Free Republic

Remember John Lennon's silly song, "Imagine"? Well, here's my (much shorter) version. Imagine if some of the biggest cities in America seceded from their states. Imagine Illinois without Chicago, Pennsylvania without Philadelphia, California without Los Angeles or San Francisco, New York state without New York City, or Texas without Houston, Dallas or San Antonio. Those states would lose a major tax base and some of their best orchestras and other artistic institutions. But the gains in quality of life would completely offset any financial or artistic losses. Big cities have been and continue to be centers of destructive ideas, and...

Rising crime. Coronavirus woes. Small business closures. Higher taxes. Bipartisan displeasure with Democrat dominance of cities.  These concerns give urban residents, roughly 81 percent of the total U.S. population, good reason to flee cities for suburbs and rural localities. Sadly, Republican retreat from urban areas gave Democrats carte blanche to rule cities unchallenged for decades. Nevertheless, given the current circumstances, Republicans must and can offer a contrast to the chaos unfolding nationwide.Retreat from Cities Problematic for Party’s ViabilityIn 2000, Republican mayors dominated half of the nation’s dozen largest cities. Today, Republican mayors only oversee 13 of the 50 largest U.S. cities. City Journal noted in 2013,...

Here's what President Donald Trump tweeted about Baltimore's congressman and his city: "Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is far worse and more dangerous. His district is considered the worst in the USA." "As proven last week during a congressional tour, the border is clean, efficient and well run, just very crowded," Trump added. Cumming's "district is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help...

The Democratic Party is regional. It’s mostly confined to the urban areas and states that touch salt water. That spells certain doom for a healthy party that’s incapable of winning rural areas. It’s not impossible. They’ve done it before, though it was before the toxic ethos of political correctness and identity politics were thrown into the mix. Now, the party’s hard left turn on immigration and abortion is starting to make moderate to right-leaning Democrats, ones who can win in these regions, difficult to find, let alone support. To complicate matters, there are still healthy numbers of Democrats who think...

On Wednesday’s CNN New Day, Chris Cuomo brought on CNN commentator, author and host of BET News Marc Lamont Hill and former Secret Service agent and current candidate for congress in Florida Dan Bongino, to discuss Trump polling poorly with African-Americans. While Bongino argued that democrat run cities have failed black communities, Lamont Hill claimed that poverty and Democrat machines are connected, but that “doesn’t mean” being a Democrat makes you poor. After Cuomo brought up a new ABC News/WSJ poll that predicted only one percent of blacks would vote for Trump, he asked Bongino why Trump was unable to...

There was a remembrance march held in Ferguson, Missouri that was supposed to be peaceful in nature. It started as such but ended differently. I must first ask, why was there a remembrance march for the one year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown? Was the intention to mark how the community in Ferguson has turned the corner and made improvements to address the real issues underlying the problems in the community? I have no time to play a politically correct game but will ask, why was there a protest march to remember a young black man who assaulted...

A fortnight ago, my column focused on how Philadelphia's schoolteachers have joined public-school teachers in cities such as Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Columbus, New York and Washington in changing student scores on academic achievement tests. Teachers have held grade fixing parties, sometimes wearing rubber gloves to hide fingerprints. In some cases, poorly performing students were excused from taking exams to prevent them from dragging down averages. As a result of investigations, a number of schoolteachers and administrators have been suspended, fired or indicted by states attorneys general. Most of these cheating scandals have occurred in predominantly black schools across the...

We are now hearing the usual voices of protest in Detroit in the wake of Michigan governor Rick Snyder appointing an outside expert to take over financial management of the near-bankrupt city. Detroit is the largest city in American history to be seized in this fashion and turned over to an outside manager. Reported deficit of the city is $327 million dollars and long-term liabilities are in the range of $14 billion. But no matter to the unions, politicians, and bureaucrats who have been at the helm for years as the city has spiraled into the depths of the black...