Nate Feltman: Debating the ideas that matter most

The political noise is hard to escape these days with the midterm elections approaching. Too much of our public conversation is defined by what we oppose rather than what we believe in. The barrage of negative advertising leads many to check out of politics and civic engagement altogether.

This year’s events marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence have offered a welcome respite from the polarization, bringing thoughtful, substantive conversations about the ideas that make a free society possible and why they still matter today.

Two such events occurred last week in Indianapolis. Liberty Fund hosted the Mont Pelerin Society’s 2026 General Meeting, bringing together scholars and thinkers from around the world to examine the foundations of individual liberty, free enterprise and a free society. And Liberty Fund, with support from the Neal and Jane Freeman Foundation, presented its inaugural Prize for Advancing Economic Liberty to former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm and economist Donald Boudreaux, both of whom have spent their careers making the case for those principles.

For Liberty Fund, these events carried special significance. Indianapolis businessman and lawyer Pierre F. Goodrich founded the organization in 1960 because he believed the ideas and institutions of a free society deserved serious, sustained study. Goodrich was a member of the Mont Pelerin Society. Bringing its members to Indianapolis during America’s 250th anniversary was a fitting expression of that founding vision.

The Mont Pelerin Society was founded in 1947 by Nobel Prize-winning economist F.A. Hayek and scholars concerned about the future of the free society. The Indianapolis meeting’s theme, “1776: Liberty in Conversation,” connected the Declaration with another landmark of that year: Adam Smith’s publication of “The Wealth of Nations.” The Declaration articulated the political case for freedom, while Smith helped explain how economic freedom, competition and voluntary exchange create prosperity.

Those ideas remain central to consequential questions we face today, from the proper role of government to technology, international trade and individual autonomy. And the principles behind them must be understood by the next generation. We cannot take for granted that young people will automatically appreciate the ideas and institutions that make individual opportunity possible.

Gramm and Boudreaux have advanced economic liberty from different platforms: Gramm through public service and policymaking, Boudreaux through teaching, scholarship and public commentary. Both remind us that the free enterprise system gives people dignity and room to make choices, pursue opportunities, take risks and build something of their own. Gramm and Boudreaux make their case as to why economic freedom is inseparable from individual liberty in their recent book, “The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism.”

Last week’s events and conversations reinforced the importance of teaching these principles. The sudden increase in the number of civic institutes at our colleges and universities is encouraging. We must get back to teaching American civics, the Western canon and the Great Books.

Each generation must learn why individual liberty, private property, competition and voluntary exchange are essential to a free society. That requires study, clear explanations, serious debate and a willingness to engage civilly with people who see the world differently, even as we collectively defend the principles on which free societies depend and preserve the opportunities they make possible.•

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Feltman is publisher of IBJ and CEO of IBJ Media and chairman of the Liberty Fund board of directors. Send comments to [email protected]