Free Republic

With the announcement of Ted Cruz's candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination and his speech at the convocation of the ultra-conservative Liberty University, the country finds itself jilted to the right on the ideological spectrum. Ted Cruz is quite the curious ideological torchbearer precisely because he is Latino. The general assumption in politics is that growing Hispanic Latino participation in politics will only mean an ideological shift to the left. This makes Ted Cruz' candidacy a welcome reminder that Latino candidates won't, for good or bad, necessarily stray from traditional American politics any time soon. The son of Cuban immigrants...

The American Dream is still alive and well, a beacon of freedom, and will always attract new immigrants to be future productive citizens. I am proud to be an American, and proud of this nation’s history, culture, and accomplishments! America is a melting pot of immigrants who brought rich heritages to our shores, became immersed in American culture, and worked hard to achieve the American Dream. My first ancestor came to this continent ten generations ago, and the arrival of my most recent ancestor was four generations ago, so I consider myself an American-American! As far as I am concerned,...

".........In a segment that aired last July, Oliver griped that Americans were too “optimistic” about their prospects. Rather than attempting to maintain the circumstances in which they might eventually “make it,” Oliver proposed,voters should instead be looking to the state for their sustenance,requesting their lawmakers to take steps to close the “income gap.” To make his case, Oliver relied heavily on a Pew Research Center study that found that as many as 60 percent of Americans believe that they can still get ahead if they are willing to work hard. This,Oliver spluttered, was absurd. Thus did we see a man...

DAVIS (CBS13) — A UC Davis economics professorhas determined there is no American Dream. Gregory Clark is sharing his research as a hard truth with no hope—whether or not you can get ahead in America is as predictable as any formula. In fact, he says, the formulas for social mobility in the United States show there’s nothing to dream about. “America has no higher rate of social mobility than medieval England, Or pre-industrial Sweden,” he said. “That’s the most difficult part of talking about social mobility is because it is shattering people s dreams.” Clark crunched the numbers in the...

Natalie Dubose is a single mother of two living and working in Ferguson, Missouri. Dubose runs her own cake shop in the city called Natalie's Cakes and More, a business she dedicated all of her resources to in order to make a living. Dubose started her cake business by renting out a booth at the local flee market every weekend, selling her product and eventually saved enough money to open up a store, which had it's grand opening in August. Despite pleading with protestors, her store was severely damaged in riots Monday night, but thanks to the generosity of fellow...

The standard portrayals of economic life for ordinary Americans and their families paint a bleak picture of stagnancy, rising economic inequality, joblessness, and low levels of economic mobility. From President Barack Obama’s speech last year at the Center for American Progress to Fed chairman Janet Yellen’s address this month in Boston, we’re getting the picture that the American Dream looks to be in bad shape. These portrayals contain an important germ of truth — today’s economy isn’t doing ordinary Americans many favors — but what is largely missing from the public conversation about economics in America is an honest...

As we gather with family and friends this week to mark the Fourth of July, let us keep in mind the defining value that sets this nation apart – the founding principle that stands as our greatest cause for pride and celebration: that every American deserves an equal opportunity to achieve a happy and fulfilling life. Equality of opportunity is the driving force behind the American Dream. Yet while this Dream was born on a July day in 1776, one of its greatest strides toward full realization came on a July day in 1964. The enactment of the Civil...

Did you know that I started Facebook? Really! Well, sort of ... When I was in college at all-male Princeton, I tried to make money by adding photos to a snarky guide to neighboring girls' schools. The guide had been a profitable publishing success, and my idea was simply to add the girls' pictures. Schools like Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Vassar, etc., already published those pictures, so all I had to do was get permission from administrators at those schools. Surprisingly, they gave it to me. Unfortunately for me and my "Face Book," there was no Internet then. So I don't...

The number of Californians 50 to 64 who live in their parents' homes has surged in recent years, reflecting the grim economic aftermath of the Great Recession. Debbie Rohr lives with her husband and twin teenage sons in a well-tended three-bedroom home in Salinas. The ranch-style house has a spacious kitchen that looks out on a yard filled with rosebushes. It's a modest but comfortable house, the type that Rohr, 52, pictured for herself at this stage of life. She just never imagined that it would be her childhood home, a return to a bedroom where she once hung posters...

