Free Republic

Over the course of the last week, some of President Trump’s most ardent and vocal online supporters have engaged in a bit of cognitive dissonance, praising the former president for his foresight and wisdom in calling for a federalist solution to one of the nation’s most intractable problems while simultaneously singing the praises of the one man who likely did more than any other American to crush the nation’s federalist history and culture. Specifically, President Trump called for the question of abortion to be handled by the states, for the federal government to relinquish its power over the issue and...

Conservative groups backing former president Donald Trump in his re-election bid say they are "deeply disappointed" with his official position on abortion unveiled Monday, but it won't deter their support in November. The former president and presumptive GOP nominee in a video posted on Truth Social Monday morning said he cemented his position on the controversial issue, saying that abortion access should be a states’ issue and didn’t endorse a national, federal limitation – like a 15-week ban. Pro-life interest groups who have endorsed Trump expressed disappointment at his announcement, but it appears unlikely to sway their support in consideration...

America’s Founders fought a bloody revolution in order to escape the “absolute despotism” to which they had been reduced under the hereditary monarchy of the British government, a system that Thomas Paine said “laid the world in blood and ashes.” After that revolution was won, the Founders’ singular focus was to create a republic that would safeguard individual freedom and state sovereignty by vesting only limited, specifically enumerated powers in a federal government. The Constitution’s first ten amendments (the Bill of Rights), Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, as well as the Ninth and Tenth Amendments establish clear limitations...

*** “The sheriff is supposed to be protecting the public from evil,” the chief law enforcement officer for Barry County, Michigan, said during a break in the National Sheriffs’ Association 2023 conference in June. “When your government is evil or out of line, that’s what the sheriff is there for, protecting them from that.” Leaf is on the advisory board of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, founded in 2011 by former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack. The group, known as CSPOA, teaches that elected sheriffs must “protect their citizens from the overreach of an out-of-control federal government” by refusing...

More than 2,100 Oklahoma women received abortion services in Kansas and Colorado last year after Oklahoma banned nearly all abortions, according to new state reports that provide a look at the impact of patchwork abortion laws. A new report from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment shows that 2,026 Oklahoma residents received an abortion in that state in 2022, up from 137 in 2021. In Colorado, 198 Oklahomans received abortions last year, up from 12 in 2021, according to that state’s Department of Public Health and Environment

If you ever wanted to know how influential billionaire donors and the professional grift is amid the pro-life movement, this is a case study in the insanity of it. President Donald John Trump was the most pro-life President in U.S. history. President Trump outlined the platform policy of returning the issue of abortion to the states, and constructed all political endeavors to deliver on that pledge. President Trump was the first president to speak at the March for Life events in Washington DC and hold pro-life supporting events at the White House. [...] However, Lila Rose, President and Founder of...

America’s Founders fought a bloody revolution in order to escape the “absolute despotism” to which they had been reduced under the hereditary monarchy of the British government, a system that Thomas Paine said “laid the world in blood and ashes.” After that revolution was won, the Founders’ singular focus was to create a republic that would safeguard individual freedom and state sovereignty by vesting only limited, specifically enumerated powers in a federal government. The Constitution’s first ten amendments (the Bill of Rights), Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, as well as the Ninth and Tenth Amendments establish clear limitations...

Another day, another leak. National Security officials told Special Counsel Jack Smith’s army of prosecutors that Trump was repeatedly warned he didn’t have the authority to seize voting machines, according to a leak to CNN. Former DHS official Ken Cuccinelli testified before a grand jury earlier this year on his discussions related to the voting machines. Cuccinelli told the grand jury that he “made clear at all times” that the DHS didn’t have the authority to seize the voting machines. Jack Smith doesn’t have a case so he is pursuing potential ‘obstruction’ charges in the classified documents case. Now he’s...

I’m not sure what I expected a CNN senior political analyst to think about America’s Democratic Republic, but it certainly wasn’t Ronald Brownstein’s revelation on Wednesday that Republican-led states have different policies than Democrat-led states. “On so many fronts, the states w/unified Republican control of government (or veto proof legislative majorities as here) are building a nation w/in a nation,” Brownstein said. “The breadth, degree, and pace, of separation by the red states is breathtaking.” One would be forgiven for thinking that Brownstein was commenting on a state voting to secede from the Union. He wasn’t, he was referring to...

