The Reason Roundtable

The Pulitzer-winning columnist George Will has been in Washington, D.C. since the 1970s and he's basically seen it all. But at a special Reason Podcast recorded at FreedomFest, the annual gathering of libertarians held every July in Las Vegas, he admits to be being frightened of what he's calling "the Big Flinch" or "a recoil against the churning of an open society, against the spontaneous order that is the alternative to statism, against the frictions of economic growth that becomes more necessary as the entitlement state becomes more rickety. Meanwhile, the fatal conceit—the abandonment of [Friedrich] Hayek's epistemic humility—is everywhere, particularly in the Republican Party's embrace of protectionism."

On the latest Reason Podcast, Nick Gillespie talks with baseball fanatic Will about the causes and consequences of the Big Flinch, what it's like to be completely let down by the GOP's leadership, the unquestionably positive dimensions of Donald Trump's presidency (think federal judiciary), and the really odd am-I-having-a-stroke-or-not experience not just of the Chicago Cubs finally winning a World Series but the Houston Astros snagging a world championship too...but for the American League.

Audio production by Ian Keyser.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is a thorn in the side of the GOP establishment. He has voted against so many bills, including measures championed by his own party, that in 2013 Politico dubbed him "Mr. No."

Reason sat down with Massie at FreedomFest in Las Vegas to discuss his battles with the Republican establishment, how Trump's tariffs are breeding cronyism, why federal marijuana prohibition will come to an end, and the impact that he and his fellow libertarians in Congress are having on policy. A member of the GOP, Massie also explains why he won't be switching over to the Libertarian Party anytime soon.

Edited by Justin Monticello. Music by The Grand Affair.

"Yeah, gigantic deficits are not good," says director of President Trump's National Economic Council Larry Kudlow in a clip at the top of today's Reason Podcast, before he goes on to make ridiculous excuses for gigantic deficits. Matt Welch is somewhere in a French chateau, so today's pod features special guest star Managing Editor Stephanie Slade, plus the usual gang of Nick Gillespie, Peter Suderman, and Katherine Mangu-Ward. After digging into the deficit darkness, we turn our thoughts to the latest revelations in the Trump Russia imbroglio, as well as the politics of criticizing socialist Democratic candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. We wrap up, as usual with our recommendations for stuff to read or watch or put in your face holes, which this week includes the new Mission:Impossible movie and some fancy booze from France.

Audio production by Ian Keyser.

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The Reason Podcast crew covers deficits, tariffs, Russians, gender, and more.

Reason's Nick Gillespie, Robby Soave, and Mike Riggs debate whether Mark Zuckerberg's should de-platform haters to improve the user experience at the world's largest social-media service.

Congress is "given a pile of papers, sometimes a couple thousands pages long, a few hours before the expiration of a spending deadline," says Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). "When there's no opportunity for debate, for discussion, for amendment, for individual members to improve [legislation], you've effectively disenfranchised almost 300 million Americans."

Since toppling longtime incumbent Bob Bennett in a 2010 primary and then riding the Tea Party wave to become the junior senator from Utah, Lee has been one of the most careful and liberty-friendly legal minds in public office.

As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he'll participate in the upcoming confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. But he was almost in the hot seat himself: Lee was one of the seven finalists Trump considered to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Lee talked with Reason's Matt Welch about the Supreme Court selection process, Kavanaugh's Fourth Amendment views, and the senator's longstanding goal to get a sentencing reform bill on President Trump's desk.

Edited by Paul Detrick.

Photos of Sen. Mike Lee, Credit: Jeff Malet Photography/Newscom

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On July 2, 2018, Reason and The Soho Forum hosted a debate between Erik Voorhees, the CEO of ShapeShift, and Peter Schiff, CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital.

The proposition: "Bitcoin, or a similar form of cryptocurrency, will eventually replace governments' fiat money as the preferred medium of exchange."

It was an Oxford-style debate in which the audience votes on the resolution at the beginning and end of the event, and the side that gains the most ground is victorious. Voorhees won by changing the minds of 15 percent of attendees.

Produced by Todd Krainin.

No legal commentator on cable news is more energetic, constitutionally minded, or libertarian than Andrew Napolitano, who has served as Fox News' senior judicial analyst for nearly two decades.

A former New Jersey Superior Court judge, Napolitano is a nationally syndicated columnist—you can read him at Reason—and the author of a shelf full of books about law, history, and race in America.

Reason's Nick Gillespie caught up with the judge at FreedomFest, the annual event held every July in Las Vegas. We talked about Donald Trump's ongoing makeover of the federal judiciary, whether Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will be good for libertarians, what it's like to be an ex-Republican, and the imminent return of Freedom Watch, the popular and controversial show that Napolitano hosted on Fox Business from 2006 to 2010.

Interview by Nick Gillespie. Edited by Alexis Garcia.

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"The huge standoff between the Republican and Democratic Parties, both of them being extreme right or extreme left,...make it more likely than it's ever been that a third party...will win the presidential election in 2020," says former Massachussetts governor (and former Republican) Bill Weld. In a special podcast hosted by Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie and taped last week at FreedomFest, the Libertarian Party's 2016 vice-presidential candidate waved off speculation that he's running for the party's presidential nomination. The election is too far away and too many unpredictable things could happen, he told us with a smile, even as he talked about all the party's candidates he's been helping out. Weld has already won over another lapsed Republican, Washington Post columnist George Will, who recently wrote that Weld incarnates "what a broad swath of Americans say they favor: limited government, fiscal responsibility, free trade, the rule of law, entitlement realism and other artifacts from the Republican wreckage." At the recent Libertarian convention in New Orleans, Weld impressed a good share of the party faithful too. His Twitter feed is filled with shout-outs and endorsements of Libertarian candidates such as Larry Sharpe and calls to "Stop the Duopoly." In a wide-ranging conversation, Welch and Gillespie grill Weld about the ideological fissures within his party, whether he endorsed Hillary Clinton in the waning moments of the 2016 campaign, and how he would sell a message of principle in a nation that is getting more tribalistic by the minute.

Is Rand Paul really a traitor? Or are we losing our damn fool minds over everything Trump/Russia? Reason editors Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, Nick Gillespie, and Matt Welch debate President Trump's bumbling statecraft, whether trading partners are friend or foe, and what the World Cup teaches us about immigration.

Audio production by Ian Keyser.

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