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Friday Interview: JLF Ready for Next 25 Years
Publisher's note: This post was created by the staff for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.
RALEIGH 2015 represents a major milestone for the John Locke Foundation. The nonprofit think tank celebrates its silver anniversary, marking 25 years of working to advance the fight for truth, for freedom, and for the future of North Carolina. New President and CEO Kory Swanson discussed JLF's plans to leap into its second quarter century during a recent conversation with Donna Martinez for Carolina Journal Radio. (Click here to find a station near you or to learn about the weekly CJ Radio podcast.)
Martinez: First of all, congratulations on your promotion. You are a longtime employee of the Locke Foundation. John Hood is now the chairman of the organization, and you're the president and CEO. So congratulations.
Swanson: Thank you. ... As you mentioned, it's our silver anniversary. We've been at this freedom business for over a quarter century now, and we look forward to another quarter century and longer. ... We are rolling out some new initiatives, including the First in Freedom initiative, which will take us into 2015 and beyond. We are going to begin looking at how free North Carolina is as a state, compared to other states in the nation. And [we've developed] an index which will show how free we are on several different fronts, including fiscal policy, regulatory policy, [health care] policy, and education policy, among others. And that index will provide a good marker for legislators as they prepare legislation. If it doesn't promote freedom in North Carolina, then we'll have to ask: Why are you doing it?
Martinez: A great question to ask of lawmakers. ... First in Freedom: I love that phrase. It has a rich history in our state. Tell us about that.
Swanson: Yes, it does. As a matter of fact, North Carolina was the first state to declare its independence from Great Britain in 1776 [through the April 12 adoption of the Halifax Resolves, the first official action in the American colonies calling for independence from Great Britain]. So it has a very rich history.
That's why we're known as the state that's first in freedom. And along with that, North Carolina played a very prominent role in the construction and development of the United States Constitution, and the North Carolina Constitution is a very interesting document promoting freedom, as well. ...
As you may know, folks who are listening to this, if you were around in the mid-1970s, North Carolina had a license plate, and rather than "First in Flight," which it is now, it was "First in Freedom." We would like to see that resurrected as well.
But we've always been about "First in Freedom" at the John Locke Foundation, and we really started to look at it with the 2010 movement in the legislature to a conservative-type legislature. In 2012, Chairman John Hood put out a book called Our Best Foot Forward: An Investment Plan for North Carolina's Economic Recovery, in which he laid out an active plan for growth in North Carolina.
With the conservative legislature, we thought it was a very good time, and it has turned out to be a very good time, to promote legislation that brings more freedom to North Carolinians. So in that active plan for growth, John laid out reforms that would be necessary in fiscal policy, regulatory policy, education policy, and infrastructure policy.
And actually, what the reforms are all about is looking at what other states have done and have been successful at, and taking those policies and implementing them here in North Carolina. So it's not stuff that we think will work. We know it's worked. It's worked elsewhere in the United States, and so we should be adopting that in North Carolina.
Martinez: In fact, that ties in the First in Freedom Index because, as you mentioned, we're going to be using this index created by the researchers and analysts here to give essentially a score to some major policy proposals that come up in the legislature, just to let them and the public know whether or not the idea would enhance freedom in our state, and help it grow, or inhibit freedom. So it's going to be a very interesting time.
You know, I love the word "freedom." And it means different things to different people. Kory, you've been in this organization for more than a dozen years. You're now the president and CEO. Why do you think people should care about how free North Carolina is or isn't?
Swanson: Freedom is an essential component to human flourishing. You and I, as individuals, take responsibility for our actions. And you can only do that in a free society, where freedom rings and freedom is throughout. Taking responsibility for your actions is just a very powerful way to help you get direction in your life, to flourish in your life. And the more freedom you have, the more opportunity you have to do that.
That's what freedom is - essentially having the opportunity to direct your life, to take your own talents and make the best of them. And along with it, though, freedom is not just about individuals. Freedom is also about community. You have to have people in your community who are doing the same things you are - that is, striving to flourish - and once that happens, all different types of communities come about.
You have cooperation that otherwise you wouldn't have. You have social contacts. You have people working together. You have family units working together. It's a very strong and important feature of what it means to flourish in human society.
Martinez: And as you mentioned, all of the research and the writing that John Hood has done really gets into the details of what other states have experienced. So we know what leads to freedom, and that, of course, becomes the mission of the Locke Foundation: to let more people know, including legislators, and give them an idea and a guiding post, for example, to follow in order to try to improve the state.
The Locke Foundation has changed so much over the first 25 years, Kory. You've been here for more than half of that time. Now there is a research area. There's the Carolina Journal franchise, the radio show being part of that. There's an extensive outreach effort. What role has this organization played in the shaping of North Carolina over those two decades plus?
Swanson: Well, yes, in fact, in most of those two decades, up until 2010, we were kind of a lone voice in the wilderness, because the legislature was dominated by liberals. And so we were always out there, making the case for free markets, for limited government, for conditions that would allow individuals to flourish. We had been preparing that ground for almost two decades, and then in 2010, the flip came, and we were ready with our policies and our recommendations, and people started to look to us because we had answers that they needed. Indeed, one of our most favorite phrases comes from a legislator who says that the John Locke Foundation was his compass, his moral compass.
