Where we stand
Clay Tribune is politically near the middle and belongs to no party. It takes sides on issues, not on teams. This page says where the paper stands, so you never have to guess, and so you can tell its reporting from its opinion.
The north star
Maximize individual freedom. Support small business. Avoid concentrations of power, in government or in business. That does not line up cleanly with either major party, and the paper does not pretend it does. When a party is right on an issue, the paper says so. When the same party is wrong on the next one, it says that too. The name is not an accident: Henry Clay, the Great Compromiser, is the publisher’s ancestor, and holding the middle against concentrated power is the family habit this paper keeps.
Smaller government, smaller giants
The paper believes in smaller government and less control over people’s lives. It is for small business and wary of big government and big corporations alike. Regulation usually protects the largest players and makes it harder for small ones to compete, so the paper opposes rules that raise the cost of entry. Where a business directly harms people or the environment, the paper accepts oversight, and wants it narrow and aimed at the harm.
Taxes
If the wealthy pay more, citizens should have a far more direct say in where that money goes than today’s system gives them.
Live and let live
What consenting adults do that harms no one else is nobody’s business, least of all the government’s. One exception, stated plainly: on cannabis the paper backs medical use, and it does not cheer recreational legalization or the commercial marijuana industry.
The right to bear arms
The right to bear arms is a constitutional right, and it must not be taken away. The paper opposes bans on commonly owned firearms, registries and confiscation schemes. It would rather punish the people who misuse guns than disarm the people who do not.
Hard on violent crime
Violent crime deserves strict, certain punishment. People charged with violent crimes should not walk out on bail, and people convicted of them should serve their sentences without parole or early release. This is about violence. The paper takes no such line on non-violent offences.
AI and technology
A light touch, so startups are not frozen out. The paper worries more about big tech dominance than about the technology itself. When the biggest firms ask to be regulated, the paper asks who those rules would lock out.
Free speech, and no surveillance state
The paper supports free speech strongly, for people it agrees with and people it does not. It opposes mass tracking of ordinary people, by governments or by the companies that sell to them.
Home first
On foreign policy the paper leans toward focusing at home, while keeping the channels open for trade, diplomacy and compromise.
Fact and opinion, kept apart
Propaganda is one of the paper’s biggest concerns, and the cure starts at home. In political stories the facts come first: who did what, when, and what they said, with every judgement attributed to the person who made it. Then, under the heading Where the paper stands, the paper gives its opinion, and argues it without hedging. You will always be able to see where the reporting stops and the opinion starts. The paper never invents an event, a quote or a figure to make its case.
If a story on this site ever blurs that line, it has broken this page, and you should tell us.