Free Republic

My brilliant, Hillsdale-educated husband explained to me in our many conversations following the election one conflict between political philosophers Leo Strauss and Russell Kirk: broadly speaking, Strauss would say politics shapes culture, while Kirk would say culture shapes politics. We think there's some transference there (some permeable cell membranes, if you will), as laws certainly shape culture, but agreed over dinner last night that we tend to side with Kirk in thinking that if we had to pick a chicken or egg, we'd go with the culture as the initiator and driver of politics. That thought has led several here...

As the smoke clears from the wreckage of the Romney defeat on Tuesday, some intriguing yet disturbing facts are coming to light. * Fewer people overall voted in 2012 (about 117 million) compared to 2008 (about 125 million).* President Obama received some 6.6 million fewer votes in 2012 than he did in 2008 (60,217,329 in 2012 votes compared to 66,882,230 votes in 2008). * One would think that such a dynamic would have helped Romney win — clearly it did not. * Incredibly, Governor Romney received nearly 1 million fewer votes in 2012 than Sen. John McCain received in 2008....

Once upon a time, a group of people had an idea for a country. They were far from a monolithic group of people. Each one had his own reasons for wanting to design and live in a new country of their own making. Some of them were merchants who found that the country to which they belonged was taxing them so highly that they could not make ends meet. Some of them were philosophical idealists who were uncomfortable with the abstract notion of hereditary rule. Some of them were passionate believers whose religion of choice or birth had been declared...

President Obama’s first-term Supreme Court appointments make it seem unlikely to conservatives that the president will nominate judges over the next four years known for their judicial restraint. In fact, for progressives, judicial restraint takes on an entirely different description. At least, that’s the impression given by Ian Millhiser at a recent Center for American Progress event, in which he said that the “frivolous” lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, convinced him against judicial activism. “And one thing I will say that that taught me is that judicial restraint is really important and that I think...

Many have called the 2012 election the most important in their lifetime. But in citing the economy, unemployment, foreign affairs, gas prices, healthcare and the burgeoning corruption of the American judiciary, political pundits may have universally ignored the real threat to the American public and the reason it was imperative to remove the Obama Regime from power. It happened back in March. Republican representative Tom Graves of Georgia asked FBI Director Robert Mueller whether the Administration’s “…policy of extra-judicial killings of American citizens abroad could also apply in the United States.” Incredibly, Mueller responded “I have to go back. Uh,...

... Yet despite the onslaught, Obama has retained an overall advertising advantage over Romney and Republican groups. Under federal law, television stations must offer presidential campaigns a discounted price — it's known as the lowest unit rate — to run their spots in the two months leading up to Election Day. Independent political groups aren't eligible for the discount, so their ads cost as much to run as do commercials for products like Pepsi or Tide. The Obama team has taken full advantage of the lower ad rates available to them, having booked their fall advertising last July and August...

I am sure you’ll get a kick out of this. There is a big push around here to get us to contribute to United Way… their annual coercion to make us ‘give’. Let me see if I get this right: Americans just elected a guy whose party has ALWAYS screamed: ‘The government can spend your money better then you can, get more out of your money than you can, provide more efficiently for the needy and disabled, assure that EVERYONE gets his/her fair share, etc…. and on and on’!!! NOW they think, after they virtually enabled the government to rape...

"No offense meant to the honored former governor of Massachusetts. I mean, he may have been a horrible candidate, but he was a decent man. Of course, after Dukakis, Democrats determined that decency didn't win presidential elections. Massachusetts ceded to Arkansas and the rest, as they say, is history." Source_____________________________________________________ Mitt Romney and his family are decent people - hard working Americans who love this country. They sought and won the primary baton - tirelessly campaigned to the bitter end of the campaign. I'll boil my post-election analysis down to this: We need to elect a candidate that, besides running...

" Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter.  The man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap.  It only stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.  A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal...

“If I Were the Devil” – Paul Harvey on Destroying America -1965

MUCH of the coverage of Tuesday’s results has focused on the strength of Barack Obama’s coalition — minorities, women and young voters. But that analysis misses the real point. The contours of the 2012 presidential race were shaped less by the country’s changing demographics than by the underlying attitudes and values of American voters, who are always far more complex than they appear to pollsters. The president’s victory was a triumph of vision, not of demographics. He won because he articulated a set of values that define an America that the majority of us wish to live in: A nation...

