Free Republic

There’s a movement brewing to shut down conservative websites that offer views and information contradicting left-wing orthodoxy. Investigative reporter Gabe Kaminsky did an excellent job of uncovering how activist organizations, some partnered with the State Department, work to blacklist and defund conservative media. His ongoing series at the Washington Examiner is worth reading and explains how this is part of a larger effort to effectively shut down conservative media publications. It’s predictable—yet nevertheless disturbing—stuff. “Major ad companies are increasingly seeking guidance from purportedly ‘nonpartisan’ groups claiming to be detecting and fighting online ‘disinformation.’” Kaminsky wrote. “These same ‘disinformation’ monitors are...

After the Civil War, Southern politicians fearful of losing their grip on power decried the influx of “carpetbaggers” from the North. Tennessee lawmakers today seem to have similar fears.On April 13, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, returned SB 2616 to the legislature (meaning it became law despite his lack of signature). The bill requires any candidate running for Congress to have resided in the state for three years to run in primary elections. Given that the law is patently unconstitutional under Article I of the U.S. Constitution, you may wonder what suddenly inspired the Tennessee General Assembly to add...

President Joe Biden is the kind of man who deliberately would steer his car into a ditch, crawl from the wreckage, and then probe the ditch for criminal conduct. Such nonsense mirrors Biden’s recent instructions to the Federal Trade Commission. Citing “mounting evidence of anti-consumer behavior by oil-and-gas companies,” Biden told the Federal Trade Commission to “bring all of the Commission’s tools to bear if you uncover any wrongdoing.” Is Biden cynical enough to blame Big Oil for a national fiasco that he concocted? Or is he so touchingly self-unaware that he misses the connection between higher pump prices and...

Over the years, many prominent conservatives have asked me why blacks are not more involved in the Republican Party and the conservative movement. The answer is very simple: Conservatives have shown no demonstrable indication to the black community that we are welcomed by the party or the conservative movement. As a matter of fact, conservatives force “real” blacks to make a false choice: to be black or conservative, as though we can’t be both. Most blacks are conservative by nature and by upbringing. “Real” blacks don’t check their blackness at the door when they join a conservative group. We still...

The United States is not doing enough to promote free trade and the elimination of trade barriers around the world. In fact, it’s doing just the opposite and imposing barriers on billions of dollars’ worth of imports. As a result, new trade restrictions implemented by World Trade Organization member countries have reached historic highs. Over the last two review periods, new trade restrictions totaled $588.3 billion and $339.5 billion, respectively. For the previous two periods, new trade restrictions totaled roughly $100 billion or less. The latest figures present a worrisome and unpredictable climate that is harming the overall health of...

Many Americans probably have no idea of the long history of the “go back to your country” taunt and how it was used to denigrate ethnic minorities. If they did, they would better understand the visceral reaction to it. To understand what is unfolding, one must understand the history of this awful saying. One must also understand that we, as ethnic minorities, consider ourselves to be co-equal citizens in this fantastic country we call America. In other words, there is no place to go back to. This is my country—the one that I love. When President Donald Trump said four...

Bre Payton, a writer for The Federalist, was a longtime collaborator with and friend of The Daily Signal. Bre, who died Friday, was in and out of the Daily Signal offices on a near-weekly basis, as the co-host of “Problematic Women” podcast, which she worked on with our Kelsey Harkness, Lauren Evans, and more recently, Ginny Montalbano. I knew it was “Problematic Women” day because I’d often see Kelsey, Bre, and Lauren huddled up in Kelsey’s office, discussing what stories to cover. They had fun, too; when they came out of the podcast studio, they’d often be all smiles. They...

A Boise State University professor recently learned what happens when you challenge left-wing social narratives on college campuses. Scott Yenor, a tenured professor, has been under siege on campus after publishing articles with The Heritage Foundation and The Daily Signal about feminism and the transgender movement. In those articles, Yenor explained the similarity in philosophy between the early feminists and modern transgender movement and how they aim at undermining traditional family values. He wrote in a Daily Signal article on Aug. 2:

An Iowa pastor, saying the government needs to stop “meddling in religious affairs,” is at odds with the state over a law focused on sexual orientation and gender identity that he says hinders his First Amendment right to teach on matters of sexuality. “The state of Iowa is not the self-appointed pope of all churches,” Cary Gordon, pastor of Cornerstone World Outreach, a nondenominational church with around 900 members in Sioux City, Iowa, told The Daily Signal.

