Free Republic

HARRISBURG — Location, reputation, demographics, and pure luck may have mattered more than policy differences in Pennsylvania’s row office primary elections this week. Tuesday saw a major upset in the Democratic race for state treasurer and a decisive win in a crowded Democratic attorney general field by a candidate who brought statewide name recognition — but not much cash — to the race. With the fields settled for November’s marquee presidential and U.S. Senate races, turnout for the Democratic and Republican primaries was low, according to election administrators. The voters who did show up often said they felt unprepared and...

When Biden initially announced her appointment, he said she would be in charge of working to return migrants to their home countries. "So this new surge we're dealing with now started with the last administration, but it's our responsibility to deal with it humanely and to – and to stop what's happening," Biden said month. "And so, this increase has been consequential, but the vice president has agreed – among the multiple other things that I have her leading – and I appreciate it – agreed to lead our diplomatic effort and work with those nations to accept re- –...

I would like to thank every liberal, Antifa, democrat, low-info voter, crooked politician, Karen, professor, and left wing freak for showing the world that I made the right decision when I left that godless diseased corpse of a party.

Senator Elizabeth Warren wants new taxes on wealth. Senator Bernie Sanders wants Medicare for All. Senator Cory Booker wants guaranteed jobs. Jeff Mackler wants the elimination of the military budget, the nationalization of the energy and banking industries, open borders, the creation of a state-run health-care system, and the end of capitalism in the United States. A member of the Trotskyist party Socialist Action, Mackler is one of a handful of true, full-fat, no-joke socialist candidates running or considering running for president in 2020. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell looks at the Democratic primary and sees the proposed Cubafication of...

With midterm elections right around the corner, people around the country are turning their eyes to high stakes races in states like Florida, West Virginia, and Nevada. Perhaps no race, though, has garnered more outside media attention than that of the Texas Senate election between incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Democrat Rep. Beto O’Rourke. “I honestly couldn’t point to anything. I’m not as educated as I would like to be.” While Cruz leads in most polls, O’Rourke has a decided lead amongst Millennials and college students.

Just a third of Americans can pass a multiple choice "U.S. Citizenship Test," fumbling over such simple questions as the cause of the Cold War or naming just one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for. And of Americans 45 and younger, the passing rate is a tiny 19 percent, according to a survey done for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Worse: The actual test only requires that 60 percent of the answers be correct. In the survey, just 36 percent passed. Among the embarrassing errors uncovered in the survey of questions taken from the U.S. Citizenship Test and conducted...

Yes, it is good that Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, especially in light of revelations of her private email security breaches and pay-for-play administration of the State Department. If true, she belongs in prison. However, what is ominous is the number of voters who, despite all that was known of her crimes, still voted for her. This is not a sign of a healthy American electorate. It seems the same citizens who voted for Barack Obama in 2012 after his disastrous first four years voted for her. Many people who go the polls in our generation are simply not thinking....

Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study report. The research, conducted by the University of Minnesota, identifies a virulent strain of humans who are virtually immune to any form of verifiable knowledge, leaving scientists at a loss as to how to combat them. “These humans appear to have all the faculties necessary to receive and process information,” Davis Logsdon, one of the scientists who contributed to the study, said. “And yet, somehow, they have developed defenses that, for all intents and purposes, have...

The conversation I've overheard twice on the Upper West Side: I want to watch that debate, but what channel is Fox News?

Have you ever been driving along, listening to the latest hit song on a Top 20 radio station, and thought, “Man, these lyrics are really dumb?” Well, you’re not alone. According to a new study conducted by data wiz Andrew Powell-Morse, the lyrics for the last decade’s No. 1 hit songs average a third-grade reading level. Powell-Morse analyzed 225 songs that had spent three or more weeks atop the Billboard charts in four different genres (R&B/Hip-Hop, Country, Pop, and Rock) and found that a second-grader with slightly higher-than-average reading comprehension skills would have no problem grasping the lyrics. While...

Legal clutter from our litigious society. It’s everywhere. The legalese. The lawyers’ gobbledygook. The hocus‑pocus and mumbo‑jumbo from a generation dominated by the legal profession. It’s the fallout from our litigious society. The warning labels and messages are everywhere: on ladders, cigarettes, and lawnmowers, on prescription drugs and alcoholic beverages. Most of these warnings are expected. We hardly recognize them any more. We’ve become jaded and mesmerized by them. Manufacturers go to laughable lengths to protect their customers from harm, bombarding them with ridiculous warning labels or stunningly obvious explanations of how their products work. Why else would a...

