Free Republic

Modern Republican leaders, with the exception of the Reagan Administration, have been partners in the expansion of government, indeed in the growth of a government-based “ruling class.” They have relished that role despite their voters. Thus these leaders gradually solidified their choice to no longer represent what had been their constituency, but to openly adopt the identity of junior partners in that ruling class. Republican leaders neither parry the insults nor vilify their Democratic counterparts in comparable terms because they do not want to beat the ruling class, but to join it in solving the nation’s problems.... (excerpt)

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) took to Twitter on Thursday to downplay this week's issue of Time Magazine, which features a cover story labeling him "The Republican Savior." There is only one savior, and it is not me. #Jesus —Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) Feb. 7, 2013 The profile focuses on Rubio's push for comprehensive immigration reform, calling him the "great Hispanic hope of the Republican Party" after a 2012 election cycle that saw Hispanic voters break heavily for President Obama.

Japan has recognized a new class of citizenry. They exist here too in great abundance. After the Fascist-Progressives get all the money they can get from the middle class and the rich and wealthy and still find themselves wanting, this is the next target group. They won't even have to tax them to fill their coffers. In just three years, Japan will reap 74 billion from them. But Japan has a labor shortage problem, and this could also be a way to solve that problem. It is also preferable to raising the minimum wage. So who is this new social/political...

I recently read the new biography of Trotsky by Oxford don Robert Service, published in 2009 by Pan Books. It is well-written and surprisingly interesting. The book does a great public service in describing the life of the actual Trotsky, whose previous “biographies” were little more than hagiographies written by his toady worshippers (people like Isaac Deutscher). The last time that I had taken any interest in Trotsky was when I was a teenager and had fleeting delusions of believing in “socialism.” Reading the new book as an adult and as an economist, I found it a useful opportunity to...

it appears that not even foreign language classes on our nation’s campuses are immune to the scourge of radical ideology. Ohio State student Patrick Seaworthy reported in The College Fix that he signed up for a German II class last fall, expecting to learn some of the finer points of German language and conversation. Instead, he quickly discovered that he was the only conservative in a class where “learning German took a back seat to discussions of the prowess of Barack Obama, American narcissism, the virtues of socialism, the sad plight of Chicago’s teachers, and why the U.S. military is...

With radical bonehead Ed Asner narrating, great This crap will make you sick: manipulative indoctrination propaganda -it looks like something you'd see out of Pyongyang- that will inevitably be shown in a classroom full of impressionable, young children, and at taxpayer expense (!) Maybe somebody should tell these Obammunist losers that top earners in the Golden State are already slated to be paying over half their income in taxes next year- but since when do we ever we allow ourselves to be topped by France, eh libs? [YouTube] Update: Below summary replaces original video -which portrayed 'the rich' urinating on the poor-  since the California...

An article in the Wall St. Journal paints a gloomy picture for the future U.S. companies are scaling back investment plans at the fastest pace since the recession, signaling more trouble for the economic recovery.Half of the nation's 40 biggest publicly traded corporate spenders have announced plans to curtail capital expenditures this year or next, according to a review by The Wall Street Journal of securities filings and conference calls. Nationwide, business investment in equipment and software—a measure of economic vitality in the corporate sector—stalled in the third quarter for the first time since early 2009. Corporate investment in new...

"In our latest Politico/GWU Battleground Poll with middle class families, which comprise about fifty-four percent (54%) of the total American Electorate and usually split in their vote behavior between Republicans and Democrats, Romney holds a fourteen-point advantage (55%-41%)."

Overall, Obama leads Romney by just 3 points on the ballot (50 percent to 47 percent)–which before we rounded up, is actually a 2.6 point lead and only up a half-a-percentage point from the 2.1 point lead for Obama in our last Battleground poll in early August. In our latest POLITICO-George Washington University Battleground Poll with middle-class families,which comprise about 54 percent of the total American electorate and usually split in their vote behavior between Republicans and Democrats, Romney holds a 14-point advantage (55 percent to 41 percent). Middle-class families are more inclined to believe the country is on the...

Hey, when you gotta go… President Obama was speaking today at a rally in Cincinnati, but one attendee ended up stealing the president's spotlight. Apparently, when nature calls, sometimes you just can't ignore it. Even if you're in public. Not far from the president of the United States. In front of cameras. Just take a look behind the podium at the guy who thinks he's masking his deed under the cover of some trees. Maybe he just couldn't handle the excitement of the situation? Or perhaps he was just drinking too much political Kool-Aid? Either way, he probably picked...

