Free Republic

In an address in North Carolina, FDR said: In those days, 1913 and 1914, the leadership of the Nation was in the hands of a great President who was seeking to recover for our social system ground that had been lost under his conservative predecessor, and to restore something of the fighting liberal spirit which the Nation had gained under Theodore Roosevelt. It seemed one of our great national tragedies that just when Woodrow Wilson was beginning to accomplish definite improvements in the living standards of America, the World War not only interrupted his course, but laid the foundation for...

While Hitler and Mussolini both expressed their opposition to and hatred of “Marxists,” they nevertheless embraced a leftism that was only marginally different from that embraced by Lenin and Stalin. In light of recent events and discussions attempting to rehabilitate the historical reputation of Germany’s Nazis, it might be worthwhile to re-examine the foundations of the ideology that underpinned National Socialism and its close cousin fascism. Those who embrace the revisionism that excuses the Nazis’ crimes appear to believe that by doing so, they are defending themselves and their ideological brethren from unfair and ahistorical attacks by the broader left....

Socialism is not always my wheelhouse. I think progressivism is the greatest threat that the U.S. has ever faced, not socialism. However that does not mean that I am not aware of the similar ideologies and have opinions of them. So it is with Socialism and its Revolutionary as well as Evolutionary variants. The interesting thing about Evolutionary Socialism is that most people refuse to acknowledge its existence, just like people don't pay much attention to progressivism. Which is weird because arguably the most successful socialists in history are the British Fabians who promise to make haste slowly. An interest...

When the Term “Liberalism” ChangedA great transformation of the meaning of liberalism in this country manifested itself with the election of Franklin Roosevelt to the Presidency in 1932. Instead of emphasizing individual freedom and (concomitant) limited Constitutional government, the term now referred instead to a doctrine of ever-expanding government control over the economy, including higher taxes and more regulations. (This transformation of the term’s meaning was discussed by the legal historian Ronald Rotunda in a 1968 essay titled "The Liberal Label: Roosevelt's Capture of a Symbol.”) During the 1932 campaign, incumbent Republican President Herbert Hoover – hardly an advocate of...

Other than the Founding era, the Progressive era is the most interesting era of U.S. history, its a shame that most people scoff at looking directly at it though. We have so much to learn from this era and all that it did to us and keeps doing to us to this day. In modern times we are sold on ideas of things like a "living wage", not realizing that the idea is over 100 years old and rooted directly smack in the middle of progressivism. In 1915, Father John Ryan wrote the book "A Living Wage", after being deeply...

The $450 million Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opened its doors on July 4th. And for the first time, a major institution went accurate about who Roosevelt really was. Glenn Beck says that's actually the problem. Because when you read what TR wrote in his own hand — to Charles Davenport at Cold Spring Harbor on January 3rd, 1913 — the museum isn't making Roosevelt look like a progressive. Roosevelt was a progressive. And that's what the exhibit is hiding.

Pennsylvania and Virginia recently passed legislation to increase their minimum wage to $15 per hour, closing the gap with Oregon ($15.55 as of July 1) and California ($17.90 in some places). In all, 34 states mandate a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. The potential economic detriments of a minimum wage — namely, job losses — are well known. But the trend toward higher and higher minimum wages ought to prompt us to reconsider their purpose. The standard assumption about progressivism is that it’s intrinsically good — after all, who would oppose progress? Progressivism...

By opening up to Western audiences and calling for a reconsideration of Islamic rhetoric and principles, Hizbullah is attempting to reintroduce itself as a representative of a moderate Islam of the future, distant from the atavism and political agendas of other fundamentalist groups. In a recent speech he gave in the Bekaa last week, the party’s secretary-general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said that it was unacceptable to make “generalizations and categorizations that would involve millions of Europeans who preceded the Islamic world in rejecting a war waged against it.” He said that opening up to millions in Europe and America should...

Each and every update about the Democratic Senate candidate in Maine somehow makes the guy seem even worse. Over the weekend, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal released verified investigative reports that Graham Platner was sexting between six and twelve women, despite being newly married. After this revelation, Platner and his wife addressed the media and said this was just gossip that is distracting people from things that matter. Unfortunately for Platner, his attempts at damage control are getting harder by the moment. We now have evidence that he created a raunchy profile on Kik, a social messaging...

