Free Republic

Tonight's the night — the third presidential debate that (unfortunately) doesn't end with a "three strikes and you're out" rule. Because this election season has become a race to the bottom, a bottom so deep most Americans are questioning how we got here, the mark of a successful Round 3 for scandal-ridden Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is nothing a campaign should ever brag about.

The most popular flavor of ice cream in America is vanilla. (Most surveys suggest it clocks in at 29 percent.) But I doubt many people choose to eat it plain. I know I'd rather eat the chocolate chip cookie dough — a pint of it, actually, while watching Netflix. Vanilla is our choice to serve as a complement, often mellowing a too-rich dessert. That's how I view the VP candidates this time around. A La Mode.

"You shut your mouth when you're talking to me." So goes the line from the classic American film "Wedding Crashers." A line that I took to heart as I watched a good chunk of Monday night's presidential debate on mute. Why? Not because I couldn't bear to hear what the candidates said. Instead, I wanted to analyze the nonverbals (which go a long way to determining likability) without distraction. Yes, optics matter.

So what's different about 2016? The debate-as-litmus-test for likability doesn't apply. This year it's about unlikability. In other words, in an election cycle where both candidates are historically unlikable, voters aren't asking "Who do I like the most?" they're asking "Who do I dislike the least?" Here's what Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton need to do to win the "least unlikable" award.

Before March 2010, health care reform was already a divisive political issue. People chose sides for very personal reasons, which made it a difficult topic to discuss using an indoor voice.

Guns are a tricky topic. Very rarely do you find voters ambivalent about gun violence, gun safety, etc. Someone is either strongly pro-gun rights or pro-gun control, which makes a civil conversation difficult to start or maintain. But the solution isn’t to avoid the topic. As I mentioned in my last column, you may be the only conservative who tries to challenge a liberal’s worldview. No pressure. It may sound like a heavy weight to bear, but not if you’re prepared. So, let’s talk guns.

The Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General went “hunting for bugs” in the middle of the night at two VA kitchens Tuesday after a Conservative Review investigation revealed allegations of an infestation so severe that cockroaches were served in patients’ meals. The inspectors descended upon Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in suburban Chicago at 3 a.m. to “conduct an impromptu walk-through of the kitchens,” according to an internal VA email sent to union leaders at 7:24 a.m. “They were hunting for bugs, I believe that’s what they were doing at 3 o’clock in the morning,” said dietician Kelvin Gilkey, who...

There are few things I dislike more than paying taxes. As Americans, a third of all your hard earned dollars is confiscated by the U.S. government. Most of us get to determine what we do with our money – but not when it comes to taxes. However, there is the argument that taxes are a function of our democratic system. Those taxes are the result of laws implemented by freely elected representatives. If anything, we — the voters — are as much to blame for the muddied tax codes as are the nitwit politicians we elect.

Millions of us are strangers in our own party. No, this is not because of Donald Trump’s victories over the past few months, although it is certainly a reflection of them. It is because the media has succeeded in helping reelect every single RINO incumbent in every election cycle and most open races, including in this much-vaunted year of the outsider. The system is rigged, but not in the way Donald Trump claims; he is the recipient of the rigged system. It is rigged because anyone who is truly a smart and principled conservative will be destroyed in a primary...

A vermin infestation has overrun the kitchen of a suburban Chicago Veterans Affairs hospital and is reportedly so severe that cockroaches routinely crawl across countertops as cooks prepare meals. The insects have even found their way into patients’ food, employees say. The bug invasion has attracted the attention of a U.S. senator who is demanding to know how the VA is fixing the problem. It’s just the latest scandal at an agency rocked by allegations of abuse, incompetence and the needless deaths of veterans who wait years for medical appointments.

Isn’t democracy great? Isn’t it great when “the people” get to vote? Actually, this is exactly what our Founders warned of when they portended an elective despotism emanating from a pure democracy. This is why they sought to establish a republic.

When you hear the phrase “tax treaties,” your first response (besides yawning) would be to assume that, out of all the treaties the United States is involved in, these would be the most harmless. Generally, you’d be right. When we talk about tax treaties, we usually mean agreements between countries to ease excessive taxation (usually double taxation) while promoting cooperation in tax compliance. But pending in the Senate right now are two tax treaties that are particularly dangerous to privacy, to U.S. sovereignty, and to the security of individuals and human rights.

Despite suggestions to the contrary, Americans are not willing to “get over” attacks to their religious liberty, Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said in an interview with CR. “I don’t think the American people are willing to get over our basic liberties. We fought a bloody revolution to protect our religious liberty,” Cruz explained. “This nation was founded by men and women fleeing religious oppression, and seeking a land where every one of us could seek out and worship God almighty with all of our hearts, minds and souls, free of the government getting in the way.”

In a typical year, April 15 is Tax Day when hard-working Americans cede over an enormous amount of their income to the federal government so they can redistribute it to all sorts of special interests and protected classes, including illegal aliens. You heard that right. The IRS has admitted to knowingly granting refundable tax credits, which work as back door welfare payments, to illegal aliens who break the law and steal Social Security numbers to obtain employment and file their taxes.

This race began with 17 candidates, but because of the unprecedented coverage of Donald Trump it really has been a one-man race for most of the election. There has been a false choice between whether people love Trump or hate him – just by virtue of the media coverage alone. Given the divided field and the lack of coverage, Ted Cruz lacked the ability to stand out and coalesce people behind a positive conservative, anti-establishment message. Tonight’s sweeping victory in Wisconsin proves team Cruz’s original thesis: as long as this is a two-man race and as long as Cruz can...