Free Republic

Over at Paul Bedard’s “Washington Secrets,” pollster John Zogby says President Trump has risen to the challenge of the Coronavirus Crisis facing the Nation. Zogby compares Trump to President Franklin Roosevelt, who led America through the Great Depression and World War II. There is no doubt that President Trump has moved boldly and decisively to curb the spread of this virus. The actions he has taken are very difficult, especially for a President who worked so hard and so successfully to rebuild the U.S. Economy. To urge the shutting down of much of that Economy in order to save thousands...

Historian Burton Folsom discusses quid pro quo, abuse of power and FDR's presidency: Video

As a presidential historian carefully watching the pursuit by Democrats of President Donald Trump’s scalp, I can’t help but express exasperation at the Democrats’ hypocrisy and their selectivity. Their goal, of course, is to tag Donald Trump with some sort of quid pro quo deal with Ukraine — specifically, withholding money to Ukraine if it didn’t act in a way that served Trump’s election interests. That’s the Democrats’ central case; impeachment and removal hinges on that. But here’s the critical question: Should such a thing, if proven, be considered impeachable? That’s the issue. And it desperately needs some historical context....

It’s no exaggeration to say that American politics has operated in Herbert Croly’s and FDR’s shadow ever since the Great Depression—nearly a century. What’s striking about this election cycle’s Democratic presidential primary debates is how much they’ve been absolutely dominated by a man who’s been dead for 90 years. That man is Herbert Croly, the intellectual godfather of the progressive movement and the first editor of The New Republic. Croly’s most influential work, The Promise of American Life (which would have been even more wildly influential had Croly only had a halfway decent editor to cut down his meandering, ponderous...

In the latest step toward the rebirth of San Francisco’s Presidio from an aging former Army base to a bright light of America’s national park system, crews are set to break ground Thursday on a project to build a new 14-acre public park on top of two freeway tunnels near the Golden Gate Bridge. When finished in 2021, the unusual project, called Tunnel Tops, will link Crissy Field, on San Francisco’s waterfront, to the Presidio’s Main Post, parade grounds and visitor’s center. That connection was severed more than 80 years ago when the road to and from the Golden Gate...

Source: AP Photo/Craig Ruttle The great Austrian economist Murray Rothbard elucidated, “Before the massive government interventions of the 1930s, all recessions were short-lived.”[1] The deceptive narrative of collectivists about the “Roaring Twenties” and the New Deal goes like this: Capitalists and speculators went wild with greed in “The Roaring Twenties,” leading to a stock market crash and hard times. Banks closed, once prosperous workers sold apples on street-corners or became hobos in shanty-towns, while Republican President Herbert Hoover did nothing for the destitute and suffering nation. Then FDR arrived on the scene, inspiring new hope with his golden words...

My fellow Americans and my friends: Tonight my single duty is to speak to the whole of America. Until four-thirty this morning I had hoped against hope that some miracle would prevent a devastating war in Europe and bring to an end the invasion of Poland by Germany. For four long years a succession of actual wars and constant crises have shaken the entire world and have threatened in each case to bring on the gigantic conflict which is today unhappily a fact. ...I myself cannot and do not prophesy the course of events abroad -- ...I cannot prophesy the...

"Inevitable victory of freedom over oppression, of Christian religion over the forces of evil" - Franklin D. Roosevelt. Courageous people of faith have always faced challenges. This was acknowledged by President Franklin Roosevelt regarding settlers along the Mississippi. Between 1699 and 1760, in the Louisiana Territory, the French founded 5 major settlements on the east side of the Mississippi River (in present-day Illinois): Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Fort de Chartres, Saint Philippe, Prairie du Rocher; and one settlement on the west side, Ste. Genevieve (in present-day Missouri.) On August 22, 1935, President Roosevelt greeted by telephone the Bi-Centennial Celebration of Sainte Genevieve,...

"Liberty lies in the hearts of men & women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it."-Judge Learned Hand "A conservative among liberals, and a liberal among conservatives," he was not consistently conservative enough for Republican President Warren G. Harding and he was not consistently liberal enough for Democrat President Franklin Roosevelt. As a result, he was passed over several times to be a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. His name was Learned Hand, who served as a judge for over 50 years, first on New York's District Court, then...

President William Howard Taft had stated at a missionary conference in 1908: "No man can study the movement of modern CIVILIZATION from an impartial standpoint, and not realize that Christianity and the spread of Christianity are the basis of hope of modern CIVILIZATION in the growth of popular self government. The spirit of Christianity is pure democracy. It is equality of man before God - the equality of man before the law, which is, as I understand it, the most God-like manifestation that man has been able to make." In 1923, in his last public address, titled "The Road Away...

