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In this episode I had the chance to talk with a good friend Michael S. Murphy who is a Wisconsin law enforcement officer, former vice-chair in the Republican Party of Wisconsin and currently the Central Regional Director for the Republican Liberty Caucus.  Michael has had quite a journey in his travel fighting for liberty and freedom. Michael and I go into some really interesting topics including the Militarization of our police, the ever mounting incidents with police and civilians as well as benefits and pitfalls of being in the Republican Party.  When Michael was in the Republican Party fighting the good fight he had a lot of interesting battles that I think you will enjoy hearing about. Liberty Flame of the Week: Militarization of Police How to Get Involved: The best way to get involved in to join outside organizations fighting for liberty such as Campaign for Liberty and the Republican Liberty Caucus. Resources Mentioned Republican Liberty Caucus Republican Party of Wisconsin Republican Party Campaign for Liberty

In this episode I am joined by Author, former Entrepreneur and MBA Peter Francis Fenwick.  Peter has written two books covering the topics of Liberty, his first book was Fragility of Freedom which explores the theory that underpins our systems of liberty, prosperity and justice and his latest book is Liberty at Risk: Tackling Today’s Political Problems which is a compilation of twenty-three essays on current affairs from a libertarian perspective. Liberty at Risk is designed to get you thinking about today's political problems. You can read one short chapter each night for twenty-three nights, and each day contemplate a new topic. Liberty Flame of the Week: War on Drugs How to Get Involved: Get involved in or form local Liberty groups such as Liberty on the Rock, the more people we can get involved the stronger our Liberty movement will grow. Resources Mentioned Book: Liberty at Risk: Tackling Today's Political Problems  Book: The Fragility of Freedom: Why subsidiarity matters Personal Website Liberty on the Rocks

In this episode I am joined by President and Chairman of South Carolina Campaign for Liberty Talbert Black Jr.  Talbert has had an exciting journey similar to my own on this path towards liberty and political activism.  We discuss how Ron Paul helped to launch Talbert's political activism and how he has dedicated his activism on local and state level politics where he believes you can have the biggest effect. Liberty Flame of the Week: Should churches keep or lose tax exempt status How to Get Involved: Attend a Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership class and focus on local and state politics to have the largest effect. Resources Mentioned South Carolina Campaign for Liberty Palmetto Liberty PAC FACL (Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership) Upcoming classes: Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership Request your own FACL Class LPAC (Liberty Political Action Conference)

In this episode I am joined by William Irwin Ph.D. who is not only the Chair of Philosophy at King's College in Pennsylvania but is also the author of many books including an excellent new book called Free Dakota which is a fictional story about a group of liberty minded people who decide to try and secede from the United States: Don Jenkins wants a divorce from the United States. He’s tired of a government that can't balance its budget but thinks it can dictate how much soda he should drink. Combining political intrigue and political theory, Free Dakota explores the new possibilities when Don follows the call of a charismatic diner owner who promises a libertarian paradise on the prairie. After years of struggle they have the votes for a peaceful secession, but the feds say it's 'til death do us part. Stopping the feds may cost more in integrity than in blood, however, when Don has to decide whether to stay after an assassination changes everything. Bill and I discuss the idea of secession as an option in modern America and if it is a path that we need to go down now, sometime in the future or ever.  In addition we also discussed the positive idea of using pop culture and stories to spread what otherwise can be very serious topics and by doing so reach a wider audience. Liberty Flame of the Week: Gay Marriage and how the government should or should not be involved How to Get Involved: Listening to podcasts and gathering together with liberty minded individuals to form community and expand the liberty idea. Resources Mentioned Book: Free Dakota Book: The Free Market Existentialist: Capitalism without Consumerism Book:

In this episode I talk with Jeffrey Tucker the founder of Liberty.me and director of digital development for the Foundation for Economic Education.  Jeffrey has dedicated his life to advancing the idea of Liberty. Jeffrey and I dive into many topics including the tendency for society to direct toward an authoritarian state, how technology such as bitcoin, AirBnB, the sharing economy and the internet in general helps us break free from an authoritarian state and how liberty has flourished in the past and how it is growing again today. Liberty.me which is one of Jeffrey's current projects is a liberty minded community and platform to publish work including blogs, podcasts and video into a community.  In addition with the community we can leverage Search Engine Optimization to help spread the message of liberty. Liberty Flame of the Week: Immigration. Jeffrey goes into his thoughts on how immigration should be handled from a liberty perspective. How to Get Involved: Start a meetup, check out Jeffrey Tucker's article on Fee.org Resources Mentioned Liberty.me Fee.org Book: Bit by Bit: How P2P Is Freeing the World Bitcoin Wikipedia Entry

Michael is from County Wicklow Ireland and has had a very exciting journey towards Liberty.  A journey that has taken him from being an environmentalist all the way to being a strong small government advocate. Michael has written a book "The State of Freedom and Justice: Government as if people matter most" which dives deep into his thoughts on how a perfect free society would work. "Comparing the consensus theory of the origin of the state, popularized by Rousseau, with the less well-known conflict theory as expounded by Franz Oppenheimer, the author argues that most states have arisen from the conquest of one class over another, or one tribe over another. Thus the modern state is characterized by a ruling class exercising the coercive power of the state, denying freedom and justice to the rest in varying degrees." Michael and I also talk about a quick overview of Ireland's political system. Liberty Flame of the Week: Lesser of two evils argument How to Get Involved: Educate yourself on Liberty by reading and discussing Liberty topics with others. Resources Mentioned Michael's book on Amazon: "The State of Freedom and Justice: Government as if people matter most" Michael's book on his website. Book: Frederick Bastiat’s The Law Book: Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry in the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth The Remedy

This episode of Politics Ignited is like our about us page, letting you know who I am as the host and why I am doing the show. Todd D. Welch here the host of Politics Ignited which is a liberty minded podcast helping to ignite the flames of liberty around the world by interviewing exciting political activists on how they started down their path towards liberty, what they are currently working on and how they think people like you and I can best get involved to spread the ideas of Liberty. I personally started my path towards Liberty when I was in college about 22 years old and I realized something was not quite right as up until that time I had just voted Democrat because that is what my parents had done.  I started researching the different political parties and reading their platforms, when I came on the Libertarian Party platform it just seemed to fit and that is how stared down my path towards Liberty. I joined the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin and quickly became the coordinator for the 3rd district doing what I could to fan the flames of Liberty and learning all along the way.  I was still very early in my knowledge of politics and Liberty in general but about this time in 2007 this guy by the name of Ron Paul, whom I had no clue of before this, decided to run for President on the Republican Party ticket and suddenly on a national stage I heard the thoughts I had been thinking put to words and that is when my activism really took off. I quickly jumped into the Ron Paul campaign and joined the Republican Party to do everything I could to push the message of Liberty as far as possible.  While the end result was not what we had all hoped the brush fires of Liberty had been ignited in millions across this country and I became a state coordinator in Wisconsin for Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty where I would continue pushing Liberty for many years. In 2012 when Ron Paul ran for president again the Liberty momentum propelled me to be elected to be a national delegate to the Republican National Convention in Florida where with hundreds of other Ron Paul delegates we fought the establishment machine and while we where not ultimately successful at stopping the underhanded tactics to smother Liberty