What we believe

Liberty Score grades Congress against one idea: liberty has to be defended at home and abroad at the same time. This page lays that idea out, with the numbers behind it, so you can argue with it.

Liberty at home

Say what you think without being punished for it. Keep what you earn and trade it freely. A border the country controls. One law for everyone, and no religious law above it.

Those are four of the measures every member of Congress is graded on.

Liberty abroad

We stand with people who are fighting for the freedoms Americans already have.

We want the Islamic Republic gone, and we back the Iranian people and Prince Reza Pahlavi, Iran's exiled crown prince. We back Israel. We back Ukraine against Putin.

Why freedom abroad is America first

A fair question: why should an American voter care how Congress votes on Iran or Ukraine? Because Americans come out ahead when free people win. Here is what that looks like in numbers.

• Free countries buy American. Poland bought $406 million of American goods in 1990, its first full year without communism. In 2025 it bought $14.3 billion. South Korea, a dictatorship until 1987, went from $6 billion in 1985 to $69 billion.Source: U.S. Census Bureau, trade in goods with Poland and with South Korea
• Old enemies become customers and allies. Germany and Japan were at war with America in 1945. In 2025 Germany bought $83 billion of American goods and Japan $81 billion.Source: U.S. Census Bureau, trade in goods with Germany and with Japan
• Free countries share the cost of defense. In 2025 every NATO ally met the target of 2 percent of its economy on defense for the first time, and Europe and Canada raised defense spending by 20 percent in one year.Source: NATO, Secretary General's annual report, 26 March 2026
• The regimes that threaten Americans are dictatorships. Freedom House scores Iran 10 out of 100 for freedom, China 9 and Russia 12. None of them answers to its own voters. The Pentagon counts at least 603 American troops killed in Iraq by Iran-backed militants.Source: Pentagon statement of 4 April 2019, reported by Military Times Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2026
• Trouble abroad shows up in American prices. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, a gallon of gasoline went from $3.28 in January to $5.01 in June. In 2026, with the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, oil averaged $105 a barrel in June and July.Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, on gasoline in 2022 and its release of 9 June 2026

Dollar figures are as recorded at the time, not adjusted for inflation.

Who we argue against

We are against the Islamization of the West, against communism and the radical left, and against isolationism, whether it comes from the left or from the right.

A member of Congress who is strong on liberty at home and votes to protect the Islamic Republic gets a middling grade here. That is on purpose.

Who is saying this

Liberty Politics is a daily live show and a community. The hosts and the panel do not share a religion or a party. Atheists, Christians, Hindus and Jews are all part of it.

If you disagree with some of this, you are still welcome here. Bring your argument.

How this page changes

This page grows as the show argues these questions out on air. The newest change is at the top of this list.

• 5 October 2026. First version, with the case for why freedom abroad is America first.