“Progress! Did you ever reflect that that word is almost a new one?” asked an enraptured Woodrow Wilson in 1913. “No words come more often or more naturally to the lips of modern man, as if the thing it stands for were almost synonymous with life itself, and yet men through many thousand years never talked or thought of progress.” Instead, Wilson claims, they thought only of the past as a golden era, a time in which morality and technology were superior. “Now all that has altered,” Wilson believes. “We think of the future, not the past, as the more...

A Georgia science teacher already charged with having sex with a student in a classroom closet has now been accused of abusing five other teens, including a girl — allegedly having sex in a Hummer as well as at a golf course parking lot. Maris Nichols, 25, was re-arrested Thursday, nearly two weeks after she was first charged with sexually assaulting a student at least twice, in the school closet as well as a parked Hummer, 11Alive reported.

A "Progressive Tech Coalition" (including Apple, Google, & Roblox) has abruptly changed stance on "Age Verification" laws. Up until now, the "Chamber of Progress" has consistently opposed all laws seeking to implement age verification... but they have decided to support the Colorado "Age Verification for all Operating Systems" law.

There are, in this fallen world, many mutually contradictory terms, things like “jumbo shrimp,” “trans women,” “pregnant men” and above all, “progressive Christianity.” That’s not to suggest that political progressives can’t have at least a semblance of Christian faith, only that their secular, political faith inevitably tends to overrule Christianity, which is why many of our mainline denominations are split asunder. One side insists that God, and His Word, are eternal, everlasting, unchanging. The other side doesn’t. After all, if the Constitution is a “living” document, changeable—or ignored—at the whim of Democrats, why not God? That’s a question little asked...

“It is so hard to live ethically in an unethical society.” That lament heard this week from New York Times opinion culture editor Nadja Spiegelman could well be the Democratic Party’s epitaph. Spiegelman was interviewing two left-wing influencers about how everything from shoplifting to murder may be excusable today in light of the unfairness they see in society. “It is so hard to live ethically in an unethical society.” That lament heard this week from New York Times opinion culture editor Nadja Spiegelman could well be the Democratic Party’s epitaph. Spiegelman was interviewing two left-wing influencers about how everything from...

Small government has been a staple of American politics for decades, but that staple is finally coming loose among younger generations like Gen Z. Why? Why are Generation Z, Millennials and others REJECTING small government? This isn't just about Gen-Z being "far right," generation-z is seeking political change in the face of instability - a return toward order, tradition, security, and real power.

Speaking at UT Austin to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas urged young people to have courage and reject growing 'cynicism' and hostility in the US. (Credit: C-SPAN)

It is so refreshing to see that this week Justice Clarence Thomas called out the "new" ideology of Progressivism. Here is some what he said: At the beginning of the 20th century, a new set of first principles of government was introduced into the American mainstream. The proponents of this new set of first principles, most prominently, the 28th president of our country, Woodrow Wilson called it progressivism. Since Wilson's presidency, progressivism has made many inroads into our system of government and our way of life. It has coexisted uneasily with the principles of the declaration because it is opposed...

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas used a speech at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law on Thursday to contend that progressivism has increasingly conflicted with the principles of the Declaration of Independence, telling students that the movement cannot permanently coexist with the founding ideals of natural rights and limited government...

Rudyard Lynch, host of “WhatIfAltHist,” explains how World War I turned Western civilization against honor culture and paved the way for the bureaucratic states of the 20th century. In the aftermath of mass mobilization and industrialized trench warfare, Woodrow Wilson’s vision of the global technocracy began to take shape, coming into full force after the even greater devastation of World War II. The organic, honor-based social order of the old world gave way to a managerial system that wields power by creating its own reality.

The aggressive push for socialism in America is not just a policy debate. It is a direct assault on the American founding and the prosperity it created. Under the guise of “progress,” bloated liberals are imposing a compulsory, state-led ideology and economy that mirrors failed socialist experiments of the past. In 1988, I escaped the crushing weight of communism in Romania, trading a life of state-mandated silence for the promise of American liberty. As a political refugee, America gave me the soil to rebuild my life from nothing. But today, America’s foundation is shaking. I look at the country that...