Free Republic

Only if a critical mass of Americans ‘know what time it is’ will there be any hope of combating this onslaught.Democrats are seeking to land a one-two punch to cement their control of America today and for generations to come: Criminalize the political opposition and cripple the last authority to which the opposition might appeal in defense of its rights.This is one way to understand two running lines of attack that may appear independent but are inextricably intertwined.Criminalizing the OppositionThe first consists of the unprecedented, Soviet show trial-style “show me the man and I’ll show you the crime” “cases” conjured...

Last spring, the American system of government suffered a grievous blow when someone leaked the draft Supreme Court opinion that would ultimately prevail in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, overturning the infamous Roe v. Wade abortion precedent. The brazen act threatened the internal deliberative process on which the Court relies for its day-to-day functioning and spurred illegal protests outside the homes of justices. Those protests attempted to cow the justices into deciding Dobbs the way the pro-abortion mob wanted, culminating in an assassination plot against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The damage done to the Court as an institution was incalculable,...

he Biden administration's first-of-its-kind National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism codifies a federal War on Wrongthink. In sum, the document makes clear that the imposition of Wokeism constitutes a national security imperative. That is, the strategy uses public safety to justify leftist domination of both public policy and the public discourse, enforcing the regime's ideology at the point of a government gun. It comes against the backdrop of the Woking of the defense, national security and intelligence apparatuses, the executive branch more broadly and society itself, whereby those who run afoul of progressivism are deemed bigoted and dangerous—and therefore liable...

Proudly labeling Camden's transformation as the result of disbanding its police force isn't the whole story. Camden reorganized and grew its police force. Proponents of defunding or disbanding police departments are lauding Camden, New Jersey, as a model for the nation. They suggest that the rapid decline in the city’s crime since it disbanded its police department in 2012 proves the merits of their position.We can discern the truth by analyzing the policies Camden implemented after it disbanded its police department and measuring how well they worked.It bears noting up front that in spite of the heartening declines in crime...

Why has the media and much of the political establishment made the presumed murder of an Islamist Saudi dissident on Turkish soil a defining issue in American foreign policy? Jamal Khashoggi is not a U.S. citizen, despite his past residence in Virginia, nor is he a lover of liberty, despite his criticism of Saudi Arabia’s despotic regime. He previously served that regime as a mouthpiece for, and adviser to, the alleged al-Qaeda-tied Saudi intelligence leader Turki bin Faisal. Khashoggi mourned the death of Osama bin Laden, whom Khashoggi had been granted unusual levels of access for numerous interviews. Khashoggi was...

In the face of a monolithically climate alarmist academia, media and government, several courageous individuals are working to unsettle the purportedly “settled science” of climate change, arguing that carbon dioxide atmospheric enrichment provides manifold benefits for mankind, that flawed economic models are being used to justify anti-capitalist and destructive public policies, that mild warming of the planet ought to be celebrated and fighting back courageously against those who wish to chill free speech by using the law to litigate science. This is their story. Featured speakers include Mark Steyn, international bestselling author and commentator, Dr. Craig Idso, Founder Former President...

The internet represents an extraordinary opportunity for democracy. Yet despite the scientific consensus that global warming is real and primarily due to human activity, studies show that only about half the population in some countries with among the highest CO2 emissions per capita understand that human beings are the driving force of our changing climate. Even fewer people are aware of the scientific consensus on this question. Climate Feedback intends to change that. It brings together a global network of scientists who use a new web-annotation platform to provide feedback on climate change reporting. For the first time, Climate Feedback...

For the New Criterion, Ben Weingarten, commentator and Founder & CEO of ChangeUp Media sits down with Mark Steyn, international bestselling author, political pundit, cultural critic and hardened climate change dissenter Mark Steyn for an in-depth interview. During their discussion, Weingarten and Steyn discuss the chilling of free speech by the climate alarmists and their enablers in the political and legal system, the stakes of the defamation suit filed against Steyn by climate scientist Dr. Michael E. Mann over a critical blog post, why it is the scientific community that resembles a racket rather than demonized “Big Oil,” the misogyny...

The more areas in which government interjects beyond its clearly defined Constitutional prerogatives, the greater the probability that it will use taxpayer funds to support causes that violate the beliefs of large swaths of citizens. This is true on a bipartisan basis. And this brings us to one of the brilliant insights of the Founders, who created a constitutional republic as opposed to a democracy. In a republic, the rights of the smallest minority, the individual, are protected because of a limited government with negative rights. On the other hand, in a democracy we get majority rule, where 51% of...