Free Republic

The recent presidential election revealed a deeply divided and disaffected America. While Donald Trump won the electoral vote and, therefore, the election, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote (link is external) by well over 1 million votes. Since the election, we have seen incidents (link is external) of bias and bullying that invoke the president-elect’s name and slogans. For many Americans, this is a frightening time; Trump must use his unique position to quell this dangerous climate.

WASHINGTON — A 17-year-old transgender youth, Leelah Alcorn, stunned her friends and a vast Internet audience in December when she threw herself in front of a tractor-trailer after writing in an online suicide note that religious therapists had tried to convert her back to being a boy. In response, President Obama this week will call for an end to such psychiatric therapies aimed at “repairing” gay, lesbian and transgender youth, White House officials said. His decision on the sensitive issue is the latest example of his continuing embrace of gay rights. In a statement to be posted on Wednesday evening...

Tea party groups over the past few weeks have suddenly and successfully pressured Republican governors to reassess their support for a rare bipartisan initiative backed by President Obama to overhaul the nation’s public schools. Activists have donned matching T-shirts and packed buses bound for state legislative hearing rooms in Harrisburg, Pa., grilled Georgia education officials at a local Republican Party breakfast and deluged Michigan lawmakers with phone calls urging opposition to the Common Core State Standards. snip Critics also charge that Common Core was thrust onto schools with little public debate. The standards were developed by associations representing governors and...