Free Republic

Link only due to copyright issues:,http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-04-03/why-ted-cruz-is-fighting-the-fortune-500-on-gay-marriage

Corporate leaders and chambers of commerce are at war with those evangelical Christians who have decided to reassert themselves in the Republican political process. This war is eerily reminiscent of an earlier time when there was friction between the business wing of the GOP and Christian activists. Make no mistake -- the rise of variations of "religious freedom" bills in GOP-dominated legislatures around the nation is no coincidence. They are supported and backed by skilled political pros and religious leaders who are tired of being left out of the American political process. They are especially weary of being treated as...

The national debate over an Indiana religious-liberties law seen as anti-gay has drawn the entire field of Republican presidential contenders into the divisive culture wars, which badly damaged Mitt Romney in 2012 and which GOP leaders eagerly sought to avoid in the 2016 race. Most top Republican presidential hopefuls this week have moved in lock step, and without pause, to support Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) and his Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which has prompted protests and national calls for boycotts by major corporations. In Arkansas on Tuesday, Republican legislators approved a similar measure that Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) is...

When it comes to LGBT rights, the 2016 GOP roster may be more ridiculous than the clown car of 2012. Thanks to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, we’re getting an early look at a field of GOP presidential hopefuls that is supposed to include some moderates who plan on expanding the party’s appeal beyond its right-wing base. And it’s pathetic. Before Pence’s odd press conference, where he promised to “fix” the bill but insisted there was nothing wrong with it, the top GOP contenders hustled to outdo one another in backing Pence and his divisive legislation. Let’s remember that in...

Late last summer, with midterms consuming the attention of the political class, a group of GOP activists spent two days in Des Moines trying to convince their fellow Republicans that change was coming to their party. With eyes on 2016, they attended the Iowa State Fair, talked with newspaper editorial boards, and even ventured onto conservative talk radio. To cap it off, on the last evening, supporters gathered at 801 Chophouse, the upscale watering hole of the city's political elite, as if to announce their movement had gone mainstream. That it couldn't be dismissed as fringe any longer. Their issue,...

Only the most vicious partisans on either side of the aisle care a whit for the party platform. The outdated practice of defining a political party’s ideals in writing so that they can be ignored by the institution’s elected officials serves only the opposition’s purposes. For Republicans, the platform’s codification of the GOP’s support for banning of all legal abortion practices and legally defining marriage as an institution that exists only between a man and a woman have provided their Democratic opponents ample opportunity to frame the party as “extreme.” The Democrats, too, stumbled into a public relations nightmare...

Thanks to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, it's becoming even clearer that immigration is the banana peel of 2016 Republican presidential politics. Just ask Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. He stepped up as a Senate leader on immigration only to slip and fall in a tea party ruckus over the issue. In a moment of candor, Rubio remembered the months of trying to get back up as "a real trial for me." Now it's oops for Walker. In 2013, Walker said it "makes sense" to offer a way to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. Early this month, however, he said...

Earlier today, MSNBC published a story suggesting Senator Cruz supports legalization of undocumented individuals currently in the United States. Derived from the fact that Senator Cruz hasn’t specifically stated he does not support legalization of undocumented individuals, the inference is that Cruz must therefore support legalization of undocumented individuals. It’s a nice little semantic game, really. MSNBC referenced a Texas Tribune article from 2013 which they claim indicates, “that he [Cruz] supported giving some undocumented immigrants permission to stay in the country with more limited legal status.” This summation is not accurate. The Texas Tribune article, written around the time...

As the administration touted new health insurance enrollment numbers on Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas predicted a Republican president would undo the entirety of President Obama’s signature domestic achievement upon taking office in 2017.“I believe in January of 2017 a new Republican is going to enter the White House and in 2017 is going to sign legislation repealing every word of Obamacare,” Mr. Cruz said, speaking at the “Politics and Eggs” event in Manchester, N.H.Mr. Cruz, who is considering a presidential bid of his own, tweaked “graybeards” in Washington and people who predicted the fall 2013 battle over the...

Senator Ted Cruz spoke at Heritage Action’s 2015 Conservative Policy Summit on Monday and announced a ten point plan he believes the nation, led by a Republican Congress, should focus on for 2016.The 2016 potential presidential candidate, a staunch defender of the U.S. Constitution, outlined his plan, which focused on restoring a growing job market, increasing individual liberty, and enhancing national security (WATCH FULL SPEECH BELOW).Cruz said that the GOP has an “incredible opportunity” to lead and that the historic 2014 midterm election results weren’t because voters suddenly loved Republicans, but that they were “roundly repudiating the path we’re on.” Cruz...

