Free Republic

Writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper is a great way to spread the word about the COS Project. These letters are read by hundreds of people, and it doesn't take long to write them up and send them in. If you want to help the COS Project, this is the place to start! Here are a few tips for crafting the perfect letter: A letter to the editor doesn’t make news—it comments on news. Try to craft your letter around a recent event or, better yet, a previous article. Skim the newspaper’s online archives to see...

How did the once-sovereign states become wards of Washington? They did it to themselves. State politicians came to recognize that they would benefit from a more powerful national government. As scholars like Michael Greve and Todd Zywicki have shown, state actors helped to break down the original constitutional system of "competitive federalism," which kept government limited as states competed with each other to attract business and labor. In its place they contrived a parasitical "cooperative" or "cartel" federalism, in which states extract wealth from each other through the federal government. The first and most important steps came in 1913, when...

Democrats just love democracy. Who could possibly oppose it? Didn’t progressive icon Woodrow Wilson tell the nation that its purpose was to make the world safe for democracy? What reasonable person could be against all power to the people? I am, and I am in good company. Our Framing generation had a short, yet sufficient experience with overly democratic state governments to figure out that majoritarian abuse of minorities was just as harmful and dangerous to freedom as the executive tyranny of George III. Benjamin Rush famously said that while the constitutions of 1776-1777 barred the front door to executive...

Here is a response from Florida State Senator Alan Hays regarding last Saturday's Mount Vernon Assembly. "We discussed the process of bringing the Article V convention into reality and agreed to meet next year at a time yet to be determined due to the need to meet when state legislatures are adjourned or in recess. That will assure more participation. We also discussed a possible resolution to go to each state requesting their legislatures establish a selection process for delegates to be attending an Article V. Convention." "We recognized the need for wide communication to the public of our work....

The principles America was founded on have paved the way for the freedoms and privileges each citizen is thankful for today. At the heart of conservatism, is the recognition that many of these founding ideals are worth fighting to preserve. In the words of John Quincy Adams: "Posterity--you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." So in the spirit of preserving today’s blessings for tomorrow’s Americans, let’s take a look at ten things the Founding Fathers would be fighting against in the 21st century....

Fed up with Washington? Angry that elections don't seem to matter when it comes time to solving problems? Disgusted by the polarization that puts politicians' careers ahead of taxpayer interests? Frustrated because you don't think anything can be done about it? Indiana State Senator David Long (R-Ft. Wayne) has experienced all of these feelings, but has chosen not to accept the status quo. He has a plan for returning power to the people where the Founders wanted it to reside. Long is promoting an unused section of the U.S. Constitution as the ultimate check on big government. Article V provides...

Frustration with the federal government is nationwide. From Maine to California, folks are fed up with Washington’s health care “reform,” immigration “reform,” financial “reform,” and countless other missteps. But these issues are mere symptoms. The disease runs much deeper, right to the heart of the American system of government. The shutdown, for example, was the result of an issue much larger than the health care debate. As Colorado State Senator Kevin Lundberg explains, the shutdown was caused by a disregard for one of the most important concepts in American government: federalism. Federalism is a political structure in which power is...

The solution to America’s political problems reside within the American tradition. The answer is right in front of our noses. First, if one thinks, as the dimwitted commentariat does, that the problem is bickering between the two parties, the answer is simple. Eliminate political opposition. Destroy one of the belligerents, and the party left standing will rule without discord. That is Obama’s operandi, and he is well on his way to establishing de facto one party rule. OTOH, patriotic Americans see the problem as an undivided government in Washington DC rapidly eroding freedom. Our Fabulous Framers knew that who one...

As opposed to what the Left believes, the purpose of government is not to impose social justice. As often happens, that was forgotten in Scotus’ 1964 Reynolds v. Sims ruling. Citing a non-existent “one man one vote” principle, eight Warren Court black-robes ruled that state legislative districts must be of approximately equal populations. Through a rogue interpretation of the equal protection clause, these masterminds imposed a democratic republic form of government on all fifty states! Never mind the constitution simply guaranteed a republican form of government, Scotus illegally overruled centuries of wisdom and imposed democracy. Republics demand consent of the...

Defunding Obamacare is a great idea and I'm not just saying that because I was the first one to promote the concept in March of 2010. Back then, the GOP Leadership agreed with me with no arm twisting required. John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Cathy McMorris Rodgers all vowed to defund Obamacare if the GOP took back the House. Today, it's finally going to happen, but only because Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have forced the GOP to stand up and fight. That being said, it is admittedly unlikely that Barack Obama will agree to defund Obamacare. To make that...

