Free Republic

“American liberalism today”, writes Jonah Goldberg, “sees no realm of human life that is beyond political significance, from what you eat to what you smoke to what you say. Sex is political. Food is political. Sports, entertainment, your inner motives and outer appearance, all have political salience for liberal fascists”. While Liberal fascism differs from classical fascism, what unites them are their “emotional or instinctual impulses, such as the quest for community, a faith in the perfect ability of man, the authority of experts, and an obsession with the cult of action, and the need for an all-powerful state”, notes...

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) on Wednesday rejected the idea that Democratic political leaders were responsible for problems in Baltimore. [Snip] Some conservatives have suggested that Baltimore, where riots broke out last week over police mistreatment of minorities, is the result of failed liberal policies. Baltimore last had a Republican mayor in 1967.

Neighborhoods matter. That’s the upshot of two fascinating new studies from Harvard economist Raj Chetty and his colleagues. In the 1990s, the federal government launched an experiment, called the Moving to Opportunity project. It created a lottery for housing vouchers that would allow the winners to move out of high-poverty neighborhoods into low-poverty ones. The project’s initial findings were a disappointment for people — like me — who argue that culture matters quite a lot. It did find that neighborhood poverty was a big factor in determining economic mobility, but researchers saw little evidence that getting poor people out of...

Truth Revolt asks why the new Archbishop of Chicago has the nerve to speak of illegal immigration as if it were ‘God’s agenda.’ Where are truth-loving Catholics supposed to look for a Church that isn’t in the pocket of anti-Catholic hate today? Either it is evil to be conservative or these bishops are pretenders. Is it ‘love’ to hand political power to the true enemies of God and man? True to his claim that immigration reform is “God’s agenda,” Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich has been cozying up to pro-abortion Democrats to get his social justice initiatives underway. On Sunday, the...

An Islamist radical recruited to Somalia from Minneapolis inspired the would-be “Texas Terror” killers, who were gunned down in Garland, Texas Sunday night by a sharp-shooting law enforcement officer before they could carry out their mass-murder plot at an art exhibit sponsored by First Amendment heroine Pamela Geller. It’s just the latest example of how and why Minneapolis—and specifically the congressional district of Muslim Democrat Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) —has become ground zero for the threat to the United States from Islamist terror groups such as ISIS and Al-Shabaab. ... The terrorist threat emanates from the Minneapolis neighborhood known as...

Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, the Senate’s No. 3 ranking Democrat, is turning to the head of the Catholic Church for a little help with policy. “If they won’t listen to @SenateDems maybe they’ll listen to @Pontifex when it comes to #equalpay #FairShot,” Mr. Schumer tweeted Wednesday. Schumer also linked to an article from The Washington Post in which Pope Francis said Wednesday the fact that a pay disparity exists between men and women is “pure scandal.”

Longtime Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders will jump into the 2016 fray tomorrow, presenting the first official challenge to Hillary Clinton from her left. Liberal activists have been quite anxious for such a challenger, though the one they wanted was a bit younger and female. A self-described socialist in the style of the European democratic socialists, Sanders will bring fresh, innovative ideas to the table, like: Corporations are bad and have too much influence on our giant, ineffective, unaccountable government, so let’s make government bigger to fix the problem and also take a lot more money from the rich. They’re...

"When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship." Red or Blue?

“We must be ready to employ trickery, deceit, law-breaking, withholding and concealing truth…We can and we must write in a language which sows among the masses hatred, scorn, and the like towards those who disagree with us”, wrote Vladimir Lenin. The basis of Lenin’s statement is very much alive today within the Democrat party as they relentlessly attack and sow hatred towards cultural, moral, and religious institutions that conservatives hold dear. “This is the basis of the great cultural war we’re undergoing…. We are two countries now. We are two countries morally, culturally, socially, and theologically. Cultural wars do not...

The left is winning, but for the left winning is indistinguishable from dying. The West didn’t defeat Communism; it held it at bay long enough for it to defeat itself. The Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China crushed Communism more decisively than Goldwater could have ever dreamed of.

