Free Republic

For his speaking portion of the evening, Sailer read an essay which appeared in Noticing titled, “What If I’m Right?”. A common theme of his work is the chasm between elite narratives and the lived experiences of ordinary Americans...

In the past two years, two competing groups of conservatives—National Conservatives or NatCons and Freedom Conservatives or FreeCons—have issued competing manifestos. These manifestos reflect a divergent understanding of the progressive challenge to the American way of life.This divergence can best be understood in the context of the history of modern American conservatism, which can be broken into three waves: the first wave, symbolized by William F. Buckley, Jr. and Ronald Reagan, lasted from the mid-1950s to the end of the Cold War; the second wave, symbolized by Paul Ryan and the two Bush presidencies, ran from the 1990s to roughly...

There’s an odd and unsettling strain of fatalism sweeping through the ranks of erstwhile conservative thinkers these days, as though they've been put into a form of collective hypnosis and conditioned into believing that the only way to stave off disaster is for all of us to throw ourselves headlong into another Trump campaign—ironically, more than Trump himself is willing to throw himself into it. It’s the kind of logic that says, “If the Titanic is sinking, you should try to put out the fire in the engine room by drilling more holes in the hull.” We are told in...

All pro-life people need to support and vote for Trump in the 2024 election. They need to take the huge, giant “W” (aka the win) on abortion that the Supreme Court gave America with the Dobbs decision and carry their fight against abortion to the state level. They also must understand that the moral fight over abortion is inextricably intertwined with the greatest cancer of 20th-century American government, namely, judicial activism. If we lose this one, we’ve lost the nation.This is how close we are:They want to overthrow The Constitution pic.twitter.com/d1g35Vavwy — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 1, 2024A vocal minority...

It is often forgotten, but Hoover was a political philosopher. He first outlined his political philosophy in 1922 in "American Individualism." In 1934, in response to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, Hoover wrote "The Challenge to Liberty."Both "American Individualism" and "The Challenge to Liberty" were a defense of what Hoover called the “American System,” or constitutionalism. In "American Individualism," Hoover hailed the principle of equality of opportunity or the “fair chance of Abraham Lincoln,” which reflected his own life story. Hoover argued that it was the American system of liberty that allowed an individual to advance. Orphaned at an...

The key difference between NatCons and FreeCons has to do with the character of the current political struggle against progressives on the Left. FreeCons believe we are mainly involved in policy arguments. FreeCon signatory Yuval Levin, for instance, writes that our divisions are a family argument between two forms of liberalism: progressive liberalism and conservative liberalism—we are not, he assures us, in a “political fight to the death.” National conservatives, on the other hand, generally believe we are involved in what the late Angelo Codevilla called a “Cold Civil War”—or as third waver Victor Davis Hanson has put it, we...

“The Land the Law Forgot,” is what liberal legal scholar Jonathan Turley called New York in June. Oh, it’s not that it doesn’t have laws; it’s got so many, in fact, that studies found it to be our country’s least free state. It’s that N.Y.’s supposed law enforcers are ideological enforcers, using and going beyond the Empire State’s surfeit of strictures to build an empire of left-wing conformity. Letitia James’ Vendetta And now Letitia James, the notorious N.Y. attorney general who tag-teamed with a judge to try to pummel former President Donald Trump, has claimed another scalp: nonprofit anti-(destructive)immigration entity...

Welcome to Restoration. The great story of Western civilization, our core creeds, and the Judeo-Christian moral framework on which our societies were built are all under siege. At least three ideologies are pedaled as alternatives: 1. Communism: This resurgent communism is cultural. It is firmly embedded in our core institutions. It is international in outlook, and breath-taking in its subversive ambition. And it again has traction among the young. 2. Technocracy: The Technocratic Managerial Regime, as analyzed by N.S. Lyons, is ascendent in most every nation it seeks to dominate. 3. Islamism: A radical and aggressively metastasizing version of Islam...

A recent analysis conducted by The Economist suggests The New York Time’s bestseller list is politically biased against conservatives, a point many on the right have long argued. Books released by conservative publishers are, on average, 7 percent less likely to make it onto the paper’s weekly bestseller list, even if the books sell at a comparable rate to work released from other publishers, the analysis found. While big names on the right don’t face as much of a challenge getting on the list, lesser known authors that are right of center do, The Economist notes. Books that are not...

In the convoluted dumpster fire of contemporary politics, we find ourselves at a peculiar crossroads. Many self-proclaimed staunch conservatives are returning to vote for Trump, driven by a blend of party loyalty and apprehension about a Biden administration. Yet, some of these individuals are not content with their choice alone—they actively criticize and vilify those within their ranks who choose a different path. To understand this phenomenon, let’s draw upon the insights of Eric Hoffer and Gustave Le Bon, which offer a deeper lens into the dynamics at play.Today, like every other day over the last several weeks, I've awakened...

