Free Republic

The New York Times does not want you reading Samuel Johnson. You should read Samuel Johnson. Here is what you will find toward the end of the work: (source) Far be it from any Englishman, to thirst for the blood of his fellow-subjects. Those who most deserve our resentment are, unhappily, at less distance. The Americans, when the stamp act was first proposed, undoubtedly disliked it, as every nation dislikes an impost; but they had no thought of resisting it, till they were encouraged and incited by European intelligence, from men whom they thought their friends, but who were friends...

Nothing is stranger than the contemporary American university. Not long ago, Americans used to idolize their universities. Indeed, in science, math, engineering, medicine and business, many of these meritocratic departments and schools remain among the top-ranked in the world. Top-notch higher education explains much of the current scientific, technological and commercial excellence of the United States. After World War II -- won in part due to superior American scientific research, production and logistics -- a college degree became a prerequisite for a successful career. The GI Bill enabled some 8 million returning vets to go to college. Most graduated to...

Good Evening,And WELCOME To The Constitutional Great One,Mark Levin!

The Need for a Mandatory National Service Program By Steve Cohen April 2021 Proceedings Vol. 147/4/1,418 COMMENTARY FacebookTwitterRedditEmailShare COMMENTS The United States has a history of big, bold initiatives. Americans as individuals, however, have largely forgotten them. The New Deal is barely taught in school, most students do not understand why the United States fought World War II, and the Apollo space program might be remembered as an okay Tom Hanks film. Yet, big challenges and ideas have been at the core of American exceptionalism—itself a barely-remembered concept—since the founding of the Republic. Today, in the shadow of a devastating...

One of the larger myths of progressivism is that they are heralds of liberalism. In order to justify this, they have had to do two things: (both of which, sadly, have been successful) 1) Paint the picture of Enlightenment > Founders(Liberals) > Abolitionists > Feminists > Progressives 2) The hijacking of the word liberal In order to justify their own existence, progressives have sent out their historians over the last several decades to manufacture this concept of progress and tie it all together in a very disorderly and quite frankly, convoluted way. #1 is really the big meme, and the...

It wasn't even close. The final count was 1,798 against and 738 for, 71% to 29%. The issue in question was whether the employees at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, wanted to be represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Not, as The Washington Post, owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, put it: a contest of "Big Tech vs. its workers." The workers weren't one of the adversaries; they were the judges, and 71% of them decided -- contrary to media coverage and despite nudges from President Joe Biden -- not to choose the union. That has...

There have been four modern revolutions of consequence: America (1775), France (1789), Russia (1917), and China (1949). Only one led to freedom. The Left is intent on making it zero. We have been witnesses to the gradual suicide of our culture, self-government, and freedom, which is happening at an accelerated rate.Ideas have consequences. Our western culture and popular worldview has been influenced by reductionists, materialists, and relativists like Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci and Charles Darwin. Their ideas bore within themselves the seeds of their own destruction but not without cost to countless millions. The...

I have obtained a copy of all the materials regarding the sudden new threat of “Extremism” used for training in the United States military. Throughout the services, service members have been shocked at the Biden blitz to root out ideas and people who stand in the way of the administration’s transformative agenda. One individual in the training told me, “The military is one of the last institutions left that hasn’t been radicalized by the progressives. That’s why it is being targeted now.” All personnel are being subjected to a PowerPoint presentation packed with progressive ideology and misstatements of the Constitution....

So, you believe in science, eh? Excellent, so do I. At the core of this science-thinking is the acceptance of the fact that there is reality. Thus, there are a finite number of things which are true and an infinite number of things which aren’t -- and our beliefs, opinions, and desires have no impact on this. All “science-folks” accept these as rather self-evident truths -- yet many of these same people also profess to holding liberal views -- even though modern progressivism is premised on many things which simple aren’t true -- which contradict reality. This isn’t a political...

Let’s stop kidding ourselves. The political frippery over race has nothing to do with race. Black oppression in today’s America is fiction. The growing snarls against “whiteness” come more from Cain-and-Abel stuff: envy, hatred, revenge, arrogance, blame, guilt, and greed. Few groups understand this like the Jews. They’ve been hated by one group or another since Pharaoh enslaved their Hebrew ancestors over 3,500 years ago. But the pharaohs are gone. The Assyrian Empire that destroyed Israel’s northern kingdom in 722 B.C., is gone. The Philistines and Babylonians are gone. Haman, who asked the King of Persia to kill all Jews...