As a Private Lawyer, Ted Cruz Defended Companies Found Guilty of Wrongdoing Two cases Cruz handled before joining the Senate could become an issue during his presidential bid. In his bio on his presidential campaign website, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) boasts of what he did as Texas solicitor general to defend the Second Amendment, the Pledge of Allegiance, and US sovereignty—all conservative causes. But Cruz does not detail another important chapter in his legal career: his work as a well-paid private attorney who helped corporations found guilty of wrongdoing.

President Obama met with three YouTube stars -- each with millions of followers -- to discuss his State of the Union address on Thursday. The White House hoped to reach new audiences with the move, and it definitely felt different than most high-profile presidential interviews --especially when GloZell Green told the president that Fidel Castro"puts the dick in dictatorship." (Important note: Obama did not see the questions before the interviews.) This is how Obama reacted to that line:

‘The Daily Show’ comedian Jon Stewart negatively affects public discourse. Jon Stewart’s impact on the media and politics is undeniable. “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams has noted that, when he presents a news story “Jon’s always in the back of my mind,” and that Stewart’s “The Daily Show” “hold[s] people to account, for errors and sloppiness…it’s healthy.” Stewart is often seen in this light—as a comedic check on the excesses of hypocritical politicians and the press that enables them. Stewart is a channel for the frustration many feel against those in power, and a voice for those without. But...

Elections have become theater.By regularly promising the impossible, political candidates give the dangerous impression that salvation is only one bill, one policy solution away. It breeds impatience, impetuosity and ecstatic hopes in citizens.And it can make us bad voters.James Madison and Alexander Hamilton had a different understanding of voting than we currently do. The authors of The Federalist Papers understood voting as an exercise in elevating citizens’ minds above the concerns of their engrossing private lives. That is, voting was to be a kind of civic education, preceded by genuine debate, perhaps similar to the Lincoln-Douglas debates.Such elections might be...

Have you ever heard of George Jefferson? Apparently Liberal Chick missed out on History class. Listen to her angry rant about the GOP Midterm win. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook.

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission (the term “ethics” is used rather loosely in this case) has a plan to get more voters to turn out on Election Day. Basically, they think the city should bribe people to show up at the polls. According to LA Times:Alarmed that fewer than one-fourth of voters are showing up for municipal elections, the Los Angeles Ethics Commission voted Thursday to recommend that the City Council look at using cash prizes to lure a greater number of people to the polls. On a 3-0 vote, the panel said it wanted City Council President Herb Wesson's Rules,...

Today on Slate’s feminist XX blog, there was a headline that read: Even if She Loses in Texas, Wendy Davis Is a Win for America. Seriously? So, a Texas State Senator, who filibustered a bill that would ban abortions twenty-weeks into a pregnancy last summer, is a “win for America?” Jessica Grose, who wrote the article, added: Now, for all the support Davis’ campaign has received from fellow Democrats in Washington and elsewhere—former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm called her “Joan of Arc, standing up there for women all across the country”—she’s still running for governor of a deeply red state....

George Will isn’t backing down, even as critics are “calling for [his] head.” Will’s Washington Post column on sexual assault stirred up a great deal of controversy, as he acknowledged in an interview with C-SPAN published Friday. “Today, for some reason … indignation is the default position of certain people in civic discourse,” he said. “They go from a standing start to fury in about 30 seconds.” The internet has “erased the barriers of entry to public discourse,” Will said, which is good because more people can be involved in conversations, but it’s bad because a lot of those people...

Tied to an unpopular president and his signature health care law, Democrats in the nation’s largest swing state see medical marijuana as a potential antidote to political malaise in this year’s midterm elections. Party operatives are pushing a constitutional amendment that would make Florida the first state in the South to legalize some pot use. Polls show the measure has widespread public support, and it’s particularly popular among young voters—a critical part of the Democratic coalition with historically weak turnout in non-presidential election years. “I wish that it didn’t take medical marijuana on the ballot to motivate our young voters,”...