Free Republic

Democrats are seemingly divided on how to respond to the anti-Israel protests and encampments that have sprouted up throughout the nation, especially in the wake of the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) raid of Columbia University Tuesday night. While some Democrat politicians, like Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), have expressed thankfulness that Columbia University “chose to have the police come in and take charge,” others, like Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), slammed the police response over students “simply exercising their first amendment rights.” “The protesters at Columbia demonstrated that there are two factions of the protesters — there’s the pro-Hamas, and then...

A reboot of the Disney show "The Proud Family" is receiving backlash over a rap in a recent episode of the cartoon featuring kids singing about slavery and reparations, arguing that America "owes" black Americans because America "still has not atoned for" its systemic prejudice, racism and White supremacy. "This country was built on slavery, which means slaves built this country," the song repeatedly stated in the Disney+ episode of "The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder," which reviewed the history of Juneteenth.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) invoked Abraham Lincoln and John Lewis during her commencement speech at Brown University on Sunday, calling on graduates to help unify the country. “I urge you to bring this spirit of unity to whatever you do,” Pelosi said. “It’s no secret that you graduate in a country deeply divided socially, politically, culturally. And there’s even more dangerous factions [that] seek to dispense with democracy altogether, but graduates, you are our hope,” she added.

A plurality of Americans believe the country is more divided since President Joe Biden took office, a Monmouth University Poll released this week found. “Has the country become more united, more divided, or not really changed since President Biden took office?” the survey asked. A plurality, 48 percent, said the country has become “more divided,” compared to 15 percent who said “more united” and 35 percent who said it has “not really changed.” This serves as yet another blow for the commander-in-chief, who chose “unity” as one of his top priorities upon taking office. However, he has continued to drive...

More and more I’m hearing that the “nation is divided.” We are not. There is just a portion of the population — I’ll call them commie degenerates — who are impossible to deal with. I’ve heard several pinkos say that “conservatives just won’t have a conversation.” They are somewhat correct, but it’s not because we are afraid to debate them — it’s because they are nuttier than squirrel droppings. Trying to convince a libtard that he/she/zhim/zher/it is wrong is like trying to tell Hitler that invading the Soviet Union MIGHT not be a good idea; he won’t accept it until...

President Joe Biden lamented Tuesday that wearing a mask to stop the spread of the coronavirus had become divisive in the United States. “Masks have needlessly divided this country,” Biden said. “Masking, as directed, is a patriotic duty, but so is treating each other with respect and patience.”

There is growing worry these days about whether or not we are headed for another civil war, and whether the divisions in American society are as bad as they were in the run-up to what is still the bloodiest war in American history. In fact, there is no comparison between the divisions between Americans today and in the run-up to the Civil War. The ones today are far worse. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we are headed for a shooting war, but we certainly may be. A civil war is by definition a war between citizens of the same country,...

Although Medicare for All remains a popular proposal for progressive Democrats, many labor unions remain divided over whether the single-payer healthcare proposal would benefit American workers. Former Vice President Joe Biden and other moderate 2020 Democrat presidential candidates have attempted to cast Medicare for All as harmful to the American worker, although some labor unions have backed the single-payer healthcare plan.

We thought our politics couldn’t get any crazier, but the political divide and the breakdown in trust became even deeper after the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. When Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, we were permitted to disagree about who was telling the truth. No longer. This time you’re “complicit with evil” if you don’t believe his accusers and oppose Kavanaugh, said Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). Moral outrage has become the basic currency of political debate, with Hillary Clinton telling her supporters, “You cannot be civil,” and former Attorney General Eric Holder advising, “When they go low, we kick...

While you were fighting over who should use what bathrooms at Target, we lost our country. While you were arguing with coworkers over who would leave the country first if Trump/Clinton were elected, the “American Dream” perished. Don’t believe me? Then perhaps ALL is lost. And I can prove it all to you through the eyes of a child. The screens around our house in the past couple of weeks stand in stark contrast to what’s in front of them. The television … the laptops … the iPads … the cell phones … filled with images of the attacks around...