A little over a month ago I asked the question: Progressivism in culture: Where are progressives the weakest?. To recap, here are those cultural items: MediaAcademia/universitiesHollywoodGovernmentSportsProtesting (Not rioting)Religion/ChurchesSocial mediaK12 schoolsCorporationsTechTalk radioScienceLawHistoryA few were added by suggestions, those are italicized at the bottom. I added the last item, which is the subject of discussion here. One of the things I have noticed is how few conservatives engage in history and specifically American history. American history is naturally conservative. The concepts and the reasons for why people did things to get out from under the thumb of authoritarianism and most importantly, the...

Since this is something progressives want and need, we should favor abolishing it. Government must not recognize corporations, they are not within the scope of the United States Constitution anyways. In the book The Promise of American Life, Herbert Croly (Founder of The New Republic) wrote the following: (These are all from chapter 12 section 2, The Recognition of Industrial Organization) The constructive idea behind a policy of the recognition of semi-monopolistic corporations, is, of course, the idea that they can be converted into economic agents which will make unequivocally for the national economic interest; and it is natural that...

What is in a word definition? For example, when you say you love your country, what's embedded in that? What does that mean? For me, the 51 constitutions of the states and the U.S. Constitution come to mind. That's not at all what comes to mind to a progressive. If you actually listen to the progressives, they'll tell you. In May of 1918, Theodore Roosevelt wrote the following: Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public officialYou've seen this quote before. You may have even used it yourself....

Trump’s election didn’t trigger what we see today; it was, instead, the culmination of more than 50 years of leftist attacks on America. Leftists blame Trump for the chaos we see now, while people who don’t strongly support Trump wonder if the leftists have a point. They don’t. What we’re seeing now is the culmination of more than 50 years of leftist attacks on America’s social and political fabric. Public schools pump out millions of inculcated teens every year and universities graduate millions of brainwashed young adults every year. In time, they have taken their places in society and the...

There's a rather uninteresting article over at National Geographic that puffs up rioters and sculptors. The real issue though is a little bit deeper than that. American history is in fact naturally conservative. It's anti-statist, pro-individual, and and based on Judeo-Christian principles. Why so few conservatives play in this arena is beyond me given the natural advantages, but it is what it is. The fact is, conservatives gave history to the progresives. Ever since Charles Beard started propagandizing the Founders with his 1913 "Economic Interpretation" (reinterpretation) of the Founders, the Progressives have set out on a century's-long journey to first...

I remember how over a decade ago, it was fashionable to point out "the media never tells the good news" of what our soldiers were doing over in Iraq. What did we get? Here's what we got every day: 10 US soldiers killed....... 3 US soldiers killed...... 10 US soldiers killed...... car bomb wounds 18 US soldiers....... attack leaves US soldiers....... 8 US soldiers killed.... This is no different than how the media covers Covid. You ever heard about the falling percentage rate? I know I haven't. What are we hearing? Covid kills 50......... State of New York sets record...

We may be condemned to repeat the hangover from still another Socialist inebriant. Philosopher Georges Santayana would be rueful that yet another generation may well fall prey to the truth of his famous maxim. Yet, today’s inhalers of Keynesian hot air—the AOCs, the Sanders’ acolytes, and Bidenites sworn to progressivism—all think the crazy stuff of yesterday’s fools failed only because smart people like them didn’t control the levers of power. Author Amity Shlaes has recently given us Great Society, in which she reminds us that the economic distortions of yesterday’s “experts,” beginning with those on Kennedy’s New Frontier, season the...

The presidential election of 1912 reflected a time of party division and booming progressivism in partisan politics, as former President Theodore Roosevelt led a robust movement of Republicans who opposed reflexive conservatism. Roosevelt, who served as president of the United States from 1901 to 1909, dove into a vigorous presidential campaign for the Progressive Party, or Bull Moose Party, advocating against President William Howard Taft and his leadership. Taft’s presidency triggered Republican party division, prompting Roosevelt to form the Bull Moose Party, a political faction within the Republican party, and made Roosevelt become a prominent third-party candidate on the presidential...

Kayleigh McEnany Retweeted These Tweets were less than 11 hours apart. The coronabros are complete and total hypocrites. pic.twitter.com/ImHYol0no7— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) November 8, 2020

Embattled Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said Thursday she understands the “angst and fear” Chicagoans feel after two devastating rounds of looting and a 50% surge in homicides and shootings, but her “social agenda” is not responsible. Foxx said “everything is on the table,” including the possibility of reversing or modifying her controversial decision to raise the felony threshold for shoplifting offenses — from $300 to $1,000. Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), whose downtown ward was devastated by two rounds of looting, bolted from the Democratic Party this week to endorse Republican Pat O’Brien. Reilly complained about Foxx’s failure to...