Free Republic

When Donald Trump’s political credentials as a Republican and/or conservative are challenged, he likes to remind people that Ronald Reagan was a Democrat once and managed to evolve over time. Except that Reagan’s conversion was real and he had two terms as governor of California to prove his bona fides before he ran for president as a conservative Republican. As Reagan campaign manager Stu Spencer and speechwriter Ken Khachiagin note in a Real Clear Politics piece: Yes, Ronald Reagan migrated from being a liberal Democrat to the gold standard for conservative Republicans. But Reagan’s views evolved over four decades’ worth...

Even when they are trying to be even-handed, academics can't hide their biases. "While it is certainly true that the public has a decidedly negative view on 'the way things are going in the country today,' (to borrow the wording of a recent poll by the Pew Research Center), it is less well known that these feelings of decline are a consistent feature of the American political landscape," Stephen Rose, a Research Professor at the George Washington Institute of Public Policy, writes in The Washington Monthly. "For example, in 1999, a year in which we had had seven straight years...

Yep, Ronnie was a wheeler. A 1962 Willy’s Jeep CJ-6 once owned by President Reagan is on display on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as part of the Cars at the Capital event organized by the Historic Vehicle Association. The used 4x4 was a Christmas gift from his wife Nancy in 1963, and was famously driven by him around their Rancho del Cielo in California’s Santa Ynez mountains well into his presidency.

The Donald Trump Campaign’s top delegate strategist, Paul Manafort, was previously employed as a lobbyist for a group charged by the Department of Justice with operating as a front for Pakistani spies, according to court records obtained by Yahoo News. Manafort’s work in the 1990s as a registered lobbyist for the Kashmiri American Council was only one part of a wide-ranging portfolio that, over several decades, included a gallery of controversial foreign clients ranging from Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Zaire’s brutal dictator Mobutu Sese Seko to an Angolan rebel leader accused by human rights groups of torture. His role...

In 1980, Ronald Reagan campaigned on a four point economic recovery plan. First, reduce tax rates, to increase incentives for job creation, investment, business start-ups and expansion, and wage growth due to the resulting increased demand for labor and increased productivity. Even liberal Keynesian economics holds that tax cuts are pro-growth. Two, reduce regulatory costs and barriers to business, which can act as further tax cuts. Three, reduce federal spending, to reduce the government’s drain on the private sector. And four, restrain monetary policy to restore a stable value for the dollar. After Reagan led adoption of those policies in...

Whenever Donald Trump and his followers are confronted with his evidence of his abysmally terrible polling numbers on personal favorability and versus Hillary Clinton, they typically respond with a pair of deflections. First, they say that Trump "hasn't even started" attacking Hillary yet. Setting aside the fact that Trump has taken many hard jabs at Mrs. Clinton over a span of months, this line of thinking requires a logical leap: That once he does train virtually all of his fire on her, it will both hurt her and help him. American voters have been subjected to endlessTrump coverage since last spring, over...

It has been hard enough for me, as a Reagan scholar, to forebear claims by Trump supporters of alleged commonalities between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. Some lost soul, in a fit of madness, composed a list of 15 uncanny “similarities” between the two. The list has gone viral and has been sent to me too many times. I’ve resisted responding to it, and -- pray God -- I will not need to. But speaking of God, other analogies are being made by Trump supporters that wrench my stomach so hard that I need to vent as a form of...

Forerunner of PEYTON PLACE still retains its sweep of life in pre-WW1 Midwestern town, with the fates of many townsfolk intertwined. Beautiful Erich Wolfgang Korngold music score backs up plush production, fine characterizations. Notable, too, as Reagan's finest performance. Screenplay by Casey Robinson, from Henry Bellamann's best-selling book.

Ronald Reagan's legacy, long after his passing, continues to be distorted by the leftist academic community, one professor noted at a panel discussion held at the Heritage Foundation. Francis Marlo, an associate professor of International Relations at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, said that the Left does not like giving Ronald Reagan credit for ending the Cold War. The panel discussion centered around the recently published book, "The Grand Strategy that Won the Cold War," and Marlo's remarks centered around correcting the record on Ronald Reagan's Cold War exploits. Marlo stated, "The intent of this book is to...

As the current rhetoric between the Kremlin and the White House appears to be riddled with contradictions, US congressman and former Reagan speechwriter Dana Rohrabacher spoke with RT about the past, present, and future of US-Russia relations. “The relations between our countries in the last 3 years have gone from dismal to worse. It’s become hurtful for both our nations,” says Rohrabacher, adding that the communications on both sides has always been disappointingly lacking in mutual trust and cooperation. “Instead of an understanding that Russia is no longer the Cold War threat and thus they should be our friends, our...

