Free Republic

Most Americans are not THAT demanding of a strict definition of conservatism

As I was saying at the dawn of this day: 1) Trump; 2) Kasich; 3) Rubio; 4) Bush; 5) Cruz. Number One and Two were correct, and at this hour Numbers Three, Four and Five are all jostling together at 11 per cent, but with Cruz third and Rubio fifth. On the Democrat side I noted the midnight vote tallies from Dixville Notch, Hart's Location and Millsfield: Sanders 17 Clinton 9 [snipped text about Dem race] On the Republican side, Trump won yuge: 35 per cent in a nine-man race, and more than twice as many votes as the second-placed...

I launched a book this week and I went Indie with it. Indie means I released it on Amazon via Kindle Direct Publishing. I had to. My Publisher, HarperVoyager, refused to publish it because of some of the ideas I wrote about in it. In other words, they were attempting to effectively ban a book because they felt the ideas and concepts I was writing about were dangerous and more importantly, not in keeping with their philosophical ideals. They felt my ideas weren’t socially acceptable and were “guaranteed to lose fifty percent of my audience” as related back to me...

In the latest debate Donald Trump made it clear, once again, that not only he is not conservative, but he has absolutely no idea what conservatism is. When asked to define conservative, Trump, who usually gives expansive answers, could only manage to speak for less than 30 seconds before running out of ammo. His answer was that "Conservatism means... to conserve... your wealth". That's not what conservatism is. A two year transfer student into Wharton College (with an uncle in MIT) should be able to give a better answer than that. Marco Rubio, perspiring like a fire hydrant, nonetheless came...

As the New Hampshire primary fast approaches, I wish to remind voters that our next commander-in-chief must be of the highest character, cut from the rare cloth of our founders. Sometimes God gives us great gifts in ugly packages. Recent attacks on Ted Cruz from both the Trump and Dr. Carson campaigns gifted Cruz an opportunity to show his character and presidential instincts.

SALEM, N.H. - Ted Cruz in person, on the campaign trail, is a study in contrasts. What I principally mean by that cliche is that Cruz makes a more plausible human being when seen up close than in his animatronic television appearances, but he does not resemble a human being who came into the world by the usual method. He's both cute and sinister, a highly discordant combination. He's like a marzipan man brought to life by the kiss of a magic fairy, stuffed into overly tight blue jeans and sent toddling into middle-school cafeterias in the middle of nowhere...

There is no real litmus test for Conservatism; as should be obvious to anyone on brief reflection. Conservatism is--and always has been, as the term connotes--about preserving what one considers important, in a social, cultural, historic & genetic heritage. One person may be more focused on one aspect, another on another. There is no natural law that demands that all have the same focus--indeed, the notion flies in the face of the concept that man is Blessed with Free Will; with freedom to decide priorities--and, of course, bear the consequences. Conservatism is about preserving social--both cultural & material, as well...

Trump is not a conservative. He's an economic nationalist whose limited involvement in politics over the years has largely consisted of furthering his own interests by contributing to members of both political parties. His current policy positions often contradict those he's publicly expressed in the past, and his governing philosophy, to the extent he has one, combines crony capitalism with government activism (eminent domain; ethanol; protectionism; universal, government-paid health care).Des Moines, Iowa - The shorthand understanding of the likely three-man race for the Republican nomination goes something like this. Donald Trump is the populist outside agitator, running on economic nationalism...

There is a boisterous Oath Keeper leaking alcohol from every pore sitting three seats away from me in a Nashua, New Hampshire, middle school auditorium hosting a Ted Cruz town hall. I'm wondering if it's too late to change seats. The guy is wearing a camouflage jacket that doesn't quite hide the bulging middle-age belly straining at the faded Patriots T-shirt underneath. He's carrying a sign that reads "Like a Cruz missile, Ted will destroy ISIS" on one side and "Cruzin West" on the other, a plea for the Texas senator to pick former Florida congressman Allen West as his...

Neomasculinity combines traditional beliefs, masculinity, and animal biology into one ideological system. It aims to aid men living in Westernized nations that lack qualities such as classical virtue, masculinity in males, femininity in females, and objectivity, especially concerning beauty ideals and human behavior. It also serves as an antidote for males who are being programmed to accept Western degeneracy, mindless consumerism, and immoral state authority. The purpose of this article is to list and describe the principal doctrines of neomasculinity.

