Free Republic

South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham parades as a conservative. But he and his ideological confrere, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, are neoconservatives. The distinction is important because neoconservatism has become a dominant force among many elected officials and media pundits.What is neoconservatism? The man who always claimed to be the “godfather” of the movement is Irving Kristol. In his 1995 book Neonconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea, he wrote, “We accepted the New Deal in principle, and had little affection for the kind of isolationism that then permeated American conservatism.” He also bared the roots of his political and...

Some people are of the unfortunate opinion that the John Birch Society is militantly patriotic and a supporter of this nation's military. That is not the case, especially not now. The JBS always was a front group for the European right wing and our own domestic Jew-haters. It was the "blue lodge" for recruiting decent conservatives and, by exposing them a little bit at a time to the classic anti-Jewish line, to eventually recruit them into the anti-Semitic movement proper. But at least when I was a member some thirty years ago the Society's publications didn't openly take potshots at...

As the unveiling of Planned Parenthood's latest practices continues to draw shock and outrage, its founder, Margaret Sanger (shown), has found her place in the spotlight as well. According to the Blaze and CNSNews.com, a group of black pastors has written the Smithsonian Institution asking that the bust of Mrs. Sanger be removed from the portrait gallery's "Struggle for Justice" exhibit, stating that she was "not a champion of justice." The pastors, who are part of an organization called Ministers Taking a Stand (a non-profit that promotes educational choice, family principles, and entrepreneurship), reveal that Sanger held racist, elitist views...

Someone recently asked, “Why is it that the John Birch Society is so opposed to an Article V amendment convention today despite the fact that they have been supporters of amending the Constitution since back in the 70s?” That’s a darned good question. It a matter of history that Robert Welch, the first president of the John Birch Society, welcomed those who would repeal the 16th Amendment (the progressive income tax) into the society and made their cause a part of JBS lore. In 1975, Larry McDonald, then a Democrat U.S. Representative from Georgia, who went on to become the...

Of the many people I've met over the last two years who are opponents of an Article V Convention of States to Propose Amendments to the Constitution, one of my greatest regrets is that there are many with whom I would most likely agree on virtually every other issue in modern-day political discourse. Many of them, however, almost proudly admit that their positions on a COS are rooted in a decades-old fear of the unknown and an inability to trust their fellow citizens, while most COS proponents put their faith in stringent, new safeguards and an optimistic view of the...

Chris Parker, a political science professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, spoke at Grinnell on Tuesday, Nov. 11, about his recent book “Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America.” Parker’s talk revolved around the rise and identity of the Tea Party within the American political system, with a particular emphasis on the psychology behind the movement. Besides the unique and relevant nature of his book, Parker was invited to speak at Grinnell given his connections with the College. Fourteen years ago, Parker received a fellowship through the Consortium for Faculty Diversity in Liberal...

"So the conspiracy theorists, the Birchers thought that the Russians, the Soviets, shot it down 'cause the guy was right and he was hot on the trail of the global conspiracy and the New World Order and -- (interruption) Larry McDonald was his name, that's exactly right."

Friday, 27 June 2014 12:30 “After America Comes North America,” Gen. Petraeus Boasts Written by Alex Newman “After America Comes North America,” Gen. Petraeus Boasts Former general and CIA chief David Petraeus (shown), a key figure in the globalist Council on Foreign Relations and the shadowy Bilderberg network, boasted at a recent conference that the United States of America is set to be merged into the continental regime being erected under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Speaking at the Margaret Thatcher Conference on Liberty last week in London, the ex-commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq essentially...

Eli Lake, senior national security correspondent, Newsweek/Daily Beast. Jed Babbin, American Spectator. Steven L Herman, VOA, Southeast Asia Bureau. Larry Johnson, NoQuarter. Looks like this country is in deep doo..doo….China is going to take over space…has the ability to blind the military…Russia makes are heavy lift rockets..Europe is scared to death of Russia…and a bunch of fools are running the CIA and State department…. It is worth a listen http://johnbatchelorshow.com/podcasts/2014/04/17/first-hour

If you’re interested in the Convention of States Project and enjoy a good, old-fashioned debate, you’re in for a treat. Convention of States Project director Michael Farris will join Oklahoma State Senator Rob Standridge on March 19 and 20 to debate leaders of the Oklahoma John Birch Society on the efficacy of calling a Convention of States to stop the abuses of Washington, D.C. Questions have been swirling around the Convention of States issue, and Michael and Rob look forward to answering many of them. A Convention of States is our best chance to stop the overreach of the federal...

