Free Republic

The Sinclair group, which owns 173 television stations, is in the process of acquiring 42 more, and the New York Times doesn't like that.  It has run a hit piece claiming that Sinclair's local stations produce politically biased news – conservative news, that is – therefore making Sinclair unfit to own more of them. As Sinclair prepares to expand its stable of local TV stations with a proposed acquisition of Tribune Media  –  which would add 42 stations to Sinclair's 173  –  advocacy groups have shown concern about the size and reach the combined company would have. What "advocacy groups" would those be?  Have...

Up to two fifths of Americans describe themselves as Conservatives, and in England that number is roughly the same. The beliefs and principles that relate both the US and UK Conservatives are generally similar, yet any individual definition of what Conservatism means to each person who identifies as such would probably differ greatly. And of course, those who are not Conservative have a very different view as to what principles (if any) underlie its present incarnation. Those on the Left (who would be happy to identify as Liberal) generally define themselves through a core set of “values”. That these are...

It's something most conservatives a year ago would not have imagined: the opening act of Donald Trump’s agenda in the White House contains a real whiff of Ronald Reagan. To be sure, there's plenty the Reaganites won't like -- talk of trillion-dollar federal building campaigns, taxing business at the border, etc. -- but there's plenty to applaud as well. He’s proposing dramatic across-the-board tax cuts. That’s Reaganesque. He’s reasserting American strength and resolve in response to the dictators who rattle sabers at America. That’s Reaganesque. He’s appointing judges and Supreme Court justices that follow the Constitution instead of acting like...

Washington will swallow your soul if you let it. It’s a place where many moral compasses go to die. So maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Vice President of the United States is ridiculed when it’s reported that he’s spent his time in office choosing to live his life differently from the D.C. status quo. Since a Washington Post profile of Karen Pence, the vice president’s wife, appeared last week, critics have obsessed over a single line, which reported that, as of 2002, the vice president doesn’t dine alone with women other than his wife. At the...

Today's governor, Doug Ducey, is demonstrating the continuing pertinence of the limited-government conservatism with which Sen. Goldwater shaped the modern GOP, after himself being shaped by life in the leave-me-alone spirit of the wide open spaces of near-frontier Arizona. Last year, Ducey, now 52, told National Review, "If you want to learn something new, you need to read something old. As Barry Goldwater wrote in 'Conscience of a Conservative,' 'My aim is not to pass laws, it’s to repeal them.' " Ducey was preaching what he already had practiced. He took office in January 2015, as the Super Bowl was about...

As he gave his brief press conference Friday afternoon confirming that Republicans had pulled their bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, House Speaker Paul Ryan both looked and sounded like a hangdog high school football coach spilling out a few defeated platitudes after watching his team get ground into the turf. “Moving from an opposition party to a governing party comes with growing pains,” he said, “and, well, we’re feeling those growing pains today.” “We came really close today, but we came up short.” “I will not sugarcoat this. This is a disappointing day for us. Doing...

For some unfathomable reason, conservatives always seem to get excited when a moderately articulate post-puberty pundit comes along and parrots some simulacrum of conservative doctrine – except it almost always ends up like when my retriever-corgi mix tries to walk on her stubby back legs and we gasp in delight, “Look, Bitey thinks she’s people!” This is not a criticism of young people; it’s a criticism of us grown-ups, and a recognition of reality that keeps biting us on the Jeb. We need to dispense with the cute kid conservative novelty acts and understand that our ideology – unlike liberalism...

If this is the Republicans’ idea of party unity, please take me off your guest list. At best, the Republican Party can, right now, be described as self-destructive, and at worst sheer masochistic. There is no “I” in team but there are two in idiots, and that is how you are all coming across to the American people right now; no, not just to the Democrats, but to your own party. Your lack of loyalty to each other is honestly downright embarrassing, and extremely detrimental. If you need help with understanding the meaning of party unity look no further then...

Republican leadership's plans for the Obamacare repeal were recently leaked, though "repeal" is perhaps too strong a word. "Tweaks" more accurately describes the work of Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and other House Republicans. It does not go back to ground zero, where this disaster began. Instead, the plan is to go for "Obamacare Lite." It's simply a different version of Obamacare — a Republican version of Obamacare. It's how President Obama himself might have done it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said, "The best interest of the country would be achieved by pulling out Obamacare, root...

