Free Republic

National Journal provides a look inside as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) attempts to convince key conservatives that he can unite the GOP: [E]ight months out from the Iowa caucuses, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is closer to proving it can be done. Because after walking into a Tysons Corner hotel in May, the door closing behind him, Cruz delivered something none of his competitors could—a campaign plan that has persuaded some of the most influential conservatives in America that they might defeat the GOP establishment’s candidate for the first time in a generation. This has been the stuff of dreams and...

The Conservative movement in America - much like those who fought valiantly at the Alamo - will shortly be overrun and butchered at the hand of a godless and lawless world (Matt. 24:12, Gal. 1:4; Eph. 6:12, Rev. 13). These sobering realities are too much for the majority of American conservatives to think on and understandably so, they do not want to retain this reality in their thoughts. These individuals have put ALL of their trust in this sound and crucial ideology for fallen humanity and rightly so, true conservatism is key for a healthy society and beneficial for obtaining...

On Monday, the Pew Research Center released the results of a new survey on how Americans view homosexuality.One question asked respondents whether homosexuality should be accepted or discouraged by society. Pew broke down responses to this question by a number of demographic, political, and religious factors and compared results from this year's survey to a similar survey from March 2013.In almost every one of the groups Pew broke out, the percentage of respondents who said homosexuality should be accepted increased over the past two years. This was the case for men and women, each of the generational cohorts Pew looked...

Politics today seems to be dominated by an “either you’re in or you’re out mentality.” If you’re a good Republican, a good Christian, and a good conservative, then you really can’t support gay marriage—at least, that’s what I’m constantly being told. “We can’t redefine an institution that’s been around for thousands of years,” opponents of marriage equality say. “To do so would be to radically transform the way society has always understood marriage. That’s just not what conservatism is all about.” But is that really true? It seems to me the heroes of the modern conservative movement— individuals such as...

The weekly top 40 is out. The big movers this week are the Gateway Pundit, down 7 spots to #39; CNS News, down 6 spots to #35; and Mad World News, up 6 spots to #33.

Sppeaking on Fox News Channel’s The Five, pundit Greg Gutfeld said that “gay marriage, in my opinion, is a conservative idea.” He noted that the left “generally hates traditions” and is all about “breaking with traditions,” and that gay marriage offers conservatives an opportunity to “embrace a tradition” that strengthens families and communities. I should acknowledge that Gutfeld spoke without notes, unscripted, live and off-the-cuff. I often talk with inexactness when I’m speaking live. Live speaking is a perfect venue to make mistakes. It’s easier to type your thoughts and have the benefit of reflection, revision, and a word processor....

I haven’t exactly been the friendliest conservative writer toward Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. In 2013, I repeatedly mocked his gambit to defund Obamacare. In one instance, I argued that if opposing this quixotic attention-seeking effort made one a supporter of Barack Obama and his agenda, then by the same logic anyone who votes to appropriate money to fund Obama’s salary supports the President’s agenda as well. In a second instance, I laid out how Cruz’s defunding movement could succeed in six easy steps, which included Joe Biden getting hit by a meteor and President Obama getting drafted by the Chicago...

It's an unfortunate mistake of history that Republicans ceded the political turf in minority communities to welfare-state Democrats. The severe social problems in these communities flow right from a half-century of left-wing programs.Republican pollster Whit Ayres' new book, 2016 and Beyond: How Republicans Can Elect a President in the New America, bears a crucial message. Republicans must make inroads into non-white America if they wish to occupy the White House in the foreseeable future. I, and others, have been writing about the electoral implications of sweeping demographic change for a number of years. The USA is becoming less white. With...

".......Annie [composite techie-must read full article to grasp how "she's" defined]has voted for the Democrats in the last few elections, both because everyone she knows does and because they stand against the less tolerant elements of the Republican Party, which seem frighteningly antediluvian to her. The war on terror struck her as about the dumbest thing she’s seen any government do, a massive overreaction with no planning or strategy to it.(She feels roughly the same about the war on drugs.)Yet she saw that Democrats were just as slow as Republicans to sour on the United States’ involvement in the Middle...

Gov. Scott Walker has appointed the son of a president of a foundation that supports tea party causes to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. The board oversees the University of Wisconsin system, setting policies and approving budgets, among other vital regulatory duties. Walker appointed Mike M. Grebe, son of Michael W. Grebe, president and chief executive of the Bradley Foundation, to the board. The foundation is an essential part of Walker’s “brain trust.” It’s poured millions into promoting such right-wing policies as busting unions, expanding voucher schools and eliminating social welfare programs. In addition to his association with...

