Free Republic

I’m not a big fan of political labels. They invite people to put you in a box, and the only box I want to be in is one labeled “open-minded.” I don’t think anyone has a monopoly on the truth.But anyone who takes a look at my résumé — I worked at a top Democratic Party-aligned think tank and a left-leaning political action committee, where I helped Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats win elections — would acknowledge that over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time in the progressive movement.And yet, for the past week, the politician I find...

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) lashed out on Wednesday when she learned that Israel’s president will deliver a speech next week to the U.S. Congress. The Messenger asked Omar about the President Isaac Herzog’s upcoming speech on July 19th – to which she first expressed outrage before admitting that she had no idea he was even coming. Omar said that there was “no way in hell” that she would attend the speech, adding: “I didn’t even know he was coming.” Omar, who has a long history of spewing anti-Semitic hate, generated pushback across the political spectrum over her remarks. “She didn’t...

In at least a dozen states, Republican lawmakers have introduced bills seeking to make instruction in public schools more transparent. Pennsylvania’s bill, for example, would require public schools to post their curricula online. Democrats have largely opposed these bills, viewing them as the latest conservative salvo against critical race theory–inspired pedagogy. In vetoing the Pennsylvania legislation, Democratic governor Tom Wolf warned that the “legislation is a thinly veiled attempt to restrict truthful instruction and censor content reflecting various cultures, identities, and experiences.” Taken literally, Wolf’s statement is false. Requiring schools to be transparent about what they’re teaching does not inherently...

Donald Trump’s runaway success in the GOP primaries so far is setting off alarm bells among neoconservatives who are worried he will not pursue the same bellicose foreign policy that has dominated Republican thinking for decades. Neoconservative historian Robert Kagan — one of the prime intellectual backers of the Iraq War and an advocate for Syrian intervention — announced in the Washington Post last week that if Trump secures the nomination, “the only choice will be to vote for Hillary Clinton.” Max Boot, an unrepentant supporter of the Iraq War, wrote in the Weekly Standard that a “Trump presidency would...