I mean...honestly...who isn't inspired by this?!?;-)

Almost two decades ago, heartbroken and single, I wrote out a list that described the man of my dreams. Less than two years later, my husband and I married, proving that dreams do indeed come true (yes, he met and even exceeded all criterion). As a child, I spent hours staring up into the sky, watching the clouds, dreaming of what might be one day. As I grew older, I became more grounded in reality -- the reality of college, graduate school, working and children. As my husband and I have watched our children (now 12 and 14) grow, the...

Is the American Dream becoming her nightmare?[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDMSbm8s81g] Video linkLife, liberty and the pursuit of happiness property were once major components of a widely held American dream. We were to be in control of our own lives, with liberty to pursue by lawful means whatever we desired -- not to have it provided by a benign, all-knowing and increasingly powerful Government and not to be told how, where or when we were to be allowed to pursue it. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CDFxeB7Y-s?feature=player_detailpage] Video linkWith increasing power, Government and media can mold our individual dreams to the extent that those counter to the prevailing...

Viktor Frankl, holocaust survivor and author of Man's Search for Meaning, once observed: “Freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.” Liberty and responsibility are both critical in preserving our republic, but the chances of America, much less California, allowing such a tribute to personal responsibility to be erected seems little to none. Nowhere is the absurdity of our entitlement age more evident than the...

Culture Challenge of the Week: No Future for our Kids? President Obama recently warned Americans that too many members of our society never climb the ladder to success—they’re defeated before they even begin. When children have no future, it poses “a fundamental threat to the American Dream, our way of life, and what we stand for around the globe.” He actually got that right. According to a recent Pew study, “[m]ore than 40 percent of Americans raised in the bottom quintile of the family income ladder remain stuck there as adults.” It’s a tragedy to see human potential go to...

A SEEMINGLY un-American fact about America today is that for some groups, much more than others, upward mobility and the American dream are alive and well. It may be taboo to say it, but certain ethnic, religious and national-origin groups are doing strikingly better than Americans overall. Indian-Americans earn almost double the national figure (roughly $90,000 per year in median household income versus $50,000). Iranian-, Lebanese- and Chinese-Americans are also top-earners. In the last 30 years, Mormons have become leaders of corporate America, holding top positions in many of America’s most recognizable companies. These facts don’t make some groups “better”...

A plan to squeeze most residents of the San Francisco Bay Area into multifamily housing offers a test case of whether land-use bureaucracies nationwide, encouraged by the Obama administration, should be allowed to transform American lifestyles under the pretext of combating climate change. Currently, 56 percent of households in the nine-county Bay Area live in single-family homes. That number would drop to 48 percent by 2030, under a high-density development blueprint called Plan Bay Area, recently enacted by the Association of Bay Area Governments and the region’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Plan Bay Area has already drawn several legal challenges, and...

"Bye Bye Birdie" is an old musical that survives in high school productions and in some people's memory bank. It debuted on Broadway in 1960 and was made into a film in 1963. One of the songs from the show might serve as an inspiration, if not a theme, for Republicans in the winter of their discontent over President Obama and congressional Democrats: "Put on a Happy Face." A problem Republicans have had since the "glory days" of Ronald Reagan is that too many have forgotten how to be positive and affirming. Nobody likes to be around a sourpuss....

The Middle Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In America The 25 statistics that you are about to read are solid proof that the middle class in America is being systematically wiped out. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world. It seemed like almost everyone owned a home, had a couple of nice vehicles and could provide a very comfortable lifestyle for their families. Sadly, that has all changed. In America today, prices are rising at a very brisk pace but incomes are not....

GALWAY, Ireland -- The intense debate over immigration reform in the USA has riveted many in this bucolic area in the west of Ireland. That's because in addition to millions of Hispanic aliens, a significant number of Irish would benefit from immigration clarity. Just ask anyone in the Woodside section of Queens, New York. The census estimates that there are nearly 35 million Americans of Irish descent living in America, and many of them had ancestors who fled to the United States to save their lives. The vicious Irish famine reached its height in 1847 as hundreds of thousands of...

Many people are very optimistic regarding the possibility of a comprehensive immigration bill passing through Congress and being signed by the President. The prospects are good, but there are many stumbling blocks ahead. If we heed a couple of simple principles, we will be able to revamp a broken system that does not serve the American people. There are many challenges that have developed in the 27 years since we last passed a comprehensive law to deal with immigration. We have an almost nonexistent ability to track people who come here on restricted visas and do not comply with the...