Free Republic

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, stumbled Tuesday over basic American history, crediting Thomas Jefferson for authorship of the Bill of Rights during a debate over the First Amendment and campaign finance. “I think if Thomas Jefferson were looking down, the author of the Bill of Rights, on what’s being proposed here, he’d agree with it. He would agree that the First Amendment cannot be absolute,” Mr. Schumer said. While Jefferson is deemed the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, he was not intimately involved in the writing of the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, which is...

Reason’s irascible Nick Gillespie has summed up what’s wrong with our political system in one chart: Apparently everyone hates Congress, but no one hates their congressperson. I’m here to tell you that, contrary to what you may believe, your Congresscritter sucks too! Congress just watered down a bill that would start to begin the process of maybe thinking about re-establishing our Fourth Amendment rights. Guess we don’t need those after all. But aside from our eroding civil liberties, the economic situation is even more dire. There’s a reason only 28 percent of Americans think the country is moving in the...

President Obama is taking a swipe at the Founding Fathers, blaming his inability to move his agenda on the “disadvantage” of having each state represented equally in the Senate. At a Democratic fundraiser in Chicago Thursday night, Mr. Obama told a small group of wealthy supporters that there are several hurdles to keeping Democrats in control of the Senate and recapturing the House. One of those problems, he said, is the apportionment of two Senate seats to each state regardless of population. “Obviously, the nature of the Senate means that California has the same number of Senate seats as Wyoming....

President “I am not a dictator” Obama, the same man who once bemoaned that the U.S. Constitution is deeply flawed and America’s Founding Fathers had “an enormous blind spot” when they wrote it, is again complaining that our Constitutional Republic does not satisfy his dictatorial aspirations. Apparently, the inconvenience of having each state represented equally in the Senate is inconveniencing his ability to shove his leftist personal agenda down the throat of Congress and the American people. As the Washington Times reports: At a Democratic fundraiser in Chicago Thursday night, Mr. Obama told a small group of wealthy supporters that...

Most people would agree that politics and religion are the two most likely topics that divide even the best of friends. Websters dictionary says that politics is the political opinions or sympathies of a person, while it says that religion is a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith. I don’t see the difference between the two. When I watch elected officials on the floor of the US Senate or House, I am reminded of an old friend of mine who pastors a church in Columbus, Georgia. He will flail his arms all around...

Most people would agree that politics and religion are the two most likely topics that divide even the best of friends. Websters dictionary says that politics is the political opinions or sympathies of a person, while it says that religion is a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith. I don’t see the difference between the two. When I watch elected officials on the floor of the US Senate or House, I am reminded of an old friend of mine who pastors a church in Columbus, Georgia. He will flail his arms all around...

When Americans over the age of, let us say, 45, look at any of the iconic paintings of America's Founders -- the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the signing of the Constitution, George Washington crossing the Delaware, any of the individual portraits the Founders -- what do they see? They see great men founding a great country. If you ask recent graduates of almost any American university what they see when they look at these paintings, chances are that they see something entirely different. They are apt to see rich, white males who are not great and who...

This week holds some critical dates. April 15 haunts most Americans as a tax deadline. April 18 and 20 this year commemorate the pinnacle in Holy Week -- Good Friday and Easter. But April 13 still stands as an important day that eludes most Americans. It's the birthday of Thomas Jefferson. We patriots love to quote the Founding Fathers, especially when they support our theses. And Jefferson remains at the top of the heap. But there are three beliefs or practices often attributed to Jefferson that are either myths or cherry-picked partial views. The first myth is that Jefferson was...

Dinesh D’Souza, the filmmaker behind 2016: Obama’s America who is out on $500,000 bond for allegedly violating campaign finance laws, was at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on Friday to unveil a new trailer for his upcoming release, America, a movie that imagines the United States lost the Revolutionary War so therefore never existed.