Senator Sasse of Nebraska gives Chuck Todd a refresher on what conservatism is really all about. (Click on the link for video)

I tip my cap, unreservedly, to Ted Cruz. With everything on the line - and so many GOP colleagues cowed and intimidated - he took on Donald Trump and won. Late last year I wrote that the GOP needed an actual leader, someone who would step up and take on Trump directly: Now is the time. A presidential campaign is an early test of leadership, a proving ground for dealing with the challenges of the world's most difficult job. I don't want the last man standing. I want the guy who took down the king. If Trump can absorb the...

Lastly, the sudden embrace of Trump by GOP establishment members in an attempt to knock out their real nemesis, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), has got to force Trump voters to take pause. The GOP gambit is to knock off Cruz in Iowa because his voters go disproportionately to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). Trump's voters, on the other hand, tend to go to Cruz. So, beating Cruz would boost the establishment's favored alternative, and in classic "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" fashion, they are pumping up Trump.

Last week, the conservative magazine National Review published a long and scathing attack on Donald J. Trump. Notable names included Glenn Beck, Erick Erickson, Michael Medved, and Thomas Sowell. Absent was the radio champion of conservatism, Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh said National Review’s attack came “too late now,” and would not convince Trump’s supporters. This may be true, but it could also be Limbaugh’s way of explaining why he won’t attack Trump himself. Could Limbaugh be “cheating on conservatism” with The Donald? Does he identify with Trump, or does Limbaugh’s hatred of the “establishment” run so deep that he is willing...

The other day a commentator asked a GOP candidate this simple question. "What is the Federal Government doing that it should not be doing?" The candidate did not have a ready answer, and did the soft shoe talking point response that had little to do with this question. But, isn't the answer to this question the crux of conservatism? Should not each candidate running for office under the guise of conservatism not have, at the constant ready, a litany of unnecessary federal government programs and activities? Admittedly, the easier response is to take the question in the negative and respond...

If there's one thing that Donald Trump has done for the leaders of the conservative movement, the Christian Right and the Republican party it's that he's teaching them a necessary lesson in reality: It turns out that a large number of their supporters don't really care about ideology, morality or even their supposedly mutual loathing of the hippie Democrats on the other side. Their concerns run to something much more primitive.

Ever since Donald Trump's rise to 2016-contender prominence, the rap on him, and perhaps part of his broad appeal, has been that he's not a conservative. And he's not -- he's a nationalistic populist. Yet there's another way to understand The Donald's professed politics: as that of the first prominent "European-conservative" American presidential candidate. He's not so much America's next Ronald Reagan or Barry Goldwater, but her first Marine Le Pen. A prerequisite for grasping this is first understanding the true natures of liberalism and conservatism. While many have their own definitions of the latter -- and will stubbornly insist...

While Cruz is running for president in 2016 as the consummate outsider, he launched his political career as a Bush administration insider, and his relationship with the GOP establishment is far deeper and more complex than he lets on. On the trail today, Cruz bashes the "Washington cartel," jokes of being so hated in the U.S. Capitol that he needs a "food-taster," and says at nearly every stop, "If you see a candidate Washington embraces, run and hide." But 16 years ago, as a young domestic policy adviser for Bush's 2000 campaign, Cruz himself had sought Washington's embrace. He uprooted...

Monday, January 25, 2016 Conservatism Isn't Dead Posted by Daniel Greenfield No, conservatism isn't dead. It just isn't nearly as influential as some conservatives thought it was. This shouldn't have come as a surprise after two Obama victories, the failures of the Tea Party and the warping of conservative institutions and politicians to serve entirely different agendas. Ideas only have power when they're vested in organizations that have power. Conservative organizations have very little institutional power. Those that do are not particularly conservative, but serve the agendas of an establishment that has self-interested goals. Conservative organizations lean heavily on messaging,...

Today we learn from Jim Robinson of a movement afoot to proselytize among the so-called conservatives here to abandon Free Republic. This is but another effort by the supporters of Ted Cruz to squirm out of the Trump's closing in on the Republican nomination, and, perhaps the presidency. If the close is forestalled, and they SCREAM loudly enough in block capital letter that TRUMPIZOIDS ARE INSANE they will see Trump for what he is and the nomination will go to Cruz. They even project idiocies such as Trump's supporters would overlook it if he killed 500 puppies on TV with...