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Week in Review: Living Up to Our Constitution

September 18, 2021

This week marked the 234th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. But while this founding document has been law for more than two centuries, it remains first and foremost a promise that we as Americans must live up to.

Goldwater Institute Vice President for Litigation Timothy Sandefur writes at In Defense of Liberty that these days, it seems like many Americans have abandoned a reverence for the Constitution, with some even openly hostile to it. That’s a disturbing trend, because “the Constitution plays a critical role in our democratic system: It places needed legal boundaries on the power of government. The Constitution marks the difference between a republic that respects the rule of law, and a mere rule of the mob.”

But even still, the Constitution is just words on paper—unless we truly commit ourselves to fulfilling the promises that it makes. “If we are to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity—and ensure that its promises of protection are worthy of our respect—then we must always revere the principles of our nation’s fundamental law and public servants who will honor those promises,” Sandefur writes.

Read his full blog post here.

We Can’t Tax-and-Spend Our Way to “Recovery”

Recently, the U.S. House passed a $3.5 trillion budget plan, which sets Americans up to fund a huge expansion of government into areas that are usually handled by states. But as Goldwater Institute President and CEO Victor Riches writes this week in The Hill, Congress’s “profligate tax-and-spend mentality conveniently omits one extremely important factor: The United States has barely started to recover from the wreckage inflicted by a pandemic that shows few signs of ending anytime soon.”

We can’t tax-and-spend our way to national recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, lawmakers ought to follow the example of states that are “provid[ing] the blueprint for economic recovery and success.” One of those is our home state of Arizona, Riches writes: “This past year, the Goldwater Institute, working closely with Gov. Doug Ducey and our allies, passed the lowest flat income tax rate in the country—saving Arizonans hundreds of millions of dollars and making the state one of the most tax-friendly places to live and work.” The federal government should follow Arizona’s lead here and strive to “replicate the actions taken at the state level that encourage businesses to flourish in an ever-changing economic landscape.”

You can read Riches’ full op-ed here.

Government’s Free Speech Crackdown Hampers Medical Innovation

When it comes to understanding threats to our health, our knowledge does not remain static. Innovations evolve, as does the guidance about when, why, and how available tools can be utilized to protect ourselves. That’s definitely been true of the COVID-19 virus—yet the government’s crackdown on speech risks hurting our ability to harness the medical innovations that are out there.

This week in RealClearPolicy, Goldwater Institute Director of Healthcare Policy Naomi Lopez and medical device regulatory attorney Dvorah Richman write that the Biden administration’s new set of guidelines to halt the sharing of so-called misinformation not only do they pose a clear and growing threat to our free speech rights, but they also ignore the fact that what we know about public health is constantly evolving, and that being able to communicate freely about these changes and about medical innovations can make a life-or-death difference—for this virus and for many other diseases.

“Government efforts to declare what is officially ‘true’ can be dangerous: Public health directives change as new realities present themselves,” Lopez and Richman write. “Government’s free speech crackdown means that we may be slamming the door shut on needed information and tools, leaving our frontline healthcare providers who are most responsible for our care less able to swiftly adapt to those changes.”

You can read their full analysis here. The Goldwater Institute is working to shine a light on the need to protect the sharing of medical information.

REGISTER NOW: Color and Conformity in America’s Cancel Culture

Whether in the media, the workplace, in communities, or on college campuses, cancel culture and identity politics are forcing Americans to conform to ideologies and identities that may not be their own.

On Thursday, September 30, join the Goldwater Institute and America’s Future in Scottsdale, Arizona, for a conversation with Christian Watson, political commentator and national spokesperson for Color Us United, about how young Americans can reclaim their individuality, take responsibility for their own lives, and chart their own pathway for success.

This event is part of the Goldwater Institute’s ongoing series of discussions regarding the rise of Critical Race Theory in America’s schools and society, halting the movement toward Marxism, and how Goldwater is working to ensure academic transparency in the classroom so parents know what is being taught to their children.

You can learn more about the event and register to attend here.

 

 

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