Political speech has been winning a number of incremental victories in recent years, from the 2010 Citizens United decision that allowed SuperPACs to spend money on elections, to the ruling earlier this year that struck down the overall cap on political donations.

The government seems to have a data problem. While the NSA has apparently been storing massive amounts of data on innocent Americans deep within its sinister archives, the IRS and the US Census Bureau just can’t seem to keep track of anything. What a difference an acronym makes.

The Democratic Party has always been good at crafting a narrative. Through relentless message discipline, dating back at least to the 1960s, Democrats have managed to create the public opinion that theirs is the party of the people, while Republicans represent the interests of Big Business. In other words, Democrats stood up for the little guy against “the Man” of Republicanism.

Remember how ObamaCare was going to make health care affordable and accessible for everyone? Remember how we were told we had to vote for a government takeover of one sixth of the American economy to level the playing field and make things fair for the nation’s poor? Remember how the rich had to be forced to pay their fair share for the common good?

In an age when everything is recorded and subsequently posted to the internet, politicians have to be extra careful to avoid saying what they really think. Wendy Davis, the Democratic candidate for Texas Governor, learned this lesson the hard way the other day when she was caught claiming Republicans don’t like “people who don’t look like them or come from where they come from.”

As I wrote some time ago, the market for student loans is a mess that is rapidly heading for a painful correction. The Obama administration’s misguided quest to provide higher education for all has distorted the cost calculations of college to a devastating degree. Yet, rather than recognize the dangerous bubble he has created, the president is now doubling down—backing a policy dreamed up by Elizabeth Warren to allow the refinancing of student loans en masse at current interest rates, and making up the cost with the “Buffet Rule,” a special provision that would ensure that millionaires pay a minimum income tax rate.

In most basic economics textbooks, which, for all their faults, mostly recognize the virtue of free markets, the only rationale given for government intervention in the economy is a so-called “market failure,” a situation where no efficient outcome can be reached purely through voluntary exchange.

Big labor has always predicated its efforts on an appeal to “workers’ rights,” claiming to fight against exploitation and unfair treatment of employees by powerful corporations who care more about their bottom line than about the safety and well-being of workers.