Free Republic

How close America came to being officially pro-Moscow. Reprinted from Spectator.org. How many ways have progressives worked with the Kremlin over the years? The examples are legion. When I was researching my book Dupes, the biggest challenge was sifting through all the self-described “progressive” individuals or organizations to figure out which were closet communists cloaked as liberals, and whether they collaborated with Moscow. When Congress in 1961 published its major investigation of communist front-groups, titled, “Guide to Subversive Organizations and Publications,” one of the most popular title listings in the massive index was “Progressive.” Progressive here, progressive there, progressive everywhere. In...

Have you ever asked yourself why Progressive activists demonstrate so much compassion for illegal immigrants they have never met while treating fellow citizens that disagree with them so badly? The truth is they have little compassion, It is but an act. They are actually hate-filled misanthrops, full of rage. Progressive activists exhibit the stereotypical virtue signalling, false compassion and rage of a pathological narcissist. True compassion isn't situational. Kind people are kind to everyone, they don't profess how much they care about illegal immigrants they have never met while calling their fellow citizens racists and Nazis. Narcissists are pathologically driven...

For this week's Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast, I had legendary classical liberal legal theorist and longtime professor at University of Chicago Law School and now at NYU Law, Professor Richard Epstein, on the podcast to discuss among other things: The role that Professor Epstein's famous book, "Takings" played in Justice Clarence Thomas' confirmation hearing -- and then-Senator Joe Biden's hectoring Professor Epstein's groundbreaking theories on private property rights, eminent domain and the Takings and Commerce Clauses The practical argument against progressivism Whether we should deconstruct the administrative state, and if so how to do it The danger to...

San Francisco’s homeless problem, drug epidemic, and lawlessness proves how liberal progressive politicians and big government fix to all problems only exacerbates existing issues. The blue model has failed spectacularly in the liberal bastion of San Francisco. In one of the most beautiful cities in the world, residents and tourists alike are disgusted by what the city has become. Conventions, most recently a Chicago-based medical association, are deciding to not go to the city by the bay due to aggressive panhandlers, human waste on the street, used needles on city sidewalks, and drug use in broad daylight. More than $500...

[snip] I wish the Supreme Court were less important. But right now, it's one of the only institutions preserving constitutional order. And that's why the left is about to go nuts again.

In the last several days I've had four different people in discussions about what is going on with cigar regulations. For whatever reason, this story has people talking. On the surface, that's great. The devastation that government regulation wreaks upon our society normally goes unnoticed. But my answer to solve the problem is one that nobody ever considers: Abolish the Food and Drug Administration. And I know what thoughts people have in their minds because I can see the look of surprise on their faces: "But what about our food?" "what about drug safety?" These and other questions just like...

I like how the constant harping and carping about tariffs these days gets invoked together with fearmongering about Smoot Hawley and the Great Depression. What is missing? The Revenue Act of 1932. After the 1929 crash there was a small tax cut, but this was overshadowed by Smoot Hawley just months later. In the middle of bad economic times, you simply don't raise taxes, and yes, a tariff is a tax. But let's get to the meat of the numbers, shall we? The Revenue Acts of 1918 and 1921 had a top tax rate of 73%. The Revenue Act of...

Dear America, the societal left has declared war on you.While you’ve been busy enjoying your new jobs, improved wages, lower taxes, and less government interference in your life the left has decided that all of those things are immoral. They must be undone. And those who enjoy them must be made to understand that they are not good American citizens, but some sort of participant to hurt others. They would love to say it makes you a racist, except that African Americans and Hispanics are enjoying the best economy they’ve ever known in American history. They would love to say...

Last month, Professor Bret Weinstein gave testimony before Congress on his experience at Evergreen State College and what he believes it means for our future as a nation. Weinstein posted video of his testimony on YouTube last week (see below). Here’s a bit of what he said: Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the day that 50 Evergreen students–students that I had never met–disrupted my class, accusing me of racism and demanding my resignation. I tried to reason with them. I felt no fear because I knew that, whatever my failings might be, bigotry was not among them… The...

In his book "Progressive Democracy" (1914), Herbert Croly wrote the following: (page 29) As in the case of every great political edifice, the materials composing the American system are derived from many different sources, and are characterized by unequal values, both as to endurance and as to latent possibilities. The appearance of definiteness and finality which it derives from its embodiment in specific constitutional documents and other authoritative words is to a large extent illusory. Its real origin and meaning are very much more doubtful and complex than these words intimate. Historians are no more agreed as to the former...