Before the Left came to dominate K-12, I learned in high school social studies that patriots risked their lives and property for eight years to avoid the expense of a few percent in stamp, sugar, or tea taxes. What rubbish. Review our Declaration of Independence. It complains of George III’s abuses, usurpations, despotic and tyrannical intents, veto of our laws, suspension of our assemblies, appointment of judges loyal to him alone, and creating multitudes of offices to control us. In the decade beginning with victory over the French and Indians, George III was determined to influence thirteen colonial legislatures as...

Like a modern day Patrick Henry, Mark Levin may have sparked a revolutionary train of events. The Liberty Amendments rationally examine where we are, where we are headed, and what must be done to restore our once federal republic. Fussing and fuming at FR, demanding the political head of Boehner, electing conservatives, etc., are all necessary but demonstrably insufficient to check our death spiral into despotism. Those who profit so well from the system they corrupted have no interest in reform. The key to restoration resides with us, the sovereign American people. What follows is a letter I sent in...

The annual meeting of the National Governors Conference is underway in Milwaukee, WI. Scheduled meeting topics include employment for people with disabilities, health care changes, the National Guard, water infrastructure needs, comprehensive federal tax reform, education, homeland security, prison reform, cyber-security. Governors will also meet in private, off-the-record settings, where I presume the substantive, real discussions will take place. As a sort of sister organization, the National Conference of State Legislatures will meet next week. Navigating the Affordable Care Act, helping military veterans find jobs, improving the election process and regulating drones are among the wide variety of topics state...

There were times this past week when it seemed like the 19th-century Know-Nothing Party had returned to Washington. President Obama insisted he knew nothing about major decisions in the State Department, or the Justice Department, or the Internal Revenue Service. The heads of those agencies, in turn, insisted they knew nothing about major decisions by their subordinates. It was as if the government functioned by some hidden hand. The growing dominance of the federal government over the states has obscured more fundamental changes within the federal government itself: It is not just bigger, it is dangerously off kilter. Our carefully...

Picture in your mind’s eye a day when GOP senators ignore the only slightly veiled public threats of Obama, and the rants of a corrupt media. Imagine a Democrat senate judiciary committee chairman who privately, quietly lets the president know that any nominee with the slightest history of opposition to the 10th Amendment will be rejected for a seat on the federal bench. These are all possible. Among the senate’s unique duties is that of consenting or not to presidential secretarial, judicial and ambassadorial nominees. As opposed to what the left-media and Dingy Harry would have us believe, the senate...

In an American Thinker* column today, Bruce Walker posited that just as America long ago overcame British tyranny, she will overcome the evil Left that infests our government. Here, I join in support of his theory, that American good will eventually overwhelm evil. To do this, many conservatives must go beyond the heartfelt belief that electing fellow conservatives alone will restore republican freedom. Electing only Godly, virtuous people to office is the ideal. While no republic can survive a government of crooks, it is unreasonable to expect all angelic politicians any more than our society at large was ever composed...

On Mark’s nationally syndicated show last night, he revealed the thrust of his soon-to-be launched Liberty Movement. He described once again how reform will not emerge from the men and women of the institutions responsible for the fast approaching demise of our society and republic. If reform is to occur, it will only emerge from us, the sovereign people, the foundation of legitimate government. The vehicle for that reform will be the states, and the tool of reform is the constitutional amendment process of Article V. He emphasized that neither of the two amendment processes of Article V provide for...

This is fantastic. For the first time Mark Levin begins to discuss his much awaited new book, The Liberty Amendments, and describes a process we can use to turn back the tide on this leviathan of a federal government we have. And the federal government will have no say about it.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time these past few months researching and noodling the cause and effect of the one hundred year old 17th Amendment. I’m especially excited that Mark Levin’s upcoming book will address, certainly among other topics, the horrible 17th and what to do about it. Consider the awful lot of today’s typically abused senator. He or she is pulled this way and that by hundreds of interests. Every competing interest has its hands out for tax subsidies, special legislative carve outs, or both. Since constitutionally enumerated powers long ago went the way of the dodo bird,...

As his fans know, Mark finished another book. Every night it seems, he wants to bust out and talk about it, but his publishers have put the ixnay on too much disclosure. Still, he shows a little leg now and then. That happened yesterday, in the first hour of his show. Mark Levin: I want to explain an aspect of this that hasn’t been discussed. We have United States Senators, and we have for a hundred years, since 1913, . . . and the 17th Amendment, which I believe must be repealed. We now have individuals in the US Senate...