Free Republic

How unfair it is on Chipping Norton, that handsome, decent town, to be burdened by a link with David Cameron, the second worst Prime Minister of the modern age... Mr. Sunak cannot want Mr. Cameron's expertise on foreign policy. His major achievement in that field was to destroy Libya, replacing the despot Gaddafi with wild, burning chaos. This one action triggered the giant explosion in human trafficking across the Mediterranean which has utterly transformed Europe and European politics for the worse. He also supported the failed attempt to overthrow the nasty Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad, supposedly in the name of...

The most persistent narrative of the 2020 race for the Democratic nomination is that it amounts to a battle between leftists (Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren) and centrists (Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and now Michael Bloomberg) over who is best suited to take on and take down President Trump. But what if there are no true centrists in the 2020 race at all? Oh sure, there are plenty of candidates who portray themselves as centrists — and other candidates, like Sanders and Warren, who delight in skewering these less left-leaning options for ideological heresy. But do the three Bs — Biden,...

Senator Elizabeth Warren wants new taxes on wealth. Senator Bernie Sanders wants Medicare for All. Senator Cory Booker wants guaranteed jobs. Jeff Mackler wants the elimination of the military budget, the nationalization of the energy and banking industries, open borders, the creation of a state-run health-care system, and the end of capitalism in the United States.

Former Vice President Joe Biden “relaunched” his campaign yesterday with a rousing speech before his supporters in Philadelphia. (How many times is he going to need to launch this rocket with a twenty point lead?) While Uncle Joe had plenty to say, there was much that was missing when compared to the hot chaff streaming out of his competitors’ public remarks. There was no talk of how awful the Republicans are or how they’re ruining the nation. There were few direct mentions of President Trump and pretty much nothing about how the Bad Orange Man is the devil. Instead, Joe...

LINCOLN, Neb. — Self-identified liberal voters are less forgiving to Democratic politicians who cross party lines on certain issues than conservative voters are to Republican lawmakers doing the same thing, a recent study shows. Researchers at the University of Nebraska used MRI technology to examine the brains of 58 people when they face incongruent positions by politicians. The researchers wanted to see which parts of the brain lit up when people evaluated fictional politicians’ stances on key conservative and liberal issues.

If your only source of information about American politics in 2018 were the GOP’s campaign ads, you would think that the Democratic Party was a radical left-wing organization, whose principal constituents were anarchists, misandrists, literal terrorists, and acolytes of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. If you supplemented those 30-second spots with Donald Trump’s stump speeches, and Fox News’ prime-time lineup, you might further conclude that Nancy Pelosi was the chair of The House Antifa Caucus. In other words: The GOP’s message-makers are working round-the-clock to collapse the distinctions between the Democratic Party and the most radical activists at the far-left fringes...

Shelbi Lewark was a paid field organizer in Colorado for the Republican National Committee until Donald Trump became the party’s nominee for president. Lewark, 26, was so turned off by Trump that she quit her RNC job last summer and is now working to elect independent candidates in the Centennial State. Owen Casas is a 32-year-old stonemason from Maine who fought in Falluja, Iraq, with the Marines. He tried volunteering in Democratic politics but realized he didn’t fit there or in the GOP. So he ran for the state Legislature as an independent in 2014 and lost, then ran again...

Governor’s races in South and Midwest could be lost if party brand becomes too liberal. Centrist Democrats were wiped out in the 2014 elections and in their absence emerged a resurgent liberal movement, embodied most recently by the surprisingly competitive presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. But the suddenly ascendant left — its populist overtones becoming part of the mainstream Democratic pitch — is worrying Democrats who want to compete on Republican-leaning turf. The party lost every competitive gubernatorial and Senate race in the South last year. And Democrats didn’t fare much better in the heartland. Now, as Bernie...

In its fourth advertisement released this week, a pro-gun control group applauded a Republican congressman’s efforts to reduce gun violence. Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS), the group founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords after she was critically wounded in a shooting outside of a supermarket in 2011, is urging Pennsylvanians to vote for GOP Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick in November’s election. As the narrator explains in the 30-second spot, “Not Afraid to Lead,” the incumbent congressman has attempted to encourage his colleagues — both Republicans and Democrats — in Washington to pass stricter gun control measures. Last year, Fitzpatrick co-sponsored a...

**SNIP** Remaining intra-party fights only concern how extreme the shift will be, as new militants push the Dems closer to pure socialism. Conviction politicians like Obama and de Blasio have no real interest in compromise. Look at the battle between Mass. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton. To most sane people, Clinton no longer qualifies as a centrist. Five years ago, her muscular talk on foreign policy made her allies with Robert Gates and John McCain. But her role as front lady for the Obama appease-niks turned her muscles into fat and her policy into mush. Yet Clinton is insufficiently...

