Ep 58: Political Expression, Civil Rights, and Catholic Libertarianism with Stephanie Slade

Ep 58: Political Expression, Civil Rights, and Catholic Libertarianism with Stephanie Slade

Stephanie is a senior editor at Reason magazine, a fellow at the Action Institute, and a media fellow at the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America. She wrote a recent piece for Reason where she explores the relationship between political expression and civil rights. She argues against the claim made by Vivek Ramaswamy, a 2024 Republican presidential hopeful, that political expression should be a civil right. Slade demonstrates that making political expression a protected class is a threat to freedom of association and that organizations and business should not be forced to accept those that hold political views that are radically contradictory to their own and explains why political expression is essential for a free society. We also discuss her Catholic faith, the state of libertarianism within Catholicism, and what she finds appealing about the Catholic tradition.

Additional Resources

Political expression and civil rights: https://reason.com/2023/02/22/no-vivek-ramaswamy-political-expression-shouldnt-be-a-civil-right/

How the Right Started the Culture Wars: https://reason.com/2017/03/23/christians-started-the-wedding/

Stephanie Slade on Twitter: @sladesr

Stephanie Slade Website: https://about.me/sladesr