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America Needs a Return to First Principles
Wall Street Journal Opinion Page - Weekend Interview ^ | April 30, 2022 | Tunku Varadarajan

Posted on 05/01/2022 12:46:25 PM PDT by Wuli

The 21st century so far hasn’t been the best of times for America. First 9/11, then a financial crisis and deep recession, then a global pandemic without recent precedent. The economy has suffered, and politics has been upended. American self-confidence has been badly bruised, and public trust in institutions has plummeted. What can we do about it?

That’s the question that John Cogan and Kevin Warsh, both policy veterans and Journal contributors, asked themselves in September 2020 when prompted by former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. She had just taken over as director of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, where both men are affiliated, and she made a pained but probing observation.

As Mr. Warsh tells it, Ms. Rice said that while “people know what we conservatives believe about economic policy, it doesn’t seem like we’re winning. It doesn’t seem like we’re persuading people.” American policy makers and businesspeople, and leaders around the world, “are less sure why we believe what we believe, and they’re less sure why they should believe it, too.”

The two men treated Ms. Rice’s lament as a challenge and set out to write what Mr. Cogan describes as “a call to action.” Titled “Reinvigorating Economic Governance” and just released, it outlines a policy framework based “on our nation’s foundational principle of natural liberty.” Governments at all levels, Mr. Cogan says, aren’t dealing effectively with America’s challenges: “It’s because economic policy has strayed from what I think of as the first principles.”

[snip]

Those foundations—Mr. Cogan’s first principles—are private property rights, the rule of law, free and competitive markets, and limited government. The last includes “subsidiarity,” meaning that no central authority should do what can be done by a more local body, and no public institution should do what can be left to private enterprise.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: economics; freemarkets; limitedgovernment; privateproperty; theruleoflaw
In another WSJ article, that reviews a book about Alexis de Tocqueville, the 1800s French author of "Democracy in America", Tocqueville is reported as pondering whether the "search for equality will destroy Liberty", and together with discussion of "first principles" that question is extremely timely today.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-man-who-understood-democracy-book-review-history-politics-notes-from-america-11651245341?st=wmldxy51edoukg0&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

1 posted on 05/01/2022 12:46:26 PM PDT by Wuli
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To: Wuli

They should include Americas decline in moral clarity. The Struggle between Right and Wrong needs Truth as a Value.


2 posted on 05/01/2022 12:51:35 PM PDT by griswold3 (When chaos serves the State, the State will encourage chaos)
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To: Wuli

If we reset the Fed Gov to 1800’s only without slavery, I’d be fine with that.


3 posted on 05/01/2022 12:51:45 PM PDT by Bayard
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To: Wuli
"...Mr. Cogan’s first principles—are private property rights, the rule of law, free and competitive markets, and limited government."

There should have beem a sixth: religious liberty.

4 posted on 05/01/2022 12:52:32 PM PDT by jackibutterfly (May the 10 just men lacking in Sodom be found in America, for it’s sake of survival.)
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To: Wuli

Rice is likely to be the main Bush/Cheney/Romney faction’s candidate.


5 posted on 05/01/2022 12:53:55 PM PDT by aynrandfreak (Being a Democrat means never having to say you're sorry)
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To: Wuli

America is a much different place today than it was not all that long ago. Different in terms of demographics, culture, political views, and even morality. Our social fabric and attitudes have changed profoundly. We don’t cherish the things we once did. JMHO


6 posted on 05/01/2022 12:54:49 PM PDT by Starboard
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To: griswold3

Pls see my #6.


7 posted on 05/01/2022 12:55:49 PM PDT by Starboard
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To: Wuli

the LEFT has moved on from equality

equity(equal outcomes) is the new principle

who decides the outcome? why govt of course

pure tyranny


8 posted on 05/01/2022 12:56:35 PM PDT by joshua c (Dump the LEFT. Cable tv, Big tech, national name brands)
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To: jackibutterfly
Whoops - I forgot a part of that paragraph:

""...Mr. Cogan’s first principles—are private property rights, the rule of law, free and competitive markets, and limited government. THE LAST INCLUDES “SUBSIDIARITY,"... "

There should have beem a sixth: religious liberty.

9 posted on 05/01/2022 12:58:21 PM PDT by jackibutterfly (May the 10 just men lacking in Sodom be found in America, for it’s sake of survival.)
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To: Wuli

Wonder where these guys come down on free trade. A good test would be to ask them if they like tariffs.


10 posted on 05/01/2022 12:59:20 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: Wuli

America’s first principal is GOD!

Our country has been under attack since before it was established.


11 posted on 05/01/2022 12:59:34 PM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: Wuli

If we don’t stop the invasion, we won’t have a country.


12 posted on 05/01/2022 12:59:48 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin ( (Natural born citizens are born here of citizen parents)(Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: aynrandfreak

“Rice is likely to be the main Bush/Cheney/Romney faction’s candidate.”

That idea that would be a shame to be used to inspire someone to not read the whole article. The Hoover Institution has been home to more than one highly principled Conservatives including the great Thomas Sowell, among others.


13 posted on 05/01/2022 1:02:05 PM PDT by Wuli
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To: griswold3

America needs to return to God. He alone can heal our land.


14 posted on 05/01/2022 1:13:52 PM PDT by FES0844
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To: Wuli

Stuff your “Conservative” crap. The Shrubs, Mittens and Traitor John a claim it as a shield.

It’s MAGA now.

America First.


15 posted on 05/01/2022 1:15:12 PM PDT by Macoozie (Handcuffs and Orange Jumpsuits)
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To: Wuli
What can we do about it?



16 posted on 05/01/2022 1:16:18 PM PDT by stars & stripes forever (Blessed the nation whose GOD is the LORD. ~ Psalm 33:12)
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To: aynrandfreak
Rice is likely to be the main Bush/Cheney/Romney faction’s candidate.

In a normal world DeSantis/Rice would be a good balanced ticket, but after Dick Cheney and Mike Pence, I don't trust a non-MAGA anymore than Khamanei, so it's either Trump/DeSantis or DeSantis/Greene.

17 posted on 05/01/2022 1:42:41 PM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: griswold3
America Needs a Return to First Principles

GOD!


18 posted on 05/01/2022 1:45:24 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Wuli

Good luck with that. We/re coming to the cul de sac on the road to perdition.


19 posted on 05/01/2022 2:19:47 PM PDT by VTenigma (Conspiracy theory is the new "spoiler alert")
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To: mountainlion

The rot that has been accepted and caused by the criminally corrupt while they weaponize agencies and turn them inward against its people cannot be solved by a nicey nicey approach, its entrenched, its evil and it will not go quietly.


20 posted on 05/01/2022 2:46:56 PM PDT by ronnie raygun
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