Congressman-turned-lobbyist Steve LaTourette, speaking for moderate Republicans, has attacked the free-market and the stridently anti-establishment Club for Growth as "a cancer on the Republican Party."It's K Street versus the Tea Party again in the bitter civil war within the Republican Party.The Club for Growth came up as the scourge of liberal Republicans. In 2000, the group got behind conservative state legislator Scott Garrett, who was challenging liberal Republican Marge Roukema for the second time in a northern New Jersey district.Roukema edged out Garrett in the primary, but the threat of another primary challenge, backed by a more powerful Club for...

What to make of the news that the "centrist" Democratic Leadership Council -- the vehicle that helped propel Bill Clinton to the presidency in 1992 -- is suspending operations as it ponders an uncertain future? Conventional wisdom says that the DLC, which favored more business-friendly policies in order to make the party appealing to corporate contributors, could no longer compete in a hyperpartisan political environment. Or that the rabid Howard Dean/Daily Kos "Netroots" wing of the party simply overwhelmed its message. Or that in the age of Obama, as Clinton has faded, Hillary has vanished into the swamps of Foggy...

Conservative lobbies are pressing House Republicans to keep centrists from controlling key congressional panels, as House GOP leaders gather this week to pick committee leaders for the 112th Congress.FreedomWorks has launched a public campaign against Michigan Rep. Fred Upton, who wants to lead the House Energy and Commerce Committee, saying he hasn't done enough to cut federal spending and has sided too often with Democrats.And a coalition of more than 20 conservative groups has opposed California Rep. Jerry Lewis' bid to become the top House appropriator, saying he has "thwarted many efforts to rein in ever increasing appropriations bills,...

There's still room for centrists in the Republican Party, the party's Senate campaign chief said Friday. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), said relatively centrist GOP senators should feel welcome in the party despite the spate of primary defeats this cycle for similar incumbents and candidates by conservative challengers. "Absolutely," Cornyn said when asked if centrists are welcome. "People have to understand that this country is a big, diverse country, and not every region and every state is the same." "I think what matters is what the voters in Maine and what the...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is holding a series of meetings with Democratic centrists to secure the 60 votes he needs to begin the healthcare debate. Democratic leaders expect the legislation to hit the Senate floor next week or the week after. Reid appears confident that the entire Democratic Conference will vote en bloc to begin the healthcare debate, but he’s not taking any chances after losing a crucial vote last week on legislation to address Medicare payments to doctors. Nothing is certain in the wake of Reid’s announcement Monday that he would include a government-run insurance plan in...

Centrist House lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are working together privately on healthcare reform. The talks have been so secretive and politically sensitive that some members interviewed by The Hill refused to name other legislators involved in the bipartisan effort. Members of the centrist GOP “Tuesday Group,” the New Democrat Coalition and the 52-member Blue Dog Coalition have been discussing both the policies and politics of moving their middle-of-the-road ideas in a body of Congress usually dominated by liberal or conservative ideology. Those centrist factions are wary of the proposals their respective leaders will introduce this month. Blue...

"Because I speak in civil tones, some want to try to label me a moderate," she said. "My voting record is one of the most conservative in the U.S. Senate. ... We can't expect to remain the majority party in Texas if we drive out voters that support Republican principles but might not agree on every single issue."

This week’s endorsement of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist by senior Senate Republicans is being cheered by GOP senators as a move toward the middle. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) endorsed Crist over former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, a protégé of former Gov. Jeb Bush and a more conservative candidate. The decision by McConnell and Cornyn was the first such choice since last month’s defection of Arlen Specter to the Senate’s Democratic conference. Moderate GOP senators like Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine used that opportunity to publicly warn the...

For those writing Republican centrism’s obituary after Arlen Specter’s party switch, holster your quills. In fact, if the next few weeks go well for the GOP, it might pave the way for a whole new chapter in the left flank of the right-leaning party. The month of May will be huge, recruiting-wise, for Senate Republicans, with decisions expected from several big-name candidates, including Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, Rep. Mark Kirk (Ill.) and possibly Rep. Mike Castle (Del.). All would instantly be formidable — with Crist and Castle favored at the outset — and all are...

President Barack Obama, weighing advice from both the left and right on his first Supreme Court choice, is likely to seek a judicial version of himself: a moderate coalition-builder.