The Spirit of 1776

The Spirit of 1776

Spirit
Spirit of '76
by Archibald Willard, 1891

"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof"

The Liberty Bell

This site is dedicated to the political and philosophical ideas of freedom and liberty.
And a proud supporter of the libertarian philosophy.

Where I grew up, where I live...and where I caught The Spirit of '76:
Visit the Historic Delaware Valley

"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself.
Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?"
~ Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 1801

WHAT EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW

The Declaration of Independence
The Constitution of the United States of America
The Federalist Papers
United States Historic Documents Room
U.S. Historical Documents

Historical Essays of Importance
George Washington's Farewell Address
Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address
On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
Second Treatise on Government by John Locke

Thomas Jefferson
First Inaugural Address
A Summary View of the Rights of British America

Thomas Paine
Common Sense
The American Crisis
The Age of Reason
The Rights of Man

"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it."
~ George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists

What's on my BOOKSHELF

HIGHLIGHTS, ISSUES, ESSAYS, Etc.

Liberty Online Home Page

REASON Magazine
Reason Magazine
Reason Magazine Speeches
Reason Magazine Op-Eds
Reason Magazine Previous Issues
Reason Magazine Selected Interviews

from REASON Magazine editor Virginia I. Postrel
Laissez Fear: Left and right agree-the market is their enemy
National Greatness" or Conservative Malaise?

That Which Is Seen, And That Which Is Not Seen by Frederic Bastiat

Liberty Magazine
The Libertarian

The Freeman
The Freeman Magazine Back Issues
The Freeman Magazine Selected Essays

Current Libertarian Books
(you can order them from my bookshelf)
Libertarianism: A Primer by David Boaz
The Libertarian Reader by David Boaz
What it Means to be a Libertarian by Charles Murray

Corporate Welfare
Archer Daniels Midland nation's biggest welfare recipient
Archer Daniels Midland: A Case Study In Corporate Welfare
Ending Corporate Welfare As We Know It
The Bipartisan Scandal of U.S. Corporate Welfare by Doug Bandow

The War on Drugs
Conservatives on Prohibition
The War On Drugs Is Lost from National Review
More Reefer Madness by Eric Schlosser from The Atlantic Monthly
Legalizing Drugs: Just Say Yes Michael S. Gazzaniga Interview
Thinking About Drug Legalization by James Ostrowski
A Society Of Suspects: The War On Drugs And Civil Liberties by Steven Wisotsky

Some of My Favorite Essays
Understanding the Libertarian Philosophy by Joseph Knight
Persuasion Verses Force by Mark Skousen
The Argument For Free Markets: Morality Vs. Efficiency by Walter E. Williams
Beyond Government by Harry Reid
Birth of the Digital Nation by Jon Katz

Ayn Rand and Objectivism
Ayn Rand And The "Me" Generation By William Powers
The Ayn Rand Institute
Institute for Objectivist Studies
Objectivism and Ayn Rand
Objectivist Essays
MORE Objectivist Essays
More Ayn Rand & Philosophy Links
Objectivism Resource Guide

Who is John Galt?
The answer from Atlas Shrugged
The John Galt Line

Is money is the Root of all evil?
Francisco D'Anconia's response from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged

"It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law.
This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny."
~ James Fenimore Cooper, The American Democrat, 1838

THE BREAKDOWN OF THE BIG TWO POLITICAL PARTIES

The trend of U.S. voter registration and voter self-identification with one party or another since 1964 has been a steep decline in registration and support for the Democrat Party, with an equal increase in registration and support as Independent (or no party). The Republican Party currently holds the same pct% of support in 1993 as it did in 1964. Of course there are up and down movements in the years between 1964 and 1993, but the trend and the end result is clear.

1964 1993 Difference
Democrat Party 58% 31% -27%
Republican Party 29% 29% no change
Independent / Other 13% 40% +27%

paragraph and table above from The Growth of the Independent Movement by Bob Reinhardt
Visit his web page at The Center of the Web

Are you an independent voter?
Are you one of the many in political limbo?
Are you fed up with left/right or liberal/conservative labels?
Do you feel that neither party represents your political views?

You may not be alone!

For the first time in history, the number of independent or third party voters
outnumbers the number of members in either the Democrat or Republican Party.

If you're tired of politics as usual, read this essay:
Hope for the Politically Homeless by Marshall Fritz.

Then, take this quiz...

The World's Smallest Political Quiz

Not Quite The World's Smallest Political Quiz,
(an expanded version) is located at: 20 Political Questions

"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent."
~ Abraham Lincoln, first Lincoln-Douglas debate, 1854

THE ALTERNATIVE

THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY

Links for Libertarians

"Governments do not give people rights.
The People give government power in order to protect their preexisting rights."
~ Colorado Attorney General's Office, 1993

MORE LINKS

Essays
A collection of some wondeful contemporary and classic historical essays.

Political Links
An assortment of political sites from around the spectrum.

Freedom of Speech
My tribute to our most precious right.

Philosophy
"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimension"
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

History Links
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
~ George Santayana The Life of Reason, 1906

Government
"The worst thing in the world next to anarchy, is government."
~ Henry Ward Beecher Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1867

Media
Magazines, Newspapers, Networks

Quotations
Some of my favorite collected quotables

Satire
Political Satire and other Humor for those of you who take yourselves TOO seriously.

"The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights,
which means: to protect him from physical violence....
The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals;
the army, to protect you from foreign invaders;
and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud by others,
and to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law."
~ Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957

MY ESSAYS AND WRITINGS
Special Interest Socialism
Campaign Finance Reform: Barking Up the Wrong Tree
Freedom's Ashes
On Media Bias
Libertarian vs. Republican: Issue Resolved
Woe The People
Same Sex Marriages
On Censoring the Internet
Whose Vote is it Anyway?
Why do we fight the war on drugs?