Free Republic

"In war there is no substitute for victory" were the words of General Douglas MacArthur as he spoke to a joint session of Congress in 1951 after being fired by then President Harry Truman for wanting to use tactics aimed at winning the Korean War like America's previous wars had been won. Democrat Harry Truman had the power to fire MacArthur, but he didn't have the ability to survive the backlash and was forced to withdraw his name from consideration for re-election in 1952. The Republicans nominated General Dwight Eisenhower, who won in a landslide promising to do something about...

Throughout much of the 20th century, Orange County attracted white middle-class and upper-middle-class residents who were either fleeing an increasingly diverse and liberal Los Angeles or were relocating from the Midwest and the South and bringing conservative regional values with them.... Also helping focus the political energy was The Orange County Register's ardent libertarian slant, ... Republicans' share of county voter registration peaked in 1990, when they outpaced Democrats by 22 percentage points. The GOP's edge is now 8 points and shrinking, and its share of registered county voters fell below 40 percent for the first time in December. Non-Latino...

As compiled by Politico, let’s take a look at the genius predictions made by the “experts,” during 2015. Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz, July 7: “I happen to be in the camp that thinks [Romney’s] actually going to run, and I think he will be the next president of the United States.” Chris Cillizza the Washington Post, February 26, 2015: “So, let’s assume—gulp—that Trump is serious this time around. Heck, while we’re at it, let’s assume he actually runs. IT. DOESN’T. MATTER. I can’t emphasize that strongly enough.” As late as August 20, the Daily Beast said: “Making political predictions rarely...

In 2016, voters must decide the direction our country will take for the foreseeable future. Will we choose to again be a nation of free and independent souls or will we continue down the path which has made the U.S. a global laughing stock? Many Americans realize that the nation cannot survive the effects of crony capitalism which dominates Washington politics. The question is how to end the corrupt practices which have provided wealth and power to members of both political parties. One would think that the forced dismissal of John Boehner as House Speaker might have caused the GOP...

Listening to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz has made it clear that both are Republicans In Name Only – true RINOs. Thank goodness they are! Neither Trump nor Cruz is really a Republican which is a good thing because Republicanism has become another word for sellout and backstabber. In his heart Trump isn’t a Republican and that is why many Republicans and recovering Republicans (me included) are supporting him. In the midst of the new Paul Ryan/Mitch McConnell reality, Ted Cruz is not really a Republican either and this is what is fueling his rise in the polls. Jeb Bush,...

In 2008 and again in 2012, real Americans knew we were being lied to about Barack Obama and that the media covered for him. Fortunately those days are over. In next year’s election against Donald Trump all that has been whispered, smothered, lost and hidden about Hillary Clinton will be blasted out by Trump. The media will have no choice but to help him because he owns them. By March Trump will be coasting to the Republican nomination. In the past such early success has been a problem for Republican candidates. The media used it as an excuse to stop...

In the latest milestone of Orange County's shifting political milieu, Republicans' share of voter registration has fallen below 40 percent for the first time in the county's history. That's 8 percentage points more than the Democrats' share but marks an ongoing slide from Republicans' 22-point dominance in 1990, the GOP's zenith in the county, according to county elections statistics updated this week. The growth in voters with no party preference -- at 24 percent, up from 10 percent in 1990 -- is a key part of the shift.

It would be great to have Ted Cruz as our next president. So many things could be fixed and so much good could be done. It’s a very pleasant dream but nothing more. There are a number of difficult problems Cruz would have to face as the Republican nominee that Donald Trump wouldn’t have deal with. Cruz was born in Canada, to an American mother and a Cuban citizen father. Like it or not, Cruz would have to fight a continual battle to prove his eligibility. He only gave up his duel Canadian citizenship in May 2014 when the media...

Ted Cruz is the most conservative candidate in the Republican field. His speeches are inspirational trips into what America should be, which is why he will never be elected president. He is far too conservative to stand a chance in a general election. In 2012, rank and file Republicans were tricked into nominating a liberal candidate who chased away conservatives and lost, which was exactly the plan. Mitt Romney was never in the race to win. Conservatives knew it and 4.5 million stayed home. The media knew what would happen and it celebrated putting one over on the Republicans when...

After five months of waiting for Donald Trump to fade away, some of the geniuses who make believe they know politics are beginning to fall silent – at least the brighter ones anyway. Steven Hayward, the all-knowing clown at the Los Angeles Times has apparently never heard the expression advising, “It is better to be thought a fool and remain silent than to speak and remove all doubt.” In July the sagacious Hayward confidently wrote that Trump would be gone by Thanksgiving and probably thought he was being generous with that prediction. Now that reality has smacked him in the...

