Free Republic

For elected representatives and the public to have the necessary discussion regarding action in Syria, it is crucial that a clear picture of the realities on the ground in Syria be presented. Regarding the Assad regime and its apologists, nothing needs to be cleared up. This is a regime characterized by murderous brutality since it first emerged in the 1960s. It has been perhaps the single most destabilizing factor in the Levant throughout the years of its existence. An apparent use of nerve gas against its own civilians fits entirely with the more general pattern of its behavior. But as...

It was almost exactly four years ago that MSNBC's blustery Chris Matthews declared that "the Republican Party continues to be unable to hang on to its moderates, especially in the Northeast, where it has begun to resemble the 19th century, pre-Civil War Whig Party." It was 2009, and the late Sen. Arlen Specter, Pa., had just announced he was leaving the GOP, prompting Matthews to declare that the party was killing itself by purging its moderate members."They want to be the party of the religious right!" he boomed.Matthews' guest, Chuck Todd, was more measured, merely asking, "Can the Republican Party...

Tarik Shah is a formidable jazz bassist who has recorded with a number of luminaries, including Pharoah Sanders and Abbey Lincoln. He is also prisoner number 53145-054 at the medium security Federal Correction Institution in Petersburg, Virginia, where he is serving a fifteen-year sentence for plotting to provide combat training to al-Qaeda jihadists. His sad and tragic case points up again lingering questions about Islamic moderation that have never been answered. In 2004, Shah made the acquaintance of a man he thought was an al-Qaeda member, but who was actually an FBI informant. Shah, a martial arts expert as...

Just as moderates are completely unrepresented in a Democratic Party that's dominated by liberals, movement conservatives often don't feel represented by the Republican Party. At first glance, this seems rather odd since most Republicans in Congress are conservative. However, it's a natural reaction to the Republican establishment that has its hands welded to many of the GOP's levers of power. The Republican Party may be mostly conservative, but there are a multitude of reasons that you can't trust the establishment Republicans as far as you can throw them. 1) They have supreme confidence without supreme competence. Conservative talk show hosts,...

Almost every challenge facing the Republican Party boils down to one issue: How is it possible for Republicans to win elections? The GOP establishment fights, undermines, lies to, and betrays conservative Americans because GOP insiders do not believe it is possible to win elections on a tea party agenda. We’re looking at everything all wrong. We want Republican leaders to champion our tea party issues. But they can’t. They don’t know how. Conservatives believe that a properly-run campaign based on conservative values will win. More than that, we know it is the only way that a Republican candidate can win....

Yes, it's buyer's remorse and it will probably be one of the deciding factors in the race this year. Gallup: Eighty-six percent of voters who say they voted for Barack Obama in 2008 are backing Obama again this year, a smaller proportion than 92% of 2008 John McCain voters who are supporting 2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Nine percent of 2008 Obama voters have switched to supporting Romney this year, while 5% of McCain voters have switched to Obama. The results are based on July 23-29 Gallup Daily tracking with more than 2,000 registered voters who reported voting in the...

"I think it's a generational issue," syndicated columnist and FOX News contributor Charles Krauthammer said about the Lugar-Mourdock Senate primary in Indiana. "I think Lugar is a lion of the Senate. I think he's served very well, he's been very important in foreign affairs over these years but that doesn't appeal to voters. He's been in there for very long time. He's had a lot of moderate opinions. He's not a Tea Party favorite and I think his time will likely will have come. I'm not sure that there is anything he could have done differently in campaigning. He is...

Former Republican Rep. Tom Davis told The Hill newspaper: “The middle is getting squeezed,” but his comment vastly understates the crisis in the capital. Activists in both parties have declared war on moderates. The ideological gap between the two parties is widening rapidly. Paralysis is pervasive. Political scientist Keith Poole of the University of Georgia, who studies voting patterns, told the National Journal: “We are clearly as conflicted as we’ve been since 1905. The parties are, I think, completely dysfunctional and incapable of acting on major policy.” The National Journal reports that as recently as 1999, more than half of...

....................................I think that the choice, ultimately, rests with both Senator Santorum and Governor Romney. At this point, Santorum has the staying power to drag this thing out. Perhaps, even, he feels justified in doing so. Giving up a hope, even a faint one, of securing the nomination of a major party for the presidency is no small thing to ask of a man. However, doing so in the service of ensuring that Barack Obama becomes a one-term president would be a supreme act of patriotism. Likewise, surrendering the freedom to choose whomever one wishes as a running mate in exchange...

Somebody has a decision to make.

