Voices of liberty
Broadcasts and podcasts feature FreeCon signatories and themes
More than 200 prominent leaders from across the United States have signed the Freedom Conservatism Statement of Principles. You’ll often find our signatories and their allies on news broadcasts and podcasts. Here’s a sampling of recent FreeCon-themed appearances:
Game of Groans
Stephanie Slade is a senior editor at Reason magazine, a fellow at the Acton Institute, and a media fellow at the Institute for Human Ecology at Catholic University of America. She writes frequently on right-of-center politics and has praised the rise of Freedom Conservatives.
In an episode of the Cato Daily Podcast recorded at the annual meeting of State Policy Network, Slade contrasted the “politics as war” stance of NatCons with the FreeCon approach of building bridges and forging alliances to advance free markets, personal liberty, and fiscal responsibility.
In many state capitals and local communities, Slade pointed out, SPN affiliates have used such alliances to cut taxes, slash regulations, expand parental choice in education, and win other victories.
What she called the NatCons’ “Game of Thrones” mentality is “a luxury that you really can’t afford if you’re actually trying to get stuff done — where the rubber meets the road.”
A great Chile recipe
An immigrant from Venezuela, Daniel Di Martino is the founder of the Dissident Project and a Manhattan Institute fellow who writes for such publications as USA Today, Newsmax, The Washington Examiner, and The Daily Wire.
Di Martino, a FreeCon signatory, made a recent Fox News appearance to discuss a much-publicized visit to Latin America by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
He suggested that if AOC had actually gone to a place like Chile with an open mind, she would have discovered that by embracing free enterprise, low taxes, fiscal restraint, and educational freedom, it went from being one of the poorest countries in South America to its wealthiest.
“Yes, we have a lot to learn from Chile,” he said. “It’s that free markets work!”
Lower cost of production
The “Future of Freedom” podcast, hosted by Scot Bertram, features debates among conservatives, libertarians, and classical liberals about important policy issues.
FreeCon signatories appear regularly on the podcast, which is produced by the America’s Talking Network.
For example, Scott Winship of the American Enterprise Institute discussed declines in male labor-force participation, Avik Roy of FREOPP weighed in on a proposed digital currency from the Federal Reserve, Pope Foundation president John Hood explained his definition of Freedom Conservatism, and Vance Ginn, chief economist at Louisiana’s Pelican Institute, challenged the NatCon case for trade protectionism.
Most losses in manufacturing employment have been the result of automation and other technological changes, Ginn pointed out, not of unfair trade policies by other countries. He suggested Americans focus on “high regulations, high spending, high taxes, that made it more costly to do business” in our own communities.
Lower costs for families
In a new episode of “Liberty Law Talk” hosted by FreeCon signatory James Patterson, Avik Roy described the origin and purpose of the project.
“What freedom conservatives are trying to conserve are the principles of the American founding,” he said, “which is that the government exists to secure the liberties of the people, not the other way around.”
By championing policies that would reduce the cost of food, housing, energy, education, and health care, FreeCons are showing average Americans that “we’re fighting for you, and we’re working on developing solutions to the problems you have.”