Free Republic

There's nothing irrational about Donald Trump's appeal to the white working class, writes Charles Murray: they have every reason to be angry If you are dismayed by Trumpism, don't kid yourself that it will fade away if Donald Trump fails to win the Republican nomination. Trumpism is an expression of the legitimate anger that many Americans feel about the course that the country has taken, and its appearance was predictable. It is the endgame of a process that has been going on for a half-century: America's divestment of its historic national identity. For the eminent political scientist Samuel Huntington, writing...

Donald Trump on Friday threatened to sue Ted Cruz for "not being a natural born citizen" if the Texas senator "doesn't clean up his act" and stop running negative ads against him. "If @TedCruz doesn't clean up his act, stop cheating, & doing negative ads, I have standing to sue him for not being a natural born citizen," he tweeted. If @TedCruz doesn't clean up his act, stop cheating, & doing negative ads, I have standing to sue him for not being a natural born citizen. -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 12, 2016 Trump has previously argued that if...

Donald Trump announced Friday he raised $6 million for veterans at his fundraiser in Iowa the night before. Iowa was amazing last night. The event could not have worked out better. We raised $6,000,000 for our great vets. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) > But this would appear a significant increase from what he's given to the cause before, according to some reports which questioned whether the billionaire businessman has been a consistent donor to vet groups. Showbiz 411 reports that the Donald J. Trump Foundation gave a total of $2.6 million in charitable donations in the last three years,...

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump took to Twitter to “thank the evangelical Christians for the warm embrace [he’s] received on the campaign trail.” In his appeal to the evangelical vote just two days before the Iowa caucus, Trump posted a video on Facebook where he holds his mother’s Bible and also thanks the evangelical voting block for keeping him high in the polls. “I really appreciate the support given to me by the evangelicals — they’ve been incredible,” Trump said in the video. “Every poll says how well I’m doing with them.” He adds, “My mother gave me this Bible —...

The most politically active members of the Republican Party have warmed to Donald Trump’s bid for the party’s presidential nomination since last summer, according to a new YouGov poll, which finds 68 percent now think he could win the general election. While most surveys attempt to reflect the entire electorate, this one is the latest in a trio of polls focusing solely on Republican activists: well-informed party stalwarts who've run for or held office, served as party officials, worked on campaigns or volunteered their time before elections. They provide some insight into the role of GOP political leaders in an...

Research from the polling firm Gallup has found that Donald Trump is the "most unpopular candidate" for president in either major party - both in this election and all the way back to 1992. Trump's unfavorable rating currently stands at 60 percent, which is substantially higher than that of any of his Republican rivals. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush is at 45 percent, and everyone else is even lower: Chris Christie is at 38 percent, Ted Cruz is at 37 percent, Marco Rubio is at 33 percent, and the reliably likable Ben Carson is only at 30 percent. In the...

Last night poster IwaCornDogs on Free Republic posted what Trump's campaign is mailing to Iowans. The poster scanned the letter and you can read it at the link. The letter nicely asks for support and explains how easy it is to caucus, provides the voter's caucus location, and also a voter registration form to change their registration from independent to republican at caucus night. Probably hundreds of thousands of Iowans are receiving these letters. There are no vile scare tactics or attacks. There is no begging you for money or donations. It simply tells you how to caucus for Trump...

Of all the many things said about Donald Trump, what was said by Roger Ailes, head of the Fox News Channel, said it all in just two words: “Grow up!” It is amazing how many people have been oblivious to this middle-aged man’s spoiled brat behavior, his childish boastfulness about things he says he is going to do, and his petulant response to every criticism with ad hominem replies.

Bernie and Trump boast about inspiring new people to head to the polls but less than a week away from the Iowa caucuses, the number of registered voters has decreased in the state over the past year. If the major political parties had some trick up their sleeves to get more voters registered ahead of the Iowa caucus, it hasn't happened yet. With under a week left until people vote for the first time in 2016, the number of registered Democrats and Republicans has remained fairly static in the last six months. So the big crowds at rallies for Bernie...

