Free Republic

"The forgotten man and woman" propelled Donald Trump to his shocking electoral victory in 2016. Understanding the perspective of these voters is essential regardless of one's political perspective. My February 17, 2017 lecture at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has long been heralded by Democrats and their allies in the media as some sort of master political strategist. She dominated headlines following President Donald Trump’s State of the Union back in 2020 when she theatrically ripped up a copy of the president's speech. The "real reason" Pelosi tore up the speech is revealed in a new biography called "Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power."

On Thursday, Don Imus, whom MSNBC fired in 2007 after he referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy headed hos" on the network, said he could not believe MSNBC President Phil Griffin is going to keep Martin Bashir on the air after he suggested someone should urinate or defecate in former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's mouth.

Many of the more “progressive” among us here in America see Europe as an example of where the United States needs to be in terms of its social policies. And given that social trends in Europe so often seem to presage things here, for better or worse, let’s have a look at some of the more recent “progressive” developments on the European social front. In January of this year the European Union passed a resolution banning “homophobia”. Entitled “Homophobia in Europe”, the resolution condemns homophobia as an “irrational fear and aversion of homosexuality and of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender...

HOUSTON, Texas 'An unprecedented movement has emerged to submit international politics to judicial procedures [and] has spread with extraordinary speed," Henry Kissinger observed a few years ago in a tone both despairing and disparaging. His fear is now being borne out for the world to see, with ex-President Augusto Pincochet of Chile, elements of the Sudanese government, and Congolese and Ugandan rebels all likely to be in line for prosecution later this year. As the East Timorese Nobel Prize laureate José Ramos-Horta once put it, "in this day and age you cannot kill hundreds of people, destroy a whole country...

Uniquely, democratic realism recognizes that in the present era of Islamic terror, security is only attainable through engagement, and that engagement will only have meaningful long term benefits if followed by committed democratic construction. In contrast, a policy of containment — one that focuses on either multilateral diplomatic discussions or a realist playing of one hostile interest against another — works to merely reinforce the status quo that breeds Jihadist killers. Only democracy and the rule of law can permanently alter the Middle East's volatile status quo, and extinguish the flames of violent radicalism in the Arab world. This is...

Q: Why do you think is the Bush administration so reluctant to publicly call out the U.N. on the humanitarian crisis in the Sudan? Why is there no major media attention to this disaster? Hanson: They tried. But look, the world cares not about the dead, but whether the United States or Israel can be blamed for them. … Q: Could you address how organized crime and the subsequent corrosive effect it has on the fabric of a society may have led to the demise of a great many civilizations? Hanson: Well, when such crime permeates down to the mundane — bribes for...