation, the government establishment of the Christian religion, and the movement from republican government to administrative despotism.”

• In The New York Times, Jacob Heilbrunn mentioned Freedom Conservatism as one of the groups seeking to chart “the future of the conservative movement.” While FreeCons disagree with Heilbrunn’s conclusions, we agree with him that much of the postliberal Right “seeks to bury” the influence of Ronald Reagan on American conservatism.

• In City Journal, FreeCon signatory Judge Glock outlined “a new supply-side agenda” for the 21st century. “Start with reining in the federal bureaucracy,” wrote Glock. Thanks to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, “courts can better supervise Congress’s delegation of power to bureaucrats. Congress should also consider new laws in the spirit of the REINS Act, which the House passed in 2023, requiring it to approve regulations that have a significant economic effect.”

• FreeCon signatory Vance Ginn of AIER made a complementary case in a recent essay: that for Americans to prosper and our economy to grow, policymakers must resist calls from the populist Right to abandon our principles. “Under the guise of a new form of conservatism, this faction argues for increased government intervention in the economy, protectionist measures, and the strengthening of monopoly labor unions,” Ginn wrote.

“By recommitting to pro-growth principles, the GOP can present a compelling alternative to the electorate and pave the way for a more prosperous future. Or, it can follow the ‘New Right’ down the progressive road to serfdom.”