Free Republic

Historically, progressives were seen as partisans for the people, eager to help the working and middle classes achieve upward mobility even at expense of the ultrarich. But in California, and much of the country, progressivism has morphed into a political movement that, more often than not, effectively squelches the aspirations of the majority, in large part to serve the interests of the wealthiest. Primarily, this modern-day program of class warfare is carried out under the banner of green politics. The environmental movement has always been primarily dominated by the wealthy, and overwhelmingly white, donors and activists. But in the past,...

A classical liberal was characteristically guided by disinterested logic and reason. He was open to gradual changes in society that were frowned upon by traditionalists in lockstep adherence to custom and protocol. The eight-hour work day, civil rights, and food- and drug-safety laws all grew out of classically liberal views. Government could press for moderate changes in the way society worked, within a conservative framework of revering the past, in order to pave the way for equality of opportunity in a safe and sane environment.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that the income gap in the United States has increased to the point where members of the middle class resemble the Americans who lived in poverty when he occupied the White House.

Thousands of elderly poor have a home today because of one remarkable woman.Saint Jeanne Jugan grew up in a small town in the aftermath of the French revolution. Times were hard. The winters were brutal. To support her family, Jeanne worked from a young age as a shepherdess, kitchen maid, and tending the sick at a Civil and Naval Hospital. In this last position, she discovered her lifeÂ’s vocation: helping others.Confident in her Catholic faith, Jeanne set out to serve those most in need. She cared for the poor and the elderly as if they were her own family, even...

The Gospel reading this weekend is the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man from the Gospel according to Saint Luke. I suspect that throughout the world many homilies and sermons ended up saying something to the effect of, “Rich people bad. Poor people good.” This like all heresies is the result of a gross simplification of the Gospel, a deliberate misreading of the message of Jesus, and an imposition of a foreign ideology. The sin of the unnamed rich man was not that he had wealth. Rather it was that he did not pay attention to Moses and the...

I think the poor need another Reagan in the White House. The income of black heads-of-households dropped by 10.9 percent from June 2009 to June 2013. This decline in black income is more than double the overall 4.4 percent drop nationally in real, adjusted for inflation, median household income during the same four years of alleged “recovery.” In dollar terms, the median income per year ... in female-headed households and black households has dropped, respectively, by $2,300 and over $4,000 since Obama's stimulus-led “recovery” began in June 2009. The CBO report shows that after-tax household income, adjusted for inflation, increased...

No one can blame you if you start out in life poor, because how you start is not your fault. If you stay poor, you're to blame because it is your fault. Nowhere has this been made clearer than in Dennis Kimbro's new book, "The Wealth Choice: Success Secrets of Black Millionaires." Kimbro, a business professor at Clark Atlanta University, conducted extensive face-to-face interviews, took surveys and had other interactions with nearly 1,000 of America's black financial elite, many of whom are multimillionaires, to discover the secret of their success. Kimbro's seven-year study included wealthy blacks such as Byron E....

Europeans came to this country for a better life. It hasn't always meant helping the less fortunate. The South’s aversion both to taxes and to mandated government safety net structures had a long, and somewhat surprising, pedigree. In the late eighteenth century, popular radical writers such as Condorcet in France and Tom Paine in England had called for the creation of comprehensive social insurance systems based around universal pensions, child allowances, and education for all. Neither, however, managed to successfully alter prevailing political and moral doctrines. In France, after the frenzy of the revolutionary years the counterrevolution of the post-Napoleonic...

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly revealed Thursday night on The O’Reilly Factor that he bailed out one of Al Sharpton’s charities several years ago with a $25,000 donation, after Sharpton told him it was out of money and could not provide Christmas food and presents to hundreds of poor people in Harlem. Sharpton has often used his MSNBC program PoliticsNation to harshly criticize O’Reilly, lately for supposed attacks on the poor. Tuesday night, he accused the highly-rated host of calling food stamps users “parasites,” when in fact O’Reilly was referring to an individual surfer who is on the SNAP program...

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Why, when there is no question that nothing has created more wealth and eradicated more poverty than capitalism, do left wing politicians hate it so much? After all, it’s supposed to be the left that cares about the poor. The latest chapter in this ongoing saga of economic perversity is action being taken in Washington, DC, to prevent Walmart from opening stores there. The District’s city council has passed a bill, awaiting signature of the Mayor, specifically targeted to block Walmart. It raises the District’s minimum wage 50 percent to $12.50 per hour only for stores with more than $1...

