Just a week ago, Iran launched its largest-ever ballistic missile attack against Israel in what has become a multifront battle in the region. The grinding war of attrition in Ukraine rages on, with over a million people killed or injured since Russia’s invasion in 2022. China has been attacking Philipp…

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The “American Dream” is the most important of our national myths. It’s the idea that, with hard work and determination, anyone in this country can achieve middle-class security, own a home, start a family, and provide the children they raise with a better life than they had.

Is that still true?

On the one hand, our economy is the envy of the world. We are…

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But there has always been a tension in this country between isolationism and interventionism between those who think we should maintain …

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Is that still true? 

There are millions of Americans today who have lost faith in the American Dream. Consider the numbers:

• Income Inequa…

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Those basic facts, combined with a sense of our system’s injustices—there is still an 18-to-1 disparity in sentencing between crack and powder cocaine, disproportionately impacti…

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We love meeting you IRL and can’t wait to see you in San Francisco. Paid subscribers can get presale tickets here and use the special code listed below for a discount. 

So: Why crime? And why San Francisco? 

For the past decade, the city has been at the forefront of the effort to radically transform the criminal justice system. If you ask advocates of the policy—people like Chesa Boudin, George Gascón, and George Soros—the idea was as straightforward as it was overdue: overhaul a punitive, racist system that was doling out cruel and unusual punishments for minor offenses. 

San Francisco has slashed the budget for police, retroactively reduced sentences for nonviolent offenders, and prohibited officers from pursuing individuals committing nonviolent crimes. The city has new mandatory training for police aimed to tackle racial bias and to limit the overall interaction between police and civilians. 

But did it work? 

Since 2020, the city has suffered rising crime, from rampant burglaries to open-air drug use to public defecation. Half of the city’s retailers have departed the once bustling downtown, and drug stores all over the city are packing it in. In 2022, drug overdose deaths in San Francisco hit a record high. And police response times have become slower, even though cops are now fielding fewer calls.

If you’ve visited San Francisco in the past year, you’ve likely seen the problem with your own eyes. If you haven’t, you can find countless videos online, like this one. Or this one. Or this one. 

The crime surge is not limited to the City by the Bay. In the years since the pandemic, places like New York and Los Angeles also saw increased homicides, aggravated assaults, shoplifting, and so on. 

All of this is why crime is one of voters’ top concerns in the 2024 election cycle. Sixty-eight percent of Republicans and 47 percent of Democrats say reducing crime should be a top policy priority. 

Have American cities become too soft on crime? Are progressive prosecutors to blame? Or are deeper causes like poverty and income inequality the real culprits? Is criminal justice reform a necessary step toward justice? Has it made American towns and cities safer? Or is the whole project, despite its high ideals, a mistake? 

We’re proud to partner with the country’s leading defender of free speech rights, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), to convene four people who know this issue inside and out.

Arguing against criminal justice reform is Michael Shellenberger, the editor of Public and author of San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities. Joining him is Seneca Scott, an activist and the founder of Neighbors Together Oakland, a nonprofit aimed at making Oakland safer for its residents. You might remember Seneca from his profile in The Free Press. 

They’ll face off against Lara Bazelon, the director of the Criminal & Juvenile Justice Clinic and the Racial Justice Clinic at the University of San Francisco School of Law, and former federal public defender in L.A. She’ll be arguing alongside Kmele Foster, commentator, co-host of The Fifth Column podcast, and founding partner at the digital media company Freethink.

We are grateful to our paid subscribers for making this debate, and everything we do at The Free Press, possible. We encourage you to take advantage of the 24-hour presale period by using the access code below. 

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We’ve all seen the videos of mothers and babies shimmying under barbed wir…

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According to the official calendar, the first presidential debate is supposed to take place in September in Texas. But if we were the betting type, we’d put money on the chance that traditional presidential debates won’t happen at all.

And even if they do (readers, make your wagers in the comments), we all know the format: both candidates try to skirt the core of every issue, prioritizing viral jabs over substance. If we get lucky, maybe a bug steals the show. The mainstream press gets their headline, X gets their memes, and by the next afternoon we’ve all moved on. 

But real debate is what Americans deserve. Actual debates about actual policies that matter to our lives. 

So we’re taking matters into our own hands.

Today, we are thrilled to announce The America Debates, The FP’s series of live debates in cities across the country on some of the most contentious and complex issues facing the nation.

The first debate—Should America Close Its Borders?—will take place April 11 at the Majestic Theatre in Dallas, Texas. 

Paid subscribers now have exclusive access to purchase presale tickets before they open to the general public in 24 hours.

Best-selling author Ann Coulter and Sohrab Ahmari, founder and editor of Compact, will argue yes. They will face off against Nick Gillespie, editor-at-large for Reason magazine, and Cenk Uygur, founder of The Young Turks.

Subsequent debates will address AI, foreign policy, and the state of the American dream. Stay tuned for more details. 

At The Free Press, passionate, smart, good-faith debate is at the very core of our mission. Our commitment to open conversation is why we partnered with the country’s premier civil liberties organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), to host our first-ever live debate in Los Angeles last year. More than 1,600 people sold out the theater to watch four women argue for and against the legacy of the sexual revolution.

The success of that first debate—and your enthusiasm—was all the confirmation we needed to double down. We are so proud to partner with FIRE again on this series of national debates.

If you’re anything like us, you’re probably deeply unexcited—and vaguely tormented—by the 2024 presidential candidates. But the issues at stake in this election matter, even if our politics and our media feel broken.

We’re launching The America Debates because we believe that every voter deserves to make up their own minds. The only way to do that is to hear the strongest, most thoughtful arguments on the most urgent issues of the day. We hope to see you there!

We are grateful to our paid subscribers for making this debate, and everything we do at The Free Press, possible. We encourage you to take advantage of the 24 hour presale period by using the access code below. 

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That’s why we are so proud to team up with FIRE, the nation’s leading defender of free speech rights, to host our very first live debate on a subject that affects every woman, man, girl and boy.

T…

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