Deregulator: Alive since '85!

(Originally published at deregulator.net) For most of my adult life, I’ve thought my belief system, or “ mattering map ,” as my friend  Virginia Postrel  said, landed on the “center-right.” Limited, constitutional government focused on expanding freedom and defending the rule of law. Federalism that protects individual rights. Entrepreneurial capitalism, allowing for a social safety net. Liberal views (in the sense articulated beautifully by  Deirdre McCloskey ) on cultural and social policies. Those views led to a tentative identification with the Republican Party. Democrats generally have been hostile to markets and federalism; the cultural left has grown increasingly illiberal (e.g., the sackings of  James Bennet  and   Donald McNeil  by  The New York Times ). Libertarians have avoided building coalitions with people who take issue with any segment of the party dogma. Professionally, I’m a journalist. I may have a point of view. But I’ve t...

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder drew glowing media attention last week as he gave the  Weil Lecture on American Citizenship  at the UNC School of Law. He vowed a new round of lawsuits challenging whatever form the next round of North Carolina congressional and legislative districts take unless they’re drawn to his satisfaction. “North Carolina really is, in some ways, ground zero for partisan and racial gerrymandering,” Holder said. “And the only way, I think, to crack that which is happening in North Carolina is through the courts, and use those decisions to get a more fair congressional delegation from North Carolina.” The former AG has no interest in fairness. His current role, after all, is chairman of the  National Democratic Redistricting Committee , “which helped bankroll two gerrymandering lawsuits [in N.C.] in 2019 — the first against our state legislative districts, and the second against our U.S. House districts,” the  News & Observer  re...