Free Republic

Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus said Friday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that if Vice President Kamala Harris wins in November, the country’s discourse will become “kinder and more effective.” Louis-Dreyfus said, “I think making fun of it is a very good step. It points out the absurdity of the situation. And I think can drive home a point in a way that has teeth. And I was happy to lend my sort of skill set to that arena. I’m not a politician. I’m not an expert on various issues that we’re up against today. But I do know, I do feel strongly...

History has a short memory. In recent weeks, as Vice President Kamala Harris’s policy proposals sparked a national conversation about price-controls, that phenomenon is on full display. Price-controls have failed humanity for thousands. They invariably create devastating shortages and diminish product quality. These policies decimated Babylonian trade in 1750 B.C. They caused bloodshed in second-century Rome. They nearly starved George Washington’s army at Valley Forge. Within living memory, they also caused an American oil and gas crisis in 1971. Of course, politicians still cannot resist promising their constituents consequence-free price reductions.

In the past couple of years I have noticed there is a complete lake of regard for other posters on this site. Not only that but swearing seems to be tolerated. In the past day I have been called gay, a lair, that I am talking out of my *** and I am full of ****. Do we even have to go into the fighting on any thread about Ukraine or Russia. Even hard facts from multiple sources no longer seem to matter. Instead it is whoever can come up with the snarkiest reply.

Former President Barack Obama despairs at the state of political discourse in 2024, telling some 80 digital content creators we live in a “cynical time” and he finds solace in watching sports instead. The Hill reports Obama made his revelation at a glittering Biden campaign fundraiser with the president on Saturday in Los Angeles, telling a select group of TikTok and Instagram creators he understands the challenge “influencers” face avoiding politics in their work. “We live in a cynical time,” Obama said. “Let’s face it: I think a lot of the people who watch you, listen to you, who are...

Former Vice President Mike Pence said that he believed the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) clarification for the use of the term “legitimate political discourse” in their resolution to censure Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.). Pence said he believed the committee made it clear it was not about those involved in the rioting that took place on Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol.

Former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, was “illegitimate political discourse because it was an assault on the first branch of government.” The Republican National Committee on Friday voted to censure Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) with a resolution calling into question their participation on the January 6 Select Committee.

Google, Facebook, and Twitter ultimately don't want you to see anything from The Federalist. They also hope you don't notice.Leftist media has skewed U.S. politics for decades, but Big Tech’s amplified influence over global discourse and governments is new. While Congress passed no legislation related to this political and national security emergency, we the people were held captive in lockdowns during a major election while crucial public information was filtered, hidden, and surveilled by unaccountable companies with no allegiance to the United States and obvious disdain for hundreds of millions of its inhabitants.This is a huge social problem. Regaining our...

Web site for civil discourse and genuine exchange of differences of viewpoint. just opened today, would be helpful to have thoughtful conservative principles involved. So far looks promising and generally balanced.

Reasonable and logical minds are at a loss to solve the conundrum of why so many blacks in America embrace the jaundiced cosmological view they do. Here’s a good analogy: It’s one thing to have curable cancer, get the treatment needed and be healed in a short period of time – it’s another thing to have a curable cancer but knowingly insist upon the wrong treatment regimen or to seek no treatment at all. Add to this that the sick person would make it a point to complain everywhere he went that he had curable cancer and wasn’t doing anything...

There is a growing attitude of "everything we believe is right and everything you believe is wrong," and even when there is equity on both sides of an issue the animosity has gotten so pervasive that opposing views are rarely even considered by the other side. The common phrase is that "America is divided," but I beg to differ. America is actually fragmented into pieces racially, socially, politically, philosophically and fiscally, and every group that tries to put on a united face is actually made up of dissidents with their own personal ax to grind, ranging from the moderates to...

Ferguson. Baltimore. Chicago. Everywhere Leftist protesters occupy the streets, those whose opinions are deemed insufficiently progressive are abused, mocked, ridiculed, brutalized and physically menaced. This lawlessness is rapidly becoming the norm; the Obama administration, as well as leading media and cultural figures, need to decry that normalization and act strongly against these thugs now – before the American public square is transformed beyond recognition, and ceases to be an arena for free discourse.

