Free Republic

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight,” Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said that “the Democratic Party has become more and more progressive and populist.” And “a lot of progressive ideas have been taken up as the mainstream of the Democratic Party,” and become “Joe Biden’s agenda.” Jayapal said, “I think, first of all, the Democratic Party has become more and more progressive and populist. And that is thanks to the progressive movement across the country. But you see that a lot of progressive ideas have been taken up as the mainstream of the Democratic Party,...

A former Suffolk County prosecutor and radical criminal justice activist, Adam Foss, 42, was indicted on charges of rape by a District Attorney’s Office of Manhattan on Tuesday. Foss, who is from Los Angeles, is facing two first-degree charges of rape and sexual abuse that he allegedly committed against a 25-year-old woman in October 2017 in a Manhattan hotel room while she was sleeping.

The horror stories from Canada about pressure for “assisted suicide” choices on the disabled and those with profoundly-chronic illness rarely make news in American media outlets. That makes this report from the Associated Press eye-popping indeed. Disability advocates in Canada have leveled accusations that Canada’s nationalized health-care system has used the legalized assisted-suicide system as a vehicle for euthanasia and cost savings:Nichols’ family reported the case to police and health authorities, arguing that he lacked the capacity to understand the process and was not suffering unbearably — among the requirements for euthanasia. They say he was not taking needed medication,...

An entire North Carolina police force has quit in protest at the town’s newly hired “progressively responsible” town manager - who the police chief said created a “hostile work environment.” Kenly Police Chief Josh Gibson made the shocking announcement in a Facebook post on Thursday, saying the assistant town manager and a key clerk had joined him and his five officers in quitting in protest. “I have put in my 2 weeks notice along with the whole police dept.,” he wrote of the force he has served with for 21 years. “The new manager has created an environment I do...

Jared Polis is running for president. He'll deny it. He has denied it. ... Polis has done little to nothing to ruffle the feathers of the teachers' unions... ... standing aside and letting municipalities do your dirty work for you. Polis let Denver Mayor Michael Hancock lead on coronavirus lockdowns and masks before imposing a statewide lockdown himself. Polis also signed a bill allowing cities and counties to enact stricter (but not looser) gun regulations than the state imposes. And there's nothing particularly libertarian about opening the door to public employees' unions in a traditionally non-union state like Colorado. ......

In this bracing essay, David Horowitz calls out the Left for what it is–criminal, racist, and sometimes fascist. David argues that conservatives need to understand the utter bad faith with which the Left conducts itself, and stand up bravely to defend our country from the ravages of the Left. The crisis currently facing our nation is a crisis of faith – faith in the Constitution that has shaped our destiny, faith in the rule of law, and faith in the principle of equality before the law. The root cause of the lawlessness that is consuming our country is the monopoly...

San Francisco voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to recall Chesa Boudin, the city’s progressive district attorney, potentially dealing an enormous blow to a once ascendant criminal-justice-reform movement. In Los Angeles, on the same night, billionaire Rick Caruso won a plurality of votes with a tough-on-crime platform in the mayoral election, heading to a runoff with Democratic congresswoman Karen Bass. Both low-turnout elections played on complex local dynamics but were clear rejections of a certain strain of liberalism that buoyed reform-oriented prosecutors across the country and sought to defund the police. Los Angeles and San Francisco, Democrat-dominated cities, were at the vanguard...

On April 14, congressional candidate Alexandra Hunt became an OnlyFans creator. The platform, which enables users to subscribe to creators for a monthly subscription fee ranging from $5 to $50, allows influencers, celebrities, and sex workers to make content and connect with their fans. But while almost anyone can set up an OnlyFans, the company's brand is more synonymous with explicit content than with political campaigns.

Republicans are threatening to take over the House of Representatives in this year's midterm elections. More than 30 House Democrats are heading for the exits. And progressives have seen several major legislative proposals stall out. But two progressive lawmakers in the House, Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin and Ro Khanna, say they're developing a plan to turn around the cascade of bad news for their caucus. Raskin of Maryland and Khanna of California tell NPR they're on the ground floor of talks to fuel new victories for the party's liberal wing. "We need to defend American constitutional democracy with everything we've...

2022 Truman Scholarship awards once again dominated by Democrats, progressives The 2022 recipients of the prestigious federal Truman Scholarships once again lean heavily toward Democrats and progressives, according to an analysis by The College Fix. Of the 58 scholarship recipients announced last week, only three have any connection to Republican politics. At the same time, five recipients have connections to Democratic politics, while an additional 35 more list a progressive cause as their primary area of advocacy. The primary interests of the 35 progressive-leaning students granted the award in 2022 included environmental justice, “menstrual equity,” transgender rights, Latinx political engagement,...

