Free Republic

Some right-leaning voters who oppose Donald Trump are thinking of voting neither for him nor Kamala Harris. I understand how they feel. In 2016, I published an article urging Never Trump conservatives to consider casting their ballot for a third-party candidate. In the election that year, I did just that. regret writing that column. I regret casting that vote. To people like me, Trump represented a repudiation of everything that Ronald Reagan stood for. But as a conservative and former GOP staffer who had never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate, I harbored reservations about Hillary Clinton. Voting for neither...

California has changed since 2008 when it comes to attitudes about same-sex marriage, and that’s all to the good. Despite voting overwhelmingly for Barack Obama for president that year, the state’s electorate also passed Proposition 8, a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.Of course, those were different times. Even Obama said at the time that marriage was between a man and a woman. It didn’t take long for him and the California electorate to acknowledge that marriage is a right that is fundamental to all people. A district judge ruled in 2010 that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional and in 2013, the...

It was a mistake to visit Los Alamos in the middle of a presidential campaign that Donald Trump might win. I get that now, after wandering around the New Mexico town that is synonymous with clichés like “cautionary tale” and “Pandora’s box” and “be careful what you wish for.”The shadow over the Manhattan Project — the undeniable feat of scientific brainpower that gave us the nuclear bomb — is apparent nine miles from this haunting town, in a roadside protest sign that quotes Pope Francis speaking five years ago in Hiroshima: “The possessing of nuclear weapons is immoral.” It is...

Justice Department prosecutors would launch criminal investigations of those Trump views as enemies. IRS workers would likely be ordered to audit prominent Democrats’ tax returns. WASHINGTON — If former President Trump wins the November election, he says one of his actions on “Day One,” right after he begins deporting millions of undocumented migrants, will be enacting a radical plan to force the federal bureaucracy to bow to his demands.Like any president, Trump would undoubtedly stock the top levels of the government with loyal appointees. But he also intends to enforce his will by making it possible to fire lower-ranking federal...

Good morning. It is Wednesday, Sept. 18. Here’s what’s happening in Opinion.Over the weekend Donald Trump was the apparent target of a second assassination attempt as he played golf at his West Palm Beach, Fla., club. Who knows what might have happened had the Secret Service not spotted the suspected gunman hanging out at the edge of the course before he could take a shot or even get a line of sight.Unsurprisingly, Trump and his allies immediately put the blame for the incident on Democrats since they will not stop talking about what might happen if a self-proclaimed wannabe dictator...

Presidential debates are remembered for the candidates’ pithy one-liners. But in the chaotic political landscape of 2024, a simple statement of fact served as the showstopper on Tuesday’s showdown between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” said ABC News moderator Linsey Davis in the matter-of-fact style familiar to viewers who watch her on the Sunday edition of “ABC World News Tonight” and her nightly streaming newscast “ABC News Live Prime.” Her correction was a response to Trump’s claim that the...

One of the hallmarks of narcissism is that when things go wrong, it’s always someone else’s fault. Being a narcissist means never having to say you’re sorry. Nothing more perfectly illustrates this truism than an essay from yesterday’s Los Angeles Times blaming Republicans for California’s myriad woes. While the author is correct that, when Republicans had the chance, they didn’t make smart decisions, the reality is that it’s the Democrats who have led California to the desperate place it’s in now. Steve Lopez’s essay doesn’t make the mistake of blaming Republicans for all the state’s problems. He concedes that Democrats...

It’s been 15 years since workers earning the federal minimum wage got a raise. The cost of living has gone up more than 45% since then, with rents and home prices rising faster than incomes in most regions of the country. Yet the nation’s wage floor has stayed stuck at $7.25 an hour.That is poverty pay, and an increase to the federal minimum wage is long overdue. It’s mind-boggling that Congress has gone so long without making even modest adjustments to help the lowest-paid workers. This is the longest stretch of time without an increase to the federal minimum wage...

The media have developed a pathological obsession with shielding Vice President Kamala Harris from any criticism or inconvenient fact.. ince a soft coup ousted President Joe Biden as the Democrat nominee in late July, the media have developed a pathological obsession with shielding Vice President Kamala Harris from any criticism or inconvenient fact. To protect their anointed favorite, the media have engaged in a masterclass of revisionism, unleashing every trick in the book to manipulate their audience into buying the new, carefully crafted image of Harris. They’ve tried to claim that a woman whose office was described by her own...