This is why Pew found that "85% of self-described middle-class adults say it is more difficult now than it was a decade ago for middle-class people to maintain their standard of living." We're working just as hard as in years past, but we're behind the 8-ball because for most of the country, wages are not even set to meet the cost of living. Indeed, some of us are closer to being poor than middle class and don't know it. The 2011 middle class median income started at $39,418 for a family of three. Yet Pew found some families making less...

So, is there a hard and fast number to define the middle class?United States government, you wanna help us out here? No? Not really?Well, at least there's an official poverty line. In 2007, it was an annual income under $20,650 for a family of four.As for middle class, well, the Congressional Research Service issued a report last year pegging middle class income as between $19,000 a year and $91,000 a year.But even the specialist in quantitative economics who put together that study said there is no consensus or official government definition.So we decided to ask around. First up; Brookings Institution...

Of the 300+ books on google books using the term, "middle class America", only one earliest is 1971, a few in 1980`s and 95% in 1990`s and 2000`s til now. I never heard the term "middle class Americans" in my youth, not even in college sociology classes in 1960`s. It appears to be a made-up-term borrowed from English social class structure as defined by Webster. These communist sociologists try to force an Englsh social model upon America which is impossible- to make a square peg fit a round hole in an fallacious attempt to define a fluid social dynamic of...

At a Campaign rally in 2008, Obama said that health care should not purchased with a tax increase (October 4, 2008).

In spite of a conflicting narrative, Vice President Joe Biden identified himself with the middle class, while campaigning in Iowa this afternoon, insisting to the audience that Republicans don’t understand “us” in the middle class. Biden added that being middle class was more of a “way of life,” than an income level. “I love these other guys, they talk about us as a number, ‘Was it $49,270 or $52,719 dollars? What’s the definition of the middle class?’” Biden said. “The middle class, is a value set, the middle class is a way of life.”

Ex KGB defector and university professor Yuri Bezmenov once said, “It is worth noting that the stated goal of the communist dialect is to nudge people from the truth a little bit at a time, until they are so convinced of false realities, that they are no longer capable of discerning the truth even when they see it in front of their own eyes.” The left’s Orwellian usage of language is so scientifically deceptive, that most of us have friends or family members, who although otherwise reasonable, have been so profoundly nudged from the truth, that no amount of...

One can’t but hear the almost daily drumbeat from the left about how unequal things are in the United States. There is an income disparity between the haves and the have-nots where Wall Street bankers take millions of dollars home to their Greenwich mansions while millions of others work for minimum wage and can’t afford their own home, never mind something resembling a mini-Versailles. That may be true, but the reality is, inequality exists today, inequality has always existed, and inequality will always exist. Why? Because people are simply different. People have different motivations, different skillsets, different temperaments, different...

The percentage of women who own a gun is at a new high. Statistics show 43% of women are packing heat. And a class was held in South Bend Saturday morning to make sure women know how to use those guns. Julia Johnson is learning how to use a gun because she doesn't always feel safe at home. "My husband works overseas and so I'm home alone sometimes and I want to feel like I can sleep at night," said Johnson. And it's not just herself she's worried about protecting. "I have a five year old at home," said Johnson....

About a dozen people sat in the smallish classroom at Down Range Concepts in Key West on Thursday, ready to begin learning the ins and outs of Florida's concealed carry law, firearms safety and the legal liability that accompanies carrying a weapon. Among the students was Rob Nevius, a boat captain and fishing charter guide who has been on the waters around Key West for more than 15 years. The time had come, the captain said, to inquire about guns and learn the law. "There have been boat hijackings," Nevius said. "It does happen out there." Standing before the group...

They stood side by side, staring intently at the iced tea jugs resting on the ground in front of them. The teacher. The widow. The student, the homemaker and the businesswoman. It is a Saturday afternoon, and they are among more than two dozen people who have paid $50 to be here. To watch videos, listen to instructors and feel safer than before. For just a few moments, it is virtually silent. And then comes an explosion of thunder as they begin raising pistols and blasting away at the doomed jugs before them. • • • Chances are, someone in...