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This Matters with Bill Britt

What is left to govern us?

When facts, law, principle and shared humanity lose their authority, self-government gives way to the raw exercise of political power.

Published on August 17, 2026 at 12:21 pm CDT

A free people cannot govern themselves when facts, law and principle no longer have the power to correct them.

What remains when evidence can be dismissed, laws applied selectively, and no truth is strong enough to change a mind?

At that point, political disagreement becomes something far more dangerous: A contest of wills in which power is the only authority.

In this installment of “This Matters,” Bill Britt examines Thomas Paine’s warning about the moment reason loses its authority and how it reveals the fragile foundations of self-government.

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Staff

  • The Alabama Political Reporter is a daily political news site devoted to Alabama politics. We provide accurate, reliable coverage of policy, elections and government.

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