As I’ve been noting here, one key metric to determine whether the prolonged GOP nomination process is damaging Mitt Romney’s general election prospects is his standing among independents, many of whom remain sour on Obama’s economic performance. Today’s new Pew poll offers another installment. The topline is striking enough — it finds that Rick Santorum is surging among Tea Partyers and conservatives, again suggesting that they just can’t come to terms with Romney as the nominee.

I’m pretty sure we’re watching the progressive end-game unfold after its 100-year incremental march. Like Mexico’s “institutional revolution” we have instituted and indoctrinated our own offspring to lead us exactly to this point: One Party Government. It may turn out differently, but I’ve seen the tipping point with Mitt Romney’s vicious and specious attacks on Newt being repeated by all the media/government players. No, they’re not just the usual suspects of the MSM any more. Now our “new media” allies have fought their way to some imagined significance and so they kowtow to the powerful. We are all Capt. Schettino...

Northeastern, milquetoast Republican “moderates” who toil long and hard to avoid the social embarrassment of association with uncivilized, conservative inhabitants of flyover country must understand that we in the Party base are NOT willing to graciously lose the 2012 election. If Karl Rove, George Will and Peggy Noonan wish to escape the disapproving gaze of haughty Hamptons friends by mocking every Republican candidate who vaguely appeals to conservatives, let them. This time around, we who actually appreciate living and working in a free, prosperous United States are not going to surrender our ideals to the “wise counsel” of RINO elites...

Newt Gingrich has at least one name on his list of potential running mates: GOP rival Mitt Romney. "I think Mitt Romney is a very admirable person, and I'm not going to pick a fight with Mitt Romney," Gingrich said in an interview Wednesday with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. When asked if he would ever ask Romney to be his vice presidential nominee, Gingrich didn't mince words. "I think the consensus is that he'd certainly be on the list, whether he'd want to or not," Gingrich said. "He's a very competent person. This is a very serious man. I would certainly...

What an odd pair of front runners Republicans appear to have ended up with. Not the usual conservative vs. moderate pairing, but two quite unusual political figures with remarkably similar policy and political profiles but remarkably different temperaments and dispositions. Let me say first: I used to work for Newt Gingrich. In the last year of his speakership, I was a “staff assistant” in his congressional office. I was 21 when I started there. No offense to anyone reading this who is now a staff assistant on the Hill, but that’s a very junior job—or at least it certainly was...

In an obvious effort to get conservatives to warm up to the idea of moderate Mitt Romney as the GOP nominee for president, talk show host Michael Medved does a little jujitsu move against election facts. As I have shown elsewhere, in every presidential election since 1972, GOP candidates do better when they are seen in greater contrast with the Democratic nominee. This was never more true than in 2008, and though Medved admits that John McCain was a moderate, he implies that the GOP would have won if they had nominatedsomeone even more moderate than McCain. This is pure poppycock. Medved confuses...

DUBUQUE -- Despite knocks from the left and right Monday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won new support in Iowa by laying out a moderate course to slash $500 billion from government spending. While other Republican presidential candidates have presented blueprints to scrap entire federal agencies, Romney vowed to "slay the deficit beast" by putting each government-funded program to a test: Are they so critical that they are worth borrowing money from China to pay for? He said Amtrak, public arts and broadcasting would be among the programs cut "These are wonderful things, but I'm not willing to borrow a...

In contrast to 2008, Democratic President Barack Obama cannot count on a wave of support for his re-election bid next year from well-known moderate Republicans. Unhappy with Obama's handling of the economy, conservative backers from three years ago are either sitting on the fence or have thrown their lot in with Republican presidential hopefuls like Mitt Romney. Known as "Obamacons," moderate Republicans helped make the Democrat's case in 2008 that he was a new breed of "post-partisan" politician who would work with both parties. Obama's youth and the narrative of electing the first black president also attracted Republicans to make...

Two issues plague Democrats when it comes to congressmen representing swing districts: The moderates don’t get heard in Washington, and centrist districts are rapidly becoming extinct because of the way congressional lines are being drawn. Main Street America’s ability to be represented fully is diminishing, according to U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire of Southwestern Pennsylvania. “I have a district which is pretty evenly divided politically, so I hear from a variety of voices with their concerns,” the three-term Democrat said. He follows those concerns when voting, he insisted, rather than following the party line. That is not the case, he said,...

Thousands of Muslims gathered in London on Saturday at a rally "to fight extremism and promote a moderate, inclusive version of Islam." The event's organizers, Minhaj-ul-Quran International, said prior to the event that some 12,000 Muslims are expected at Wembley Arena. The group's founder, Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, told journalists that killing innocents is forbidden in Islam and Muslims must integrate into the societies in which they are living.