Free Republic

As President Biden faces the most difficult international crisis of his administration, he might take some inspiration from his predecessor President Ronald Reagan, who 40 years ago today put boots on the ground on the Caribbean island of Grenada to save American lives — even though an expert noted key differences between the two situations. The growing crisis in the small island nation of Grenada, a former British territory off the coast of Venezuela, occurred after a group of Caribbean nations appealed for U.S. help in what they feared would be a region-defining incident following interference from communist Cuba and...

Many leading Republicans and conservatives want someone other than Donald Trump to run for President in 2024. But this judgment requires an assessment of Trump’s vices and virtues in the context of our current political and cultural circumstances, as well as an assessment of other prospective Republican presidential candidates. Tom Klingenstein, Chairman of the Claremont Institute, explains Trump's Virtues.

A suicide bomber drives a truck packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. That same morning, 58 French soldiers were killed in their barracks two miles away in a separate suicide terrorist attack. The U.S. Marines were part of a multinational force sent to Lebanon in August 1982 to oversee the Palestinian withdrawal from Lebanon. From its inception, the mission was plagued with problems–and a mounting body count. In 1975, a bloody civil war erupted in Lebanon, with Palestinian and leftist Muslim guerrillas battling militias of the Christian Phalange Party, the Maronite...

I never thought the day would come when I, a die-hard Reagan Republican, would credit a Democratic president for being Reaganesque. Amazingly, it has. Don’t look now, but Joe Biden has been leading with moral authority in the struggle against violent authoritarianism and illiberalism at home and abroad. While Donald Trump criticized the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden met with Bibi and declared America’s support for Israel to be “rock solid and unwavering.” And while Republican support for providing U.S. aid to Ukraine has eroded, Biden has steadfastly supported them in their plight against a brutal Russian invasion.

Ronald Reagan’s values, vision and vibrant personal optimism inspired a rebirth of American pride, growth and exceptionalism in the 1980s, after nearly two decades of social and cultural upheaval. "Reagan was deeply concerned about America in the late 70s," Virginia-based historian and author Craig Shirley told Fox News Digital. "America had gone through 17 long, horrible years beginning with the assassination of JFK." The quagmire of Vietnam, the author added, the failed presidency of Lyndon Johnson, the resignation of Richard Nixon, the Iran hostage crisis and the infamous social and economic "malaise" of the Jimmy Carter administration all created the...

At the forefront of environmental discussions at Michigan State University, Tom Sharkey, a University Distinguished Professor at the Plant Resilience Institute, posed a provocative question: "Should we cut down all the oak trees?" While he wasn't advocating for a literal deforestation of oaks, this theoretical question emerges from his team's recent discoveries about the role of trees, especially oaks and poplars, in air pollution dynamics. Sharkey's research delves into the intricacies of isoprene -- a compound released by certain plants, particularly oaks and poplars. This research reveals a paradox. On one hand, with global temperatures rising, these trees emit more...

Ronald Reagan’s famously sunny personal and political optimism was grounded by seeing the world as it was in its complex, often dark reality. His buoyancy was boosted by a bedrock belief that foundational American values of faith, freedom and individual dignity had the power to make the troubled world a better place. The rare combination of sunniness in the face of harsh reality and his faith in American exceptionalism gave the Great Communicator a gift to predict future events with remarkable accuracy.

When Mitt Romney announced his intended retirement from the U.S. Senate on Sept. 13, 2023, the Atlantic published an excerpt from his upcoming biography, in which the 2012 Republican presidential nominee told author McKay Coppins, “A very large portion of my party really doesn’t believe in the Constitution.” This claim would have been startling 15 years ago. For decades, the Republican Party has been the party of conservatism and a champion for the Constitution. Romney is clear that Donald Trump, who leads what he calls a “populist” and “demagogic” portion of the party, is to blame. And Romney is not...

2 days after Gandhi's birthday, I publish a comparison of his thought and the ideas and practices of a few American conservatives. "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." (cf TR's favourite proverb: "Speak softly and carry a big stick."?) “The future depends on what you do today.” ("It is no coincidence that the century of total war coincided with the century of central banking." - Ron Paul) "Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good." ("The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and...

Debate Time!9:00 p.m. Eastern.ParticipatingFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantisFormer South Carolina Gov. Nikki HaleySouth Carolina Sen. Tim ScottVivek RamaswamyFormer Vice President Mike PenceFormer New Jersey Gov. Chris ChristieNorth Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.No ShowFormer President Donald TrumpHostsCo-costed by FOX hosts Dana Perino and Stuart Varney as well as UNIVISION's Ilia CalderónWhere to Watch or ListenFox News and Fox BusinessUnivisionRumble

Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate will occur in the shadow of former President Ronald Reagan — making the setting a vivid reminder of how today’s Republicans have in a lot of ways abandoned his legacy. Reagan, president from 1981 to 1989, redefined not only the mission of his party, but the mission of the federal government. Taxes were cut dramatically. The military was strengthened. The president talked tough and won the Cold War. The role of government as an economic safety net began to erode. Social issues such as abortion rights became prominent federal issues. Today, former President Donald Trump, the...