When President Obama first ran in 2008, he claimed his economic policies would "foster economic growth from the bottom up and not just from the top down." He said he'd put in place "an immediate rescue plan for the middle class" and would end the "tired, worn-out, trickle-down ideologies we've been seeing for so many years." Obama got all he wanted in his first two years in the White House, when Democrats had solid control of Congress — a massive stimulus, auto industry bailouts, temporary middle class tax cuts, vast new regulations on businesses and ObamaCare. But his policies produced...

Can poor people be trusted with guns? Overwhelmingly, Republicans thinks so. But while Democrats fight against taxes on the poor and oppose voter photo IDs because they impose too much of burden, they seem to be doing everything possible – from fees, expensive training requirements, and photo IDs -- to make it next to impossible for the poor to own guns. Indeed, legislation in at least 17 states around the country is aimed specifically at making it more costly to own a gun. Democrats are voting in mass against exempting the poor from fees when it comes to guns. New...

The $85 billion in federal spending cuts triggered by the sequester will hit low-income Americans dependent on government assistance especially hard, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive-leaning think tank. According to organization, about 3.8 million long-term unemployed workers with federally funded benefits will see about an 11% cut in those weekly benefits. The Women, Infants and Children nutrition program will have to turn away as many as 600,000 to 775,000 women and children by the end of the year. More than 100,000 people will lose housing aid. "There is no way to cut $85 billion...

Japan has recognized a new class of citizenry. They exist here too in great abundance. After the Fascist-Progressives get all the money they can get from the middle class and the rich and wealthy and still find themselves wanting, this is the next target group. They won't even have to tax them to fill their coffers. In just three years, Japan will reap 74 billion from them. But Japan has a labor shortage problem, and this could also be a way to solve that problem. It is also preferable to raising the minimum wage. So who is this new social/political...

One tourist's photograph, among the countless snapped every day in the Big Apple, has gone viral. The moment captured is one of generosity, and since it was posted on Tuesday, it has circled the globe and brought a lot of attention to one young New York City cop. Had it not been for a tourist from Arizona who snapped the photo with her cell phone, Officer Lawrence DePrimo's act of kindness, giving boots to a homeless man, may have gone unnoticed. Tourist Jennifer Foster emailed the photo to the NYPD and they posted it to their Facebook page. Tens of...

[Households that earn at most $13,000 a year spend 9 percent of their money on lottery tickets. ] With the Powerball lottery jackpot reaching a record $500 million, people from around the country are flocking to local convenience stores to try their luck. The majority of those standing in line for tickets and joining office pools are likely not habitual lottery devotees, but rather casual players who decided to get in on the fun once the media reported the unprecedented size of the pot. However, the everyday lottery business is a much grimmer affair, relying overwhelmingly on "poverty, habit, and...

Consider this headline from a Reuters article in The Huffington Post: "Raising Taxes on Rich Won't Hurt Economic Growth, CBO Says." But the first paragraph refutes the headline: "Allowing income tax rates to rise for wealthy Americans would not hurt U.S. economic growth much (emphasis added) in 2013 ..." The CBO did not say, as the headline suggests, that raising taxes on the rich has no negative economic effect. In fact, the CBO actually said that extending the Bush-era rates for all would increase economic growth by 1.5 percent. If, however, the Bush era rates expired for the rich --...

Government programs designed to help the poor have destroyed generations of American families, schools, and culture. One would think that repeated bad economic news and the downgrading of families that inhibit job growth would lead people to find a better solution to help them out of their impoverished condition. Instead, they vote for the same type of politician who blames the wealthy, calls for tax increases, and wonders why poverty goes up, businesses move out, and crime and illegitimacy soar. The following ten cities have a great deal in common. The first thing is their poverty level. The second is...

CINCINNATI - There's an odd imbalance that few have noticed in this presidential campaign. In the midst of a continuing economic downturn, one candidate talks regularly about poverty, and the other doesn't. The one who does is the Republican, Mitt Romney. He's done it for a long time. Go back to Romney's March 30 speech in Appleton, Wis., in which he introduced the charge that President Obama is creating a "government-centered society." "Over 46 million Americans are now living in poverty, more than ever before in our nation's history," Romney said. "In households with single moms, over 39 percent are...