A gunman suspected of killing two homeless men and wounding others in two East Coast cities in March would have been in prison at the time of the shootings if not for the work of one progressive Virginia prosecutor. The office of Fairfax County commonwealth's attorney Steve Descano (D.) in December 2020 charged the shooter, Gerald Brevard III, with three felonies related to his attempt to abduct a hotel housekeeper and later break into a nearby apartment. The felonies—abduction with attempt to defile, burglary, and possession of burglarious tools—together would carry a minimum of 26 years in prison and up...

While most Americans were focused on partisan polarization in Washington, D.C., the U.S. criminal justice system has been quietly transformed by a group of radically liberal billionaires and millionaires. They have attacked our system of justice at its roots, bankrolling the campaigns of activist district attorney candidates who promise to give criminals soft sentences in the name of so-called social justice and equity.Now self-styled progressive district attorneys, many of whom toppled conventional Democratic opponents across the country by running to their left, are enforcing their own warped sense of social justice instead of the actual law. Unsurprisingly, crime has risen...

House Democrats are turning up the pressure on oil companies as high gas prices continue to hurt drivers, with a congressional hearing planned for April to question oil executives. As Republicans seek to blame President Biden for the pain at the pump – with gas prices nationally at $4.262 per gallon, according to AAA – Democrats have sought to turn the attention away from Biden and place the blame first on Russian President Vladimir Putin and now on big oil companies.

Los Angeles Dist. Atty. George Gascón, the cop-turned-reformer who came to office in 2020 promising to transform the justice system so it “works for everyone,” is fighting for his political life. There’s a movement underway to recall him, and its backers say they’ve already raised $2.7 million. He is opposed by hundreds of rank-and-file prosecutors in his own office, who voted nearly unanimously last week to support his ouster. Even his longtime friend and colleague, former LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, recently rescinded his endorsement. Mayoral candidate Rick Caruso says Gascón’s progressive policies have “put people at risk and made our...

Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan gave a "progressive" response to President Joe Biden's first State of the Union address in a speech on behalf of the Working Families Party on Tuesday night. "In the richest country in the world, it shouldn't be this hard for so many to have a good life," said Tlaib. "I'm a lifelong Democrat. I'm also part of the Working Families Party, because I believe that our government must put the needs of working families first." Tlaib argued that progressives have worked the hardest to support Biden's agenda, blaming both Republicans and "corporate-backed Democratic obstructionists"...

They are not 'Liberal', they are tyrannical. They are not 'Progressive', they are destructive. They are not 'Democrats', they are socialists. They are not for 'peasants', 'workers', 'national liberation', or lately, for the 'environment' or for 'equity'. They are in for power. Power for power's sake. And deceit is their most formidable tool. Evil facades. And most of us fall for their deceit by calling them for what they want to be called. We help them hide their insidiousness. We are complicit when we continue calling them by their chosen labels: 'Liberal', 'Progressive', 'Democrat', 'Environmentalist', 'labor leader', 'non-binary', and on...

Wokeism has been described by its critics as the omnipresent use of race—and to a lesser extent, gender—to replace meritocracy and thus ensure equality of result. What follows from implementing that ideology are reparatory actions to reward those of the present by atoning for the injustices done to others in the past. Some see it as an update of 1960s cultural Marxism fads. Others scoff that it is just a return to 1980s-style political correctness. Still more see it as the logical successor to 1990s-type race, class, and gender obsessions—albeit with a shriller and more dangerous Jacobin, Soviet, and Maoist...

I wrote an August 1973 cover story for Time magazine that praised Minnesota as “the state that works.” The cover photograph showed Gov. Wendell Anderson, dressed in a plaid flannel shirt, grinning and holding up a northern pike that he had just caught in one of Minnesota’s 12,000 lakes. The story began with this archaic rhapsody: “It is a state where a residual American secret still seems to operate. Some of the nation’s more agreeable qualities are evident there: courtesy and fairness, honesty, a capacity for innovation, hard work, intellectual adventure and responsibility. . . . Minnesotans are remarkably civil;...

Progressives in Congress are lining up behind a bill that would shrink a regular week of work from 40 hours to 32 - bringing the four-day work week to America. The Congressional Progressive Caucus just endorsed the aptly named "32-Hour Workweek Act," according to a statement from Rep. Mark Takano, the Democrat representing California's 41st district. The caucus, comprised of nearly 100 legislators, is a key progressive voice and has made its power known during recent infrastructure negotiations. "For far too long, workers across this country have been forced to put in longer hours as their wages barely budge," chair...

The district attorney facing criticism after the alleged Waukesha Christmas parade crash killer was freed on bond two days before the carnage describes himself as a “bold reformer” and has taken credit for inspiring a wave of “progressive prosecutors” across the US. Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, who was elected to the position in 2007, has spent his career supporting cash-bail system reform because he argues it criminalizes poverty. Chisholm has long pushed to divert nonviolent offenders away from the prison system with alternate programs, and has spoken previously about reducing the number of incarcerations in Milwaukee County.