The article argues that recent executive overreach and politicization have severely undermined established norms of U.S. civil-military relations. To restore professional standards, the incoming Congress must actively exercise its oversight powers, moving beyond mere criticism to demanding transparency in defense policy and personnel decisions. Key reforms include enforcing meritocratic promotion processes, requiring documented justification for senior officer removals, and preventing the partisan use of the military. These actions are crucial for bolstering public trust and ensuring the military remains a nonpartisan instrument of civilian control.
A Libertarian Warned of the New Right’s Authoritarianism 40 Years Ago—Today’s National Conservatives Are Proving Him Right
English Summary
The article warns that modern National Conservatives (NatCons) are repeating a decades-old authoritarian trend by favoring state intervention and economic nationalism over free markets. NatCons, like other political factions, attempt to subordinate free enterprise to an undefined concept of the "common good," advocating for protectionism and state planning to achieve a national interest. This approach, the analysis argues, distorts markets and diminishes individual liberty by allowing the government to dictate economic outcomes. For policy, the implication is that policymakers must reject both left-wing and right-wing attempts to use centralized power, focusing instead on strict limitations on government authority to preserve economic predictability and individual freedom.
中文摘要
本文警告指出，現代的國家保守派（NatCons）正在重蹈數十年來威權化的覆轍，其傾向性是偏好國家干預和經濟民族主義，而非自由市場。國家保守派如同其他政治派系一樣，試圖將自由企業活動從屬於一個未定義的「共同利益」概念，主張採取保護主義和國家規劃來實現國家利益。分析認為，這種做法扭曲了市場機制，並削弱了個人自由，因為它允許政府來決定經濟的最終走向。從政策層面來看，其意涵是政策制定者必須拒絕左翼和右翼都試圖利用集權權力的做法，而應專注於對政府權力進行嚴格限制，以維護經濟的可預測性與個人自由。
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