Free Republic

The parallels between the state of our country and the spectacular fall of Athens are too disturbing to ignore. The Athenian democracy fell to Sparta in 404 B.C. That disaster was not inevitable; it was the result of a series of poor decisions, themselves the result of greed and self-interest on the part of various factions. Had the Athenians not followed the advice of a charismatic but rash leader, Alcibiades (whom they then exiled, driving him to the other side, where he served as an adviser before returning to Athens to unleash further mischief), they might not have sent their...

For a host of reasons, it became convenient for progressives to suggest that large numbers were fleeing Florida in search of a better life. When Florida governor Ron DeSantis was a GOP presidential frontrunner, liberal Democrats dug up every scrap of information suggesting he was an ineffective governor, noting that thousands were fleeing his state as a result of his supposedly poor governance. When Trump became the GOP nominee, the attack on Trump’s adopted home state continued. Hundreds if not thousands of articles were generated implying that Trump’s adopted home state was such a disaster that there was a mass...

We are living through an age in which life is cheap and is being callously discarded and disregarded. In late winter of 1966, my high school friend John, who was just 18, drove his car into a bridge abutment and died instantly. Something had gone terribly wrong. John had gone off to a good Midwestern college, been elected president of his class, and excelled in his studies, but then he went home at the end of his first semester and refused to return to school. John was a young man with a slight build and an effeminate and tentative manner,...