On Sunday's Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN, host Zakaria seemed to be doing an impression of the type of super-biased political panel seen in the worst of days of MSNBC in the form of four liberals pitted against one moderate Republican and no conservatives discussing the role of racism in opposition to President Barack Obama. The accusations of racism against conservatives included The New Yorker editor David Remnick charging that George H.W. Bush used "racist memes" to win the 1988 presidential campaign and repeating a discredited claim of Ronald Reagan of using a racist "dog whistle" by talking states' rights...

In 1942, Seaman Calvin Graham was decorated for valor in battle. Then his mother learned where he'd been and revealed his secret to the Navy. With powerful engines, extensive firepower and heavy armor, the newly christened battleship USS South Dakota steamed out of Philadelphia in August of 1942 spoiling for a fight. The crew was made up of “green boys”—new recruits who enlisted after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor—who had no qualms about either their destination or the action they were likely to see. Brash and confident, the crew couldn’t get through the Panama Canal fast enough, and their...

In an unusually strong protectionist action, President Reagan today ordered a tenfold increase in tariffs for imported heavyweight motorycles. The impact of Mr. Reagan's action, which followed the unanimous recommendation of his trade advisers, is effectively limited to Japanese manufacturers, which dominate every sector of the American motorycycle market. The action was exceptional for protecting a single American company, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company of Milwaukee, the sole surviving American maker of motorcycles. The only comparable trade action by this Administration, the President's decision last May to impose quotas on sugar imports for the first time since 1974, was aimed at...

The nation's Republicans are working against the clock to answer two key questions: Can conservative Ronald Reagan possibly attract enough independent and Democratic votes to win in November? "Reagan is the opponent of choice for Carter," says I. A. Lewis, director of the Los Angeles Times Poll, a point on which most analysts agree. "But Reagan can reach across and cause mischief in the Democratic constituency," Mr. Lewis says. "Reagan appeals to blue collar, working-class voters. He can win Democratic votes..."

Ronald Reagan would be familiar with some of the challenges facing Donald Trump lately. Imagine an establishment-busting presidential candidate rolling up the primaries but polling 20 points behind the presumptive Democratic nominee. The controversial Republican front-runner is considered so radical that the party establishment eyes a brokered convention, perhaps to nominate a failed candidate from the previous election. Sound familiar? Welcome to March 1980. In retrospect, Ronald Reagan’s presidency seems inevitable, but the prevailing wisdom in the Republican Party 36 years ago was that he was leading the party to certain defeat. Going into the 1980 race, some Republican leaders...

I miss Ronald Reagan. Even his harshest critics must admit that he had an unflagging belief in the general goodness of the average human being, a commitment to the American experiment and faith in the ability of most people to make decisions in their own best interests without undue meddling by officious busybodies. Above all, Ronald Reagan -- like a number of other truly great American political leaders from both sides of the aisle -- had the ability to inspire Americans to see the best in themselves and their neighbors. We are stronger as a people, better as a...

Editor’s Note: This appeared on the Grove City College's Center for Vision and Values website. On March 30, 1981, at 2:25 p.m., President Ronald Reagan was leaving the Washington Hilton through a side door after speaking to a union group. Outside was a gaggle of staff, secret service, reporters, and bystanders, including one determined to end Ronald Reagan's life at that moment. As the president headed toward the car, a reporter barked out a question. With a smile, Reagan raised his left arm to deflect it. But he could not deflect what was about to fly in his direction. A...

National Radio Talk Show host Rush Limbaugh joins Chris Wallace for an exclusive interview discussing his take on the feud between Donald Trump and Mitt Romney, and Trump's prospects in the election going forward. "His dad did much the same thing against Barry Goldwater with a cabal of Republicans, establishment guys, back in 1964," Limbaugh said about Romney. "This is not new. The establishment not wanting outsiders, not wanting conservatives is not new... They were this way with Ronald Reagan before Reagan was elected. They tried to deny Reagan in '76 and they tried to deny Reagan in 1980. They're...

Hillary Clinton broke a cardinal rule of the angry left –saying something nice about a Republican who recently passed away. After she was savaged for saying Nancy Reagan had been out front in confronting AIDS, an angry backlash ensued, and Clinton quickly fell into line. The controversy was worth seven paragraphs in the New York Times print edition, but reporter and chief Hillary-follower Amy Chozick really let the leftist insults fly in the longer online version (h/t veteran commenter Gary Hall), hitting both the Reagans and Hillary in a nasty tone, under the solemn circumstances: "The problem with Mrs. Clinton’s...

Has Al Hunt never having heard of de mortuis nil nisi bonum? On the day she was laid to rest, Hunt has repeatedly said that Nancy Reagan "was not a good mother." Interviewed by John Heilemann on today's With All Due Respect, here was Hunt: "she was a formidable person. Sometimes unpleasant, not a great mother, but she loved her Ronnie and had great political instincts . . . She was not a good mother. I think actually Patti Davis, as moving as she was today, if you really listened to it, all was clear: she was not a good...