Go Back
President, CEO Swanson discusses goals, new initiatives
Kory Swanson
Martinez: First of all, congratulations on your promotion. You are a longtime employee of the Locke Foundation. John Hood is now the chairman of the organization, and you're the president and CEO. So congratulations.
Swanson: Thank you. ... As you mentioned, it's our silver anniversary. We've been at this freedom business for over a quarter century now, and we look forward to another quarter century and longer. ... We are rolling out some new initiatives, including the First in Freedom initiative, which will take us into 2015 and beyond. We are going to begin looking at how free North Carolina is as a state, compared to other states in the nation. And [we've developed] an index which will show how free we are on several different fronts, including fiscal policy, regulatory policy, [health care] policy, and education policy, among others. And that index will provide a good marker for legislators as they prepare legislation. If it doesn't promote freedom in North Carolina, then we'll have to ask: Why are you doing it?
Martinez: A great question to ask of lawmakers. ... First in Freedom: I love that phrase. It has a rich history in our state. Tell us about that.
Swanson: Yes, it does. As a matter of fact, North Carolina was the first state to declare its independence from Great Britain in 1776 [through the April 12 adoption of the Halifax Resolves, the first official action in the American colonies calling for independence from Great Britain]. So it has a very rich history.
That's why we're known as the state that's first in freedom. And along with that, North Carolina played a very prominent role in the construction and development of the United States Constitution, and the North Carolina Constitution is a very interesting document promoting freedom, as well. ...
As you may know, folks who are listening to this, if you were around in the mid-1970s, North Carolina had a license plate, and rather than "First in Flight," which it is now, it was "First in Freedom." We would like to see that resurrected as well.
But we've always been about "First in Freedom" at the John Locke Foundation, and we really started to look at it with the 2010 movement in the legislature to a conservative-type legislature. In 2012, Chairman John Hood put out a book called Our Best Foot Forward: An Investment Plan for North Carolina's Economic Recovery, in which he laid out an active plan for growth in North Carolina.
With the conservative legislature, we thought it was a very good time, and it has turned out to be a very good time, to promote legislation that brings more freedom to North Carolinians. So in that active plan for growth, John laid out reforms that would be necessary in fiscal policy, regulatory policy, education policy, and infrastructure policy.
And actually, what the reforms are all about is looking at what other states have done and have been successful at, and taking those policies and implementing them here in North Carolina. So it's not stuff that we think will work. We know it's worked. It's worked elsewhere in the United States, and so we should be adopting that in North Carolina.
Martinez: In fact, that ties in the First in Freedom Index because, as you mentioned, we're going to be using this index created by the researchers and analysts here to give essentially a score to some major policy proposals that come up in the legislature, just to let them and the public know whether or not the idea would enhance freedom in our state, and help it grow, or inhibit freedom. So it's going to be a very interesting time.
You know, I love the word "freedom." And it means different things to different people. Kory, you've been in this organization for more than a dozen years. You're now the president and CEO. Why do you think people should care about how free North Carolina is or isn't?
Swanson: Freedom is an essential component to human flourishing. You and I, as individuals, take responsibility for our actions. And you can only do that in a free society, where freedom rings and freedom is throughout. Taking responsibility for your actions is just a very powerful way to help you get direction in your life, to flourish in your life. And the more freedom you have, the more opportunity you have to do that.
That's what freedom is - essentially having the opportunity to direct your life, to take your own talents and make the best of them. And along with it, though, freedom is not just about individuals. Freedom is also about community. You have to have people in your community who are doing the same things you are - that is, striving to flourish - and once that happens, all different types of communities come about.
You have cooperation that otherwise you wouldn't have. You have social contacts. You have people working together. You have family units working together. It's a very strong and important feature of what it means to flourish in human society.
Martinez: And as you mentioned, all of the research and the writing that John Hood has done really gets into the details of what other states have experienced. So we know what leads to freedom, and that, of course, becomes the mission of the Locke Foundation: to let more people know, including legislators, and give them an idea and a guiding post, for example, to follow in order to try to improve the state.
The Locke Foundation has changed so much over the first 25 years, Kory. You've been here for more than half of that time. Now there is a research area. There's the Carolina Journal franchise, the radio show being part of that. There's an extensive outreach effort. What role has this organization played in the shaping of North Carolina over those two decades plus?
Swanson: Well, yes, in fact, in most of those two decades, up until 2010, we were kind of a lone voice in the wilderness, because the legislature was dominated by liberals. And so we were always out there, making the case for free markets, for limited government, for conditions that would allow individuals to flourish. We had been preparing that ground for almost two decades, and then in 2010, the flip came, and we were ready with our policies and our recommendations, and people started to look to us because we had answers that they needed. Indeed, one of our most favorite phrases comes from a legislator who says that the John Locke Foundation was his compass, his moral compass.
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