by Welcome to Exiled Policy. I started this on a whim to serve as an outlet to write about policy issues I care about but don’t get to work on because of the focus of my day job. These issues include but aren’t limited to federal spending, trade, overregulation, and separation of powers. These are the issues that you can expect to see me writing about in my little corner of the digital space.
For the past several years, I did work on many of the issues I mentioned, but I’ve shifted my professional focus, leaving a job of several years to focus on a limited issue set that has enjoyed bipartisan support. After the events of January 6, I decided that it was time to move on and focus on a narrower set of issues. In short, the limitations I put on myself in my professional life are entirely my fault, but a change was necessary to preserve my own sanity.
For those who don’t know me, I come at policy from a classically liberal/libertarian viewpoint. I firmly believe that freer markets lead to freer people. That’s not to say that I don’t believe in any regulation, but regulation should be targeted rather than one-size-fits-all.
I tend to view social issues through a “progressive” lens in the sense that, as John Stuart Mill wrote in On Liberty, “[T]he only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” I don’t care what people do as long as they don’t inflict harm on others.
I believe very much in the classically liberal ideas of the Founding Fathers. As imperfect as the Founding Fathers were, the concepts of a constitutionally limited government and self-government were unique experiments, and those concepts are worth preserving. Of course, America has experienced more than a few occasions when we’ve fallen very short of the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Although we’ve fallen short, we have to work to make things better for everyone in a way that preserves prosperity and opportunity.
This is the spirit in which I’ve started Exiled Policy. I don’t expect this place to take off or anything like that. I’m not interested in money for what appears here. It’s just a place for me to continue writing about policy issues I’m passionate about that don’t fit into my day-to-day work. Maybe you’ll like it. Maybe you won’t. I just hope I make you think.