No matter the outcome of the November elections, it is urgent that there be a widespread recognition that American democracy is in danger and that reforms are essential. No form of government lasts forever, and it would be foolhardy to believe that the United States cannot fall prey to the forces that have ended democracies in many other countries.

n the month before Mathew Perry’s death, a doctor the actor contacted to acquire ketamine called him a “moron” in a text message, according to federal prosecutors. A dealer who authorities say supplied the drug to Perry referred to him as “Chandler” — the sarcastic yet sweet-natured character he played on the hit television show “Friends,” court documents say.

WASHINGTON — Vice presidents seeking the top job almost always feel a need to separate themselves from the presidents they’ve served.For Hubert Humphrey, the moment came late in his campaign. In a nationally televised speech on Sept. 30, 1968, he called for a halt to the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, departing from the Johnson administration’s war policy.George H.W. Bush struggled to establish a distinct identity with voters after eight years as second fiddle to the very popular President Reagan. In his speech to the Republican convention in August 1988, he called for a “kinder, gentler nation” — to which...

Hello and happy Thursday. There are 81 days until the election, and today we are talking about stayin’ alive — for the Harris campaign, the Trump whatever-it-is and for us voters who have 11-plus weeks to go.And for democracy. Don’t forget democracy!First, I know you’ve seen the AI-generated video of Donald Trump and Elon Musk dancing to the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive.” Trump also posted it on his Truth Social, where truth goes to die. This bromance is hard to watch. Musk’s power and privilege seem to be veering him into Howard Hughes-weird territory, where his crazy theories are matched...

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) will run for governor of California in 2026 after current Gov. Gavin Newsom reaches his two-term limit. The Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday: Villaraigosa, who has been out of elected office since leaving Los Angeles City Hall in 2013, joins a crowded field of high-level Democratic candidates that includes Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former state Controller Betty Yee, state Sen. Toni Atkins, and state schools Supt. Tony Thurmond. All are vying to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is serving his second and final term in office.

After the motion was met with resentment, Democratic National Convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa had to call the vote three times to reinstate language into their party platform that recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as well as the words "God-given" in a passage about employment

Never has an NCAA Sports Day been so widely and breathlessly covered as it was on Monday.And never has it been clearer that Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, did not just fall out of a coconut tree.With President Biden recovering from COVID-19, the task of honoring top college athletes from across the country fell to Harris, who performed the same duty last year with much less fanfare.This year, of course, the event occurred the day after Biden announced he was ending his reelection campaign and endorsed Harris as the party’s replacement candidate for president....

Now that President Biden has dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the nominee, it will ultimately be up to Democratic National Convention delegates to formally select a new nominee for their party. While many associate the convention system with less-than-impressive nominees, such as the obscure senator Warren G. Harding, the record isn’t that bad. And even Harding managed to win the presidency

The selection of J.D. Vance on Monday as Donald Trump’s running mate is a direct result of the political media’s failure to understand class in America. For his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance was venerated by many journalists and book critics as a powerful voice representing long-overlooked Americans. But he’s no working-class hero.Vance portrayed this group — 35% of Americans, by the way — as tragic victims of alcoholism, drug abuse, laziness and their own self-destructive moral failings. Journalists ran with that, bringing their own stereotypes to depict the working class as angry, uneducated white men driven by economic insecurity...

It's been a week since President Biden's disastrous debate performance, and his political fortunes only appear to be growing worse by the day. Now it all boils down to two questions: Will Biden drop out of the race? And who is in the top position to replace him? The answer to that the second question should be a no brainer — the vice president, of course. I honestly don't know if Harris can win in November, or if she truly is the best candidate to steer this country away from what appears to be certain ruin if Trump wins. What...

It’s that stars-and-stripes, American-flag-waving time of year. And throughout the Golden State, the California flag typically takes a place of honor beside it. But how much do you know about the origins of the state flag — the grizzly bear perched on a patch of green, the red star high on the left, the words “California Republic” below?