Donald Trump has developed a new very potent weapon that is striking fear into the left and his enemies in the RNC. He is effectively saying, “So what?” to the phonies who have paralyzed civil discourse for far too long with their stupid bleating about political correctness. Because he is who he is, Trump cannot be ignored by the media. Consequently, when they attack him for saying something they have deemed not politically correct he looks them square in the eyes and asks, “And, so what?” Because Trump says what many people think, not what the media deludes itself that...

The befuddled “experts” can’t figure out why Donald Trump is doing so well in the polls. They KNOW he is wrong on everything; they KNOW he is a clown, a buffoon, a snake oil salesman, take your pick. Using THEIR old rules of politics they have declared Trump’s campaign dead so often it’s hard to keep track of them. The bottom line is that Trump is not going anywhere. He did not fade by Labor Day or Halloween or Thanksgiving. He won’t fade and they know it so they have fallen back on trying to trick people with their lie...

New Hampshire GOP chairwoman Jennifer Horn has abandoned all pretext of impartiality by launching an aggressive attack against Donald Trump. In an interview with the Boston Globe Horn says: "Shallow campaigns that depend on bombast and divisive rhetoric do not succeed in New Hampshire, and I don’t expect that they will now." She went on to say that establishment candidates like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Marco Rubio are "underestimated" and will almost certainly perform better than most. This despite their disappointing poll numbers, both nationally and in her state: "People are probably underestimating [New Jersey Governor] Chris Christie. And,...

Like almost all established political prognosticators, Larry Sabato is befuddled by the meteoric rise of Donald Trump to the top of the Republican Party’s presidential primary field. That Trump, who is not a politician, can merely get into the arena, do a few deep knee bends and pummel one professional politician after another seems to have him stupefied. Although he has not commented on the victory of Matt Bevin in Kentucky yet, that race has to have had him tied in knots as well. Sabato called Bevin, who won with 14 points more than the polls Sabato relies on, a...

Ben Carson has fallen into a “moral” trap on the question of offering citizenship to illegal aliens who are here working in jobs that could be filled by American workers. In his campaign material Carson asks, “Is it moral for us, for example, to take advantage of cheap labor from illegal immigrants while denying them citizenship? I’m sure you can tell from the way I phrased the question that I believe we have taken the moral low road on this issue. Some segments of our economy would virtually collapse without these undocumented workers–we all know that–yet we continue to harass...

When does the gang at Fox News start saying Matt Bevin’s huge upset in Kentucky was due to “Carson-mania?” After all, don’t they all believe Ben Carson has grabbed up all the excitement on today’s political stage? How about some of the columnists who are shilling so hard for Carson? Where are their joyful shouts that “Bevin won because of Carson-mania?” Democrats can apparently recognize and acknowledge scary poll numbers better than the Republican establishment and the Donald Trump hating media. With their noses rubbed in the dirt they have had to acknowledge the truth. The latest Reuters poll of...

It's hard to overstate how important those GOP gains — and the consolidation of them we've seen in the last few years — are to the relative fates of the two parties. While the story at the national level suggests a Republican Party that is growing increasingly white, old and out of step with the country on social issues, the narrative at the local level is very different. Republicans are prospering at the state level in ways that suggest that the party's messaging is far from broken. There are other, more pragmatic effects of the GOP dominance in governor's races...

What happened yesterday was not the end of the RNC’s poisonous hold on the Republican Party, but it was certainly the beginning of the end. This revolution is beginning to look like the first one. It was around this time in 1781 when reality came crashing in on British Commander Lord Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown Virginia. He was beaten and embarrassed by American patriots he considered rabble and was forced to watch his world being turned upside down. Yesterday, just 160 miles away in Alexandria Virginia, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, another enemy who considers America’s patriots rabble, was forced to...

Could the new national poll showing Ben Carson ahead of Donald Trump by 4 points be just an invisible new suit of clothes? In Iowa, Carson is rushing past Trump in some new polls; not all but some. Iowa is a unique state and lately its caucus voters have not been predictive of who will be the eventual Republican nominee. These polls may or may not be accurate reflections of what is happening because another poll shows the candidates tied. Those who want to destroy Trump so the Uniparty can continue business as usual in Washington would love see national...

In 2009 many of us made our way to Washington to let the political establishment know we were “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.” We knew we wanted change and knew we weren’t going to get that change sitting at home complaining. Naturally our enemies made light of our efforts and lied about our numbers. This made both wings of the Uniparty feel good about what was happening. They sniffed and said, “They’re just a bunch of retired seniors looking for some excitement. They don’t understand how government works. They will get tired and go away.”...