Free Republic

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently announced that the social media platform will no longer run political advertisements of any kind. Twitter is a private company and is free to adopt whatever policies it wants, but this decision is not the win for civil discourse and our “democratic infrastructure” that Dorsey claims it is. Defending his decision, Dorsey drew a Manichean dichotomy between meritoriously “earned” media and misleading paid content. That dichotomy is shallow and misleading. While he is right that, absent paid political advertising, “a political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet,” Dorsey does...

Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, moderates who project themselves as pragmatic collaborators, are taking a no-compromise approach on the overhaul of the nation’s gun laws after the latest mass shooting. Campaigning separately in eastern Iowa on Monday, the former vice president and the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, say the minimum provisions include universal background checks, a ban on military-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition, and red flag laws to allow officials to confiscate firearms from dangerous people. Biden told reporters before a Labor Day picnic in Cedar Rapids that inaction from President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans...

Every four years, in every presidential race, Democrats have a war between moderates and liberals. Most every time, a moderate wins. This may be contrary to conventional wisdom. But you can look it up. Look at every contested nomination since 1960, when John F. Kennedy beat Hubert Humphrey, through 2016, when Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders. Yes, even 2008, when Barack Obama was more moderate than Clinton and John Edwards. Think Jimmy Carter, who liberals didn’t like in 1976 and who beat Ted Kennedy in 1980. Think Bill Clinton, who ran as a “New Democrat” — i.e., “Not Liberal.” Even...

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.

On July 9, Islamic jihadis tortured and gang-raped a 60-year-old Christian virgin before stoning her to death in Syria.Below I translate portions of an early Arabic report on this incident, written by an apparently dumbstruck local and/or acquaintance: They rape, they kill, they rob, and they fornicate while proclaiming “Allahu Akbar!” [meaning “Allah is greater”]  Who, I wonder, is this god that they worship?  Surely it is the god of demons…  I certainly cannot call them “animals,” for animals are cleaner and more merciful…  Susan was 60 and spent her life educating generations of her village…  According to forensics, this 60-year-old...

Throughout this primary season, poll after poll has indicated that Democratic voters are overwhelming focused on finding a candidate who can make Donald Trump a one-term president. By a 2-to-1 ratio, likely primary voters place beating Trump above selecting a nominee who shares their policy positions. This overarching goal also serves as the main justification for former Vice President Joe Biden’s candidacy. On the stump, in fundraisers, and on the debate stage, a central component of his appeal is his claimed ability to carry the moderates and independents necessary recapture the electoral votes of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. His voters...

Freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s Twitter bio declares her the “Unbossed Congresswoman” for Michigan’s 13th District. While the moniker has roots in Shirley Chisholm’s successful campaign to become the first black congresswoman, nowadays it also could be seen as a blunt message to Democratic leadership: Nobody is bossing around the class of 2019. And that’s a problem for party bosses. On everything from the Green New Deal to impeachment to criticism of Israel, a squad of first-year congresswomen are flexing their muscle and posing an implicit challenge to Democratic honchos like Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Their stridently liberal agenda – and power...

Ah, purity campaigns — the projects from which neither party ever learns any lasting lessons. The group Justice Democrats recruited Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run against Joe Crowley in a ridiculously safe Democratic seat as a way to shake up the status quo and gain a little political traction. Crowley, who had been part of the House Democrats’ leadership clique, fell asleep at the switch and lost his primary, leading to Ocasio-Cortez’ easy layup in November.Now, NBC reports, AOC has joined up with Justice Democrats again for a new recruiting drive aimed at generating primary challenges against her new colleagues...

Most Freepers wonder when they seek Collins or Murkowski or the thnkfully exited from the scene McCain allow demonrat character assassination to direct their votes in Congress. Why do they do it and still claim to be Republicans? Lots of reasons can be cited, not the least of which is 'holding out for special funding in omnibus bills. But there is a deeper reason and it is directly connected to the character or lack thereof for each of these wishy washy fools. Below is the text of what I would write in a letter to these demonrat enablers, if the...

Former President Jimmy Carter is cautioning Democrats that their path to defeating President Donald Trump depends on independents and moderates. Speaking at his presidential center in Atlanta on Tuesday, Carter said U.S. policies on immigration, the environment and human rights will not improve while Trump is in office. Carter also noted polls showing independents souring on the Republican administration....

