Free Republic

I am no longer a Republican. John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and their Democrat-lite, RINO Republican establishment have seen to that. They have betrayed their own constituents. They have actively turned against the American people – the very voters who granted them power to do good. Even before the gavel has sounded on the Republican-led 114th Congress, these treacherous cowards shamelessly, eagerly, it seems, squandered perhaps the one opportunity they had to stop, in his tracks, America's first cultural Marxist, anti-American, palpably evil president. If ever there were, there can no longer be any doubt. Barack Obama is bent on turning...

Gas prices are the lowest they've been in five years — a welcome relief for many drivers. But now that fuel prices are falling, some lawmakers are talking in a serious way about raising the gas tax — Republican lawmakers. The debate is at an early stage, and it’s fair to say House conservatives will hate the idea. But a few powerful GOP senators are signaling they're open to the idea. Even House Speaker John Boehner, who personally opposes raising the gas tax, hasn't ruled it out. “Some Republicans in the Senate are speaking up,” says Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway's...

Republicans unite around a push to ban the procedure after 20 weeks of pregnancy.Republicans are more united than they have been in years on a national strategy to roll back abortion rights, using state legislatures and the new GOP Congress to push for banning the procedure after 20 weeks of pregnancy — a platform that also has the backing of the party’s presidential candidates. The cohesion comes at a significant time for Republicans, who have long fought among themselves over how hard to press new abortion restrictions, debating exceptions for rape, incest and threats to the life or health of...

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said Thursday that he’s still “seriously considering” a run for president but admitted that he was rattled when voters rejected his hand-picked Democratic successor in favor of Republican Larry Hogan. “I can tell you my feelings were hurt,” Mr. O'Malley said in a speech at the University of Chicago, CNN reported. “We had done a lot of really good things in Maryland and in the end, you did not hear much about it during the campaign,” Still, he acknowledged, “I was on the ballot.” Mr. Hogan won a stunning upset victory over Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown,...

Fiscal Policy: In this time of political partisanship, the two parties at last have found something they can agree on: raising the gas tax. It's a truly awful idea, and might get Republicans kicked out of office. It's shocking that Republicans, who won the last election by promising limited government and lower taxes, would in their first week back in power make noises about joining tax-and-spend liberal Democrats to raise the 18-cents-a-gallon gas tax. But that's exactly what they're doing. Suddenly, a number of Republicans — who should all know better — are saying they'll "consider" a gasoline tax hike,...

One of the biggest fallacies in politics today is the claim that we, as conservatives and libertarians, can only be effective if we stay loyal to the Republican Party and work to gain control of it by electing more free-market conservatives every election year. We at AFR believe such thinking to be tragically misguided. To expect the Republican Party to challenge the modern day juggernaut of statism is as foolish as expecting socialist professors to instill Americanism into our youth. It won’t happen anymore than the planets will one day reverse their orbits. This is because the members of the...

One of the biggest fallacies in politics today is the claim that we, as conservatives and libertarians, can only be effective if we stay loyal to the Republican Party and work to gain control of it by electing more free-market conservatives every election year. We at AFR believe such thinking to be tragically misguided. To expect the Republican Party to challenge the modern day juggernaut of statism is as foolish as expecting socialist professors to instill Americanism into our youth. It won’t happen anymore than the planets will one day reverse their orbits. This is because the members of the...

It's all very simple: the Republicans lost Florida in the 2012 presidential election by 0.88. If conservatives stay at home in 2016 in the same numbers as they did in 2012, then there is no chance of the GOP winning. If conservatives are advised by Governor Palin (unlike in 2012) and Mark Levin to either stay home or vote third-party, then it is impossible to see how Florida could be won by, for example, Jeb Bush. However, for argument's sake, if, because of Bush's Florida connection and a bad economy, Florida is won, then Ohio (-2.98%), Virginia (-3.88%), and Colorado...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)In his most forceful language yet against GOP detractors, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that he dislikes being described as "spineless or a squish" by conservative Republicans, but that the label that stings him the most is when he's called a part of the "establishment." "I am the most anti-Establishment Speaker we have ever had" he told NBC News at his first solo press conference of the new Congress. "Who was the guy who got rid of earmarks? Me. Who's the guy who believes in regular order? Me. Who believes in allowing more members to participate in the process,...

The shocking act of murder by terrorists in Paris this week provides chilling new evidence that Republican majorities in Congress must act. The tepid response from the White House -- a hallmark of Obama, except on issues like race and law enforcement -- must come to an end. It will take action by Republicans on Capitol Hill to force a change. On Monday, the political press was abuzz over a challenge to House Speaker John Boehner from several of his fellow representatives. But Boehner won another term as speaker. Now it's time for Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell...

