Free Republic

In 2003, Senator Rick Santorum was widely criticized for making a slippery slope argument about what can happen to a society and country once we turn away from Biblical morality. A mere 12 years later the former-Senator’s prediction has come tragically true. It is only Tuesday and yet already this week Salon has published a lengthy article written by a pedophile asking for our understanding. Although he claims to have never acted on his impulses (but spent years in a chat room with those who have), the entire piece condemns society — you and I — as bigots for ostracizing...

We are Kim Davis

Out of 17 Republican presidential candidates, 4 have signed a pledge to support a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage. The pledge which would define marriage as the union between on man and one woman is sponsored by a non-profit named the National Organization for Marriage. In a press release Tuesday, the group announced the names 4 Republican candidates that have signed the pledge along with 3 that have refused to signed.

The head of Numbers USA says the Republican presidential candidate who's the strongest proponent of immigration enforcement may not be on the debate stage this week. When you listen to Rick Santorum versus the other candidates, says Roy Beck, "you want to say, Why are these other candidates not standing for the American worker and the American family?" While Donald Trump has made headlines by for pushing stronger border enforcement, it's Rick Santorum who has the highest marks at Numbers USA. In fact, the former Pennsylvania senator is the only presidential candidate of either party to score an "A" on...

Pandering Is Hard. Suffice it to say the Wisconsin governor and 2016 hopeful has a hard time explaining his views on the subject. It’s safe to say LGBT issues are not Scott Walker’s favorite conversation topic. Questions about various aspects of the gay rights debate have frequently tripped him up on the campaign trail - most recently during an interview on CNN when he was asked whether being gay was a choice. “Oh, I mean, I think that’s -- that’s not even an issue for me to be involved in,” the Wisconsin governor said. “The bottom line is, I’m going...

Businessman Donald Trump surged into the lead for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, with almost twice the support of his closest rival, just as he ignited a new controversy after making disparaging remarks about Sen. John McCain’s Vietnam War service, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Support for Trump fell sharply on the one night that voters were surveyed following those comments. Telephone interviewing for the poll began Thursday, and most calls were completed before the news about the remarks was widely reported. Although the sample size for the final day was small, the decline was statistically significant....

The latest Monmouth University Poll of Republican voters nationwide found significant bumps, both in the vote choice question and candidate favorability, for Jeb Bush and Donald Trump since they threw their hats into the rings. Bobby Jindal has made no headway since he entered the race, and Chris Christie may actually be losing ground since his announcement. Despite Trump’s surge, the poll also found that many GOP voters are not taking his candidacy seriously. When Republicans are asked who they would support for the GOP nomination for president, Jeb Bush nominally leads the pack with 15%, followed by Donald Trump...

Presidential contender Bobby Jindal will deliver the keynote address Thursday at the National Right to Life Convention in New Orleans. According to a press release containing some of Jindal’s prepared remarks, the Republican governor of Louisiana – which has been named as the most pro-life state in the nation – will blast the Republican Party “smart guys” for failing to adhere to a commitment to pro-life policies, portraying the pro-life base, instead, as a “distraction.” “The Republican smart guys in Washington see cultural issues such as protecting life as a side issue and a distraction,” Jindal plans to say. “They...

Behind every great man, there’s an incredibly astonished woman. And if you’re a Republican politician, the odds are pretty good she’s not on board with everything in your agenda. Along those lines, social conservatives have a new reason to worry about Scott Walker: Tonette Walker. In an interview with the Washington Post, Wisconsin’s first lady publicly distanced herself from her husband over the issue of gay marriage. What is more, it’s clear that Scott Walker’s views are out of step with his entire family on the issue.

Rick Santorum said he didn't like Donald Trump's "verbiage" when he called Mexican immigrants "rapists" in his presidential announcement speech, but said he was raising an important point by bringing up the effect that illegal immigration has on American workers. "While I don't like the verbiage he's used, I like the fact that he is focused on a very important issue for American workers and particularly, legal immigrants in this country," Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator and presidential candidate said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. "People who are coming illegally, obviously, are coming with a bad intent, let's just...

For many opponents of same-sex marriage, the fight has just started. While supporters of marriage equality celebrate the supreme court’s historic decision in Obergefell v Hodges, advocates for traditional marriage have redoubled their efforts to influence policymakers. But the fight takes place in an unfamiliar political landscape, one where gay marriage has become the law of the land and one of the traditional benchmarks of the social conservative cause has been rendered meaningless. No matter how ardently Republican candidates for president in 2016 proclaim that they believe marriage is between one man and one woman, the supreme court has ruled...

