Free Republic

For a half-century, a small radical fringe has undermined our trust in institutions. A new AP-NORC poll shows 28 percent of Americans feel they have just one person they trust to help them navigate work challenges or connect with an employer. Meanwhile, leftist politics feed an angry mob of American so-called "peaceful protesters" or the reactive "insurrectionists." As a result, our American experiment is in great peril. Suddenly, the American landscape looks and feels like the world we freely allowed inside our open borders. A world filled with lawlessness, lack of self-restraint, and unparalleled agitprop. Like a Bunsen burner, a...

When our first president under the Constitution was sworn in on April 30, 1789, it was in New York City. Back then it was our capital city. Today it is often called the cultural capital of the country. George Washington took the oath of office in the common way it was done in his Anglican Church, by saying, “So help me, God.” He took the oath with his hand on an open Bible. Also in keeping with an Anglican tradition, Washington leaned over and kissed the Bible. Last time I checked (in 2014), that Bible is still on display (near...

In recent days, CNN has put a major emphasis on "new" videos of the dreadful Jan. 6 Capitol riot, expressing outrage in heavy rotation over Republicans who would try to dismiss what happened as resembling a routine day of tourism. You can't say the people there were "mostly peaceful." CNN even aired an hourlong anti-Republican prime-time special on Sunday, May 16, titled "A Radical Rebellion: The Transformation of the GOP." Host Fareed Zakaria began by lamenting how "An American president incited an angry mob to attack the U.S. Capitol." He concluded by decrying the GOP as "a band of ideological...

An old adage goes like this. “Better is the silent man who may prove himself foolish, than the one who opens his mouth and removes all doubt.”No one can ever say they’ve ever had any doubts about the current President of the United States.He is patently dishonest. But people explain that away as just being the old uncle at the family gathering who can’t help but exaggerate the good ole’ days.He frequently relays abjectly false information. But supporters just blame his age, obvious stage of being diminished, or point to his past when a far more moderate man served in...

A federal grand jury just indicted the other three officers present at George Floyd’s arrest. Why is the Justice Department involving itself in this local police matter?Last month, when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of second- and third-degree murder, most Americans believed his sentencing would end a year-long national ordeal. Footage of Chauvin restraining George Floyd as he died was widely publicized last summer, with a predictable—and memorable—result. Although Chauvin was convicted by a jury, that decision was pre-empted by the constant menace of burning cities, gruesome threats of violence, massive corporate marketing campaigns, public statements by members...

Within hours of Saturday's shooting in Times Square where three bystanders, including a 4-year-old girl, were wounded, the two leading candidates to replace Mayor Bill de Blasio were on-site. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a retired captain of the NYPD, and Andrew Yang, who declared: "My fellow New Yorkers ... Nothing works in our city without public safety, and for public safety, we need the police. ... My message to the NYPD is this: New York needs you. Your city needs you." "New York cannot afford to defund the police." The rush of Adams and Yang to the scene of...

My town’s not getting burned down because the rich coastal liberals with “Hate Has No Home Here” signs on their exquisitely landscaped front yards will never put up with that nonsense here in Shangri-Lib. In a very real way, the chaos that the liberals are creating by handcuffing other people’s cops – do you think my cops will ever get the order to stand down? – is not my problem. And, unless you are still living in some Democrat hellhole, it’s probably not your problem either. So, why again when some big blue city that hasn’t had a Republican mayor...

Source: Screenshot“To Serve and Protect” is more than a mere police slogan – it is a police duty. And in the case of the shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant, Officer Nicholas Reardon was clearly carrying out his duty to protect the life of another.Most of us know we have a right to self-defense. That means that if someone is trying to harm us, we can legally respond by using whatever force is necessary to meet and repel that force. But when it comes to using force against someone else – including deadly force – there is another closely-related legal right...

I don’t pretend to know if Derek Chauvin is guilty in the objective sense – Judge Mom, a conservative who sent a lot of people to jail as a prosecutor before doing it from the bench, made a convincing argument to me for a murder conviction soon after the incident – but I do know one thing. This trial was a travesty, a kangaroo court, and as a country, we should be ashamed of ourselves. This is not to argue whether he is innocent or guilty. I don’t know. There were arguments both ways, and compelling evidence for both points...

I spent an entire talk show Tuesday morning telling the audience why I found reasonable doubt dripping from multiple layers of the case against Derek Chauvin. A unanimous jury verdict to the contrary does not change my mind in the least. However, I am now tasked with how to process this result as relief and celebration spread across the land, amid talk of healing and renewed faith in our system among those who had grown distrustful. Who wants to ruin that vibe? So I’ll pivot to a position I have often instructed others to follow, showing respect to jurors who...