The John Birch Society describes itself as a constitutionalist organization, yet it is highly critical of a very important component of the Constitution. The JBS does not like Article V’s provision that allows the States to unilaterally propose and ratify amendments to the Constitution. George Mason demanded that this provision be included in Article V because he correctly forecast the situation we face today. He predicted that Washington, D.C. would violate its constitutional limitations and the States would need to make adjustments to the constitutional text in order to rein in the abuse of power by the federal government. Current...

Conner contends that today's tea party is the modern-day rebirth of the John Birch Society. They share a worldview, she says. The same paranoid distrust of government. The same desire to protect the rich. The same cruel streak that blames the poor for their poverty and seeks to deny government help on that basis. The same willingness to believe all manner of bizarre claims against political leaders they don't like.

The city of Sanford, Florida, already has a secret law-enforcement plan to deal with potential riots and unrest in the wake of a possible acquittal of George Zimmerman. Miami has efforts to keep the peace underway as well. Across America, pundits and analysts have been warning that a “not guilty” verdict in the controversial case could set off an explosive wave of deadly violence rivaling the mass riots that ensued following the 1992 Rodney King trial. If mayhem does strike, analysts say the establishment media, President Obama, and assorted race-profiteers would bear much of the blame. Well before the verdict...

A cancer is eating away at a once Grand Old Party, and if the party doesn't wake up and take precautions, it may wind up only a shadow of its better self -- a hollowed-out refuge for haters and paranoids and the kind of ideological parasites that can reduce a major party to a minor one. The historian Richard Hofstadter spoke of a "paranoid style in American politics," and noted its "sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy." He called it "an old and recurrent phenomenon in our public life," one that it isn't confined to left or right....

Once mocked and derided -as conservatives are today- JBS warnings now appear to have been prescient... The John Birch Society was founded in 1958 by Robert Welch, a retired candy manufacturer who saw collectivism as the main threat to western civilization. What he feared and intended to fight on the home-front were useful-idiot-type liberals serving as what he called 'secret communist traitors'- these fellow Americans were providing cover for a move towards one-world socialist government (stuff that used to sound kind of crazy at most any point in time prior to the bizarre Obammunist era). The organization took its name from an...

Gun-free zones are invitations to mass murder, gun-rights advocates argued after a lone gunman's shooting rampage at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, Friday left 20 children and six adults dead. John Lott, author of the controversial 1999 bestseller More Guns, Less Crime, said in an interview with Newsmax.com Saturday it is no coincidence that mass shootings with multiple victims occur repeatedly in designated gun-free zones such as schools, shopping malls, and movie theaters. "The problem is, whether it is the Portland [Oregon] shooting earlier this week, or the Connecticut shooting Friday, or the Sikh temple attack in...

The family of slain Border Patrol agent Brian Terry is suing federal officials and a gun shop over the botched “Fast and Furious” gunrunning operation that remains a dark stain on the Obama administration’s disgraced Justice Department. Terry was shot and killed on December 14, 2010, during a firefight north of the Arizona-Mexico border between border agents and men who had crossed the southern border to rob a group of drug smugglers. Assault rifles obtained by a straw buyer for the gunrunning ring targeted in the Fast and Furious operation were found in the aftermath of the firefight. To add...

“Anyone who embarks on a study of Abraham Lincoln … must first come to terms with the Lincoln myth. The effort to penetrate the crust of legend that surrounds Lincoln … is both a formidable and intimidating task. Lincoln, it seems, requires special considerations that are denied to other figures.” — Robert W. Johannsen Lincoln, the South, and Slavery Indeed, it would not seem a safe time to critique the wisdom, motivations, and character of Abraham Lincoln. Steven Spielberg’s reverential motion picture epic Lincoln fills screens across America. The public increasingly accepts him as America’s greatest leader. Academics from the...

Fifty years ago today, the life work of Alger Hiss came to fruition. Hiss, a US State Department official, served the United Nations as its acting Secretary General during its founding conference in the spring of 1945. On October 24, 1945 the United Nations Charter became effective as a majority of the countries that had signed it ratified their signatures. Several years later, Hiss went to a federal penitentiary for committing perjury when testifying that he was not a Soviet agent. His personal career was over, but his most important work, the United Nations, lived on. Globalists everywhere are today...

As the nation faces a crucial election in a little over six months, the Republican Party appears to be caving in on a social issue that many conservatives consider of major import: same-sex marriage. What the GOP felt strongly enough about some 16 years ago to lead the fight for passage of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), many members are beginning to consider an issue open to compromise. Not only do many Republican House and Senate members consider “gay” marriage a “dead issue,” according to Politico.com, but Republican leadership has “evolved” to the point that it has quietly...