The Bob Zadek Show

Daniel Di Martino on Immigration

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly recently said on CNBC that he has always opposed vaccine mandates like the one recently announced by OSHA under President Biden's executive order, yet he has reluctantly chosen to enforce it as a matter of legal compliance. Even apart from the heavy fines threatened by the order, airlines like Southwest receive federal contracts from the government, which they might lose if they fail to follow the legally dubious order.

Philip Hamburger first joined my show in 2014, warning of the threat of the administrative state, which has only grown since he released his prescient book – Is Administrative Law Unlawful? Now, he has followed up with the sequel: Purchasing Submission: Conditions, Power, and Freedom, which examines a frequent tool used by the "fourth branch of government" to further circumvent the Constitution. Hamburger explains that by imposing conditions on the recipients of government largesse, the administrative state has cleverly been able to evade the usual constitutional considerations.

I was recently joined by Hamburger's colleague at the National Civil Liberties Alliance – Jenin Younes – who has been fighting against unconstitutional vaccine mandates. However, Hamburger joined me to step back from the specifics of any single instance of administrative overreach and see the bigger picture. Tune in to learn about the patterns and mechanics of how the government gets away with its new assaults on civil liberties by essentially purchasing our constitutional rights through various conditions on its special favors.

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Philip Hamburger on Purchasing Submission

It has become almost cliché to note that “the pen is mightier than sword.” Years before this aphorism entered the popular imagination, however, it was John Adams who exclaimed, “Without the pen of Paine, the sword of Washington would have been wielded in vain.” Prior to the American Revolution, the sword tended to have the upper hand – with the strongest Kings and Tyrants justifying their power on the basis of force and divine right, not lofty principles like equality and liberty for all. Thomas Paine may not be enshrined in any monuments in Washington D.C., but the other more cherished founders saw the gifted pamphleteer as one of the key players in the American Revolution, and the subsequent upheaval of monarchies around the world.

In his recent biography of the “Apostle of Liberty,” historian Harlow Giles Ungers quotes John Adams again, asserting:

“I know not whether any man in the world has had more influence on its inhabitants or its affairs for the last thirty years than Tom Paine. Call it then the Age of Paine.”

So how did this “father to the founding fathers” end up as a relatively obscure historical figure, known almost exclusively by his early pamphlet, “Common Sense”? Unger joins me this Sunday to explore the full, fascinating story of Paine’s life, prolific writings, his travels, and his prominent role in the French Revolution.

Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence is the latest in the long line of Unger’s highly readable biographies of America’s founders. Much like the subject of his book, Unger writes in a way that is accessible to all audiences – from the uneducated layperson to the scholar of American history alike. Don’t miss the in-depth exploration of the man whose writings roused Washington’s soldiers to victory across the Delaware on Christmas morning.

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Harlow Giles Unger on the American Revolution’s Neglected Pamphleteer

There will always be America.

It just might not be in America.

Hong Kong, Singapore, and even Madagascar are candidates for future beacons of freedom to the world, as most of Europe and the United States have forgotten the heritage of the Magna Carta, Bill of Rights, and enlightenment tradition of freedom. One dark horse candidate for the next "America" is the Free Republic of Liberland – a new country project that has claimed a small strip of land between Serbia and Croatia, which neither country claims as its own. Croatia swears it belongs to Serbia, but Serbia begs to differ. Vit Jedlicka says they are both right – or is that neither? As President of Liberland, Vit has gathered a small country's worth of volunteers, citizen applicants, and supporters around the world, who could soon populate the world's newest country as freedom-seeking pioneers.

Vit returned to update us on Liberland's progress, and explain how this international movement is leveraging new technologies like cryptocurrency and the blockchain to build something of an America 2.0 – complete with a stable currency, clearly defined property rights, and an innovative Constitution for holding the future leaders of Liberland accountable.

"What is Liberland?" appeared as the correct question in a Jeopardy competition, showing that its fame is spreading. Now they just need recognition from five countries and they will themselves be eligible for UN membership and other perks of statehood.

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President Vit Jedlicka on the latest developments in the new country.

Where does Biden get the authority to mandate vaccination? It’s a difficult question, and everyone seems to have their opinion. Indeed, there are approximately as many opinions as there are arms that can receive the jab. Walter Olson predicts that the new OSHA-issued employer vaccine mandate will be challenged, all the way up to the SCOTUS. But will it survive? And more importantly, is it a good policy? Libertarians disagree, and although they almost all oppose the mandate, they oppose it for different reasons.

The Cato Institute Chairman Bob Levy joined me to discuss the nuances of the libertarian perspective on vaccine mandates. He recently wrote an op-ed for the Hill titled, “Vaccine mandates: A liberty-minded perspective”, in which he helps us think through the various liberty concerns around bodily autonomy versus endangerment. He’ll also define the “nondelegation doctrine,” and explain why every thoughtful citizen should understand this 5-syllable word.

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Bob Levy, Chairman of the Cato Institute, discusses the nuances of

individual and property rights that Biden’s new employer mandate brings up

To the American public, it may have seemed like the War and Afghanistan came to an abrupt end last month – a month earlier than the Biden Administration's self-imposed deadline of the 20-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks. To those who followed the "forever war" more closely – like my guest, Scott Horton – the botched withdrawal of troops from the country is just another in a long line of blunders in an even longer "War on Terror" that continues largely unabated. Foreign policy, like economic policy, seems to be bound by the same inextricable law of unintended consequences, whereby policy failures end up justifying further interventions, mishaps, and pretext for even bigger government programs. The only question is whether the US will learn from its mistakes this time, or set off on another damaging campaign.

The story of the United States' involvement in the Middle East is a long one, that dates back to at least the Carter Administration. Scott Horton, director of the Libertarian Institute and host of Antiwar Radio, has meticulously documented the long litany of errors and self-reinforcing planks of the misguided War on Terror in his writings, videos, and radio broadcasts over the years.

He joined me to offer a one-hour retrospective on the War in Afghanistan, with an emphasis on the patterns and principles that have characterized our broader foreign policy failures over the past 45 years. From Scott, I've learned that the failures can be boiled down to one word: blowback. For the full story, you'll have to read two of his most recent books, Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism (2021) & *Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan* (2017).

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