Confederate monuments and others would be protected from removal, defacement and historical contextualization. Legislation in the House and the Senate would protect monuments of war from not just defacement and removal, but attempts to offer historical context. The “Historical Monuments and Memorials Protection Act” (HB 1607) was filed in the House by Rep. Dean Black, a Jacksonville Republican. It is the House companion to SB 1096, filed last month by Sen. Jonathan Martin, a Republican from Fort Myers. “We must defend and learn from our history,” Black told Florida Politics Tuesday. This includes protecting historic monuments across the state of...

Marjorie Taylor Greene says the country needs a national divorce. “We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government,” she tweeted. “Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”Generally speaking, I’m sympathetic to the idea that the political left is congenitally unable to accept a truly diverse nation. Virtually every legislative policy proposal from modern Democrats — and every policy issued by edict — strengthens federal power and economic control over states. Modern Democrats...

Can an extensive nation keep free government and avoid centralization? In 1787-1788, the Anti-Federalists didn’t think so and the Federalists couldn’t be sure. Charles de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755) wrote in The Spirit of the Laws, “It is natural for a republic to have only a small territory; otherwise it cannot long subsist. In an extensive republic, the public good is sacrificed to a thousand private views.” Only in small republics, ideally of the Greek city-state size, are private interests and abuses minimized and the general welfare of the public is better understood and within the reach of every citizen.1Free...

There’s an ages-old problem with republics: majoritarian tyranny. If the law is whatever the fifty percent plus one of the people or their reps determine, then the legislative body is little different in practice from the typical Florida Homeowners Association, and the nation should expect similar results. Thanks to the 17th Amendment, the Senate long ago abandoned its deliberative nature and adopted the passionate, popularly reflexive nature of the House. It is why party interests, rather than those of the nation, came to dominate congress. We see this regularly when Senator Schumer joins Speaker Pelosi in wild proposals that threaten...

NEW YORK (AP) — Time was, a television reporter assigned to “democracy issues” would have a quiet time on election night sets, occasionally popping up to talk about broken voting machines at a polling place or two. That’s not the case in 2022. Between election deniers and threats to voting rights, news organizations have emphasized the beat. That will continue next Tuesday, with coverage plans for the midterms rounding into shape. CBS News will have its first-ever “Democracy Desk” to look at those issues and how law enforcement is dealing with threats. NBC News’ “Vote Watch Unit” is looking at...

A Supreme Court case that will decide the power state legislatures wield over congressional and presidential elections could have far-reaching implications for American democracy, some voting rights experts said. The Supreme Court said Thursday it would take up a North Carolina case that centers on whether the state's Republican-led Legislature is the only entity that can set the rules for federal elections. That argument is often referred to as the independent state legislature doctrine, a legal theory that says only state legislators have the authority to set rules for federal elections. Some conservatives have advanced that position in recent years,...

You've gotta listen to this analysis by Tammy Bruce. She says the real fear of the Left is taking the fight back to the states again - federalism. This is the real reason why they wanted abortion to be "settled law" and hang it over the rest of the nation. Now, when people start seeing states banning abortions, you're going to see the remaining conservatives in blue states start demanding for change too at the state level. This is the way that it's supposed to be folks.

The new American government of 1788 served God’s kingship proxy within His creation to maintain the liberty of His people. But, as fallen beings, we can never govern at any level remotely on par to God’s kingship. The ancient Hebrews, God’s chosen people, were not able to perform in this regard either. James Madison acknowledged this in Federalist 51: “God’s rule of the universe may be monarchical,” explains Dr. Edward Erler, “but from the point of view of the Declaration of Independence it is impious to believe that God’s omnipotence can be translated into merely human hands.” Hence the necessity...

JUST IN - U.S. Supreme Court has voted to strike down Roe vs. Wade, an initial draft majority opinion by Justice Alito shows.

Those drunk with power in Washington, DC might want us to forget that at the heart of our republic is a radically simple notion: federalism. Now, perhaps when we need it most, federalism is in trouble – but we can still get it back. Federalism goes something like this, per the 10th Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” That is to say, except where the Constitution gives the greenlight to Washington, federal busybodies and bureaucrats should be...

While political parties ideally represent the common interests of their members, a contradiction has developed within the GOP over the past twenty years. Leadership and rank-and-file members work toward irreconcilable ends: the retention of power, wealth and status at any cost on the one hand, and change that restores economic prosperity and social cohesion on the other. For years, GOP leadership worked handily with democrat leaders Obama, Pelosi, Reid. Behind closed doors, this common senior leadership develops many thousand page omnibus spending bills. In turn, these assaults on the traditional appropriations process are presented to a membership that is cajoled...