Entries by John Horst

The Case for an Article V Convention of the States

I am in favor of an Article V Convention of the States to amend the U.S. Constitution. I compare the Daniel Shays Rebellion with the January 6 Capitol riots. The original Convention of the States which produced the current Constitution was precipitated largely by the Daniel Shays Rebellion.

Digital Liberties and Roe v Wade

While these times might feel unprecedented, we have been here before. What is so disorienting is how far removed the realities of American life have become from what we otherwise believe it means to be free.

On July 4th, 2022: Our forebears have shown us the way forward

Here I join other conservatives to call for a Convention of the States to amend the U.S. Constitution. But, as far as I might have any say in the matter, such a convention must also entertain my neighbors’ desire to address women’s rights. I might disapprove of their proposal, but I will defend their right to bring it forward and advocate for it.

Crypto is the Future… But Peter Thiel is Wrong

Peter Thiel – who together with Elon Musk built PayPal – calls Bitcoin critics like Warren Buffet and Jaime Dimon the “gerontocracy.” I’ll be a bit more colorful and call them the senile idiocracy… I wrote the Digital Liberties Amendment because I believe Thiel’s foundational case for crypto is right. But here Thiel is making the same mistake made by the senile idiocracy…

Wealth, Trade, Crypto, and Freedom

In America there was once a day when “nature provide[d] so well for human industry that there is no class of theoretical speculators.” It was a time when [p]olitics therefore occupie[d] only a small corner of the [social] canvas.” Media was not preoccupied with keeping readers angry and afraid. No one “…devote[d] as much space to matters of general import affecting government as to the price of cotton. What space remains is monopolized by discussions of local interest, which feed public curiosity without in any way causing social turmoil.” These were the observations of Alexis de Tocqueville, writing to his father about America on June 3, 1831.