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The future of conservatism in California is explored by Tom Fuentes in the current, spring issue of Local Liberty, the newsletter of the Claremont Institute's Center for Local Government. Fuentes was for 20 years the Chairman of the Orange County Republican Party and is now Director of the Orange County Office of the Claremont Institute. Among other subjects, Fuentes discusses redistricting reforms, illegal immigration, Governor Schwarzenegger's policies, big local government conservatives, and California's future.
Local Liberty's articles include essays on policy issues facing local elected officials, such as taxes, property rights, illegal immigration, and regulation. Book reviews reflect on the latest books of use to citizens who want to restrain their local governments. Local Liberty regularly features updates of the legal strategy of the Claremont Institute's Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence.
Our senior correspondent Conor Friedersdorf (a former local politics newspaper reporter himself) explains why local government reporting is often so poor—and thus how indifference to local politics encourages local sleaziness. My editorial praises crusading libertarian attorney Clint Bolick, but I strongly disapprove of a key part of his argument in Leviathan—Bolick's insistence that local governments refrain from legislating on moral issues, in particular sodomy laws. Local governments must follow the rule of law and protect individual rights but within a moral framework that the community may articulate through legislation. That moral nexus between government and faith-based institutions is explored by Joseph Knippenberg, who reviews two recent books on President Bush's faith-based initiative.
The Los Angeles County Seal controversy and eminent domain abuse are among the subjects engaged by John Eastman, director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence. Read excerpts from the Claremont Institute brief in the Supreme Court case of Kelo v. City of New London.
Liberty is one; thus the case for property rights, religious liberty, and self-government is one. Local Liberty dedicates itself to applying the principles of the American founding to American local politics, especially as it is practiced in southern California. American politics on all levels has deteriorated considerably in its theory and practice, but the effect of the Progressive Revolution, with its disparaging of constitutional practices, has been felt most decisively on the local level, with devastating results for liberty.
To receive a free subscription to Local Liberty send your mailing address to Lindsay White at lwhite@claremont.org.
Past issues of Local Liberty and much more from the Center for Local Government can be read at www.localliberty.org.
The mission of the Claremont Institute is to restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life. 