Free Republic

President Jacob Zumahas called on parliament to change South Africa’s constitution to allow the expropriation of white owned land without compensation. Mr Zuma, 74, who made the remarks in a speech yesterday/FRI morning, said he wanted to establish a “pre-colonial land audit of land use and occupation patterns” before changing the law. “We need to accept the reality that those who are in parliament where laws are made, particularly the black parties, should unite because we need a two-thirds majority to effect changes in the constitution,” he said. Mr Zuma, who has lurched from one scandal to another since being...

The new conventional wisdom in the aftermath of the 2012 elections is that Republicans face two challenges: first, that the United States is no longer a center-right nation, but a center-left one; second, that the country’s demographic shift away from whites will make it tougher for Republicans to win votes. The proposed solution is that Republicans must compromise on the party’s core policies, from immigration to taxation to social issues. The conventional wisdom is wrong. I once worked in South Africa for a centrist party, the Democratic Alliance, which faced the same challenges as Republicans do, only far more extreme....

A year after its founding, Democratic Alliance has become a major power in the liberal movement, directing more than $50 million to liberal think tanks and advocacy groups in a campaign to better compete against conservatives. The Alliance was formed last year with major support from billionaire George Soros and software mogul Tim Gill. The identities of its members are closely guarded, but the group now includes nearly 100 of the nation’s wealthiest political contributors, the Washington Post reports. The group was organized, according to its founders, in the belief "that Democrats became the minority party in part because liberals...