Free Republic

Evolve, adapt or die. That is the fate of our current Republican party. We must evolve as a party and find a way to attract millennials to the conservative movement or we will never succeed in realizing our ideals of individual freedom and freedom from government interference. Initially, I received criticism from political pundits for speaking to non-traditional audiences. I was told it was a waste of time to reach out to these audiences, specifically students from both Howard University and University of California, Berkeley. My response is this: I have never been one to watch the world go by...

en. Rand Paul on Tuesday argued that the Republican Party needs to get “beyond deportation” in order to break through to Hispanic voters. The Kentucky Republican and likely 2016 contender argued that before the GOP can make its case to the Latino community, which voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in 2012, the party needs to make clear it is open to a more welcoming approach to immigration. Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/rand-paul-gop-must-get-beyond-deportation-105241.html#ixzz2xeJfopZK

In an effort to expand his party’s base of support, Senator Rand Paul is urging fellow-Republicans “to find a place for young people and others who don’t want to be festooned by” issues like “traditional marriage.” Is he serious? Does he actually think this is a winning strategy? And can he truly believe that this is a way for Republicans to advance their cause? I’m afraid so. As reported on March 14th, Paul stated that, “I think that the Republican Party, in order to get bigger, will have to agree to disagree on social issues.” What a self-defeating, misguided...

“Every Republican likes to think he or she is the next Ronald Reagan,” he wrote in an op-ed for Breitbart News, responding to an attack by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. “Some who say this do so for lack of their own ideas and agenda. Reagan was a great leader and President. But too often people make him into something he wasn’t in order to serve their own political purposes.”“[A]lmost all of us in the party are big fans of Ronald Reagan,” Paul told Sean Hannity on Fox News in yet another defense of his foreign policy. “I’ve always been a big fan...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Republicans at an event in Houston that Texas would “be a Democratic state within 10 years if you don't change,” according to reports of the event. Paul, speaking at a dinner Saturday hosted by the Harris County Republican Party, told members that the party needed to adapt and be more inclusive in order to continue to hold the Lone Star State. “That means we evolve. It doesn’t mean we give up on what we believe in, but it means we have to be a welcoming party.” Paul said. “We have to welcome people of all races. We need...

Promoting Republican outreach to Hispanics, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said this week that the GOP must expand its appeal if it expects to remain politically relevant. "The party has to be bigger across the country, not only appealing to people of various ethnic background but various economic backgrounds," Paul said Friday during a sweep through Texas, CNN reported. The remarks came following a meeting with George P. Bush, the 37-year-old son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who's vying to become the next Texas Land Commissioner. Paul, a conservative firebrand who's long-been critical of establishment Republicans like the Bush family,...

It is Super Bowl week; Time for a football analogy to politics: The best defense is a good offense. Yep. Perhaps the most successful head-fake tactic of the left has been political correctness and I think that it is high time that we got our defense off the field and start throwing some play-action post routes of our own. The leftist playbook includes instructions to accuse the right of being cruelly unfair in response to every assertion of a conservative standard. Reducing taxes is to “fund the government on the backs of the poor.” Opposing Obama’s takeover of health care...

Yesterday, Derek Hunter declared that libertarianism has entirely lost its meaning, that the party has devolved into a catch-all for people who want to criticize the government without doing anything about it. He also assumed that any Republican candidate would be better than a Democrat for classical liberals. Hunter could not be more wrong. The Libertarian Party is still the face of “individual responsibility, small government, and free markets,” but how the LP arranges those priorities is changing. The Party needs to represent its constituency, appeal to young voters who largely have experience with Ron Paul, and has to emphasize...

Robert Sarvis lags in the polls, but leads on the merits. According to the conservative Media Research Center's analysis of this year's race for governor, coverage of Republican candidate Ken Cuccinelli has been "viciously negative," with 24 critical stories for every uncritical one. Coverage of the Democrat, Terry McAuliffe, hasn't exactly been glowing: By the MRC's estimate, negative stories about him outnumber positive stories three to one. But Robert Sarvis, the Libertarian candidate, probably would switch places with either of them in a heartbeat. He barely gets mentioned at all – garnering only about 2 percent of all coverage –...

If I told you that one out of three African-American males is forbidden by law from voting, you might think I was talking about Jim Crow 50 years ago. Yet today, a third of African-American males are still prevented from voting because of the War on Drugs. The War on Drugs has disproportionately affected young black males. The ACLU reports that blacks are four to five times more likely to be convicted for drug possession although surveys indicate that blacks and whites use drugs at similar rates. The majority of illegal drug users and dealers nationwide are white, but three-fourths...

