Free Republic

Created by Capitalists, Foundations Serve Left-Wing Agenda By Matt Carrothers May 14, 2007 Ford. Rockefeller. Carnegie. MacArthur. Pew. Hewlett. The names read like a roll call of American history’s industrial titans, financial wizards and innovators of technology. Most of them were politically conservative. All of them thrived in America’s free market economy. These captains of capitalism share another legacy – the charitable foundations that bear their respective names. Today they would barely recognize the foundations they established, which are now the leading contributors to socialist, environmental and multicultural causes. Author Phil Kent’s latest book, Foundations of Betrayal: How the Liberal...

GOP Debate Loser: MSNBC By Matt Carrothers May 7, 2007 If the Republican presidential candidates muster to debate the issues and nobody watches, can we legitimately pick individual winners and losers? MSNBC aired the May 3 Republican debate from 8 to 9:30 p.m. Eastern. It was viewed in just over 1.7 million households. At the same time, 9.2 million households watched “Survivor: Fiji” on CBS, while 6.5 million households saw “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth-Grader?” on Fox. MSNBC’s share of the nation’s eyeballs dropped further in the debate’s last half hour. Nearly 15 million households watched ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy”...

Debating Democrats: War is Lost, But Don’t Call Us Defeatists! By Matt Carrothers April 30, 2007 The Democratic presidential candidates apparently labor under the belief that President Bush is the Republican Party’s 2008 nominee. That is not surprising, since they also believe that to defeat Islamic fascists we must stop fighting them. Bush and the war in Iraq were the centerpiece issues in the candidates’ first debate. For 90 minutes they parried a discussion of grown-up ideas to fighting terrorism. Each instead claimed to be the fastest defeatist in the West. The only thing missing from the debate was a...

Gay Marriage Proponents vs. Voters in Wisconsin by Matt Carrothers April 23, 2007 A case pending before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Helgeland v. Wisconsin Municipalities, illustrates some of the hidden risks behind the same-sex marriage movement. Several Wisconsin municipalities and school boards are trying to intervene in the case, claiming that if same-sex partners are granted the legal rights and protections of marriage, married couples could suffer dire fiscal consequences. In 2005 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued various Wisconsin state agencies on behalf of six lesbians who are employed by the state. The lesbians seek classification of their...

American Values Drive a Masters Champion April 16, 2007 by Matt Carrothers It’s about an hour’s drive from Elmcrest Country Club in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to the Field of Dreams movie site in rural Dyersville. Elmcrest is where 2007 Master’s golf tournament champion Zach Johnson first learned the game. The distance traveled by Johnson from Elmcrest to the champion’s podium at Augusta National Golf Club is more accurately measured in years and experience, not miles. It is Johnson’s faith, work ethic and commitment to individual excellence that carried him to his own field of dreams. Much of the television commentary...

Middle Class, Wherefore Art Thou? by Matt Carrothers April 9, 2007 A rhetorical tactic utilized by disingenuous politicians is to frame their agendas as most beneficial to the nebulous middle class. The individuals and families who occupy this sanctum sanctorum of the electorate are never defined, but they reap great rewards through tax credit giveaways. In a March 23 press release Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-NV) claimed, “The priorities of the middle class and working families were at the top of the list when Democrats drafted this budget…” A March 26 statement from Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) read, “During the...

Conservatism Needs That Old-Time Religion April 2, 2007 By Matt Carrothers The paradox of the relationship between religious and political institutions is that conservative religious teachings and the liberal political ideology share an unwavering principle that requires their leaders and followers to never negotiate the tenets of their orthodoxy. Too many Republicans and conservatives are willing to bargain away their core beliefs to avoid criticism by their liberal counterparts. Last month Pope Benedict XVI, religious leader of over one billion Roman Catholics, wrote in a document called the Sacramentum Caritatis (Sacrament of Love) that “Worship pleasing to God can never...