Free Republic

"Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." Alexis d’ Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835 The inspiration for this article occurred while reading "What about a third party candidate" by Rachel Lynn Robinson on Nolan Chart, www.nolanchart.com. Ms. Robinson, a Libertarian, asks: "Is it reasonable to elect a third party candidate simply based on their stance on a few key items?"...

People aren’t bailing out of the Republican Party to go over to the dark side. They are leaving because thanks to the ongoing infestation of the party by liberal statists, they don’t see a fundamental difference between the GOP and the Democrats. The Lesser Evil argument that has persuaded some of us to vote for the likes of John McCain is no longer cutting it: A new study by the Frontier Lab, a conservative market research group, found that Republican voters who leave the party do so because they are tired of being told to vote Republican as the “lesser...

Last week, a Breitbart News article highlighted Sarah Palin’s criticism of the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill, and on Sunday, she wrote a Facebook post excoriating this “bipartisan” sellout:Great job, GOP establishment. You’ve just abandoned the Reagan Democrats with this amnesty bill, and we needed them to “enlarge that tent” of which you so often speak. It’s depressing to consider that the House of Representatives is threatening to pass some version of this nonsensical bill in the coming weeks.Palin went on to say that many Americans, herself included, “are barely hanging on to our enlistment papers in any political party,”...

Over the weekend, Sarah Palin floated the idea of forming a third party - tentatively dubbed the "Freedom Party," at the suggestion of a Fox News viewer - if the Republicans continue to disappoint conservatives. This drew a spirited response from blogger LaborUnionReport at RedState, followed by an equally spirited counter-response from Stacy Drake at Conservatives4Palin, who accused the RedState blogger of using a Palin Photoshop to illustrate his post. I haven't got any Photoshop expertise to offer, beyond observing that it's a really good Photoshop. [...] I've been wrestling with that third-party temptation for a long time, and generally...

For the first time since the mid 1800s we hear today liberty voices rising from elected state officials including governors. But they're not in D.C.; instead they're in Kansas, Georgia, Michigan, Missouri and dozens of other states, making their own decisions on abortion, guns, constitutional law, ObamaCare, and practically everything. But no leader yet emerges, and no center. It is, like Pirandello’s play, with actors in search of a theater and a leader. Actually a leader is emerging: Sarah Palin. But new ideas need new forms to start again the conversation and bring in a new generation. For a fresh...

When Uma Pemmaraju asked for questions to be submitted in advance of Gov. Sarah Palin's appearance Saturday on "America's News HQ," I proposed this one: I was hoping, but not expecting, that Pemmaraju would ask it. So it came as a most pleasant surprise to hear my name on Fox News and see my question on the screen: [Video at Source] I learned first hand the meaning of "viral" when news articles about this excerpt from the governor's appearance on ANHQ began populating the Web on sites from The Daily Caller, where it was first posted, across the Atlantic Ocean...

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Just back from his part-time home in Mexico, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura dangled the idea Friday that he could run for the U.S. presidency in 2016. Ventura eagerly volunteered the possibility while at Minnesota's Capitol -- and pushed back against skepticism that he would re-enter the political fray after being out of office since 2003. It's hardly the first time the publicity savvy Ventura has broached the idea he would run for the White House or Senate, only to pass on a campaign. He said the next race is "an opportune time" for an independent...

As some Newtown families, props being used by the very gun grabbers who have set up the kinds of gun-free shooting galleries in which their children were slain, held hands and prayed for more than 60 votes (having been flown in at taxpayer expense to lobby our representatives to take away our natural rights), it occurred to me that, with 16 Republicans voting that a debate on amending an unalienable right is perfectly in keeping with the Constitution, the Republican party then and there died. Went t*ts up. Ceased to be. If John McCain and Lindsay Graham and Lamar Alexander...

I had fallen out with Senator Pat Toomey in the last year when I realized his plan to balance the budget in ten years was no plan at all. I consider a balanced budget to the be the top issue and that when a politician says they have a plan to do something in ten years, they are not serious. Ted Kennedy and George W. Bush promised 100 percent proficiency in math and reading by 2014 when No Child Left Behind was made into law a decade or so ago. Now, Senator Toomey has stepped into the waters of tearing...

Having grown up in a family where the term “progressive” was not used by Republicans as a pejorative to describe their political opponents, Theodore Roosevelt IV tells Newsmax TV that he does not necessarily see today’s GOP spinning off a third party any time soon. “Our family’s been sort of kind of like a third party for a long time,” Roosevelt acknowledged in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. “Goes back to 1912. We’ve been waiting a long time. I’m not sure I see a third party emerging in the near future.” Roosevelt, the great grandson of President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt,...

