Free Republic

Many, many moons ago I wrote asking the question: "Did Jefferson believe that liberty had a nineteen year lifespan?" Knowing more now than I knew then about Jefferson's own writings, the answer is clearly no. But I can point to it here instead of searching in vain for it. Jefferson did write to Madison that "No society can make a perpetual Constitution or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation." I had struggled with this, because I knew progressives were liars and were at times using this phrase in order to advance their narrative. The...

“We are witnesses to the most ruthless attack on a president…” exclaims Conservative political commentator and generally terrifying person Dana Loesch in a new Twitter video ad by the National Rifle Association. The unflinching, nearly unblinking delivery of Dana’s hyperbole in the video is introduced by an ominous sub-frequency and intercut with clips of the various ‘enemies’ and ‘saboteurs’ of the President and by Dana’s/the NRA’s logic, America. The thing that’s seemingly implied in the video is that gun-owners and NRA members are the last line of defense for America’s most sacred institutions and more importantly—of course—the Trump presidency.

As of June 12th, the evolving senate still had no powers beyond those of the Confederation. Additional powers arrived after delegates determined its institutional shape and characteristics. At issue was the senate’s relationship with the lower house and the executive branch. Governor Randolph reminded the committee “the democratic licentiousness of the state legislatures proved the necessity of a firm senate.” The best model was the senate of Maryland, which consisted of fifteen members appointed to five-year terms by an electoral college of two electors from each county and one each from the cities of Baltimore and Annapolis. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland_Senate] Yet, even...

WE NEED 50,000 MORE SIGNATURES BY NOV. 11 TO GET THIS PETITION REVIEWED BY THE WHITE HOUSE. SIGN HERE: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/do-not-pass-hr3999. MAKE SURE TO CLICK VERIFICATION LINK IN EMAIL YOU RECEIVE AFTER SIGNING. H.R.3999 would "amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit the manufacture, possession, or transfer of any part or combination of parts that is designed and functions to increase the rate of fire of a semiautomatic rifle but does not convert the semiautomatic rifle into a machine gun, and for other purposes." This measure could easily ban virtually any device, part, or accessory -- including OEM parts that...

How does the United States pass good gun laws and prevent bad ones? President Trump had the best response.From washingtonexaminer.com: “We'll talk about that later,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about gun reform Tuesday morning. A nation has to have good laws if it is to survive and thrive. Since nations came into existence, it has become obvious that a ruling authority, or government, is necessary for people to survive and thrive. Without a ruling authority, force becomes the only law.The strongest, the best with weapons, survive as long as they can fight, defend, or...

On June 7th, John Dickinson (DE) motioned "that the members of the second branch ought to be chosen by the individual Legislatures." The separate question of proportional or federal (equal) representation in the senate carried over into July, and nearly wrecked the convention. Senatorial election by the states solved two unacceptable aspects of the Virginia Plan. First, the Lower House elected the VA Plan’s Upper House. Nearly all the convention delegates had served in their respective state houses or congress, and were aware of the out-of-doors deal making and corruption certain to occur under the VA Plan. An Upper House...

Lucas, from Seymour, has been critical of the media’s coverage of his efforts to repeal a state law that requires a permit to carry a handgun. He has stated reporters, columnists and editorial boards mischaracterize his idea, which is sometimes referred to as “constitutional carry.” “If I was as irresponsible with my handgun as the media has been with their keyboard, I’d probably be in jail,” Lucas said. The proposal would require professional journalists to submit an application with Indiana State Police. They would be fingerprinted and would have to pay $75 for a lifetime license. If journalists have been...

On the first and second days of June 1787, the Committee of the Whole grappled with the 7th Resolution of the Virginia Plan: "that a national Executive be instituted, to be chosen by the national Legislature-for the term of ------ years &c to be ineligible thereafter, to possess the executive powers of Congress &c." Along the way of debate on the executive, John Dickinson (DE) would segue into the composition of the second house of congress, the infant United States Senate. The Framers’ starting point was the British monarchy. It could not be otherwise. While a chief executive armed with...

Progressives have a challenge for all of us conservatives, and they have had this challenge for over a century now. In his book Progressive Democracy, Herbert Croly wrote the following: Whether conservatives like it or not, the foundations of the traditional system are being tested both by the strain of new social and economic condition and by a flood of suspicion and criticism. If it is going to survive, not only must its adaptability to new exigencies be proved, but also its power to survive the severest possible inquisition. Public opinion can no longer be hypnotized and scared into accepting...