Yesterday, in response to one of the many brouhahas that CPAC seems always to invite, Brent Bozell issued the following statement: The invitation extended by the ACU, Al Cardenas and CPAC to American Atheists to have a booth is more than an attack on conservative principles. It is an attack on God Himself. American Atheists is an organization devoted to the hatred of God. How on earth could CPAC, or the ACU and its board of directors, and Al Cardenas condone such an atrocity? The particular merits of the American Atheists group to one side, this is a rather astounding...

The political philosopher Edmund Burke once remarked that all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good folks to do nothing. A glaring example of the impending triumph of a constitutional evil that could be stopped by folks who have been largely silent is the tyranny coming from the White House. And the folks who can stop this and are doing nothing about it are our elected representatives in Congress. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It established the three branches of government, and it delegated "all legislative powers" to Congress. American law rarely...

America’s Founding Fathers fiercely held to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—values which Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) claimed align seamlessly with Obamacare. Pelosi explained why the law is “very sound policy” during a press conference Friday: To go to back to our founders once again, they sacrificed it all for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This law, the affordable care act, is about a healthier life, the liberty to pursue your happiness. That is solid policy, and the mandate is central to that. This argument should be added to the montage of lies being promulgated by the Obama...

Today is the traditional birthdate of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, who signed the Constitution, authored many of the Federalist Papers in support of the Constitution's passage, was Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington, and whose portrait is currently on the U.S. $10 bill. He died in 1804 following a duel with Aaron Burr. "The fabric of American Empire ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of National power ought to flow immediately from that pure original fountain of all legitimate authority." -Hamilton, Federalist No....

Impeachment isn’t really a solution to America’s woes under President Obama, as Vice President Joe Biden and Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett are waiting in the shadows, according to a prominent critic of Washington. No one really wants to consider a revolution, either. So what is the nation to do to save itself from the “tyrannical centralized rule” developing under Obama? A vote of no confidence, according to the founder of Stand Up America, an organization that provides education resources for leaders and activists based on the values of the Founding Fathers. “Clearly America has lost confidence and no longer trusts...

The principles America was founded on have paved the way for the freedoms and privileges each citizen is thankful for today. At the heart of conservatism, is the recognition that many of these founding ideals are worth fighting to preserve. In the words of John Quincy Adams: "Posterity--you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." So in the spirit of preserving today’s blessings for tomorrow’s Americans, let’s take a look at ten things the Founding Fathers would be fighting against in the 21st century....

Borders , language and culture !

1) The more democracy we have, the better. As Benjamin Franklin once said, "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch." This is why our Founding Fathers made this country a republic, not a democracy. They believed that the people should have their say, but also that certain underlying rules should remain in place that should take precedence over the will of a simple majority. Ultimately, that's the only way that the wolves and the lambs can happily co-exist over the long haul. Unfortunately, we've moved so far away from the plain reading of...

A stern President Obama lectured Republicans on Thursday, one day after they accepted a Democrat deal to end the government shutdown and raise the debt limit until Feb. 7—getting nothing in return. The president suggested that the system of checks and balances invoked by tea party Republicans in an attempt to defund Obamacare is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind. “Let’s work together to make government work better, instead of treating it like an enemy or purposely making it work worse,” Obama said. …

I teach an American Government class for a University of Wisconsin College. The other day my supervising Professor in critiquing my class Syllabus made this statement: "I prefer that you not refer to the founders as Founding Fathers....my reason is that they aren't my daddy. My ancestors weren't even here at the time and I think calling people your daddy is not as objective as political scientists should aim to be." Ignoring his subjectivity in a number of other areas in his curriculum, for example his analysis of Wisconsin Governor Walker's Balanced Budget Act 10 smacked more of a subjective,...

Prepping US Armed Forces to cope with extremists doesn't sound bad until you discover that an example of the type of extremists our troops may have to suppress are people who oppose taxes or tyranny. According to the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute training guide, America's Founding Fathers were “extremists who unjustly opposed legitimate ruling authorities.” The training guide says that “In U.S. history, there are many examples of extremist ideologies and movements. The colonists who sought to free themselves from British rule and the Confederate states who sought to secede from the Northern states are just two examples. The...