James (Jim) L. Payne, PhD

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Political Scientist | Writer | Author — field_542d8190101fc

James L. Payne began his career as a political scientist. For eighteen years he taught political science at Yale, Wesleyan, Johns Hopkins, and Texas A & M. In 1985 he resigned his tenured professorship and moved to Sandpoint, Idaho. His articles have appeared in Reader’s Digest, The Wall Street Journal, and Fortune. He is the author of 21 book, including The Culture of Spending; Costly Returns: The Burden of the U.S. Tax System; Overcoming Welfare: Expecting More from the Poor and from Ourselves, and Six Political Illusions.

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The Big Government We Love to Hate; Exploring the Roots of Political Malaise

For thousands of years, peoples of the world have assumed that government is society s natural problem-solving agency. No matter how many times it dis...

Featured on: Monday, September 27, 2021

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May 29, 2026

Penna Dexter

Stunning Reversal

Penna Dexter Two years ago, I complained that: “Radical transgender directives just keep coming from the executive branch of the federal government.” There’s been a stunning reversal. States fought ba...

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May 29, 2026

Kerby Anderson

TV Dinners to Smartphones

Kerby Anderson Columnist Bob Greene noticed a connection between TV Dinners and smartphones. In fact, he says the 1950s meal was a gateway drug for screen addiction. He believes that our zombie-like a...

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May 28, 2026

Kerby Anderson

Political Fantasy

Kerby Anderson A recent poll of Americans conducted by NewsGuard and YouGov is disturbing on its face. It is even more concerning the deeper you delve into the data. The topline comment is that a siza...

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