Free Republic

Have the present-day progressives who say they admire him ever read him? The American Left has an abiding attachment to Theodore Roosevelt. Everyone from MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews to former Harvard University Press editor-in-chief Aida D. Donald keeps Roosevelt on hand as a stand-in example of a “good Republican” — invoked, perhaps, when the name of Abraham Lincoln has been outworn, and a new exemplar of “acceptable” Republicanism is needed. A “trans-partisan” figure and an original “progressive,” Roosevelt represents what the GOP could have been. But on the social issues that loom so large in the liberal Democratic mind, just...

Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States of America, 1901-1909, leader of the Republican party, and (in 1912-16) the Progressive Party. Roosevelt is best known for his remarkable personality and commitment to democratic process. He was strongly committed to law and order, active leadership, civic duty, and individual self-responsibility, and was more concerned with the process of change than its direction. A strong and vigorous man both personally and in politics, it was through Roosevelt that the world identified America with cowboy values of courage, initiative, and hardiness while it watched TR expand American influence in world...

The trouble with many of the past ratings of America's presidents is that the "consensus" has been arrived at by academics who act alike, do alike, and think alike. In the view of many, they are suspect of viewing history exclusively through the prism of Ivy League faculty lounge discourse. Alvin Stephen Felzenberg (Ph.D.) — who has taken a fresh and comprehensive look at the nation's chief executives in his book The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn't): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game — does not challenge the credentials of the conventional historians. Rather, as he explains in...

A national emergency -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: August 29, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 Creators Syndicate Inc. On Aug. 12, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson declared a state of emergency "due to a " on his southern border. Three days later, Gov. Janet Napolitano followed suit in Arizona. Reason: the crisis on the border. The ally-ally-in-free immigration policy of George Bush and Vicente Fox, beloved of corporate America, has created a hell on our southern border. Those Southwestern states are being inundated by illegal aliens trashing ranches, killing cattle, committing crimes and eating up tax dollars. The traffic in narcotics and...

What if Lincoln had lost in 1860, or if Theodore Roosevelt had won in 1912? How did Franklin Roosevelt, in 1932, and Ronald Reagan, in 1980, emerge to lead a dispirited nation? Among George Washington’s many distinctions, one of the most enduring must be that he was twice elected president unanimously and without opposition. Only one of his successors came close to that feat: the unopposed James Monroe, who, in 1820, won every electoral vote except the one cast for Secretary of State John Quincy Adams by an elector from ever-unpredictable New Hampshire. (The prickly and reserved Adams, who wasn’t...

No nationalists on Jack's 'shining hill' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: July 19, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc. "A struggle is underway for the soul of the Republican Party, between a minority of protectionist xenophobes and those who are pro-trade and pro-immigration." Thus does Jack Kemp begin a column in which he jettisons the black conservative running for Congress in North Carolina whom he earlier endorsed. Kemp accuses Vernon Robinson of "running a very negative and aggressive anti-immigration campaign ... contrary to the core values of the party of Lincoln." Jack is right about that struggle for the soul...

Out Of Sight The word "environment" often triggers a negative reaction among people who fancy themselves as conservatives. It seems to invoke hippies, tree-huggers and vegetarians in their minds. That's unfortunate. The environment, in reality, is our planet and our country. It includes not just wilderness areas, but farmlands, suburbs, cities, our own yards and our neighborhoods. Drugged by the twin deceivers — mass media and urban life — it is easy to forget that our lives and prosperity depend 100 percent on the land, its air and its water. Many urban children today have probably never seen a cow...

Why I Write These Columns: An Open Letter To Christian Conservatives By Chuck Baldwin Food For Thought From The Chuck Wagon January 30, 2004 My purpose in writing these columns is to make people think, to confront current events and trends with an intense appreciation for truth. My desire is also to awaken a lethargic population to an ever increasing societal, cultural, political, and spiritual departure from America's historic Christian roots and from a commitment to constitutional government. When I confronted the foibles and fallacies of President Bill Clinton, Christian conservatives hailed me a hero. I was deluged with congratulatory...

Mexamerica, here we come Posted: January 14, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc. Have Americans, one wonders, fully reflected on what the Bush amnesty portends for the country their children will grow up in? Consider what Bush is saying with this amnesty for 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens and his "guest workers" program to allow employers to go overseas and hire people anywhere in the world for jobs Americans will not, or cannot take at the wages offered. He is saying: I cannot defend our border. I will not enforce the laws. I will not...

Actors And Politicians There are striking similarities between successful actors and successful politicians. I've had the opportunity to observe both, and I know. Take charisma, for example. Charisma is nothing more than a high level of energy. We all instinctively recognize that energy equals life, and so when we run into people who exude an above-average level of energy, we are attracted to them, sort of like moths to a flame. Both successful actors and successful politicians have an extraordinarily high level of human energy. Except for mountain climbing, there is hardly a more grueling activity than a political campaign....

A Good-Tempered Man Several times I've heard television journalists complain that Howard Dean has to learn to control his temper. Actually, it is his temper that I find attractive. An honest man with sincere convictions will get angry when he hears lies. Some of our greatest presidents had ferocious tempers. George Washington, Andy Jackson and Harry Truman are three examples. You don't see other candidates getting angry because they are all phonies. Their so-called convictions are just campaign positions manufactured by their staffs. They don't really believe in anything except getting elected, so they really don't care what is said....

A White House meeting room that is a shrine to two presidents named Roosevelt now contains another historical artifact: Theodore Roosevelt's Medal of Honor. Tweed Roosevelt, the great-grandson of the 26th president, presented the award to President Bush Monday. It will sit on a mantel in the Roosevelt Room, next to Theodore Roosevelt's Nobel Peace Prize. The room also honors President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Then-President Clinton presented the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration, to Theodore Roosevelt's family in January 2001. Roosevelt had openly campaigned for the honor for his performance under fire on July 1, 1898, during...