A recent report by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget raises concerns that proposals by this year’s presidential candidates would further increase the national debt. America’s major entitlement programs—Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, and Social Security—are driving the nation’s greatest fiscal challenge, and yet Americans have heard very little about how the candidates will address these programs. Autopilot entitlement spending on federal health care programs and Social Security, along with the net interest the nation must pay on the federal debt, are projected to consume all federal tax revenues by 2033.

Last summer, shortly after the first Republican presidential debate, the editors of the Daily Signal made a decision. Although its digital-only staff of 25 reporters and editors works less than two miles from the White House, they wouldn’t write about the presidential campaign — not at all. Nary a mention of Donald Trump’s pronouncements, despite the readership that he produces. No Corey Lewandowski dust-ups; no Hillary Clinton stopping at Chipotle; no horse race. “We struggled with the decision,” says Robert Bluey, the Signal’s editor in chief. “But we ultimately decided that there was no way our small, ragtag team could...

Last December, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rushed an arbitrary and ineffectual recreational drone-owners’ registry into effect, mere days before Christmas and just in time to criminalize the flying of toys by thousands of children and hobbyists. The agency has potentially roped those toys under its definition of “aircraft” for purposes of all aircraft regulation as well. Following this bureaucratic overreach, a hobby drone operator who happens to be a lawyer, John Taylor, filed suit in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, challenging the registry.

....Obama, the titular head of the LGBT movement, has added to the firestorm of confusion...by threatening schools with loss of federal funding unless they allow students to join the sex-segregated restroom, locker room, and sports teams of their chosen gender, without regard to biological reality. ....As someone who underwent surgery from male to female and lived as a female for eight years before returning to living as a man, I know firsthand what it’s like to be a transgender person.... What has arisen is a new breed emerging among young people that falls outside the purview of the LGBT: the...

President Barack Obama, the titular head of the LGBT movement, has added to the firestorm of confusion, misunderstanding, and fury surrounding the transgender bathroom debate by threatening schools with loss of federal funding unless they allow students to join the sex-segregated restroom, locker room, and sports teams of their chosen gender, without regard to biological reality. I know firsthand what it’s like to be a transgender person—and how misguided it is to think one can change gender through hormones and surgery. His action comes after weeks of protests against the state of North Carolina for its so-called anti-LGBT bathroom bill....

The Washington political establishment has hit the panic button. Not because they are afraid of any one individual or candidate, but because they are afraid of losing their own political power. This town is filled with well-intentioned people who believe they are doing the right thing, but far too many have lost their way after years in Washington. Politicians pay more attention to special interests groups and powerful lobbyists writing checks to their next campaign, than listening to the people back home who sent them here in the first place. A recent survey of likely Republican primary voters showed that...

The Washington political establishment has hit the panic button. Not because they are afraid of any one individual or candidate, but because they are afraid of losing their own political power. The Washington political establishment has hit the panic button. This town is filled with well-intentioned people who believe they are doing the right thing, but far too many have lost their way after years in Washington. Politicians pay more attention to special interests groups and powerful lobbyists writing checks to their next campaign, than listening to the people back home who sent them here in the first place. This...

Days after Sen. Ted Cruz criticized his party’s leadership for preemptively surrendering to President Barack Obama, those GOP leaders exacted their revenge on Cruz. As the Senate voted Monday on a continuing resolution with taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, Cruz attempted to offer an amendment ending all federal funding for America’s largest abortion provider. The amendment also cut off money to implement the Iran nuclear deal. But in a departure from Senate custom, a quartet of Republican leaders blocked the Texas senator from even getting a vote on his amendment. Only one senator, Mike Lee of Utah, stood with Cruz...

FULL TITLE: Teacher Protests Union’s Planned Parenthood Donations, Fights for Ability to Donate to Pro-Life Charity A Pennsylvania teacher is suing the state’s largest teachers union, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, for preventing her from donating her nonmember fees to a pro-life charity. In an interview with The Daily Signal, Linda Misja, a teacher at Apollo-Ridge High School, said she has never paid for representation by the union, which she does not want. She said joining the union would violate her religious beliefs. Misja, a devout Catholic, objects to the union’s decision to donate to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest...

Is the debate about marriage over after the Supreme Court’s June decision to redefine marriage in all fifty states? That’s what some Amazon.com reviewers are insisting after a new book was released last week. The book, “Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom,” is a roadmap from Ryan Anderson, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, on how the conservative movement can move forward in promoting marriage and protecting religious freedom after the Supreme Court’s ruling. “I wrote this book for all Americans. For those who disagree with me, to at least understand the viewpoint of roughly...

When reading the Declaration of Independence over the holiday weekend, it’s easy to skip over the names of the signers and focus instead on the sweeping language of the second paragraph. This overlooks the fact that the signers pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor in order to found a country upon self-evident truths rooted in the nature of man.