As members of the 114th Congress were sworn into office on Tuesday, their party affiliations described what happened last November: 246 of the 435 representatives and 54 of the 100 senators are Republican. That might be enough for some fellow GOP'ers to claim victory and a "mandate," but they would be wise to recall a lesson from history. The last time the House had so many Republicans was in 1947, when the 80th Congress was sworn in. At that time, Republicans also held 51 of the 96 Senate seats. Democrat Harry S. Truman, who had become president on April 12,...

Why don't the Republicans in Congress work with the Republicans in the State Legislatures to get around Obamas vetoes? Most of what I think the Republicans want to do can be accomplished by those Republicans in the Congress to hook up with and start very active communications, including action committees, with the Republicans in the STATE LEGISLATURES AND WORKING WITH THOSE LEGISLATORS. The large Republican gains were made not only in the House and Senate but in the State Legislatures... Meaning, to heck with Obama and his "actions" and veto power, stop him with STATE specific actions, death of the...

In recent years, examples of good Christian art have at times been difficult to come by. This is partly due to the increasing preponderance of modern art that is often more focused on “making a statement” (political, social, or otherwise) and “pushing boundaries” than on capturing true beauty and uplifting the human spirit. Despite this, there remain many artists who wish to explore the persons of saints and Biblical figures through their art, whether for their own personal interest or simply because they have been commissioned. The following is a list of nine examples of such art in various styles,...

"................This is why we have elections — to choose representatives. The 2014 congressional elections were quite good for conservatives, who are restive and impatient for reform. Many of them fault congressional leaders, especially John Boehner and Senate leader Mitch McConnell, for being too eager to compromise and too generous in their terms. There might have been a mutiny against McConnell if all the likely candidates for Senate majority leader — Senators Rubio, Paul, Cruz, etc. — weren’t running for president. Will Rogers famously joked: “I don’t belong to any organized political party — I’m a Democrat,” and there has long...

Yesterday, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released some statistics on the religious composition of the new 114th Congress, which includes more Catholics (with 164) than any Congress in history. That’s about 31% of Congress that identifies as Catholics, compared with about 22% of American adults. Sadly, while the number of Catholics in Congress reaches an all-time high, pro-life Democrats in Congress are on the verge of extinction.But first, some good news for Catholic Democrats.Given the large margin by which Republicans control the new Congress (301-234, counting both houses) and the fact that the incoming class in a...

His coalition of evangelicals could be broken up by new alternatives like Ted Cruz.Mike Huckabee loyalists still believe their guy was screwed in 2008. After pulling off an impressive upset of the better-funded Mitt Romney in the Iowa presidential caucuses, the former Arkansas governor eyed a second Republican primary win in South Carolina. His allies are convinced the Palmetto State should’ve been his for the taking – if not for the peculiar, lethargic candidacy of former Sen. Fred Thompson, a friend of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who siphoned conservative voters from Huckabee in South Carolina. Thompson’s 16 percent slice of...

David asks Congressman Tom Marino about who he’s supporting in SpeakerFight 2015. The Congressman believes he “doesn’t have any options”… except Boehner.

News reports on bills and votes in the Legislature tend to focus on confrontations and things that divide us. On this Christmas Day, Michigan Capitol Confidential is focusing on examples from the past year of successful problem-solving legislation that overcame two separate divides: Republicans vs. Democrats and the people vs. the political class. House Bill 4186: Second chances get a unanimous vote of support. On Feb. 5, 2013, State Rep. Stacy Erwin Oakes, a Democrat, introduced legislation to limit restrictions on "expunging" (clearing) a felony conviction from a person’s record (with exceptions for very serious crimes). On Dec. 4, 2014...

We see, on a daily basis, that the current Democrats and the current Republicans are by-and-large nothing more than opposite faces of the same coin No, my friends, the term “second political party” is not a typo. It is not an error. It is not a misstatement. The cooperation afforded to that tall, slim fellow who lives in the White House by those who call themselves Republicans can hardly be viewed as the behavior of what one would normally be referred to as the “opposition party.” There are a lot of ordinary citizens who object strongly to the idea of...

It is rare for conservatives to score a federal policy victory these days, especially with a Democrat in the White House, but as Michael Barone reminds us, just by playing defense conservatives have done exactly that on transportation. Unfortunately there are some in Congress who want to reverse these gains. The big win for conservatives on transportation comes from two sources. First, when the gas tax was last raised in 1993, it was not indexed for inflation, so the 18.4 cents a gallon collected today doesn't go as far today as it did more than two decades ago. Second, thanks...