In Chapters twenty and twenty-One of his excellent book Liberalism is a Sin, Father Felix Sarda Y Salvany, a noted philosopher of his day, writes: "Liberalism never gives battle on solid ground; it knows too well that in a discussion of principles it must meet with irretrievable defeat. It prefers tactics of recrimination and, under the sting of a just flagellation, whiningly accuses Catholics of lack of charity in their polemics. This is also the ground which certain Catholics, tainted with Liberalism, are in the habit of taking. Let us see what is to be said on this score. We...

Much has been made of the precipitous decline in the level of discourse in the United States. Many attribute this to the coarsening of the language and the ever-widening gulf between the various factions in the political spectrum. However, these factors are a symptom of a current underlying and foundational dilemma: the inability of not only the general public, but nearly all of the so-called societal leaders and opinion-makers to generate an original thought, as well as a stubborn refusal to use reason and logic when confronted with irrefutable facts and arguments. These traits can be explained, insofar as the...

It never ceases to confound me, dear readers, how on earth Republicans keep losing America’s propaganda war. How do we know they’re losing in the public’s perception? Easy. Ask yourself: when was the last time you freely discussed any conservative or even moderate political view with friends at work, or on campus, or in public, or at a large social gathering — without hedging your every word? When? Can you identify a single recent instance when you felt your conservative or even moderate views would be tolerated without provoking name-calling or public shaming into the nearest corner of societal oblivion?...

Jews Speaking Civilly to One Another? by Norma Zager “Who hates the Jews more than the Jew?” Henry Miller The other night I attended a Jewish Federation event about how Jewish people can learn to have a peaceful discourse about Israel and agree to disagree in a friendly manner. This was apparently necessary because the subject has grown to such aggressive proportions, Jews, who never had the capacity to get along anyway, are actually threatening the very health and welfare of the Jewish State. Why am I not shocked to learn that Jewish people engage in vicious self-destructive behavior, even...

“The country is pretty unified behind the idea that President Obama found the right words, the right tone at the right time,” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos announced Monday night in touting how a new ABC News/Washington Post poll found “78 percent approve of how he handled” the Tucson shooting, in contrast to Sarah Palin, “not so much, only 30 percent approve of her response.” When Stephanopoulos noted “the support for stricter gun control has dropped over the last few years,” anchor Diane Sawyer expressed astonishment: “Stricter has dropped?” Instead of detailing that trend, Stephanopoulos concentrated on some specific policies with overwhelming...

For a decade, from the election of Bush 43 forward, the Left has lied and cheated as it tried to return to power. Al Gore made a mockery out of the American electoral system by being a spoilsport over Florida, which Bush indeed won by 537 votes. Dan Rather forged a document to try to derail Bush’s re-election. Twice Democrats stole U.S. senators from the Republicans. After voting to support the war to get by the 2002 election, many Democrats quickly soured on the war. The profane protests were cheered by liberals who misattributed “dissent is the highest form of...

Oh yes, please, let’s adopt legislation outlawing the use of bullseyes on maps. And while we’re at it, let’s tone down the inflammatory rhetoric, shall we? Because that will help bring us all back to a golden time when discourse, even political discourse, was civil and dignified. Right? So say goodbye to terms like riding shotgun, bullet points, killer apps, not by a long shot, whipping into shape, battleground states, targeting your opponent, in the crosshairs, death panels, campaign strategy, and whatever else you can imagine as potentially deadly invective which would contribute to a climate of hate. Don’t you...

Tea party darling Rand Paul says he has assured President Barack Obama that he will engage in "a polite, civil discourse" when he arrives in Washington next month as Kentucky's newest U.S. senator. Paul had made Obama the key figure in his election campaign, criticizing many of the Democratic president's policies and initiatives. Obama reached out to Paul on Tuesday in a telephone call that the Bowling Green eye surgeon described as cordial.

FORT MYER, Va., Oct. 1, 2007 – Reasoned discourse allows American democracy to grow and flourish, but some people seem more intent on spewing personal venom than in finding solutions, Marine Gen. Peter Pace said here today as he retired from the Marine Corps after more than 40 years of service. Pace spoke at an armed forces hail and farewell ceremony as he turned the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff over to Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen. The United States is well-served by divergent views and discussion that grows from those views. But the discussion must be...