Among his other accomplishments, Donald Trump, without ever intending to, has fractured conservatism – something that was long overdue. The American conservative movement has come quite a distance since the middle of the last century, from a small coterie viewed with contempt by the larger culture to the front ranks of a juggernaut that set back the plans of this country’s left-wing collectivists to a degree that its founders would not have considered possible. (Recall William F. Buckley’s statement that the role of conservatism was to “stand athwart history, yelling “stop.” Incredible as it may seem, “history” did stop.) Today,...

RUSH: Well, now, I’ve had some people email me about it — and, I mean, it never occurred to me. (interruption) You think I should? (interruption) Well, okay. Maybe. I’ll think about it. … I have some people emailing me since last night that I ought to play parts of my CPAC speech from back in 2009 when Obama took office. It never even occurred to me. That’s eight years ago. Anyway, greetings. It’s great to have you with us, folks. It’s Open Line Friday. Rush Limbaugh here, ready and revved up to go. I’m eager to speak with you...

A full-throated defense of conservatism, and a re-iteration of goals and objectives We could debate the relative merits of CPAC all day. Is it a right-wing celebrity showcase? Yes. Is it a clique-y gathering of self-congratulation and self-promotion? Probably. But… Does it have a long history of great speakers and excellent speeches? Absolutely. Vice President Mike Pence has addressed CPAC several times, but I suspect last night’s speech - his second major address since inauguration day - will be long remembered.

In a blistering CPAC speech following Hillsdale College President Dr. Larry Arnn, the Independent Women's Forum's Sabrina Schaeffer, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, American Conservative Union (ACU) Executive Director Dan Schneider attacked the alt-right, claiming that those who identify with that term today have hijacked it for a philosophy fundamentally at odds with conservatism. "Just a few years ago, this hate-filled left-wing fascist group hijacked the very term 'alt-right,'" Schneider declared. "They did it intentionally because they want to deceive the media, they want to deceive you all about what they stand for, so they can try to become normalized,...

Last week Bryan Curtis, the editor-at-large of the The Ringer, Bill Simmons’s interesting new sports and pop-culture website, wrote a much-discussed piece called “Sportswriting Has Become a Liberal Profession — Here’s How It Happened.” It was refreshingly self-aware in the way the best writing from inside a liberal bubble can be. Here was a man of the Left dropping any pretense of objectivity and declaring, “Today, sports writing is basically a liberal profession, practiced by liberals who enforce an unapologetically liberal code.” He went even further: He questioned the career “viability” not only of Trump-supporting sportswriters but also of...

In opposing the godless and bloody French Revolution, Edmund Burke, the father of modern conservatism, concluded that, "I should therefore suspend my congratulations on the new liberty of France, until I was informed how it had been combined with government; with public force; with the discipline and obedience of armies;…with morality and religion;…with peace and order; with civil and social manners. All these (in their way) are good things too; and, without them, liberty is not a benefit whilst it lasts, and is not likely to continue long. The effect of liberty to individuals is, that they may do what...

In all, 46 of the 52 new members signed the document, which takes a stand for "productive dialogue" and against the idea that political rivals are enemies.

Conservatism is the new counter-culture. I must say, it is refreshingly pleasant to be right and hip at the same time James Delingpole recently observed that Ted Mallach believes that “the Brexit and Trump shocks of 2016…are the counter-reaction to the global takeover by the liberal-left in 1968.” This long overdue counter-reaction is, in fact, (as Milo and PJ Watson note) the vanguard of a new counter-culture—conservatism.

The left has controlled culture and politics for quite some time. it was only natural that in the past the Right was fought against by Counter-Culture people. Well, the fact is for teenagers and 20 year olds, all they have known is the Left dominating culture. Now rises the new Counter-Culture: Libertarian Right, which is the more accurate label for this new Conservative Rise we see happening before our eyes.

"What starting a channel is like, why I started mine and what to do if you have a small blog, channel or podcast."

Steve Feinstein’s recent article, “Why American Jews Are Overwhelmingly Liberal,” omitted a crucial part of the story: its conclusion.  While I do not take issue with the article’s facts, the truth is that a wave of conservatism, based on religious values, has been deeply cultivated and is robustly emerging on a major scale in the most vibrant and enduring segments of American Jewry. Studies have demonstrated that America’s secular and mostly liberal Jewish population is shrinking and disappearing, as a result of intermarriage and abandonment of Jewish identity and tradition.  Liberal Jewish congregations are dwindling and shutting down, and...