Welcome to the 116th Congress. Rep. Denver Riggleman (VA-5) is swearing in, and it’s his first time in elected office. In this new series, Free the People chronicles the life of a freshman in U.S. Congress. Learning the ropes, staying true to his principles, and trying to work with everyone—Republican or Democrat—what could go wrong?
More episodes: https://freethepeople.org/series/the-freshman/
Free the People publishes opinion-based articles from contributing writers. The opinions and ideas expressed do not always reflect the opinions and ideas that Free the People endorses. We believe in free speech, and in providing a platform for open dialog. Feel free to leave a comment!
Matt Kibbe is President at Free the People, an educational foundation using video storytelling to turn on the next generation to the values of personal liberty and peaceful cooperation. He is also co-founder and partner at Fight the Power Productions, a video and strategic communications company. Kibbe is the host of BlazeTV’s Kibbe on Liberty, a popular podcast that insists that you think for yourself.
Dubbed “the scribe” by the New York Daily News, Kibbe is the author three books, most recently the #2 New York Times bestseller Don’t Hurt People and Don’t Take Their Stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto.
He was senior advisor for a Rand Paul Presidential Super PAC in 2016, and later co-founded AlternativePAC to promote libertarian values.
In 2004 Kibbe founded FreedomWorks, a national grassroots advocacy organization, and served as President until his departure in 2015. Steve Forbes said: “Kibbe has been to FreedomWorks what Steve Jobs was to Apple.”
An economist by training, Kibbe did graduate work at George Mason University and received his B.A. from Grove City College. He serves at the whim of his awesome wife Terry, and their three objectivist cats, Roark, Ragnar and Rearden. Kibbe is a fanatical DeadHead, drinker of craft beer and whisky, and collector of obscure books on Austrian economics.
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Not bad.
We’ll see if he sticks to his principles.
I am excited about this new program that let us see what happens with the freshman. I know I have heard some real horror stories.
Interesting concept.
Now we’ll see.
He “talks the talk” now “walk the walk”.
Good luck.
I live in VA 5th district. I’m hopeful for Mr. Riggleman. He’s entered the snakepit (many of his new congressional peers are sociopaths, and I hope he knows how to deal with such people–it’s hard!). If he can stick, truly stick, to ethics, then freedom will have an ally. This resource is brief and helps: Richard Maybury’s Ethics Solutions: https://www.ethicssolutions.net/C900
Thanks Matt….this could be interesting. Keep up with this guy.
When do we get these guys to actually follow the Constitution of ENUMERATED POWERS, instead of….”well, that’s the way we’ve always done it”
The Rules Committee of both Chambers rubber-stamp just about every bill to go forward with
the Justification of “provide the general welfare” of the Constitution Art. 1 Sec. 8.
Rep. Riggleman may not think this is about power – it may not be to him – but it is about power. It’s not about helping people.
The whole game of government is about power over others. It has never been about anything else. Just think about the lobbyists wanting to get at him. Everybody has an angle, a need, an ambition. If you can’t get it done for them, you’ll be gone.
If you want to help people, join the Peace Corps.
He comes off as a pretty sincere, humble guy, but he will find out very quickly that this is about power. Unless he wants to be the next Ron Paul, he better be prepared to learn to compromise, because compromise, he will.