“The Democratic Party is facing a Catholic apocalypse,” Patricia Miller warns at Salon.Her article does a good job of marshaling statistics, but when she assesses the reasons for the apocalypse she makes a critical error.“White Catholics are now identifying as Republicans by historic margins,” she says, and lists the evidence.• She cites Pew data showing that 53% of white Catholics favor the GOP, versus 39% who favor Democrats.• Catholics voted for John McCain over Barack Obama in 2008’s presidential race by 5 percentage points, she says — but chose Mitt Romney over Obama by 19 points four years later, she says.• The U.S....

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker admitted Sunday to changing his views on the vexing issue of immigration. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, the presidential was presented with a 2013 clip in which he told a Wisconsin newspaper that he could envision undocumented workers who pay penalties being offered a pathway to citizenship. Walker said Sunday that he has since changed his mind on what many conservatives deem to be "amnesty."

Which Republican presidential candidates support amnesty? I have analyzed all the major Republican presidential candidates (except Ben Carson and Rick Sanctorum, who are long shots, and Donald Trump, who has undocumented hair). I have found that all the major presidential candidates support amnesty for illegal aliens, except for one. Can you guess which one? Jeb Bush: Jeb, as we all know, supports amnesty for illegal aliens, and he's proud of it. If he were running in Honduras, I would vote for him in a minute. Marco Rubio: Marco Rubio co-authored a bill that would have given amnesty to illegal aliens....

Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace submitted newly-minted 2016 GOP frontrunner Scott Walker to thirteen minutes of sustained questioning about his record and his (mis)statements Sunday morning, the most notable moment of which came when Walker conceded after several minutes of interrogation that he’d “changed” his views on immigration.

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon for the Sirius XM Patriots network, Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker said he does not support amnesty and the Washington Post‘s Aaron Blake, who previously reported Walker supports a “pathway to citizenship” for illegal immigrants took him “out of context.” Towards the end of the interview, Bannon noted that “Amnesty is about the sovereignty of the country.” But, he asked Walker, “the Washington Post said earlier that you’re pro-pathway to citizenship.” “See now that’s where they take it out of context,” Walker said in response. “I’ve not said...

Any candidate showing signs of being a "will-o-the-wisp" flip-flopper will not be the type to be dependable that can be counted on. Watch 'em close. An earlier Washington Examiner editorial positioned Republican presidential probable candidate and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush as a not very conservative office seeker based on his talk about acts of love. This was based on a CNN interview with Dana Davidsen with Bush at College Station, Texas, on a Sunday Town Hall event to honor the elder GHW Bush’s 25th presidential anniversary. “Jeb Bush said Sunday that many who illegally come to the United States...

Mark Krikorian has some extended commentary this weekend over at the corner which takes a long look at one of the larger questions looming over Jeb Bush’s nascent presidential ambitions. It deals with the issue of “comprehensive immigration reform” and has less to do with whether or not Bush fundamentally agrees with Barack Obama on immigration (the general consensus there is that he does) and more to do with what this says about the candidate’s fundamental view of the American worker. The title is, The Peasants Are Revolting, So Let’s Get New Ones. It’s a great, humorous header, but the...

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama continues to embrace low-tier, go-it-alone executive actions to pad out the last two years of his mistake-filled, agenda-less presidency in a hopeless hunt for a legacy. His arrogant decision this week to re-establish diplomatic relations with Communist Cuba is the latest example of a president desperately searching for something to do without having to deal with Congress. You can comb through all of the polling data for the topmost concerns of the American people, and renewing U.S. relations with Cuba's evil Castro dictatorship is not among them. But with his job-approval polls in the basement, and...

In politics, like chess...it's important to think several moves ahead. For several months now, we've been told that by the end of summer, Obama will use his pen and cell phone to issue executive orders granting amnesty to some 5 million now illegally in the US. The thing about Executive Orders, is that they're just that...they're not law, and they're not binding on future presidents. So....

Inside the offices of Republican gay-rights groups, a strategy is forming to convince party leaders to strip opposition to gay marriage from the GOP platform. The target, operatives say, is to see party leaders drop their support for a gay-marriage ban in time for the Republican National Convention in summer 2016. It's a long shot, but Republican gay-rights lobbyists think they can build on the momentum provided by courts nationwide and the belief that, philosophically, the GOP's social conservatives are fighting a battle that puts them well out of step with the majority of the country, and that could demographically...