Free Republic

One of the more maddening elements of our political debate is how both sides view the individual, and how they treat them. Conservative ideals are based on individual responsibility, and in turn the state showing respect for that individual. On the flip side, as we saw in our last chapter, the Radical Left despises the individual, and will always put the state ahead of individual rights1. What's maddening is how despite their contempt for the individual, the Radical Left does an outstanding job of exploiting personal stories to push their agenda, while the side that puts respect for the...

What may be the most appealing thing about being a leftist is that you can never be wrong - ever. As we learned from our last post, leftist ideas never fail because their only objective is to make leftists feel good about themselves.If their ideas appear to fail, it is always someone else's fault - greedy businesses, obstinate Republicans, racist Americans, etc. It never even enters the thought process that when a leftist idea fails it's becasue their ideas might not have been good to begin with. As The Bookworm puts it,"Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have...

Rush Limbaugh doesn’t understand that he is the best friend the Democrats have. He is helping them get the devotion of the Main Stream Media.

In a stunning reversal, Donald Trump said that he will strengthen the rights of the LGBT community and bring people together. His new stance comes just days after he said that as president, he would “strongly consider” overturning Obergefell vs Hodges, the Supreme Court decision that found that same-sex couples have a legal and constitutional right to marry. “I’m a lesbian, we’ve had some great progress for the gay and lesbian community,” NECN reporter Sue O’Connell told Trump. When President Trump is in office, can we look for more forward motion on equality for gays and lesbians?” Here is Trump’s...

2015 was when social justice warriors and the regressive left went 'full retard'.

I saw a woman leaving the YMCA recently with a baby strapped to her chest. She had a second, slightly larger baby in a stroller. And she had a tantrum-throwing three-year-old holding her hand. She was infested with small children. I couldn't help but stare... The three-year-old was trying to make a scene. I say "trying to make a scene" because he was waging war against his mother, and she was refusing to participate. With a steady gait and an even expression, she ignored him. It was the most spectacular moment in parenting I have ever seen. This woman, who...

Former President Jimmy Carter surprised reporters in London Wednesday by saying he would choose Donald Trump over Ted Cruz to win the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, "which may surprise some of you." Carter stated that given the choice, "I think I would choose Trump.... Trump has proven already he's completely malleable,” reports The Atlanta Journal Constitution. "I don't think he has any fixed (positions) he'd go the White House and fight for. On the other hand, Ted Cruz is not malleable. He has far right wing policies he'd pursue if he became president." Still, Carter feels Trump will "fade away"...

Conventional wisdom is congealing around two key factors in Trump’s loss this morning, so let me offer them to you as I think there’s merit to both. The main factor: Evangelicals came through for Cruz in the crunch. Political sites have been filled with news over the past few weeks about Trump’s surprising strength with born-again Christians, particularly given how intensely Cruz was courting those same voters. A guy who doesn’t know if he’s ever asked God’s forgiveness and who’s regularly demonstrated his unfamiliarity with Christian practices during this campaign shouldn’t be competitive with an evangelical candidate with dozens of...

Virgin America CEO David Cush stunned a San Francisco audience Wednesday night when he responded to a short, but controversial, question: "Trump or Hillary?" Essentially, the question was posed in the spirit of a lightning round asking him which candidate he thought would win a prospective Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton presidential race. That followed a prior question on which team he expects will win the Super Bowl. Like a pitcher hoping to get out of a tight situation with a curve ball, Cush first avoided the question: "What's that? OK. I'm looking for the exit." That sparked laughter from...

As Donald Trump continues his pundit-defying dominance of the national polls, with early primaries just days away, the once-unthinkable has become all too thinkable: Could Trump actually pull this off? Could he become president? I'm going to stake out a firm answer: no. Absent extreme and unlikely circumstances*, Trump will never be president. Jack Shafer argues that Trump's success so far is a "black swan" event, an unpredictable and unrepeatable concatenation of improbable circumstances. That sounds about right. But just because some political rules and conventions have been violated doesn't mean they've all vanished. Just because Trump makes no sense...