Many years ago, the day after an election, the American people who supported the losing candidate would coallese behind the winning candidate and America would move forward. Barak Obama and Joe Biden, along with their campaign staff and surrogates, destroyed any chance of that happening after this election because of their juvenile, snarky and condescending rhetoric to their conservative oppenents throughout the race and especially during the debates. Not only will there be no healing of the nation or coming together, there will almost certainly be an even greater effort to work against this president! The two most amazing things...

For a few moments last fall, West Oakland businessman Chris Hollis was filled with idealism as he attended Occupy Oakland's first gathering outside City Hall to protest an economic system he felt benefited the few to the detriment of the many. But within minutes, amid a mix of families and students, Hollis witnessed some participants stray from the focus on Wall Street and hurl vitriol at police. And within weeks, others would riot through downtown - and then justify their violence. "In an insanely short amount of time, they managed to turn what was basically a great movement for everybody...

It hardly took another study for people to know that political polarization in this country is deeply embedded. Still, a report issued Monday, June 4, by the Pew Research Center paints a particularly stark portrait of a nation in which the most significant divisions are no longer based on race, class or sex but on political identity. For 25 years, Pew has been conducting regular surveys assessing American values. They provide a series of historical benchmarks by which to examine the changes in what binds people and what divides them. The latest report finds considerable continuity over that quarter-century in...

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's decision to give a second response to President Obama's State of the Union -- after the official GOP response -- draws fire and revives talk of Republicans as split into mainstream and 'tea party' factions. CNN's decision to televise her critique also is criticized. If Michele Bachmann had hoped to introduce herself to America as a potential candidate for the White House -- well, it could have gone better. First was the small controversy the Minnesota congresswoman sparked by accepting an invitation from a "tea party" group to provide a second response to President Obama's State...

For quite a while now, I have been thinking that the United States is in much bigger trouble than many people even imagine. There is a spiritual and ideological divide in our country that cannot be bridged. And since Barack Obama invaded the White House, that divide has grown even wider and has firmly cemented itself in the heart of America. Over the weekend I read Patrice Lewis' column titled, "A House Divided." Mrs. Lewis writes a weekly article for WorldNetDaily, and I enjoy reading her pieces. She is a "real" woman, grounded in truth and love of our country....

Bill Bennett and Seth Leibsohn don’t mince words on NRO: “Allowing the running down of a part of the United States by the head of a foreign government, at the White House, standing next to the president — who not only didn’t challenge him, but encouraged him — is a foreign- and domestic-policy catastrophe.” I couldn’t agree more with them, or with Mona Charen and Michelle Malkin, who’ve written forcefully about the absurdity of entertaining commentary on our immigration enforcement (or lack of same) from Mexico. That would be the same Mexico that enforces its immigration laws with the very...

Dear Congress, Based upon the behavior and the circumstances of Barack Obama's election, it has become increasingly obvious that Barack Obama has loyalties and allegiences to foreign powers and foreign ideologies. Based upon both dishonest public statements and a failure of Obama to produce authentic documentation of his elgibility to hold public office, I pray for relief from this executive branch led by an avowed marxist.

After a nearly 40-day recess that was anything but restful, House Democrats are returning to work Tuesday still unsettled over pending health-care legislation and sure only that the people have had their say. They are in almost the exact position they were in when they left the Capitol in late July. Conservatives are still leery of supporting a government-funded, or public, insurance option. Freshman lawmakers from suburban districts remain fearful of increasing taxes for their wealthy constituents to pay for the new measure and await alternatives from moderate Senate Democrats. And progressives, who are demanding the most far-reaching reform since...

For those of you with a partisan bent, I have some bad news: Our federal government may work better (less badly) when at least one chamber of Congress is controlled by a party other than the party of the president. The general reason for this is that each party has the opportunity to block the most divisive measures proposed by the other party. Other conditions, of course, also affect political outcomes, but the following types of evidence for this hypothesis are too important to ignore: Point One. The rate of growth of real (inflation-adjusted) federal spending is usually lower with...

There are a couple of data points worth keeping in mind as we await President Obama’s address to the nation tonight - and as we digest an aide's claim today, as Jake Tapper reports, that his strong approval rating is "earned." One, while his rating is high, it’s also dead average for a new president. The other is the impressive partisanship beneath it.