The pre-hearings attacks, distortions and Hail Marys all collapsed. The table-pounding and hilarious self-owning during the hearings didn't move the needle. And now it appears as though Brett Kavanaugh is more or less a lock to become America's next Supreme Court justice. With Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats failing to land even one substantive body blow against Kavanaugh during multiple marathon sessions -- each of which was interrupted by deranged caterwauling from left-wing activists -- the writing is on the wall. Barring a seismic event, confirmation is all but assured. Let's start with two key red state Democrats whose constituents strongly...

Link only - https://www.salon.com/2018/07/28/democratic-moderates-fear-the-socialist-left-will-wreck-the-party-they-want-to-keep-that-gig/

Rep. Ryan Costello (R-Pa.) said that he is leaving Congress in part because all he is ever asked about is President Trump, according to CNN. "No matter what I say or do, I feel all I do is answer questions about Donald Trump rather than health insurance or tax policy," Costello told CNN. Costello announced in March that he would not run for reelection, blaming the partisan political environment, including the actions of Trump. "I feel, increasingly, that if you're a member of Congress, they assume that you're not good," Costello told CNN. "They assume that you're not telling the...

I have lived for years in these places in the Middle East and seen with my own eyes the cruelty and abuse that takes place under extremist Islamic law. I have heard the screams of families as their loved ones were tortured and slaughtered for the simplest acts -- singing, dancing, voicing an opinion, or simply being a non-Muslim -- all of which are crimes. If we play the game of misinforming and misleading people about Islamism, by making irrelevant analogies to whitewash the violence and terrorism which are generated by Islamic fundamentalism, we are indoctrinating the literally millions of...

In the context of an administration that has pushed more radical positions on issues such as immigration and climate change, Schwarzenegger will now be stepping up his political activism once more. "Arnold is very excited for New Way," Ketchell said. Tuesday's press conference with Mayes and Republican Assemblymember Rocky Chavez from San Diego was thin on details. Mayes office was unable to publicly confirm any additional members of the new coalition and remained general when it came to its objectives. “There’s so many people in California who feel like they have no place to go,” Mayes said to reporters. "The...

Getting named to Salon’s list of The 25 Conservatives Actually Worth Following On Twitter is either a grievous insult or a certification that you suck. Salon is saying that you’re not a carrier of a hardcore conservative contagion, and that the liberal establishment doesn’t need to worry. At best, Salon thinks you’re no threat. At worst, it considers you a fellow traveler. And some of these selectees really are straight-up Fredocons.You see the same thing with the True Conservative line-up at the New York Times. That’s where you find the king of creased-slacks lib-licking, David Brooks, in a perpetual tizzy...

By now, Donald Trump was supposed to be selling herbal Viagra and 1,000-count packages of Trump Ice to reactionary survivalists over Facebook Live; Jeremy Corbyn was supposed to be resigning from the leadership of the (moribund) Labour Party to spend more time with his sewer grates; and Bernie Sanders was supposed to be ruing the fact that, in America, “democratic socialist” is a synonym for “politically irrelevant.” Alas, the pundits supposed wrong. The Republican Party nominated a xenophobic insult-comic — who had campaigned in support of political violence, religious discrimination, and mass-murdering Muslim prisoners of war with bullets dripped in...

The good news for Democrats is that the apathy of many of their voters — which contributed to Hillary Clinton's losing in November — is gone now that Donald Trump is president. We have never in living memory seen an electorate as fired up and angry and engaged as they are right now, Ben Wikler, Washington director of the left-wing group Moveon.org, told RealClearPolitics. The bad news for Democrats is that the fires of protest could burn so brightly that they alienate moderate voters and threaten any Democrats who decline to throw gasoline on the fires. The anger of the...

The Left has no alternatives anymore. When you buy a bag of hammers, it's just that, a bag of hammers with an occasional sickle thrown in. The only reason chemotherapy is prescribed is because the oncologist still believes there is enough fight in the body to overcome the cancer. However, when the entire body has been taken over, there is little use for any further attempts in using the lethal medicine. It's over because there is more of the bad than the good. So when the Left summons up the phrase Alt-Right perhaps we should take it as a compliment....

Washington, D.C. — It was billed as an attempt to win new supporters from the ranks of congressional Republicans. But after Donald Trump convened a handful of lawmakers and a number of party luminaries for lunch on Monday, the sole attendee not already backing Trump’s candidacy emerged as uncommitted as he’d gone in. Held in D.C.’s high-powered Jones Day law firm, the confab was supposed to be a congressional outreach effort, but only one attendee — Senator Tom Cotton — was neutral on Trump’s candidacy. The others — including Senator Jeff Sessions and Representatives Chris Collins, Scott DesJarlais, Renee Ellmers,...