Freedom at Risk

by Buckley, James L.

• ISBN13: 9781594034787
• ISBN10: 1594034788
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-12-14
• Publisher: Encounter Books

Summary

James L. Buckley may be the only American alive who has held high office in each branch of the federal government as senator of New York, undersecretary of state under Ronald Reagan, and a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. His unique understanding of how Washington works equips him to address the intrusive and exponential growth of the federal government in the past forty years. In Freedom at Risk, Buckley's collected essays, musings, and speeches tell the real story of why government is incapable of managing an economy, and why the transformation of the federal government into a centrally administered welfare state is undermining the critical safeguards that the Founders wrote into the Constitution. Here, in a sober book of perceptive analysis spanning a lifetime in Washington, lies an outline of the steps that must be taken to save constitutional government, if that is still possible.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Overview	p. 5
On Liberty and the State	p. 6
In Sum: A Political Credo	p. 22
Governance	p. 25
On Becoming a United States Senator	p. 26
Overloading the Federal Horse	p. 41
The Federal Bureaucracy: Servant or Master?	p. 51
The New York City Fiscal Crisis	p. 62
Family, Community, and Responsible Citizenship	p. 73
The Role of a Judge	p. 81
The Constitution and the Courts: A Question of Legitimacy	p. 82
On Balancing Courts	p. 95
Religion and Public Service	p. 99
The Place of Religion in American Public Life	p. 100
A Catholic Judge in Caesar's Service	p. 109
The Environment	p. 117
Three Cheers for the Snail Darter	p. 118
Economics and the Environment: The Problems of Coexistence	p. 123
Energy and Its Regulation	p. 135
The Economics and Politics of Energy	p. 136
Ol' Debbil Oil	p. 148
Your Energy Regulators at Work	p. 157
Beyond the Water's Edge	p. 163
Vietnam and Its Aftermath	p. 164
The Mexico City Population Conference	p. 171
Reforms	p. 179
On Limiting Campaign Contributions	p. 180
An Alternative Reform: Term Limitations	p. 188
Reforming the Senate	p. 192
Cultural Drift	p. 195
Vietnam and the Cultural Revolution	p. 196
Abortion and the New Ethic	p. 201
Government-Sponsored Gambling	p. 205
Women's Rights	p. 209
The Case against the Equal Rights Amendment	p. 210
An ERA Progress Report	p. 218
Introducing the Human Life Amendment	p. 221
A Selection of Radio Commentaries	p. 237
Public and Private Morality	p. 238
In Defense of the Electoral College	p. 241
Security vs. Freedom	p. 244
Competition and the Postal Service	p. 247
Free Trade vs. Protectionism	p. 250
Tuition Tax Credits	p. 253
Barriers to Entry	p. 256
Conservatives vs. Corporate America	p. 259
Of Historical Interest	p. 263
Freezing the Chances for Peace	p. 264
Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: Defending the Right to Know	p. 274
A Midterm Assessment of the Carter Presidency	p. 286
Index	p. 295
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.