Free Republic

In the decade I served on a school board, I learned a great deal about group dynamics. The most important lesson, I suppose, is that there are people -- most often highly neurotic people -- who deliberately create chaos. They undermine every effort to rationally deal with issues that require solutions. They violate norms like crediting the work of committees that were designated to analyze what needs to be done and offer solutions for the board to act on, dispiriting those desirous of accomplishing what must be done. They go behind the backs of board members to undercut the systematic...

Have you ever been listening to someone talk and have déjà vu, even though you’ve never seen or heard of the person speaking, and the interview you’re watching happened just a few hours ago? I have. Once. A couple of weeks ago. I was listening to Tucker interview Xi Van Fleet, a Chinese native who lived through the Cultural Revolution in China. She eventually immigrated to the United States and has lived here for 40 years. As I was listening to her talk about how the Cultural Revolution rolled out and how she was seeing many of the same things...

“Those who organized the disaster will take advantage of the inevitable discontent arising from efforts to overcome it, for if there is one thing that they are skilled in, it is demagoguery.” —Theodore Dalrymple. Can you feel it? The tension rising to the red-line? It runs clear through all of Western Civ. We are ruled by governments of fiends. But now, the sun rides higher in the sky. The sap is rising in the northern forests. The earth heaves. The buds swell and blush. Something is in the air. The animals are waking from their long winter sleep. The natives...

This is the stuff of our national nightmare. We remember the billions of dollars of American defense equipment, a parting gift to the terrorists in Afghanistan, after Biden’s ignominious, sudden withdrawal. We certainly remember the Americans stranded there, for months and longer. We remember the dead American soldiers, whose bodies Biden “honored” stateside—by glancing now and then at his watch. We have seen ISIS rearm and regroup in that beleaguered desert place, which is now far more a draw for terrorism than it was when American troops were a marginal, but protective force. Biden and his party are doing it...

A new psychological assessment has been developed to measure the endorsement of attitudes related to critical social justice. Findings from its application in a Finnish study reveal that stronger alignment with these so-called “woke” beliefs correlates with heightened instances of anxiety and depression...One of the central revelations of the study was that critical social justice attitudes are not as widespread in Finland as might be inferred from public and media discussions. Overall, the findings suggested a cautious reception towards critical social justice among the general population. This observation was particularly pronounced among male participants, who showed considerably lower agreement with...

Leftism fails for a lot of reasons and I can’t go into all of them without writing an encyclopedia. But I can establish the most important. I would like to begin this series by sharing with you a passage from historian Will Durant in his book Our Oriental Heritage, regarding the fall of the Persian empire in the 4th century B.C.:“It is in the nature of an empire to disintegrate soon, for the energy that created it disappears from those who inherit it, at the very time that its subject peoples are gathering strength to fight for their lost liberty....

“People crave trust in others, because God is found there.” — Dom de Bailleul. The rewards of civilization have come to seem rather trashy in these bleak days of late empire; so, why even bother pretending to be civilized? This appears to be the ethos driving our politics and culture now. But driving us where? Why, to a spectacular sort of crack-up, and at warp speed, compared to the more leisurely breakdown of past societies that arrived at a similar inflection point where Murphy’s Law replaced the rule of law. The US Military Academy at West point decided to “upgrade”...

Part of President Trump’s appeal comes from his refusal to treat adults as if they were still children. It’s no secret that many Democrat voters have “daddy” issues. They grew up in homes without strong, loving fathers and desperately seek from government what they never found in their youths: a protective authority figure and lifelong role model. When Democrats with “daddy” issues find their way into power, they force their own psychological deficiencies upon the broader populace. Why? Because they try to play “father” to their constituents but have no idea how a good father is supposed to behave. They...

I live in the kind of town that has Black Lives Matter signs in windows, and “In This House We Believe” signs impailed on lawns. It’s yoga and hybrid cars, sustainable seafood, and organic juice bars. It’s drum circles on Saturday and Farmer’s Market on Sunday. Every so often, a “Let’s Go Brandon” sticker strategically placed on the hood of a Jeep, and sometimes the “Ultra MAGA” flag flies from a tree branch, but mostly this is probably one of the whitest, bluest towns in all of America. Evidence of support for RFK, Jr. and Cornel West are proudly displayed,...

You probably did not know that the Constitution contains a “Good and Plenty” clause. Well, according to the late Representative John Conyers (D-Mich.), it is one of several clauses in the document that permits the federal government to force you to buy health insurance. It is one of those “secret” clauses that were written into the Constitution in invisible ink, and which only woke leftists can see. There are good and plenty of such clauses. Recently, Stu Burguiere (producer of, and participant in, The Glenn Beck Program), during a Megyn Kelly podcast, laughingly pointed to another such hitherto unknown clause,...

