Among the hundreds of signatories to the Freedom Conservatism Statement of Principles are celebrated authors, talented scholars, dedicated activists, influential experts, popular broadcasters, brilliant litigators, generous benefactors, and top executives at dozens of conservative institutions across the country.
Some are former governors, mayors, members of Congress, and other public officials with decades of leadership experience. Others are emerging voices within the conservative movement.
Today we feature another set of signatories: those who write regular columns for key news outlets. These high-profile FreeCons reach millions of Americans each week — helping to shape the future of our movement and our country.
Horseshoe theory
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of the Dispatch and a CNN contributor. He holds the Asness Chair in Applied Liberty at the American Enterprise Institute. The author of such books as Liberal Fascism and Suicide of the West, Goldberg has written a syndicated column since 2000 and a Los Angeles Times column since 2005.
“While the American left and right have always had plenty of disagreements,” Goldberg writes in his latest Times column, “they usually were hashed out within the framework of America’s deep-seated classical liberalism. But what happens when the extremes abandon that liberalism?”
He describes the result as “a kind of bipartisan consensus around the more European idea of fighting for control of the state, led by politicians terrified of their bases.”
Wildly implausible
George Will has written a column for The Washington Post since 1974 and received the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1977. He is also a regular contributor to MSNBC and NBC News. His recent books include American Happiness and Discontents and The Conservative Sensibility.
“The two parties disagree even when they agree, as they do about this: Federal spending is on an unsustainable trajectory under current law,” Will wrote in a recent column. “They also agree that altering the most important drivers of this trajectory — Social Security and Medicare — is for tomorrow, which is always a day away.”
Neither Democrats nor Republicans offer realistic plans to slash deficits, he concluded.
Decision boosts Trump
Karl Rove served former President George W. Bush as campaign strategist, senior advisor, and deputy chief of staff. A weekly columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Rove is a Fox News contributor and the author of The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters and Courage and Consequence.
In a recent Journal column, Rove criticized the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to block Donald Trump from the ballot on 14th Amendment grounds.
“You can consider Mr. Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6 abhorrent, his continuing claims of massive fraud and a stolen election delusional, and his attempt to muddy the waters with fake electors reprehensible,” he wrote, “but is our democracy well served by emulating banana republics by keeping candidates off the ballot?”
Fever swamps
Mona Charen is policy editor at The Bulwark and host of the “Beg to Differ” podcast. A former aide to Nancy Reagan and campaign staffer to Jack Kemp, Charen writes a column for Creators Syndicate that appears in such publications as RealClearPolitics, Newsmax, and local newspapers across the country.
A recent Charen column published in the Chicago Sun-Times, for example, decried the rise of antisemitism. “In America, we believe in treating everyone as an individual, not as a mere representative of the group he or she may belong to,” she wrote. “So why is it so hard to see what is happening to Jews in the U.S. and around the world for what it is?”
New culture war?
Ramesh Ponnuru is an American Enterprise Institute senior fellow and editor of National Review. A frequent TV commentator and the author of such works as The Party of Death and The Mystery of Japanese Growth, Ponnuru writes a weekly column for The Washington Post.
In a recent Post column, Ponnuru discussed America’s falling birth rate and its political implications. “Parents should bear in mind that not everyone is called to parenthood — and that many people who want children never have any,” he wrote.
“The child-free should contemplate that the annoying kid on the airplane could one day be their attendant in a long-term-care facility. Nobody has kids because society needs future workers, taxpayers and soldiers, but it’s still true that society needs them.”
Other FreeCon columnists
Many other Freedom Conservatism signatories write regular columns for newspapers and magazines. For example:
Independent Institute president and talk show host Jon Caldara writes a column for the Denver Gazette and the Colorado Springs Gazette.
Quin Hillyer is deputy commentary editor and columnist for the Washington Examiner. His pieces also run in other papers such as the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Pope Foundation president John Hood has written a syndicated column since 1986. It runs in the Winston-Salem Journal and 50 other papers in North Carolina.
Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, director of the Conscience Project, writes a regular column for the National Catholic Register.
A senior scholar at the Fund for American Studies, Donald Devine pens a monthly column for The American Spectator.
Matt Lewis, author of Filthy Rich Politicians and host of the “Matt Lewis and the News” podcast, is a senior columnist for The Daily Beast.
Patrick Gleason, vice president of State Affairs at Americans for Tax Reform, is a columnist for Forbes. Brian Blase of Paragon Health Institute is one of the regular contributors to the Forbes health care column, The Apothecary, led by Avik Roy of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity.