Free Republic

Much has been written recently about the fact that Democrats, arguably with malicious intent, mercilessly attack Republican positions, programs, and political appointees without offering any positive alternatives of their own. This has been ascribed variously to their hatred of George W. Bush (which is certainly a factor), to the fact that a significant percentage of the Democrat base and their elected representatives are unrepentant '60s-style liberals (this, too, plays into the current scenario), even, as Michael Medved has put it, to "an internal contradiction deep within the liberal soul." The bottom line is that, no matter how we might characterize...

The Framing Wars By MATT BAI Published: July 17, 2005 After last November's defeat, Democrats were like aviation investigators sifting through twisted metal in a cornfield, struggling to posit theories about the disaster all around them. *snip* *snip* Democrats thought they knew the answer. Even before the election, a new political word had begun to take hold of the party, beginning on the West Coast and spreading like a virus all the way to the inner offices of the Capitol. That word was ''framing.'' Republicans, of course, were the ones who had always excelled at framing controversial issues, having invented...

It has occurred to me recently that the Democrats have tried this "peace now" stuff before, during the Civil War. There really isn't much difference between what they said then and what they say now. I only point this out because we, as conservatives, have a beachhead to exploit in this. We need to point this out to as many people as we can, that if it were up to Democrats, there would be a Confederate States of America, and slavery probably would still be legal. For that matter, we need to get our local Republican parties to point this...

Is the Democratic Party taking the “big tent” idea too far? It’s one thing to be the anti-war or pro-war party. It’s entirely another to be both. Yet that appears to be what the Democratic Party is trying to do. But don’t take my word for it. Sen. Joe Lieberman, the widely respected Connecticut senator who was the party’s vice presidential candidate in 2000, is squarely behind the war in Iraq. He supported the ouster of Saddam Hussein in the 1990s, when Congress passed the Iraq Liberation Act and many of his Senate colleagues voted for it because they knew...

On the 60th anniversary of VJ-Day in 2005, Marine Capt. Randy Stone, a military lawyer serving in Iraq, became a presidential poster boy. Capt. Stone's two grandfathers fought at Iwo Jima, so President Bush, in a celebratory speech, turned the whole family into a gold-braided rhetorical flourish to depict the continuity of American character and courage from one war to another. "Captain Stone proudly wears the uniform just as his grandfathers did at Iwo Jima," said Mr. Bush. "He's guided by the same convictions they carried into battle. He shares the same willingness to serve a cause greater than himself......

March 19, 2007, 6:00 a.m. Copperheads, Then and NowThe Democratic legacy of undermining war efforts. By Mackubin Thomas Owens While recovering from surgery recently, I had the good fortune to read a fine new book about political dissent in the North during the Civil War. The book, Copperheads: The Rise an Fall of Lincoln’s Opponents in the North, by journalist-turned-academic-historian Jennifer Weber, shines the spotlight on the “Peace Democrats,” who did everything they could to obstruct the Union war effort during the Rebellion. In so doing, she corrects a number of claims that have become part of the conventional...

''Your President is lying to you.'' ''This war is illegal.'' ''You can't win the war.'' These phrases have been repeated over and over again by voices in the Democratic Party. Why in the world, during a time of war, would any American publicly say things so inflammatory and negative while troops are in harm’s way? Why would folks like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, John Murtha, John Kerry, and Al Gore and friends continue this daily dose of Democratic attack on the president in his efforts to fight the war on terror? What is it that motivates members of...

The Republican who initiated last week's overwhelming House vote to keep U.S. troops in Iraq said he will do it again if Democrats don't cease their calls for withdrawal. "If they start this again, we'll call the vote again," said Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Republican, whom members credited with suggesting holding a vote. "As far as I'm concerned, if they haven't learned from this, if they go back to this cheap talk, I would be more than happy to call for another vote." Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, said Thursday that the U.S. should start withdrawing from Iraq, but...