Charlie Blackmore Jr., a 32-year-old Marine Corps veteran, was driving home from work at 4:00am Tuesday when he saw a man violently kicking a large object on the ground. He parked his car to see what was going on and upon drawing closer to the scene, Blackmore realized that the "object" was a young woman. When the man refused to stop beating his visibly injured victim, Blackmore pulled out his Springfield XDM 9mm. -----------------------cut---------------------------- Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. praised Blackmore Wednesday in a statement to the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel: "I want to get to a day when...

Italy's stunned political parties looked for a way forward after an election that gave none of them a parliamentary majority, posing the threat of prolonged instability and European financial crisis. "The winner is: Ingovernability," ran the headline on Tuesday in Rome newspaper Il Messaggero, reflecting the deadlock the country will have to confront in the next few weeks as sworn enemies are forced to work together to form a government. The results, notably by the dramatic surge of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo, left the centre-left bloc with a majority in the lower house but without the...

The games the politicians play are a pathetic joke. Debt continues to pile on top of debt with "crisis" deadline after "crisis" deadline upon us. We end up with "imperfect deals" that do nothing to balance the books, just continue the slow and painful descent into eventual financial collapse. These sick austerity policies that include tax increases and spending cuts at the same time are already ruining Europe and now the United States is going down the same road. Obama and the RINO's use emotional issues to drive wedges that scoop us masses of people to support them. The RINO's...

I heard something the other day that needs correction. Rush Limbaugh talked about the "Obama tax increases" and if he was talking about Obamacare tax hikes he's right on the money because Barack Obama owns them. The GOP didn't support it. But I got the impression El Rushbo was talking about the deal agreed to at the beginning of this year that restored 2 percent to the Social Security tax and raised taxes on "the rich." John Boehner is co-owner of those tax increases with Barack Obama. And just like the Obamacare taxes, they are economically destructive. It looks like...

Conservative radio host Michael Savage spoke out against Republicans and Democrats alike on Sunday for pulling a "charade" on the American people, and called for a third political party. "We need a Nationalist party in the United States of America," Savage said on WABC's "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio," according to WND. The third-most widely heard talk show host, behind only Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity in ratings, explained a new, third "Nationalist" party could focus on "borders, language and culture." "There is no Republican Party," Savage told talk show host Aaron Klein. "It's an appendage of the Democrat machine, as...

The word is out from Moodys Investor Service. The United States cannot keep its credit rating unless more is done beyond the "imperfect deal" agreed to by the political leaders of both parties in Washington. Reflecting on what was done it is impossible not to conclude that the deal was the beginning of what will be a series of European-style austerity measures coming out of Washington as demanded by the creditors holding onto this nations multi-trillion dollar debt. We have made it into the same spot that Spain, Italy, Ireland, the United Kingdon, France and Greece are. The Age of...

"Thank You America" was the theme of a commercial I saw on the Rose Bowl Game telecast yesterday. The bailed out AIG was singing the praises of our tax dollars being pumped into their company from a nation that is now trillions of dollars more in debt than it was before bailouts like theirs were pushed through Congress. The pushing through Congress of band aids like the bailouts and now the new legislation called the "Taxpayer Relief Act" will not stop the trillions of dollars in debt from continuing to expand until new band aids will be needed. Who is...

The other ObamaCare middle class tax hike arrives in 2014By: John Hayward 12/12/2012 09:14 AM If you think it’s been horrifying to watch ObamaCare pop open like a jack-in-the-box filled with tax increases over the last couple of weeks, just wait until the huge new taxes on health insurance companies hit in 2014. A study commissioned by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) lays out the details: The [Affordable Care Act] imposes a new sales tax on health insurance that starts at $8 billion in 2014, increases to $14.3 billion in 2018, and will continue to increase each year. The Joint...

House Republican leaders used a secret criteria list to decide which conservatives to purge from powerful House committees, Breitbart News has learned. As this time, it appears they will keep the criteria list hidden from the public, too. Spokespeople for members of House GOP leadership have refused to discuss details about the list on the record with press. Because GOP Leadership won't discuss the list, it’s unclear what specific criteria the list contained and how much of a role it played in the conservative purge. It’s also unclear which member of House Republican leadership initiated this process. In remarks to...

So, should conservatives remain in the GOP where they are, as a rule, ignored? Why should they? The argument has been made that the formation of a third political party, particularly one that draws from the GOP, would ensure that the Liberal Left will become more entrenched in government, and neither the GOP nor this third party will stand a chance of winning the White House for the foreseeable future. Counter to this argument, conservatives say that it matters not when the GOP is but a shadow of the Democrat Party. Central to resistance for a Romney nomination was the...