The U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has refused to grant a petition for an en banc hearing in the Wrenn v. D.C. Second Amendment case.The Court earlier ruled that the requirement for a “good cause” to issue a concealed carry permit was unconstitutional.In effect, this means in a week the District of Columbia will become a “shall issue” jurisdiction.  If a person meets the legal requirements for a concealed carry permit, the District of Columbia will be required to issue a permit.None of the 10 Circuit judges capable of requesting a vote for an...

Not so with guns. The Second Amendment, as applied in the last 30 years or so, has become so perverted, twisted and misused that you have to see it now as the second original sin in the founding of this country, after slavery. It wasn’t meant to be the instrument for the worst kind of American exceptionalism — setting up the United States as the most violent of developed nations. But it is now. The more we stand out for random mass killings daily, the more the leading cause becomes clear: the warped interpretation of the freedom to own lethal...

RUSH: You know, yesterday on this program we talked about Bret Stephens and his column in the New York Times, the former columnist for the Wall Street Journal, who is thought to be a conservative. After the column yesterday, a lot of conservatives began wondering what’s happened to Bret Stephens ’cause there’s nothing conservative about the column. Actually it was really kind of a loosely assembled almost like stream of consciousness rather than a crafted and prepared column. And it seemed something written in frustration. He opens it up by admitting he is a conservative, he’s never understood this fetish...

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz has been feuding with President Trump, who she says hasn't done enough to aid the people of her island who are suffering after two devastating hurricanes. The Trump administration says they've been doing everything possible, noting that tons (literally) of federal aid has actually been sent their way. Trump rebutted her by musing that the people of Puerto Rico want everything done for them as opposed to picking themselves up by their bootstraps. Like many of Trump's comments, this set off even more of a firestorm. But, it turns out, Yulín Cruz was fairly...

When a woman asked Benjamin Franklin what kind of government had been created by he and the other gathered founders, Franklin famously replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” One key to keeping that Republic exists in understanding how the Constitution was designed to function. The Constitution of these United States is not arbitrary. It is a document of standards established to keep the GOVERNMENT from becoming arbitrary. These standards were not invented by the men who created the document. These standards were axiomatic truths that had proven themselves for over a millennium. Many of these truths can be...

A 2013 video shows the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, turning her back when asked to swear to uphold the Constitution. On Saturday, President Donald Trump called out Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor, for her “poor leadership ability” in a tweet. The day prior, Cruz had been critical, saying, “If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency.” Cruz first became mayor of San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, in 2013. When taking the oath of office, Cruz delayed repeating the words that she would “uphold and defend...

I’ve found the State Legislators Article V Caucus website to be an invaluable resource for keeping up with the latest goings-on in the Article V Convention of States movement. Anyone can join. Members receive a monthly email with links to timely articles on the progress of Article V across the states. Features from the October issue: • Phoenix Convention September 12th – 15th. Nineteen states sent delegates to develop parliamentary rules for a future Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) Article V COS. View the rules package here. • Phoenix Convention Drew Considerable Media Attention. US News & World Report and the...

Caleb Keeter, who performed at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, tweeted: "I’ve been a proponent of the 2nd Amendment my entire life. Until the events of last night. I cannot express how wrong I was." Josh Abbott Band guitarist Caleb Keeter took to Twitter on Monday morning to share his thoughts on gun control in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting that left more than 50 people dead and 500 injured.

THE I’s had been dotted; the T’s were crossed. The 55 delegates to America’s first and so-far-only constitutional convention had hammered out compromises on the separation of powers, apportionment of seats in the legislature and the future of the slave trade. But on September 15th 1787 George Mason, a plantation owner from Virginia, rose to his feet to object. Article V of the draft text laid out two paths by which future amendments could be proposed. Congress could either propose them itself, or it could summon a convention of representatives from the states to propose them. Mason warned that if...

Subtitle: The 15th Amendment. Recall from Parts I & II, and Article I § 2 of the Constitution, the states determine voter qualifications to the US Congress. From Parts III & IV, we saw that the late 1860s Congress differentiated between civil and political rights, and Congress did not regard the franchise as a civil right. Section 2 of the 14th Amendment prescribed the punishment for state discrimination against voting based on race. As opposed to civil rights, which everyone in America (citizen and non-citizen) has from the moment of conception, voting is a political right subject to Federal/State Constitutions...

A Virginia school district says that a Bible verse engraved on bench memorializing a deceased student must be removed because it is not legal. Charlotte County School Superintendent Nancy Leonard said that the school board determined that the engraving on the bench was illegal because it violated the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which states that the government cannot “establish” a state-sponsored religion. “We found that the memorial bench that we currently have is not legally compliant because of the Establishment Clause (in Constitution), because of the Bible verse,” Leonard told WAFF. The verse from Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do...