SACRAMENTO — The Republican Party will hold a presidential candidate debate at the Ronald Reagan library Wednesday. It’s a bad fit. The GOP’s modern idol is exactly the opposite of Reagan in personality and character. For upbeat Reagan, America was a “shining city on the hill.” For whining Donald Trump, it’s a waste bin for venom and lies. Reagan’s soaring rhetoric made people feel good about themselves. There was “always a bright dawn ahead” — “Morning in America.” Yes, maybe that was a tad naive and corny, but it brought a collective smile — and won over many Democrats.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina took a harsher stance toward striking autoworkers Monday than many of his fellow Republican presidential candidates, saying it did not make sense for workers to want higher pay for shorter workweeks and noting approvingly that President Ronald Reagan had fired federal employees for striking. “I think Ronald Reagan gave us a great example when federal employees decided they were going to strike,” Scott said at a campaign event in Iowa, in response to a voter who had asked whether he would “insert” himself into the United Auto Workers talks as president. “He said, ‘You...

Last week, former Vice President Mike Pence declared that there was a “fundamental” and “unbridgeable” divide between Reagan and Trump conservatives and that the new populist right could very well end the Republican Party as we know it.In reality, while Donald Trump’s hard-charging style is a departure from Ronald Reagan’s happy warrior approach, the ideas that underpin Trump’s campaign are building a blue-collar coalition reminiscent of the Reagan era – a development that could actually save the GOP as a national party, rather than destroy it.Similar to Pence, I am an outspoken evangelical from middle America who came up in...

Democratic strategist Donna Brazile said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that she believes former President Donald Trump was the leader of a political “movement” like former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Brazile said, “I’m old enough to say this. I’ve seen two movements outside of the Social Justice movements in my life on the political side. One was the Reagan movement. Reagan had a hold on his base. The country at large, they saw him as someone who was willing to stand up for American values, whatever that might have been. Now I thought it was reactionary. The other...

The Fulton County jail that booked former President Donald Trump last week reported its fourth inmate death this month on Tuesday. The sheriff's department confirmed that the death took place on Saturday, but offered no other details, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The Rice Street jail has come under intense scrutiny due to conditions at the facility and is currently the subject of a federal civil rights investigation. Earlier this month, three other inmates perished while in custody, including Alexander Hawkins, Christopher Smith, and Montay Stinson. The Department of Justice launched its probe last month, citing allegations that "Fulton County Jail...

It was Friday night in the fall of 1981 at Milton Frank Stadium in Huntsville, Ala. Grissom High School was playing, and I was standing near Coach Stiles on the sidelines. The game was not going our way when Coach suddenly waved his arms in the air and yelled, “Herschel Walker, where are you?!” It was one of those funny/not funny moments. Herschel was a sight to behold in college football back then and won the Heisman trophy the next year. Coach was invoking the name of the greatest running back of the day as a means of wishing he...

Ronald Reagan, our 40th president and the icon and hero of the modern conservative movement in American politics, was once a Democrat. Reagan Idolized FDR: As a young man who came of age during the Great Depression, Reagan idolized Franklin D. Roosevelt. The New Deal rescued the Reagan family finances, proving work for Reagan’s father, Jack. “I soon idolized FDR,” Reagan later recalled. He would promote FDR whenever he could as part of his radio announcer job, and he cast his first vote ever – for Roosevelt for president. He would go on to vote for FDR three more times...

When asked to name the United States president who has done the best job over the past 40 years, a majority of Democrats name Barack Obama. Republicans, by contrast, are divided between a president who served in the 1980s – Ronald Reagan – and one who is currently running to return to office, Donald Trump. About four-in-ten Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (41%) say Reagan has done the best job as president over the past 40 years. Slightly fewer (37%) say Trump has done the best job, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in July.

The vandalism last weekend of a sculpture of Republican Party icon Ronald Reagan that’s long greeted passersby of artist Miriam Baker’s home on Balboa Island’s South Bayfront has generated outcry from her neighbors and friends. Baker first learned of the incident from her nephew, who at about 9 a.m. Sunday discovered the artwork, which stands next to some potted geraniums on her front patio, had been defaced by someone using what appeared to have been foam insulation. “It’s incomprehensible that there is a person that nasty around that would do it out of meanness and small mindedness,” said Baker, who...