Remove the “s” in “https” and you’ll be fine.
I’m not having any problem accessing the site. I did once much earlier in the evening. Closed out Safari and re-opened it, and it’s been working fine. In the URL on Safari, it’s showing “Not Secure - free republic.com.” I went to the bookmarks and changed the https to http, but it’s still showing the same URL with “Not Secure.” This is a new MacBook Air, and I have no idea how long the URL has been that way. It also happened a while back with my old Apple laptop.