Mass shooting survivors: 'Everybody just kind of moves on' 03:50 (CNN)Two weeks have passed since the three Atlanta-area spa shootings claimed the lives of eight people, and in that time at least 20 other mass shootings have taken place. The incidents have stretched from California to Washington, DC, and many have left multiple victims dead.

Despite all the fearmongering, the violence never erupted. It's worth asking why.Following the violence that overtook our nation’s Capitol after a group of extremists breached the historic building during the congressional certification of the 2020 Electoral College votes, Democrats and the corporate media breathlessly reported that state capitols all over the nation would face a similar fate at the hands of deplorable Trump supporters.After the FBI allegedly leaked to the press a bulletin about the coming attacks, the media and their lawmaking friends readily amplified it. States then called in the National Guard and fortified their capitols, and Americans around...

There’s an undeniable pleasure in imagining the blue states cut off from America and forced to fend for themselves without normal Americans to feed them, fuel them, and defend them from the kind of dirtbags they kiss up to in order to show us knuckle-dragging Jesus-folk what for. But secession is a terrible idea, for them, but more importantly, for us. And while I don’t think America will unravel anytime soon – though those of us who read real history instead of silly oppression studies dreck understand that all great civilizations do eventually collapse – it remains possible that our...

Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed legislation that he described as “bold” on Monday. Judging by the plain text of the proposal and the responses to it, bold is an understatement. Under the “new criminal offenses” section established by the would-be Combatting Violence, Disorder and Looting and Law Enforcement Protection Act, DeSantis declared it a third-degree felony to obstruct traffic during an “unpermitted protest, demonstration or violent or disorderly assembly.” Notably, the next clause purports to remove liability for injury or death a driver causes if that driver is “fleeing for safety from a mob. Former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum...

President Trump has put Democratic challenger Joseph R. Biden on the defensive in Minnesota, an unlikely battleground that hasn’t voted Republican in a presidential election since 1972. It’s a rare opportunity for Mr. Trump to expand the electoral map and potentially capture Minnesota’s 10 electoral votes to offset a potential loss in Michigan or Wisconsin, two states that he narrowly won in 2016.Mr. Trump came close to winning Minnesota four years ago. He lost the state to Hillary Clinton by a little more than 1.5 percentage points. This time, his law-and-order message has been amplified by months of unrest and...

Since 2015, George Soros has pumped tens of millions of dollars into local races in Texas, Colorado, California, Oregon, Washington, Florida, and New York, as well as swing states. Since 2015, George Soros has been executing a plan to reshape the country through local district attorney elections by pumping unprecedented amounts of money into races that typically only see candidates spend in the low five figures.HereÂ’s why he has an interest in these local races. Soros is exploiting the reality that all politics are local in some way. To transform America, you have to transform the way towns and cities...

Minnesota has backed Democratic presidential candidates for nearly half a century and rarely receives much attention during the final stages of the race. This is when campaigns typically focus their resources on more traditional swing states like Florida or Pennsylvania. But Minnesota will feel like a genuine battleground on Friday as President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, campaign here to mark the beginning of early voting. They’re expected to avoid the state’s most populated areas near Minneapolis to focus on largely white rural and working-class voters, some of whom shifted to Republicans for the first time in...

I am pleased to be at this Hillsdale College celebration of Constitution Day. Sadly, many colleges these days don’t even teach the Constitution, much less celebrate it. But at Hillsdale, you recognize that the principles of the Founding are as relevant today as ever—and vital to the success of our free society. I appreciate your observance of this important day and all you do for civic education in the United States. When many people think about the virtues of our Constitution, they first mention the Bill of Rights. That makes sense. The great guarantees of the Bill of Rights—freedom of...

WASHINGTON — Emboldened by President Donald Trump’s campaign platform of law and order, militia groups have bolstered their strength before Election Day by attracting military veterans who bring weapons and tactical skills viewed as important to the organizations. The role of veterans in the newly proliferating militia groups — which sometimes are steeped in racism and other times steeped simply in anti-government zealotry — has increased over the last decade, said a dozen experts on law enforcement, domestic terrorism and extremist groups.

Source: Photo Courtesy of Salena ZitoBEDFORD, Pennsylvania -- The first time I saw Ryan Decker a few weeks ago, he was standing on the corner of the Lincoln Highway and South Richard Street holding an oversized homemade sign that read, "BEEF JERKY COSTS TOO MUCH." I thought to myself, "You know, he's not wrong." His next sign was along the berm of U.S. 30, a four-lane highway. It read, "STOP DRIVING SLOW IN THE PASSING LANE." Once again, not wrong, and funny. A few days later, he was standing in front of the local Weiss supermarket with a sign that...