“How many of these places where polite society turns out to be provably insane do we have to see before we stop taking their judgment on anything as significant?” — Bret Weinstein. The USA is a runaway train with a dead man in the engineer’s seat. The conductor goes through the cars assuring the passengers that everything is fine. . . never mind the screeching wheels on the curves. . . or the blinding strobe effect of low sunlight passing through the trees out the window at a hundred and forty mph. . . or the bump that made half...

Millions of Americans, depressed by the ideological divide in America, harbor a wish that something or someone can bridge this divide. This wish is understandable. But it is fantasy. The divide is unbridgeable. One might as well wish that daily consumption of a hot fudge sundae will lead to weight loss. To cite a few samples: How are we to bridge the gap between those who believe men can become women and women can become men and those who don't believe this? Between those who believe men menstruate and those who believe only women menstruate? How are we to bridge...

“Democratic Party elites such as those on CNN are not just angry but genuinely confused by the fact that American voters don’t obey them.” — Glenn Greenwald. What’s most amazing about the fiasco that was the French Revolution is that it happened at exactly the same time that the United States successfully organized themselves into an orderly and effective government following the American Revolution. George Washington was elected and sworn-in by April of 1789, with the backing of an exemplary constitution assembled by the best minds in the land. The Bastille fell in July that same year. France then fell...

The deep-rooted corruption of the Biden administration has already reached new and frightening lows this year when the Department of Justice shockingly convicted six pro-life activists—who now face up to 11 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines—for doing nothing more than peacefully singing hymns and praying in the hallway outside a Nashville abortion clinic. The Biden administration’s record of anti-Christian persecution has garnered increasing attention from Republican leaders, and the conviction of the Nashville activists reveals the chilling extent to which the left is willing to weaponize the law to silence, intimidate, and ultimately imprison...

The errors of leftist politics, socialism and communism, come home to roost. Extreme Democrats and big-government Republicans have had free rein for years. We see the results of excessive government spending (inflation), lax law enforcement (Antifa and BLM riots, the Biden Crime Family), weaponizing Administrative State bureaucracies (DOJ, IRS), and absurd border policy (inviting invasion). The thing is that citizens have straightforward solutions to all these man-made problems. The Constitution was forged to apply to acts of the federal government, to restrict federal power and control over citizens. We are a constitutional republic, a self-governing republic based on the Rule...

The “resistance” is at it again. President Joe Biden’s allies are getting antsy about his administration’s pileup of unfinished environmental rules — especially with the threat that a second Trump presidency could undo them all. Biden’s agencies are facing a deadline this spring to finish some of their most important regulations to ensure that a Republican Congress and White House can’t erase them next year, including a crackdown on power plants’ climate pollution, protections for endangered species and a bid to protect federal employees from politically motivated firings. That last one is an understandable priority for federal bureaucrats and appointees...

Why is there so much self-promotion in our society, self-inflating behavior at the expense of others? Data suggests “narcissism,” the outsized need for admiration, blind conceit, and lack of empathy is rising. Why? With what effect on society? These questions – why and with what effect on society– are important for understanding the world in which we live and assessing the drift of society. Unpacking the complicated drift of society toward unrepentant, unapologetic, often unaware self-aggrandizement is tough, but several facts pop off the page. First, social media – self-tailored, instant, one-to-many communications – have grabbed society faster than any...

A year after its censorship programs were exposed, the Global Engagement Center still insists the public has no right to know how it's spending taxpayer money. “You can look, but don’t touch!”The State Department is so unhappy a newspaper published details about where it’s been spending your taxes, it’s threatened to only show a congressional committee its records in camera until it gets a “better understanding of how the Committee will utilize this sensitive information.” Essentially, Tony Blinken is threatening to take his transparency ball home unless details about what censorship programs he’s sponsoring stop appearing in papers like the...

The institutions of the West no longer believe in the supposition that the scientific method is the accepted methodology by which to arrive at objective conclusions about the physical world. Earlier this week, the invaluable Washington Free Beacon published a fascinating story on the Biden administration’s efforts to update the “scientific guidelines” for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). According to the story, a newly released document—a “draft for public comment”—mandates that “going forward, agency staff should employ ‘multiple forms of evidence, such as Indigenous Knowledge,’ when analyzing data.” The paper continues, noting that “‘Indigenous knowledge’ posits that...

My neighborhood is changing. In just the six years that we have lived in our suburb after fleeing St. Louis, Missouri for a more conservative area that supports our conservative values, towering apartment buildings are being built everywhere. There have been dozens of new car washes, chain restaurants, and big businesses put in or approved. During 2020, panhandlers started appearing in the area. This has grown so common that the local government had to recently pass a bill outlawing it for the safety of pedestrians and drivers because the panhandlers were obstructing traffic. While conservative Americans have continuously expressed outrage...