Because they view President Trump in these extreme terms, progressives view themselves not as violent extremists, but as "the resistance."  But resistance implies that there exists something worthy of resisting.  The progressive resistance began just seconds after Trump was declared the victor on election night.  The resistance was not engendered by anything Trump had actually done.  It was just a refusal to accept any candidate who varied from the left's own line of thinking. That sort of reaction, reminiscent of what happened with the election of George W. Bush, is a dangerous turn in American politics.  It implies that the left refuses to accept any...

(Skip) Nothing could be further from the left’s current vision, which is that the very concept of post-racial integration is an illusion designed to mask the reality of an eternal “white supremacy.” ... there is no recovery from the original sin, no possible redemption, and certainly no space for the concept of an individual citizenship that transcends race and can unite Americans. There is no freedom here. There is just oppression. The question is merely about who oppresses whom. The idea that African-Americans have some responsibility for their own advancement, that absent fatherhood and a cultural association of studying with...

If you love the United States Constitution, then by definition you love government. That's what the Constitution does. It creates a government. What we as Tea Partiers do not love is progressivism or any other movement and/or ideology that seeks to pervert the Constitution and build government that will control every aspect of our lives. Loving government doesn't mean loving big government. We do not love big out of control bloated disrespectful government. But anti-government means anarchy, and Tea Partiers are not anarchists. Anarchists do not love the United States Constitution. This is ground where we cannot under any circumstances...

“Open Mic” night May 2 at the SUNY Oswego Lifestyles Center turned out to not be so open after all. Taking the title at face value, conservative student Nicole Miller gave a speech about liberal intolerance on campus and — wait for it — got put on warning for making other students “uncomfortable.” The school’s Alcohol and Other Drugs Program coordinator, Trisha DeWolf, emailed Miller to say that if she did it again, she’d be banned from future open-mic events. (Kudos to the website Campus Reform for publicizing the remarkable missive.) While insisting she was “in support of [Miller’s] freedom...

Has it? In case you didn't notice, Representative Bill Foster believes in word substitution and the living and breathing constitutional doctrine. He said: It always has been up for reinterpretation. The technology changes, and the weapons thought to be too dangerous to be in private hands change. A civil war cannon is frankly much less dangerous than weapons we are allowed to carry on the streets in many of the states and cities in our country today. This is something where technology changes and public attitude changes and both are important in each of the generations. Of course, if one...

<p>She is a nice lady who wrote me a nice email in which she spoke about the need to try to understand Donald Trump’s supporters. As Rose put it, “We need to not close ourselves off to how the other side thinks.” It’s a sentiment I hear a lot from progressives, and it bespeaks a great generosity of spirit.</p>

Updated 23 minutes ago Pittsburgh's monument to native son Stephen Collins Foster has returned to its old stomping ground. A Department of Public Works crew removed the controversial statue of the Antebellum songwriter known as the father of American music early Thursday from Forbes Avenue in Oakland and hauled it by flatbed truck to a facility in Highland Park. The city will store it until officials find it a permanent home. The 1,000-pound, 10-foot-high bronze statue stood at the entrance to Oakland's Schenley Park for 74 years after the city moved it from its original location near the entrance to...

The progressives and Herbert Croly’s idea is that we must reject our history and recognize and rally around the views of the elite. Croly tied historical progress with material egalitarianism and wanted to regulate the distribution of wealth. Progressivism emphasizes social engineering and centralized government. This is why you have a war on our culture, because there is no eternal moral order.

We’re back to this crap again. Progressives freaking out that a Chick-fil-A opened in New York City because Christians are creepy. First of all, it’s a delicious fast food chain. Two, because progressives hate it—you know it’s great. Feminist writer Jill Filipovic fired off red flares, warning fellow New Yorkers not to give the fast food chain their business. Of course, she got a backlash, in which she decided to mock her trolls saying they couldn’t spell “Chick-fil-A.” Don't give your money to bigots who stand against everything that makes your town the best in the world (diversity, ambitious women,...

Jonah Goldberg has a new book coming out next week and today National Review published a lengthy piece adapted from the book. There’s a tremendous amount to unpack in this piece so I won’t even try to do it justice in a single blog post, but there is an idea here that really struck me as insightful and worthwhile: Conservatism is a form of gratitude. There’s a foundation to this idea. According to Goldberg, we’re living through a historical “miracle” brought about by the triumph of liberal-Democratic capitalism. On any longer time scale, Goldberg points out, our current lives are...