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum admonished his competitors Thursday for their reactions to the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, saying as president he would fight to repeal the ruling and implement a law protecting religious freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment. “Many are moving on,” Santorum said of Republican reactions to the court ruling. “Well, not me. This will not stand.” The former Pennsylvania senator gave the keynote speech at a gala for the National Organization for Marriage – a conservative organization that defines marriage as between a man and a woman – Thursday in Washington.

With the Supreme Court’s historic ruling that effectively legalizes same-sex marriage in all 50 states, the 2016 presidential candidates really have no choice today but to comment on the decision from one angle of another. Here’s what they had to say. Hillary Clinton was quick out of the gate with a personal statement, followed by a rebranding of her campaign logo that has already been retweeted more than 20,000 times:

Republican groups that support same-sex marriage want to send a message to their party's voters and candidates: We are not an anomaly. Two right-leaning groups—American Unity Fund and Project Right Side—are releasing a poll that they say shows that most voters support gay marriage, and a higher proportion of Republicans support gay marriage than measured before. ​The poll surveyed 2,000 registered voters nationally by phone this month, including 798 Republican and lean-Republican voters, along with 500 voters in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. The poll found that 57 percent of all registered voters...

Ted Cruz dominated, Rick Santorum flopped and Bobby Jindal found his niche. At the latest GOP cattle call, about a dozen presidential contenders rolled through a Washington, D.C. ballroom over a three-day period to tout their socially conservative bona fides at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference. Most of the 2016 hopefuls managed to impress evangelical and other conservative Christian voters by championing religious freedom, highlighting support for traditional marriage and stressing the importance of family and family values.

Ted Cruz offered a vigorous defense of religious liberty on Thursday at a Faith & Freedom Coalition Conference while accusing other Republicans, including presidential candidates, of taking time to "rearrange their sock drawers" when controversy over state freedom legislation arises. The Texas Senator opened his remarks offering a moment of silence for Wednesday's murder victims of Emanuel A.M.E. church in Charleston, S.C. "Today the body of Christ is in mourning," declared Cruz. Cruz argued that the issue of religious liberty will be "front and center" in the 2016 presidential campaign. "I am profoundly optimistic we are going to turn this...

Failed presidential candidate and putative GOP kingmaker Mitt Romney hosted a weekend getaway for his approved list of GOP hopefuls, complete with a dawn yoga session led by Romney’s wife Ann and political reporter Mark Halperin. The weekend offered Mitt’s chosen ones the opportunity to rub shoulders with GOP moneymen. Hardcore social conservatives, however, did not seem to be welcome. Among those missing from the event — sponsored by Romney’s son’s private equity firm Solamere — were Senator Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Governor Mike Huckabee, Senator Rick Santorum, and Dr. Ben Carson.

With this cycle’s plethora, at long last, of potentially strong Republican candidates for president, those of us on the right should be hopeful — right? Sorry, but I’m in grump mode. On multiple fronts, I don’t like what I see. Granted, some of the frustrating developments are mere satellite issues, not central to the campaign’s ultimate result. Still, they rankle. The Debates Let’s start with the much-discussed decision by Fox News and the Republican National Committee to limit the first debate to the top ten competitors as ascertained via an average of recent polls. Limiting the participants to ten is...

For Christian evangelical voters in Iowa this election cycle is an embarrassment of riches. They're having a hard time picking a candidate because, for the first time many can remember, they have several options to choose from. Nine Republican presidential hopefuls spoke Saturday at an event hosted by the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, a successor to the the now-defunct Christian Coalition. They hoped to win over supporters for the state's presidential caucus, the first major event in the presidential primary. The Iowans could not agree on who did best. "I'd like to elect all of them," said Doug Brown,...

…..at least that’s what the Washington Post believes. They had an article yesterday that described that how Governor Jindal could use State Rep. Mike Johnson’s (R-Bossier City) “Marriage And Conscience Act” to supercharge his likely presidential bid. Here’s the scenario the Washington Post describes: Following on the heels of contentious religious freedom bills in Indiana and Arkansas, Jindal said he plans to support his state’s own bill. Judging from how Indiana’s bill catapulted Gov. Mike Pence (R) to the national spotlight, Jindal could soon see the same thing happen for him — and not necessarily in a good way. But...