From the Archives: April 2020

Excerpts from Reason's vaults

15 Years Ago

April 2005

"Less than two weeks after a 40-foot wave flattened swaths of Southeast Asia, the United States slapped a new round of tariffs on India and Thailand. As the federal government promised $350 million and private citizens pledged even more, the message to survivors was clear: Have our Marines, our pity, and our cash, but for the love of God, do not send us your cheap shrimp."
Kerry Howley
"Tidal Waves and Tariffs"

20 Years Ago

April 2000

"Though the House was to impeach Clinton anyway, the growing mantra from that point forward was 'move on.' And move on the president has, in a neverending search for his place in History. Somebody should tell him that a special place has been reserved just for him."
Charles Paul Freund
"Secrets of the Clinton Spectacle"

"It's hard to imagine how different the American economy would look today had telecommuting been suppressed by force of law. While unionists didn't succeed in that goal, they did have every reason to expect that Washington would back them in the lesser objective of making sure that home-based work was regulated at least as stringently as centralized workplaces; that the government, as opposed to (heaven forfend!) individual workers themselves, would decide what working conditions were tolerable; and that talk of 'privacy' and 'worker choice' would be dismissed as irrelevant special pleading concocted by employers. Such premises had, after all, gone unchallenged for years in the hermetic world of 'industrial relations.'"
Walter Olson
"Office Managers"

25 Years Ago

April 1995

"So far, no American politician has been willing to say that if stopping illegal immigration requires repealing the 13th Amendment, then by God that's what we need to do. But just about anything else goes. National ID cards, computerized federal databases, doctors arresting their patients on the operating table, requiring teachers to rat on their students and encouraging the students to rat on their parents, pitching newborn babies back across the border: The Cold War had nothing on this new battle against immigration."
Glenn Garvin
"No Fruits, No Shirts, No Service"

30 Years Ago

April 1990

"The Cruzan family and the community of legal scholars are not the only ones anxiously awaiting the Supreme Court's decision in Cruzan v. Harmon, which is expected early this summer. For the leaders of the right-to-die movement—a loose federation of several organizations that advocate the legalization of passive or active euthanasia—the Cruzan case is an important landmark."
Daniel Gross
"Don't Block the Exit"

"As the apartheid regime crumbles, there is a real danger that South Africa will exchange one oppressive system for another. The collapse of socialism in the Soviet Bloc gives hope that this danger can be avoided. Rather than fight capitalism, South Africa's people must strengthen their beleaguered market forces and declare war on centralized government power."
Walter Williams
"Triumph Over Capitalism"

45 Years Ago

April 1975

"How often have you heard disgruntled members of the electorate complain that, once again, they were forced to choose between the lesser of two evils? All too often, in these days of inept and untrustworthy politicians. Most election contests offer a choice between Tweedledee and Tweedledum, or no choice at all. The miasma of political me-too-ism has been building to a crescendo in this nation since the unfortunate 1940s and offers little sign of abatement. The two major political parties appear as carbon copies of one another, and their offerings at the polls represent precious little difference in political philosophy, let alone morality."
Ridgway Foley
"A Meaningful Franchise"

"The new National Director of the Libertarian Party is Ned Hutchinson, a 44-year-old former Reagan official. He joined Ronald Reagan's administration in 1967 and for the past six years has been Reagan's appointments secretary, in charge of recommending to Reagan appointments to judicial, executive, and other government posts. On January 30, his own job finished, he broke ranks with the GOP and joined the Libertarian Party."
Lynn Kinsky
"Reagan Aide Defects to LP"