Free Republic

Among the features of the ideal republic is the absence of factions and political parties. Per James Madison, a faction is a group of citizens, either a majority or minority, united and actuated by some common passion or interest adverse to the rights of other citizens or the aggregate interests of the community. A political party is a collection of factions. Imagine if every representative, senator, president, and bureaucrat took the Preamble of our Constitution to heart and selflessly dedicated themselves to secure the Blessings of Liberty to themselves and their posterity. This is the public virtue hoped for in...

All last week the scuttlebutt in the media and in Washington was that President Biden was leaning toward appointing progressive favorite Lael Brainard to replace the “dangerous” (in Lizzie Warren’s words) Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve, because Brainard pledged to make the Fed a full partner in pushing the climate and “anti-racist” agenda by pressuring financial institutions not to make loans to any fossil fuel companies. Never mind that the legal authority for this kind of thumb-on-the-scale of capital allocation cannot be found in any statute governing the Fed, but who needs statutory authority when you have...

The Democratic Party is falling apart in epic fashion.After 10 months of a failing Biden presidency, Democrats are now feeling the likelihood that they will lose control of the House and maybe even the Senate in the 2022 midterms.One of the Democrats retiring from the House is Rep. John Yarmuth, who said the fragile state of American democracy has him “freaked out” and called Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert “a nutjob,” according to the Washington Post.North Carolina Democrat Rep. David Price, who has also decided to retire from Congress next year, fears Democrats have done a poor job governing with...

Our Constitution confronted and minimized the dangerous consequences of factions made possible by overly democratic governments. To the nationalists at the Federal Convention of 1787, the measure of a free government was its ability to control factions, for without control they were certain to grow and eventually tear the social fabric apart.1 In his defense of the Constitution, James Madison devoted Federalist No. 10 to factions. Too popular, factional governments are unstable and rent with injustice and confusion.2 Madison identified two ways to minimize the problem of factions; remove their causes or control their effects. There are two approaches to...

The pull of democracy often overwhelms societies. As men are naturally drawn to the scent of a woman, passion instead of reason lures societies toward all power to the people. Why shouldn’t our representatives, senators and presidents be popularly elected? Because democracy isn’t perfume but rather a poison that terminates in tyranny. The electoral process of Article II was designed to avoid a popularly derived president. In a recent post I showed how the Framers designed their presidential election process around two goals. First, only men of national stature, wisdom, experience and virtue would be considered. Second, the winner would...

... We’re accustomed to a narrative of Republican politics that pits the Tea Party against the establishment, the right against the center right. But that has always been an oversimplification, and in a wide-open presidential campaign, it’s likely to fit political reality more poorly than usual. A better framework is suggested by Henry Olsen, writing in The National Interest, who argues that Republican presidential campaigns are usually defined by four factions rather than two. One faction is centrist (think John McCain’s 2000 supporters, or Jon Huntsman’s rather smaller 2012 support), one is moderately conservative (think the typical Mitt Romney or...

Mr. MADISON. If it be a fundamental principle of free Govt. that the Legislative, Executive & Judiciary powers should be separately exercised, it is equally so that they be independently exercised. There is the same & perhaps greater reason why the Executive shd. be independent of the Legislature, than why the Judiciary should: A coalition of the two former powers would be more immediately & certainly dangerous to public liberty. It is essential then that the appointment of the Executive should either be drawn from some source, or held by some tenure, that will give him a free agency with...

If you think the slaughter in Bombay was bad, then you ain't seen nuthin' yet. The barbarians are at the gates, and in many cases, they are already well inside. Bombay is just the latest example. Islamofascism is here to stay. Western ideas of PC tolerance are dross in the face of armed fanatics who will kill out of simple bloodlust and imagined religeous slights from centuries ago. Europe is lost, and the only reason that Russia is not is that they recognise the threat and realize the only way to deal with it is, like rats, extermination.

The success of the surge offensive resulted in an intelligence windfall. Documents and prisoner interrogations (as well as identifying the dead) provided a lot more information on hostile Sunni and Shia groups, as well as interesting observations about the factions currently controlling the government. All this clarified and confirmed the very factious nature of Iraqi society. Seems anybody with a quick mouth and a lot of guns can form their own little army. This factionalism is accompanied by a self-righteousness that seems to justify a wide range of bad behavior. This includes corruption, but also murder, torture, rape, theft and...

As the U.S. armed forces have done so many times before, they entered the uncertainty of a new war in 2001, and are now trying to figure out what they gained from it. Most of what went on during this war was unreported or misreported. This is nothing new. The important details, and lessons, of all past American wars were poorly reported, and what the military is trying to avoid is taking away the wrong lessons. Throughout the current conflict, the military made no secret of what they were doing, and just kept focused on winning. They knew they would...