Those who are “whooping it up” over Barack Obama and his Party’s victory won’t care about this list of taxes and other plagues that will be forced on us by Obamacare come next January. Some are blissfully ignorant of what is coming; others have always been content to be surfs and still others know all this and don’t give a damn – they like hanging out and drinking beer in the park. Nevertheless, those who voted for Barack Obama still work and have a real life have big surprises coming their way. The most serious plague of re-electing Barack Obama...

In 1947, one of the most admired, trusted and honest men in America, Paul Harvey, discussed how the forces of evil would be designed to strip integrity from America. Our world is and always has been in the midst of a spiritual war. A Red Dawn in America has surfaced, with a mere figure head representing the forces of power, control, submission and rage occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. These forces are legion, pervasive in media, academics, government and industry. Mr. Harvey understood this all too well and warned us with a servant's heart. We have failed to head his warning....

Should successful people in Illinois "go Galt"? Posted by Bruce Donnelly on November 7, 2012 at 11:30pm View Blog Successful people in Illinois lost the election yesterday. The future looks pretty bleak, not just because several good Republican candidates lost their races, but because virtually unchecked Democratic power was reinforced in Springfield. A few local wins are small consolation for the continued rise of radical progressives in Washington and Springfield. They now have virtually unchecked power to keep ruining us all economically. The Republican Party in Illinois has failed miserably - again - and it will cost us all dearly....

IMHO the cultural war between Apollo and Dionysus is over. The classic dichotomy of Thinking and Feeling as embodied by the 2 sons of the Greek god Zeus which has been the center of the cultural war in the US since the 60's has been won. The 2 events of 1969 which will illustrate this point are the Apollonian achievements of the first man on the Moon, (aptly named Apollo 11) and the Dionysian Woodstock Music Festival during the Summer of Love. Among people who were old enough to remember, these 2 events very neatly cleave society as to which...

Back in March, we heard Barack Obama (or whatever his name is) tell Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, “This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.”At the time, news outlets reported this as if Obama did not realize he was being recorded, yet there were cameras and microphones all over the place recording every second. Obama had to know the world could hear his words, but I am certain he did not care. When I heard those words, I knew the fix was in, although I still hoped I would be wrong. Obama knew he would “win”...

Now that we have lost the election of 2012, where our champion, a third-rate imitation of Ronald Reagan, without either his charm or his principles, who believed in absolutely nothing except being the best salesman he could be; let's pause to reflect on all the things we lost out on through his defeat. When we lose something, a relationship or a job, the grief comes from what we thought we had and what we imagined it was, not from what it truly was. Perspective means getting a true sense of what we had and what we never had to begin...

The experts are wringing their hands trying to figure out why Romney didn’t win, but now we know: the 14 million missing voters from Romney’s column are Evangelicals. Evangelical Christians may not be evil people, but they helped an evil president become an evil dictator on Tuesday. The exact numbers aren’t in but clearly the vast majority of Evangelicals stayed home on Election Day. They weren’t dealing with a storm or a personal family emergency. They stayed home because they made a conscious decision to allow our Marxist enemy to continue ruining our lives rather than have Mormon Mitt Romney...

If the Obammunists are planning on building their paradise  with my wallet, they're in for some disappointment... What exactly is 'Going Galt'? Think of it as a supply-side Cloward-Piven strategy... starve the beast, rather than milk-it-dry: 'Going Galt' doesn't simply mean getting angry. That would be "Going Postal." It means having righteous indignation at the injustice of a political system that bails out individuals and institutions for irresponsible behavior and at the expense of those like you who prosper through hard work and personal responsibly. 'Going Galt' means asking in the face of new taxes and government controls, "Why work at all?" "For whom am...

Some women are truly born to be mothers. Their compassion knows no limits, their charity is unceasing, their thoughtfulness without hesitation. I am sincerely blessed to be able to call such a woman, “Mom.” I learned a lot, watching her. I learned compassion by watching her tend to others at the Cerebral Palsy Center, by watching her give a loving home to many a wounded or abandoned animal, by watching her patiently listen to my young friends as they shared their problems and her giving them excellent advice. I learned responsibility because both my parents were responsible: to each other,...