Tag Archives: Casey Given

Considering the title, you might think this piece is a love letter to President Barack Obama. It’s not. On the contrary, I’m a libertarian who is on the record objecting to just about every major policy push the Obama administration has made.

Nevertheless, I think my colleagues on the center-right need to recognize what a transformative president Obama has been in an ideological sense. Barack Obama will not go down in the history books as a forgettable or ineffective commander-in-chief. To the contrary, he marks a major shift in liberal politics from the Third Way compromise era characterized by the Clinton era to unapologetic progressivism.

Last Wednesday night, a group of approximately 50 protesters interrupted a student event with famed venture capitalist Peter Thiel, prompting it to end early before its question and answer session. As a UC Berkeley graduate and the founder of the university’s libertarian club Students for Liberty, I could not be more ashamed of my alma mater. Despite being hailed as the home of the Free Speech Movement, it’s clear that Berkeley still needs to learn what free speech is.

Editor Casey Given was published in Watchdog on the benefits and dangers of President Obama’s plan to combat militarized police.

President Obama announced last week a forthcoming plan to curb the increasingly “militarized culture” among America’s police forces in wake of Michael Brown shooting in Missouri.

The reform is expected to take multiple forms, including an executive order streamlining military surplus gear programs available to local enforcement agencies, congressional funding for local law enforcement agencies to purchase body cameras and a Department of Justice guidelines restricting racial profiling.