I can imagine Trump at some point next year getting up and saying, “Never before in all our history have these forces [the media and the opposition party] been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.” Actually those are the words of President Franklin Roosevelt in his last major campaign speech before the 1936 election. FDR didn’t refer to the media outlets that opposed him (like the Chicago Tribune) as “the enemy of the people.” Instead, he called them “the Tory press.” And what did he...

Franklin D. Roosevelt coined the name "United Nations" for the allied countries fighting together to preserve western Judeo-Christian civilization against the National Socialist Workers Party (Nazi) and their totalitarian axis powers. Franklin Roosevelt stated May 10, 1940: "Americans might have to become the guardian of Western culture, the protector of Christian civilization." Roosevelt stated on Labor Day, September 1, 1941: "Preservation of these rights is vitally important now, not only to us who enjoy them - but to the whole future of Christian civilization." Roosevelt stated September 2, 1940: "If the spirit of God is not in us, and if...

Franklin Roosevelt coined the name “United Nations” for the allied countries fighting together against the National Socialist Workers Party (Nazi) and their totalitarian axis powers. Speaking on Justice for War Crimes, March 24, 1944, Roosevelt explained the original goal of the United Nations involved protecting the Jews: “In one of the blackest crimes of all history – begun by the Nazis … the wholesale systematic murder of the Jews of Europe goes on unabated. … Hundreds of thousands of Jews … are now threatened with annihilation as Hitler’s forces descend. … The United Nations have made it clear that they...

After World War I, Germany's economy suffered from depression and a devaluation of their currency. On January 30, 1933, Adolph Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany by promising hope and universal healthcare. Less than a month later, on February 27, 1933, a crisis occurred -- the Rheichstag, Germany's Capitol Building, was suspiciously set on fire. Hitler was quick to use this crisis as an opportunity to set aside Germany's Weimar Republic and seize emergency powers as a dictator. He suspended basic rights and accused his political opponents of conspiracy. He ordered mass arrests followed by executions, even ordering his SS...

GRAIGNES, France (Reuters) - The lost U.S. paratrooper tapped on the door of the Rigault family’s farmhouse in Normandy in the early hours of June 6, 1944, miles south of his intended drop zone and soaking from his landing in the surrounding marshland. After four years under German occupation, 12-year-old Marthe Rigault, awoken by the roar of aircraft overhead, watched as her parents warmed the foreign soldier with a flask of coffee. By dawn, dozens of men from the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment had hunkered down on the Rigault farm outside the village of Graignes. As they did, the distant...

Russia told the West on Wednesday the Normandy landings on D-Day in 1944 did not play a decisive role in ending World War II and that the Allied war effort should not be exaggerated. Moscow's comments might irk war veterans in Britain where the 75th anniversary on Wednesday of the largest seaborne invasion in history was marked at a ceremony in Portsmouth attended by Queen Elizabeth and world leaders including Donald Trump and Angela Merkel. Speaking at a weekly news conference in Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova offered a tribute to those who died on the western front of...

~ D-DAY, June 6, 1944 ~ NORMANDY INVASION May 1944 had been chosen at the conference in Washington in May 1943 as the time for the invasion. Difficulties in assembling landing craft forced a postponement until June, but June 5 was fixed as the unalterable date by Eisenhower on May 17. As the day approached and troops began to embark for the crossing, bad weather set in, threatening dangerous landing conditions. After tense debate, Eisenhower and his subordinates decided on a 24-hour delay, requiring the recall of some ships already at sea. Eventually, on the morning of June 5,...

On the 75th anniversary of D-day I honor my dad's very good friend Shahan Kaprielyan. Shahan was an Armenian from Turkey who had come to our country to go to aviation school with my dad. When the war started he signed up to become a bombardier. While riding the train to report he was approached by an officer. I understand you can speak five languages. We can make most anyone into a bombardier in just a couple of months but we can't teach five languages. We want you to work in intelligence. So Shahan went in on the second wave...

The Queen today paid tribute to 'my generation' as she saluted the heroism of D-Day veterans at a 75th anniversary event attended by Donald Trump and world leaders including Theresa May, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau. In a moving ceremony in Portsmouth 300 heroes who survived the invasion of France in 1944 were guests of honour and a group stood and saluted the thousands who made the ultimate sacrifice fighting Hitler's Germany on Normandy's beaches. Mr Trump, who was accompanied by First Lady Melania, sat next to the Queen and Prince Charles and they smiled and chatted surrounded...

President Trump on Wednesday morning is scheduled to participate in an event marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day. The event, in Portsmouth, U.K., is scheduled to begin at 6:15 a.m. D-Day 75th Anniversary