As the end of the year approaches, Donald Trump is solidly ensconced at the top of the Republican polls nationally. The man just behind him? Senator Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) , an establishment bugaboo. The establishment’s favorite candidate, Senator Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) , is currently running far behind in national polling, a distant third in Iowa, and in a deadlock with Cruz and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for second in New Hampshire. Panic time. So, here’s the establishment roundup for Christmas week. If You Support Donald Trump, You Want to Lose. Earlier this week, Bret Stephens of The...

THE vice president of the United States was unhappy. In 1983, a "Conservative Digest" poll of conservatives found that 64 percent of right-leaning party leaders wanted George H.W. Bush replaced on the 1984 Reagan ticket. "Light reading," Bush scribbled across a cover sheet as he sent a copy to his friend James Baker - adding a frowning face. Reagan would have none of it - he liked and appreciated Bush. But the gulf between establishment and insurgent Republicans has only grown in the ensuing decades. The elder Bush's struggles through the years with a restive right shed light on the...

Cheri Jacobus ‏@CheriJacobus I will not vote for @realDonaldTrump under any circumstances in the primary OR general election I will write in a real Republican.

It occurred to me last night, as random strangers were tweeting this story at me, that I’ll be expected to commit ritual seppuku if Romney somehow ends up jumping into this clusterfark. Even though I have no influence over anyone, I took the joke too far. I planted the seed. And I watered it with the tears of thousands of bored readers who sat through post after post about it. All I want is a trial. I admit guilt. I just want to contest the sentence. The party establishment is paralyzed. Big money is still on the sidelines. No consensus...

Had a funny thought this morning...that is all.

FERGUSON • Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says he probably wouldn’t have used deadly force against Michael Brown, the teenager whose fatal shooting by police Officer Darren Wilson sparked a national debate on race and the role of police. Carson gave an interview to the Post-Dispatch on Friday afternoon after visiting Ferguson. When asked if he would have shot Brown if he were in Wilson’s shoes, Carson said: “It’s hard to say. I probably, knowing who he was, I probably just would have arrested him.” Carson said he would have waited for backup before having the altercation. A Justice Department...

Ah: I see that there was a Twitter exchange among Brad DeLong, James Pethokoukis, and others over why Republicans don’t acknowledge that Ben Bernanke helped the economy, and claim credit. Pethokoukis — who presumably gets to talk to quite a few Republicans from his perch at AEI — offers a fairly amazing explanation: B/c many view BB as enabling Obama’s spending and artificially propping up debt-heavy economy in need of Mellon-esque liquidation Yep: that dastardly Bernanke was preventing us from having a financial crisis, curse him. Actually, there’s a lot of evidence that this was an important part of the...

“Mitch McConnell has an unusual admonition for the new Republican majority as it takes over the Senate this week: Don’t be ‘scary.’”... Democrats are dubious of McConnell’s pledge to avert edge-of-the-cliff moments. They believe he will run into the same problems that have bedeviled House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) during the past four years — including the inability to corral rabble-rousers such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) to support an agenda that conservative critics will probably view as not bold enough in challenging Obama. Appeasing those far-right conservatives will lead to an agenda that Democrats hope to exploit in...

The Democrats? I’d rate the chances of the party reining in its extremes at below zero.

Republicans are split over whether to change the Senate’s rules to allow filibusters on executive and judicial nominations. As they head into a conference meeting on Tuesday, some Republicans say it’s time to undo a wrong committed by Democratic Leader Harry Reid and go back to rules that require 60 votes to clear most nominees. “I think it’s rank hypocrisy if we don’t,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said when asked about reversing the rule change. “If we don’t, then disregard every bit of complaint that we made, not only after they did it but also during the campaign,” he added....

Practically everyone expects California Attorney General Kamala Harris to win re-election handily in November. The Democrat won 53 percent of the vote in a crowded June primary. A rising star expected to ascend someday to the governorship, perhaps a U.S. Senate seat, Harris has won the endorsement of major newspapers in the state. She's such an attractive candidate that even though it was true, President Barack Obama had to apologize last year for calling her "by far the best-looking attorney general in the country." Yet Harris faces two unusual obstacles in the November runoff. One is Ron Gold, a never-elected...