Nothing quite so blatantly sums up the victory of neoliberalism in 21st-century London, and that city’s relentless commodification of every aspect of its literary and historical legacy, like Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross. If anything, the vulgarity and banality of Platform 9 ¾ are too blatant; it’s a crack in the façade that demonstrates how thoroughly London has become Londonland, a nearly convincing scavenger-hunt simulation of itself, chock-full of royal bones and references to Dan Brown novels. To enter Westminster Abbey – which is still nominally a house of worship for the Anglican Communion, rather than a historical theme...

For three years, Wisconsin prosecutors have been investigating whether Republican Gov. Scott Walker broke campaign finance laws as he battled a 2012 recall effort sparked by his push for a law that undercut the power of public sector unions. Prosecutors allege that Walker and his aides illegally coordinated with conservative groups that were raising money and running ads to support Walker and his Republican allies. At least one group at the center of the probe, the Wisconsin Club for Growth, has gone to court to stop the investigation. Its fate now rests with the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which will rule...

Rockford, Illinois. After thirty-one years at Chronicles Magazine—thirty of them as editor—classicist, poet and polemicist Tom Fleming has retired. During his tenure at this small but influential magazine of the paleoconservative right, which was founded by Polish emigre Leopold Tyrmand but turned into a real magazine by Tom, he published political and social commentators that varied from the Agrarian-minded Mel Bradford to the analyst of power that was Sam Francis, to the more humorous libertarian Bill Kauffman. He also published many men of letters: Wendell Berry, John Lukacs, George Garrett, Jorge Luis Borges, Andrew Lytle, Walker Percy, and Russell Kirk,...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker met with about 100 House Republicans on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, engaging in a wide ranging discussion that hit on everything from foreign policy to why Walker doesn't have a college degree, according to those in the room Members who spoke to NBC News after the meeting gave Walker overwhelmingly positive reviews. A common refrain from members was Walker's ease at conversing with them, which they felt would play well in a grassroots campaign and eventually with swing voters.

A group of conservative lawyers who have been investigating the origins of the IRS scandal for the past year-and-a-half say they’ve uncovered the real roots of the IRS scandal — and they’ll surprise both liberals and conservatives alike. The group, Cause of Action, which has subpoenaed thousands of pages of documents from the agency and is still embroiled in litigation with it, says the targeting of conservative groups resulted as much from IRS personnel merely following the instructions laid out in their employee handbook, the Internal Revenue Manual, as from any political bias at the top. When the scandal broke...

“because it’s you against a lot of people” – My appearance on The Craig Silverman Show (Aurora, CO) I appeared on Saturday, May 16, 2015, on The Craig Silverman Show on 710 KNUS in Aurora, Colorado. The conversation covered my background, what it means to be a conservative on campus, the anti-Israel boycott movement, the Pope on a Palestinian “state,” the Pew Poll on Christians, and the fate of Christians in the Middle East. On Ted Cruz at Harvard Law School: “When you’re going to be political at a place like Harvard Law School, you have to be better than...

As America begins the search for a new president in 2016, many people are tired of the status quo and are looking for an authentic conservative, one who can make a difference and who has shown they are determined to make a difference. There aren’t many who fit that description like Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. In fact, there are none in the race so far who can match his record of conservatism. And he’s demonstrated an willingness to do more than just mouth conservative platitudes. When most “Republicans” were busy badmouthing ObamaCare but doing absolutely nothing to stop it,...

Well folks, for about four years I haven't written anything, except a few movie reviews and some scripts. I had a strong calling to give up (I thought permanently) writing books. All that time, however, it kept nagging at me that the biography treatments of Ronald Reagan just were not satisfying. So, I feel "released" now to begin a new book project, perhaps my final book: a biography of our greatest 20th century president. I have already written a script that Arc Entertainment/Victory Pictures (who did the Palin movie) have agreed to produce called "The Lifeguard: Ronald Reagan and his...

This weekend, a dozen Republican presidential hopefuls showed up at the South Carolina Freedom Summit. They were there to court primary voters who will winnow the presidential field next February. Judging from the speeches, it’s going to be an ugly race. What the candidates are selling, and primary voters are buying, is vituperation against people who don’t look, talk, or pray like the Republican base.............. [SNIP of stuff that sounds good to me - Santorum was on fire] ...............Mexicans, Muslims, gays, rats, roaches. Christian superiority, military contempt for the president, and gauntlets thrown down to queer-loving CEOs. It’s going to...

Many people seem to think that the results of the British general election—a gain of 24 seats for the Tories, giving them a majority—herald a major win for conservatism. They don’t. They herald a major win for the Conservative Party, but just because it calls itself the Conservative Party doesn’t mean it does conservative things. Actually, the full official name of that party is the “Conservative and Unionist Party,” and last night was not a win for unionism either. The Scottish National Party, once a marginal outfit known outside Scotland only because Sean Connery supported it, picked up 50 seats...