Outside the Beltway

Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson is running for president.

The race for the 2012 Republican nomination is missing the one thing that GOP nomination battles have almost always had, a frontrunner.

The antiwar movement has been strangely silent despite the fact that U.S. foreign policy hasn’t really changed that much since Barack Obama became President.

It’s institutions of government – not its size – that matter when it comes to how good a job the government does.

Opposition to marriage equality is no longer the wedge issue it used to be.

For many Ph.Ds, the Ed.D. represents the ticket to the administrative high life, the white flag to academic scholarship, and the tramp stamp of the compromising careerist.

Ron Paul has won the CPAC straw poll for a second straight year. But YAF has voted him off its board over his opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The new Chairman of the American Conservative Union seems to want to mend fences with social conservatives, even if that means throwing new friends under the bus.

The media are wildly exaggerating the heckling at a gathering of conservatives.

Ron Paul is poised to win the CPAC Straw Poll. So what?

On the eve of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, another shot has been fired by those boycotting the meeting due to the presence of a gay conservative group.

Taking a dive into Mark Levin’s view of Federalism.

They’re from the government, and they’re here to take that tasty snack out of your hands.

Examining Levin’s examination of the Constitution, jurisprudence, and property rights.

In response to charges that it was attempting restrict abortion access beyond the boundaries of the Hyde Amendment, the GOP has agreed to drop the phrase “forcible rape” from its abortion bill.

The GOP is facing a battle between its fiscal conservatism and i’s military adventurism.

The US drug policy gang: Dopey, Boozy, Smokey and Stupid?

Once again, the frontrunners for the 2012 GOP nomination aren’t looking very good at all.

Wondering why CATO doesn’t rail against big business is like demanding to know why NARAL doesn’t spend more time advocating for the plight of stray cats or why PETA doesn’t seem to care about the homeless.

In a new interview, Justice Antonin Scalia says that the 14th Amendment does not bar discrimination against women, whether it’s done by public or private entities. He couldn’t be more wrong.

As they did last year, several top social conservative activist groups are boycotting next year’s Conservative Political Action Conference over the extension of an invitation to a gay conservative group, and nobody seems to care that they won’t be there.

Was John McCain’s place of birth as big an issue to the fringe left as Obama’s has been (and continues to be) to the fringe right?

Contrary to current conservative talking points, Net Neutrality is not a nefarious government scheme to takeover the Internet, but is aimed to address a real problem. Like most ideas that involve the government, though, it doesn’t really address the real source of the problem; not enough freedom

The institutions charged with solving our Information Age social problems are stuck in the Industrial Age.

Judicial activism doesn’t mean “reaching a decision I don’t like.”

The weekend arrest of a Columbia University Professor for an apparently consensual act raises some interesting questions about why precisely a specific act should be subject to criminal prosecution.

What will Republicans think of a candidate for President who admitted to smoking marijuana as recently as two years ago?

Sorting out, to some degree, the role of the states in our constitutional order.

Further thoughts on a rather radical proposed Amendment to the Constitution, prompted by a link from Instapundit.

Incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is speaking positively about an Amendment that would drastically alter the relationship between the Federal Government and the states, and a method of ratifying it that could do serious damage to the Constitution as a whole.

Thomas Ricks laments that the combination of the all-volunteer military and lower top marginal rates mean that the wealthy have “checked out of America and moved into physical and mental gated communities.” To solve this problem, he proposed bringing back the draft.

Are the American people finally waking up to the absurdity of TSA security theater? One can only hope they are.

The battle between social and fiscal conservatives continues, with the SoCons now saying that criticism of South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint is now considered evidence of ideological impurity.

The response from social conservatives to the call for a truce on social issues is about what you’d expect.

The GOP is being urged to avoid social issues and concentrate on reducing spending, shrinking government, and economic freedom. It’s a good idea.

Former Congressman Bob Barr argues that the right should not be so eager to rehabilitate George W. Bush. He’s right.

He’s the darkest of dark horses right now, but Gary Johnson stands as the heir apparent to Ron Paul’s surprisingly energetic 2008 run for the GOP nomination.

Will the incoming “Tea Party” caucus in the House and Senate force the GOP to reconsider its views on foreign policy? Don’t count on it.

Republicans either lost or barely won a whole lot of races because their vote was split with minor party candidates.

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson To Launch Presidential Bid In February?