Ronald Reagan, a former Democrat, used to say, “I didn’t leave the Democrat Party; it left me.” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) seems to be undergoing a similar transformation. Elected as a progressive Democrat who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders's failed run for the presidency, he recently told a reporter, "I'm not a progressive; I just identified myself as a regular Democrat. Now, eight years ago, I was a progressive, but the situation's changed, and I‘ve been clear that I didn‘t leave that label. That label left me.” Don’t get me wrong, I don’t fully equate Fetterman leaving his party the way...

I've been a fan of Jerry Seinfeld since I was in middle school. His sitcom "Seinfeld" has been my favorite show since I was 11 or 12 years old. As an adult, I've gone to see him do stand-up comedy several times. I've appreciated the fact that unlike many of his Hollywood contemporaries, he's remained rather apolitical in public. I've never had any illusions that he wasn't a liberal. He's a Jew from New York, after all, and he's reportedly very close with George Stephanopoulos and his wife. Seinfeld's co-stars and collaborators, however, have never been shy about pushing their...

ballot to protest abortion, for that is the world he knows. For authentic conservatives, who still know an even older world, this presents a challenge. Politics can shape culture, to be sure, but in a democratic polity, you cannot simply reverse a cultural tide by political means. You can, perhaps, slow its progress, buying time for cultural renewal, but that renewal will have to come at the level of the imagination. The silent majority of Americans will have to recognize that there is a world more real than the increasingly unreal one shaped by Roe these past 50 years. I’m...

There is a demonic massive power shift underway in Washington D.C. today, which has fully abandoned our Judeo/ Christian heritage and founding principles (1 Tim 4:1-3; 2 Tim. 3:1-5)! Many evangelical Christians are seeing this EXPONENTIAL shift and change in our country toward a demonic secular, socialist state – especially in the last ten years – which is, quite frankly, scaring them to death! This concern is noteworthy and quite merited in light of the significant changes that are now happening, but many Evangelicals are IGNORANT of the Scriptural prophecies (predictions) describing these very events. They are stumbling over and...

Beverly LaHaye, the prominent conservative Christian activist and author who founded the advocacy organization Concerned Women for America, has died at the age of 94. LaHaye had died on Sunday, Concerned Women for America announced. She leaves behind three children (a fourth child had died in 2017), nine grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren. "Beverly LaHaye was not born into privilege nor blessed with extraordinary skills and abilities. Her life is a beautiful demonstration of what God can do with a person who is fully devoted to Him," stated CWA. "She was a faithful follower of Jesus Christ all the days of...

Dear Idaho, You are not a conservative state. I know you think you are. After all, more than 80% of your lawmakers call themselves Republican. The Republican Party controls the House, the Senate, and the Governor’s office. But let’s be honest. Idaho just isn’t conservative. Many Republican lawmakers vote like Democrats. Even those who campaign as “conservatives” vote liberal more than half the time. Here are some examples: HJM11—To hold President Biden and the federal government accountable for the invasion at our southern border. (Failed on the House floor.) Conservative states stand up for the rule of law rather than...

https://youtu.be/qUGR5ushe0E

A journalist who covers faith and religion is describing how she stumbled into a eye-opening story: Some big names among Trump-hating evangelicals used left-wing sources to fund their Bible study intended to put the Church to sleep. Megan Basham, a Daily Wire reporter, recently had her curiosity piqued when reading a new Tim Alberta book about religion. Flipping through the pages, she discovered a Bible study entitled “The After Party – toward better Christian politics,” which is praised in the evangelical-bashing book. That forthcoming Bible study was created by New York Times columnist David French, Russell Moore of Christianity Today,...

Aleksei Navalny has reportedly died in prison, and the timing of this tragic event for the sake of proving the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the anti-American right on the Russia question is absolutely perfect, coming on the heels of a series of humiliating videos of Tucker going to Moscow and declaring it heaven on earth. It’s one thing to just be wrong in normal and understandable ways. It’s completely different to go abroad and declare, “This poor country has food that is affordable in American dollars! They’ve developed technology to stop the shopping carts from rolling away!” Quotes don’t...

The Economist magazine warns this week of the “growing peril” of a national conservatism that is spreading like wildfire around the planet. National conservatism is “dangerous and it’s spreading,” The Economist intones forebodingly in this week’s cover story. “Liberals need to find a way to stop it.” The cover features a red MAGA cap stretched vertically to fit a slew of nations following the lead of American populism: “Make America, Hungary, Italy, France, Israel, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland great again.” Image Today, Donald Trump, Viktor Orban, and “a motley crew of Western politicians” have constructed “a statist, ‘anti-woke’ conservatism that...