Liberal perfection is the enemy of Conservative good enough

Mr. Trump, I knew Ronald Reagan. And you’re no Ronald Reagan! Of course, I am stealing that line — with a twist. Donald Trump shouldn’t mind. He’s been stealing my dad for his own purposes. Trump frequently invokes Ronald Reagan’s name to defend his sudden, 180-degree switch from being a life-long, pro-Clinton Democrat to a Reagan Republican. Both men did make a switch, but almost all the similarities between the two end there. Ronald Reagan’s odyssey from Hollywood liberal to conservative backer took place over almost two decades. Starting with his 1964 “Time for Choosing” speech that galvanized Americans for...

For months, pundits have been trying to suss out Donald Trump. Is he a Liberal? A RINO? A Conservative? Why did he give to this Leftist group? Why did he say this? How could he say that? He's Hitler. He's speaking what we think. What are his views on abortion, on the economy, on ISIS? Everybody, and I mean everybody, is so used at trying to pigeonhole political candidates that they are missing what is right in front of them. Donald Trump can be explained in two simple words: Donald Trump. Donald Trump is, and always has been, about himself....

<p>1. ..........Cruz is a fierce ideologue: He denies the existence of man-made climate change, rejects same-sex marriage, wants to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, believes the 2nd amendment guarantees everyone a right to guns, doesn’t believe in a constitutional divide between church and state, favors the death penalty, opposes international agreements, embraces a confrontational foreign policy, rejects immigration reform, demands the repeal of “every blessed word of Obamacare,” and takes a strict “originalist” view of the meaning of the Constitution.</p>

A main problem with blaming a tool (firearms) for the willful actions of people (violence) is that you may then find yourself in the position where you need that tool to mitigate the actions of other people… and by then you're out of luck, and perhaps you may not live to learn from your mistake. Sadly, I don’t think Andrea Koller will learn the right lessons even after surviving her ordeal, even though she and her daughter survived the experience only because the criminals allowed it. An out-of-town teacher who publicly railed against gun violence was shot in the shoulder...

Did America's Founder Make A Mistake? My question is for liberals but of course, anyone with an opinion is welcome to comment. Did the founders err by limiting the legislative powers of the new government? The Progressive Movement supports the premise that man's nature has improved since the founder's ratified the Constitution. The improvement means there is no longer a need to limit the powers of the elected. The founders gave the government just enough power to perform its primary function of protecting the people's rights, and no others. The Federalist Papers reasoned that limiting legislation powers would limit the...

Carl Wolfson was the local star of Clear Channel’s well-rated progressive-talk KPOJ (620) in Portland, Oregon before it was flipped to all-sports in 2008, and Carl kept going on local radio at non-com “X-Ray” KXRY/91.1. Now Willamette Week says “the personal attacks of Senator Bernie Sanders’ supporters are causing him to cancel his show.” Wolfson says on Facebook “Okay, I’m done…If progressives that I have spoken for during the past nine years on radio have lowered themselves to label Hillary a ‘fascist’ or the ‘spawn of Satan’ and worse, I have too little faith in politics to continue.” Wolfson doesn’t...

Donald Trump is no conservative. That's not a crime, it's just a reason to vote against him. Many fine people are not conservatives. But the reason Trump's candidacy should worry the Right runs much deeper than that: He poses a direct challenge to conservatism, because he embodies the empty promise of managerial leadership outside of politics. Trump's diagnoses of our key problems - first and foremost, that America's elites are weak and unwilling to put the interests of Americans first - have gained him a hearing from many on the right. But when he gestures toward prescriptions, Trump reveals that...

Former Senate Majority Leader and 1996 GOP standard bearer Bob Dole appears to have endorsed Donald Trump. SNIP Nevertheless, Dole praised Trump stating he could “probably work with Congress, because he’s, you know, he’s got the right personality and he’s kind of a deal-maker.” SNIP

If any normal candidate had supported the Clintons, partial-birth abortion, Harry Reid, gay marriage, Nancy Pelosi, universal health care, and dozens of other liberal causes, they'd be laughed off the Republican ticket. Donald Trump is no ordinary candidate. Republican In Name Only. Donald Trump is the paragon, the epitome of the phrase. He's conservative on immigration. On every other topic, he's moderate at best and often more liberal than even Hillary Clinton. He pulls his calls for tariffs straight out of Bernie Sanders' playbook. Why, then, are so many Republicans and likely a good number of conservatives supporting him? The...