Democratic state lawmakers on Thursday shot down a proposal that would have required all California state legislators to get their health insurance from Covered California, the benefits exchange set up to implement Obamacare in the state. The Assembly Rules Committee split along party lines, with seven Democrats opposing AB 1109 and three Republicans in support of the bill by Assemblyman Scott Wilk. The measure would have forced lawmakers to give up the taxpayer-subsidized health plans provided by the Legislature and individually sign up for Covered California. Wilk introduced the measure after hearing complaints from several constituents about difficulties in signing...

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is thinking about running for president on the Democratic ticket by appealing to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren's populist fans. Warren is a very bright former Harvard law professor. So it is interesting that O'Malley thinks the best way to reach out to her fans is to say remarkably stupid things. Steve Inskeep, host of NPR's "Morning Edition," recently interviewed O'Malley, asking him to respond to something GOP presidential contender Sen. Marco Rubio had said. Inskeep: "[Rubio] argues that an active government actually keeps people frozen at their economic status because if you are well off,...

It is hardly a new concept. The very same Democrat Party used these tactics over 50 years ago in my home state of Mississippi. The primary enforcers of Party doctrine in those days was the Ku Klux Klan. The victims were Black Americans who wanted nothing more than to exercise their First Amendment rights, and to participate in the political process and vote. In turn, they were subjected to harassment, intimidation, and much, much worse. It didn’t end with a kumbaya moment of clarity on the part of the Democrats-In-Charge. No, it ended with the exposure of the criminal activity,...

Despite repeated claims to the contrary, Mayor de Blasio is positioning himself to be the leftist “progressive” alternative to Wall Street-friendly Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Democratic candidate for president, a national party operative told The Post. De Blasio’s hope, the operative said, is a “draft de Blasio’’ movement will develop among progressive activists over the next several months that will lead to the mayor being able to defeat Clinton in the primary elections next year in much the same way leftist Sen. George McGovern successfully challenged the initially front-running establishment Democratic candidate, Sen. Edmund Muskie, more than 40 years...

Lexus liberals ignore how their climate change agenda hurts the less fortunateBarack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren and the whole gang of Democratic leaders claim that one of their highest priorities is to lift up the middle class and reduce the income gap between rich and poor.That goal collides with what they admit is their very highest priority: stopping climate change. Their agenda is driven by the millionaire and billionaire Democratic donors who make the party possible. But the agenda also involves making energy, home heating, transportation and just about everything else less efficient and more expensive to the middle...

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2015/03/17/democrat-jim-webb-hires-aide-rania-batrice/24890241/Gannet publication. Link only.

Chris Christie can be Hillary Clinton’s running mate. They’re both liberals, they’re both clueless, they’re both egocentrics. And they’re both wrong. We’ll talk about Hillary another day. Today’s subject is Christie. Specifically, his announced intent to “take on” entitlements. He rightly points out that entitlements consume some 70 percent of the federal budget and are a fiscal and social cancer that is destroying America. Entitlements – the “rights” of the welfare state – oblige the taxpayer to fund a limitless number of people receiving a limitless number of dollars over a limitless series of programs. Entitlements are automatic theft, redistribution...

Now that Hillary Rodham Clinton has announced her second attempt at becoming Our President, we should consider the implications of her support -- and the lack of accountability that she has come to expect. And we should definitely consider the consequences of her becoming Chief Executive. At least one person associated with her has died under questionable circumstances. She has gleefully and repeatedly participated in attacking the much-younger women who dared to open their mouths about her husband using his position of authority to manipulate them into servicing him sexually. She has used insider trading to enrich herself while at...

Wednesday on PBS “NewsHour,” Secretary of State John Kerry articulated the administration’s new position on Sen. Bob Corker’s (R-TN) bill demanding Congress get a vote on the merits of President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, in light of prominent Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) supporting the bill this week. Making it clear the bill can not “interfere” with the president’s deal, Kerry said “if it’s changed and adjusted and reflects the respect for the Constitution and the president’s prerogatives,” then Congress can vote.

Hillary Clinton used to be pretty popular. When she was sworn in as secretary of State in 2009, Clinton boasted a favorable/unfavorable rating of 57 percent-34 percent. Her numbers stayed relatively steady during her tenure at the State Department. But ever since Clinton quit her job in 2013 and started preparing for a second White House run (the first was a failure), her popularity has declined significantly. According to a recent survey from Public Policy Polling, Clinton’s favorable/unfavorable rating is currently underwater: