Stand firm

Freedom Conservatives press for wise picks and sound policies

Shortly after Election Day, we stated that Freedom Conservatives had long been preparing for such an outcome — building coalitions, hosting events, and devising creative ways to apply America’s timeless principles to its toughest challenges.

“The election results present conservatives with many opportunities,” we wrote. “FreeCons will do our part to help policymakers capitalize on them.”

But we also stressed that if the new Congress or administration chose a more big-government approach, Freedom Conservatives would oppose it.

“When Republicans run with nationalist-populist ideas such as central planning or across-the-board tariffs, we’ll try to block them,” wrote Pope Foundation president John Hood, one of the organizers of the FreeCon project, in National Review.

“And when Congress or the Trump administration run with FreeCon ideas such as tax relief, regulatory reform, and decentralization, we’ll help and cheer.”

Another signatory, American Culture Project CEO John Tillman, wrote in The Washington Times that “voters are fickle, and now that the election is over, they’ll expect to be rewarded for siding with Republicans.”

“The conservative challenge over the next four years is to direct Mr. Trump’s conservative impulses toward conservative policies that will boost wages and the economy — the key to keeping the new Republican coalition together.”

As the president-elect has announced his picks for the Cabinet and other key posts, FreeCon signatories have weighed in accordingly. Here are some examples.

Low-hanging fruit

Brian Riedl is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a FreeCon signatory.

He has served as chief economist to U.S. Sen. Rob Portman and as staff director of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth.

In an article for Reason, Riedl urged Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to focus their new Department on Government Efficiency on practical ideas, not gimmicks.

“DOGE can potentially save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars by reducing government waste and improving program efficiency,” he wrote.

“Cutting true waste may also lay the groundwork for bolder budget savings later. By publicly picking the low-hanging fruit of government waste, lawmakers build more public credibility to reform more sensitive and popular programs.”

Ruthlessly competent

David Harsanyi is a senior writer for The Washington Examiner and a FreeCon signatory. His latest book is The Rise of BlueAnon: How the Democrats Became a Party of Conspiracy Theorists.

In a recent Examiner column, Harsanyi praised Trump’s selection of Chris Wright to run the Department of Energy. “Unlike most nominees for the position over the past century, he has both expertise and experience,” he wrote. “Wright is an innovator who, as Trump noted, helped launch the shale revolution.”

By contrast, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is an “unhinged authoritarian crank” with “neither the credentials nor expertise to offer anyone advice on their health, much less make national policy.”

Harsanyi dismissed the notion that “making all the right people angry” is the right criterion for judging presidential nominees.

“What would really bring a reckoning to constitutionalists, in the long run, are ruthlessly competent administrators who will dismantle the stultified culture in these agencies and reinvent them.”

Friendly scrutiny

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He’s also a FreeCon signatory.

In his Washington Post column, Ponnuru wrote that the short-lived candidacy of Matt Gaetz for attorney general showed why conservatives on Capitol Hill and elsewhere should insist on high-quality nominees who espouse sound policy ideas.

“During the next two years, a majority of senators will be Trump’s declared allies,” he wrote. “The fact that he wanted his nominees to evade even their friendly scrutiny should instead make them intensify it.

“Senators who wish Trump well should look at his record and become more, rather than less, determined that he be surrounded by people who are competent, self-disciplined, able to sift evidence, and willing to speak the truth.”

Not a PRO

Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform and a FreeCon signatory.

Norquist was one of several conservative leaders telling The New York Post last week that “toxic” U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer has no business running the Department of Labor.

Her support of the Big Labor-backed PRO Act is disqualifying, Norquist said.

“In this woman’s America, every worker would have to have a boss and pay the union for the privilege of working,” he said. “This is an outrage, This is not mildly bad. This is a huge thing that she voted for.”

ATR noted that among those supporting Chavez-DeRemer for the post is American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.

“An endorsement from Randi Weingarten — who opposes worker freedom, acts as an agent of the Democratic Party, and despises President Trump himself — is not an endorsement at all.”

True self-government

Ray Nothstine is senior editor and writer for State Policy Network, where he edits the federalism journal American Habits. He’s also a FreeCon signatory.

In a post-election piece, Nothstine discussed the effects of such issues as education, public safety, and electoral reform on down-ballot contests.

‘While a Donald Trump administration likely carries further opportunities to curb federal agency power,” he wrote, “the most vital message that elections should remind us of is that ‘We The People’ are in charge of the government — and the government closest to us influences us and matters the most.

“We are not servants or serfs or a constituency to be scolded at or talked down to, but people capable of governing ourselves, improving our communities together, and of careful deliberation and compromise.”

In the mix

• In The Wall Street Journal, Goldwater Institute president Victor Riches celebrated the passage of Arizona’s Proposition 312, which requires local governments to compensate property and business owners for damage created by homelessness.

“For too long, municipalities have gotten away with taxing residents indiscriminately and not providing the public-safety services those taxes are supposed to fund,” wrote Riches, a FreeCon signatory.

“Proposition 312 provides a simple mechanism for residents to get their tax dollars back when the government fails in its most basic duties.”

• In the NH Journal, FreeCon signatory Ed Tarnowski wrote that the victory of GOP gubernatorial nominee Kelly Ayotte bodes well for the future of school choice in New Hampshire and beyond.

Ayotte campaigned in support of expanding the state’s Education Freedom Account program to all families, as did many legislative candidates. “Granite Staters have spoken and given state policymakers a historic mandate to empower all families with educational options,” wrote Tarnowski, policy and advocacy director at EdChoice.

“The state’s independent, liberty-minded spirit has made New Hampshire such a free and prosperous place to live, work, and raise a family. It’s time to apply this mindset to education.”