Free Republic

Sir Roger Scruton wrote in How to Be a Conservative that “the work of destruction is quick, easy and exhilarating; the work of creation slow, laborious and dull.” Conservative higher-education reformers would be wise to remember this. While there is much excitement in ripping down ridiculous, wasteful, and harmful bureaucracies in universities, the real work of improving them takes attention to detail, expertise, and care. In the past year, Missouri leaders have attempted to balance the exhilarating with the dull when it comes to reforming the state’s higher-education system. On the exhilarating front, the governor published a splashy executive order...

Score another victory for President Donald Trump in the high-stakes political battle between Republicans and Democrats over congressional redistricting. GOP Gov. Mike Kehoe of Missouri on Sunday signed into law a new congressional map, Missouri First, that is likely to hand Republicans an additional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives ahead of next year’s midterms elections. Missouri, once considered a swing state that has dramatically shifted to the right over the past decade and a half, is the latest battleground in the congressional redistricting showdown after the passage of new maps in GOP-dominated Texas and a redistricting push by...

When Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, dispatched his National Guard troops to Washington to support President Trump’s crackdown on crime, Democrats and other critics wondered why he didn’t keep them within state lines. Memphis, after all, has long been one of the most dangerous cities in the country, with a murder rate about twice as high as the nation’s capital, according to F.B.I. statistics. Nashville has a higher rate of violent crime than Washington as well. The same questions could be asked of other Republican governors like Greg Abbott in Texas, Mike DeWine in Ohio and Mike Kehoe in Missouri,...

Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe said Friday that he is calling Missouri lawmakers into a special session to redraw the state’s U.S. House districts as part of a growing national battle between Republicans and Democrats seeking an edge in next year’s congressional elections. Kehoe made the announcement just hours after Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a new congressional voting map designed to help Republicans gain five more seats in the 2026 midterm elections. It marked a win for President Donald Trump, who has been urging Republican-led states to reshape district lines to give the party a better shot...