Even though I agreed with much of what Ron Paul had to say, all I could ever think is 'this isn't my guy' for president -too odd a demeanor/un-electable- not to mention foreign policy positions that were appalling to a peace-through-strength Republican like myself, particularly statements made re. Iran and Israel. But lo-and-behold, now we have fervent offspring Rand Paul who -while libertarian in his views- apparently saw wisdom in distancing himself from his father's take re. the volatile Muddled East.. and that's when I started listening to him. Maybe I've changed in my hawkishness too- I'd rather have not been involved...

California taxpayers should ask themselves, in the words of Clint Eastwood's famous movie character, "Do I feel lucky?" We're not staring down the barrel of "Dirty Harry" Callahan's gun wondering whether there's a bullet in the chamber. Instead, we're gambling our financial future on whether public pension fund investments will surpass reasonable expectations. If state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, union leaders and the state's largest government employee retirement funds have their way, they'll continue betting against the odds. It's not surprising. It's not their money at risk. They won't have to cover the losses. Taxpayers will. Last week, a study led...

After yesterday's spurt in talk radio about Ron Paul, I've been thinking about his positions. I oppose Ron Paul on Foreign Policy (especially his position ignoring the threat of Islam taking over our policy), but have to seriously wonder about supporting some of the other candidates who have not faced opposition. Ron Paul gets a lot of flak, but why do the others get away with cheating us for doing far worse than what Ron Paul promises to do to Israel? Many candidates like Rick Santorum, George Allen and Joe Barton have hijacked the label of conservative, but are less...

The man who likely has done more than anyone to put the libertarian philosophy of freedom and small government on the political agenda probably will make another run for the presidency: U.S. Rep. Ron Paul. Paul is always upbeat, but lately he's had more reason to be, as he sees libertarian ideas bubbling up from the grass roots. "People outside of Washington are waking up," he told me, "and they're getting the attention of a few in Washington." Paul has been in Congress more than 20 years, and much of that time he's played a lonely role, often being the...

I have come to believe that Libertarians are worthless. Before them, a crop of wonderful, small government candidates sit and will likely win–scores of points of optimism in a political sky that has been bleak and black. To coin a word from the opposition, there’s Hope. Now, most of us watching this election realize that the exhausting work over the last two years has hardly begun. Once this new crop become part of the system, they’ll have to be watched and held accountable. The most optimistic change, then, hasn’t really been these candidates. It’s been the heart of the American...

I know not a lot of people on free republic like Dr. Paul because of his stance on foreign policy. I want to ask: if he changed his foreign policy and supported finishing the war on terror and stood behind Israel 100% would you vote for him in 2012? What other candidate wants to bring America back to the constitution and end the FED?

Rand Paul's surprise win in Kentucky's GOP senatorial primary made him an overnight hero for the movements he represents: the Tea Party, conservative libertarianism, and the general anti-establishment sentiment of the day. While Paul's libertarian-tinged philosophy puts him to the left of most Republicans on some issues (he has questioned the size of U.S. defense spending, for example), it puts him way to the right on others. Some observers are beginning to ask, is he too conservative? Here's their case and the counter-argument. Too Conservative For Dick Cheney? The New York Daily News' David Saltonstall makes some trouble. "Some of...

America's experiment with banning alcohol created problems that persist to this day. BY THOMAS FLEMING On Dec. 5, 1933, Americans liberated themselves from a legal nightmare called Prohibition by repealing the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. Today most people think Prohibition was fueled by puritanical Protestants who believed drinking alcohol was a sin. But the vocal minority who made Prohibition law believed they were marching in the footsteps of the abolitionists who sponsored a civil war to end another moral evil—slavery. At least as important was the belief that Prohibition would produce health and wealth. Yale economist Irving Fisher, the...

SAN FRANCISCO – Marijuana advocates are gathering signatures to get as many as three pot-legalization measures on the ballot in 2010 in California, setting up what could be a groundbreaking clash with the federal government over U.S. drug policy. At least one poll shows voters would support lifting the pot prohibition, which would make the state of more than 38 million the first in the nation to legalize marijuana. Such action would also send the state into a headlong conflict with the U.S. government while raising questions about how federal law enforcement could enforce its drug laws in the face...

Alcohol did not create Al Capone's gang violence in the hometown of our current president. Prohibition did. Marijuana does not create murderous drug cartels in Mexico. America's War on Drugs does. Surely President Barack Obama, one of the smartest men to inhabit the White House, must understand that truth—even if he chooses to laugh-off those of us who want to get serious about the need to end the social insanity of neo-Prohibition by legalizing marijuana and other psychoactive chemicals. French essayist Georges Bernanos wrote, "The worst, the most corrupting of lies, are problems poorly stated." It is an outrageous lie,...