David Morris
David Morris is Vice President and director of the New Rules Project at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which is based in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. focusing on local economic and social development.
Articles by this author
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Views Saturday, May 30, 2015 Adam Smith vs. Ayn Rand In a 2011 CNN/Tea Party Express Republican Debate moderator Wolf Blitzer famously asked prominent libertarian Representative Ron Paul a “hypothetical question” about the soon-to-be-operational Obamacare: What should be done when a 30-year old man decides not to buy health insurance and then... Read more |
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Views Sunday, April 05, 2015 Can One Union Save the Post Office? Let’s begin with the bad news. The U.S. Post Office, the oldest, most respected and ubiquitous of all public institutions is fast disappearing. In recent years management has shuttered half the nation's mail processing plants and put 10 percent of all local post offices up for sale. A third of all... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, March 25, 2015 The Politics of the NCAA Sweet Sixteen When television cameras zoomed in on Kansas Governor Sam Brownback in the middle of the Kansas-Wichita State NCAA basketball game a thunderous chorus of boos broke out. Viewers gained a rare glimpse of the politics behind March Madness. The announcers pointedly ignored the boos. Viewers might have... Read more |
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Views Thursday, March 05, 2015 The Other FCC Decision and the Pivotal Fight for Local Broadband On February 28th the Federal Communications Commission issued two decisions. One concerned net neutrality, the other municipal broadband. The first garnered by far the most attention, as it should. Net neutrality affects everyone and locks down a fundamental principle for Internet access. But as... Read more |
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Views Friday, February 27, 2015 When Politics Is Local, Who Decides? Who decides? Conservative Republicans in Texas are split on the issue. Darren Hodges, a Tea Party councilman in the West Texas city of Fort Stockton, fiercely defends his town’s recent decision to ban plastic bags. City officials have a “God-given right” to make that decision he tells the New York... Read more |
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Views Monday, December 22, 2014 Will Pope Francis Put His Institution Where His Values Are? On December 10th the Vatican released the text of still another vigorous message by Pope Francis in support of oppressed workers. “(M)illions of people today – children, women and men of all ages – are deprived of freedom and are forced to live in conditions akin to slavery,” he asserts. “I think... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, December 17, 2014 A Private-Public Partnership That Works Every month the federal government issues a new jobs report. The stock market gyrates, pundits pundify, politicians politic. Whether employment expands slowly or fast one central fact remains. The fastest growing occupations all pay low wages: retail salespersons, cashiers, food preparation and... Read more |
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Views Monday, December 08, 2014 On Drugs, Privacy, and Public Health: Lessons from Alaska Politicians left and right often use pet phrases to justify their positions: states rights, individual liberty, personal responsibility. Rarely are these consistently applied. Even more rarely do politicians or political parties offer a coherent framework for deciding when a higher level of... Read more |
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Views Thursday, November 06, 2014 Please Note: Democratic Candidates Lost, But Progressive Issues Won On November 4th Democrats lost big when they ran a candidate but won big when they ran an issue. In 42 states about 150 initiatives were on the ballot. The vast majority did not address issues dividing the two parties (e.g. raising the mandatory retirement age for judges, salary increases for state... Read more |
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Views Thursday, October 16, 2014 Scotland and Catalonia: Fraternal But Not Twins Scotland and Catalonia are brothers in arms. Independence movement leaders communicate regularly. On September 18, when Scotland voted on uncoupling from the United Kingdom Catalans were there. When Catalonia votes on independence, a vote originally scheduled for November 9th but delayed pending a... Read more |