It seems to me there are three main factions within the Republican Party, and while we can see strengths and weaknesses in each of them, the future of the Right is far from clear. 1: Progressive Republicans (aka: Teddy Roosevelt Republicans) - These are the Republicans who may be solid allies on many issues, but who also seem to want a Great Leader who can do Big Things. They are Crusader Conservatives - generally reliable on limited government, but willing to go off on Big Government crusades. Illustrative Quote: "The object of government is the welfare of the people," (Teddy...

MADRID: They are two angry political warriors bearing grudges from the past, each convinced the other is a liar and an incompetent destined to destroy the country. Spanish voters went to the polls in a general election Sunday, a rematch of the bitter contest four years ago between Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero on the left and Mariano Rajoy on the right. In 2004, Zapatero unexpectedly swept to victory, ousting Rajoy's Popular Party from power as enraged voters protested the government's mishandling of terrorist bombings that killed 191 people in Madrid three days before the election. The candidates have...

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama may be competing in the South Carolina Democratic Primary Saturday, but they're also vying for the top prize in another contest: The Oppression Sweepstakes. That's how Michael Jelani Cobb, an African-American historian, describes the surge of venom that recently erupted between the Clinton and Obama camps. The sweepstakes kicks in when two excluded groups find themselves competing for the same prize. He says that took place in the 19th century when the abolitionist, Frederick Douglass and his ally, women's rights' activist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, argued over what group should first be...

In the aftermath of the Iowa Republican Presidential Caucus, there are some important lessons to be learned by the Republican establishment and conservative voters. First, it must be recognized that among the three blocks of Republican voters, specifically, fiscal conservatives; national security conservatives; and religious/social conservatives, no dimension of the conservative constituency can be taken for granted. Religious conservatives affirmed by their high voter turnout, and overwhelming support of Governor Huckabee, that their support for any Republican candidate in a general election is paramount. The nation is divided along party lines, and any Republican Presidential nominee cannot win a general...

From The Center for Constitutional Studies Democratizing the Constitution: The Failure of the Seventeenth AmendmentC. H. Hoebeke*[From HUMANITAS, Volume IX, No. 2, 1996 © National Humanities Institute, Washington, DC USA] It was with no small sense of vindication that Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan signed the proclamation of 31 May 1913, declaring the Seventeenth Amendment duly ratified and incorporated into the fundamental laws of the United States. More than twenty years earlier as a Nebraska congressman, "The Great Commoner" had joined the struggle to free the Senate from the control of corrupt state legislatures, and despite three failed campaigns for...

The feud between left-wing bloggers and the centrist-leaning Democratic Leadership Council is getting hotter at a time when activists on both sides say party unity is critical to winning back the White House next year. The groups held dueling conferences this month, and the Yearly Kos Convention clearly came out on top. It drew 1,500 liberal activists — including 500 bloggers — and a half-dozen Democratic presidential candidates, led by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. The New York Democrat has been embraced by the DLC as one of its own. The DLC drew 350 elected officials to its conference but was...

Sunni Arabs gain American backing in negotiations to form a new government.BAGHDAD – One month after Iraq's Dec. 15 election, a shift is afoot that will probably weaken Shiite political clout as the country's factions enter serious negotiations to form a new government. Increasingly, the US is throwing its weight in Iraq behind Sunni Arabs, about 20 percent of the country, to ensure they are part of a new coalition government. Analysts say the US is convinced reconciliation with Sunni Arabs will help stop the insurgency. There is also an American unease with the growing influence of Iran on Iraq's...

A major rift has emerged at the American Civil Liberties Union under the leadership of Executive Director Anthony D. Romero, whom critics charge is more interested in fund-raising than in civil liberties. Among several issues that have angered board members, Romero has committed to name a new ACLU office building in Washington, D.C., after Peter B. Lewis, an insurance magnate and major contributor, without consulting the board. "I don't think it's appropriate for us to name anything after anyone other than a founder or leader of the organization," Marjorie Esman, a lawyer who represents the board's Louisiana affiliate, said in...

"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition."--Thomas Jefferson Ever wonder how dependent the American people have become on the federal government compared to, say, a generation ago? Now, thanks to The Heritage Foundation's new study, "The 2005 Index of Dependency," we can answer that question -- but be forewarned; the data doesn't paint a pretty picture. This informative study explores the degree, nature and effects of our dependence on government, examining five broad categories of socio-economic federal intervention: housing assistance, healthcare and welfare assistance, retirement income, post-secondary education...

Prague, 5 April 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Back in 1978, when the Roman Catholic Church last elected a pope, the world stood uneasily divided in a struggle between Soviet communism and the West. By most accounts, Pope John Paul II played a major role in ending that divide, largely by focusing attention on injustices in his native Poland, then under Soviet sway. Today, with the Vatican set to elect a new leader, the world stands divided yet again. The Cold War analogy is imperfect, but increasing tensions and violence are threatening what has been called a possible "clash of civilizations between...