Free Republic

Jacinda Ardern was a progressive favorite on the world stage who led New Zealand for about five years. She resigned earlier this year saying she didn’t have the energy to face the voters another time. Her decision to step down left her Labour party in the hands of Chris Hipkins. But New Zealand has been dealing with high inflation and today voters demanded a change.After an election campaign of fits and starts, in which neither major party appeared to offer much solace to a weary nation, voters in New Zealand on Saturday ousted the party once led by Jacinda Ardern...

Potential presidential contender Lindsey Graham thinks he can appeal to typically right-skewed Republican presidential primary voters, despite non-conservative views on immigration, climate change and federal spending. Graham, a Republican senator representing South Carolina, is serious about his recently declared interest in entering the already packed 2016 GOP field, even while the move has left the political punditry puzzled. On Thursday, Graham announced the launch of a formal exploratory committee, “Security through Strength,” to determine, he said, if he can enter the race with a viable campaign. Graham last week began selling his candidacy on Capitol Hill, telling reporters if he...

This is a question to all freepers, but first I want to give a little background to my interest in this: I studied Government/politics and policy and received a B.S. from Liberty University's Helms School of Government in 2006. I have been a political junkie as well as one concerned for our nation for a VERY long time! Over the last couple of years I have started looking at the politics of our international neighbors and allies, especially in the Anglo countries (UK, AU, CA) and various European and allied countries (such as Israel, SK, JP, etc..).

After the last vote is counted, officials say Ahmad Tibi's party Raam-Taal drops from five seats to four, while Naftali Bennett's party gains one, Kadima party makes it over the threshold with two mandates. The count of the "double envelope" votes came to a close on Thursday afternoon, with Bayit Yehudi finishing at 12 seats, Kadima crossing the threshold with two seats and the Raam-Taal party dropping from five to four seats, officials said. The votes of 200,000 soldiers, plus those of prisoners and people in hospitals, were counted a day later than the regular vote. These ballots are called...

It's true that ultra-conservatives (and I'm one of them!) often wrongly assume they'll be backed up by the public at large when they support "Hail Mary" policies (balanced budget amendments, a fair tax, the Ryan plan, etc.) or when they wish for a complete repudiation of the Obama presidency in the 2012 presidential election. We get ourselves into trouble by telling ourselves “fairy tales that everyone is on [our] side and just waiting to discover the fact.” The Tea Party, as it turns out, is not a microcosm of the entire country.Nevertheless, the United States is still a center-right nation,...

It is beginning to appear like civil center-right Republicans may indeed have a horse in the 2012 race -- Jon Huntsman. The more I learn about him, the more I get my hopes up that center-righters may finally find a champion in American politics. The former ambassador to China and governor of Utah brings a soft-spoken, moderate approach to politics. While the rest of the Republicans continue to disappoint (Palin is nuts, Pawlenty isn't worldly enough, Gingrich flamed out ... ), I am growing increasingly interested in Huntsman. Phil Elliott of the AP has been covering Huntsman (along with all...

SANTIAGO, Chile — Facing the prospect that Chile could swing to the right for the first time in two decades, Eduardo Frei took the stage in the working-class neighborhood of La Granja and pressed his leftist credentials one more time. “We are going to win by a nose,” Mr. Frei confidently declared last week, to the tepid applause of flag-waving supporters, some swinging hammer-and-sickle Communist Party flags. One month after the center-right billionaire Sebastián Piñera won the first round of Chile’s presidential election with 44 percent of the vote,

I have always viewed conservatism as the centrist position between the extremes of left wing totalitarianism and right wing anarchy. Conservatives have always had the more difficult task of defining the balance between the interests of the individual and the interests of society. From this viewpoint, communism, theocracy, monarchy and their derivatives are left to extreme left. Anarchy is a virtual impossibility since any collective action by anarchists to promote anarchy is oxymoronic. Hayek’s idea of spontaneous order works against anarchy. The human desire for social interaction and the obvious benefits of cooperation compete with an irrepressible desire to remain...

The 2008 presidential election saw the biggest partisan shift in a generation — more of a rejection of Republicans than an embrace of Democrats — but voter surveys find no broad ideological realignment behind that shift...

Center-right parties will do well in European elections in Germany, Poland and the UK while making losses in several smaller states, according to a study for public affairs company Burson-Marsteller, which is based on the premise that parties in government will do badly and that large parties in opposition will do well. The centre-right EPP-ED, which is currently the biggest group in the European Parliament, is expected to get 285 (39%) seats in the 732-seat assembly. The socialists are predicted to come in with 217 (30%) seats and the liberals with 73 (10%) -- exactly the order of the three...

Adieu, European LeftThe huge victory of President Jacques Chirac's center-right coalition yesterday in the French parliamentary elections confirms that France is but the latest European country to reject the left. Voters let it be known that they don't want more of what they've had in the past five years: a mandatory 35-hour work week; an attempt to export such rules to the rest of the European Union; and an anti-Americanism out of place with the reality of trans-Atlantic partnership on many key issues.Yesterday's elections also reflect the wide chasm between the chattering classes and the majority of the French people....

Costa Rica elected Abel Pacheco as its new president on Sunday in an election that made history as the country's first runoff — and as the lowest voter turnout. With more than 90 percent of the vote counted, 68-year-old Pacheco, a psychiatrist, poet and former television commentator, had 58 percent of the vote compared with Rolando Araya's 42 percent. "I am very thankful to the people, those who supported the party, those who worked and organized," Pacheco of the ruling Social Christian Unity Party said shortly after Araya called to congratulate him. The runoff was set up by a Feb....