Free Republic

The thing I like best about being a conservative is that I don’t have to lie. I don’t have to pretend that men and women are the same. I don’t have to declare that failed or oppressive cultures are as good as mine. I don’t have to say that everyone’s special or that the rich cause poverty or that all religions are a path to God. I don’t have to claim that a bad writer like Alice Walker is a good one or that a good writer like Toni Morrison is a great one. I don’t have to pretend that...

Why We Whisper by: Melinda Zosh, July 24, 2008 Senator Jim Demint (R-SC) said that unwed pregnant women should not be schoolteachers, and the media accused him of intolerance. What the media did not reveal, however, were the constituents who whispered after the cameras disappeared. “People would whisper ‘you’re right, we’re with you,’” said Sen. Demint. “They did not want to say that anything was wrong, because they know that’s hateful, wrong and politically incorrect. I notice how much people whisper.” Sen. Demint more than noticed the whispers, and he wanted his constituents’ voices to be heard. He wrote a...

Liberal Greed by: Melinda Zosh, July 24, 2008 Liberals accept cheating on taxes, cheating on their spouses and lying for their own self interests, Peter Schweizer, author of Makers and Takers, said. Schweizer spoke at the Heritage Foundation about his book focusing on “why conservatives work harder, feel happier, have closer families, take fewer drugs, give more generously, value honesty more, are less materialistic and envious, whine less…and even hug their children more than liberals.” He decided to write his book after liberals published articles about conservatives. His book is based on research conducted by non-partisan researchers at the University...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Media inquiries: contact@aipnc.com Fenton, MI – July 23, 2008 – In a statement released today by America’s Independent Party, Chairman Tom Hoefling welcomed California’s American Independent Party to the growing ranks of AIP state affiliates. Hoefling, commenting in the wake of a statement from the office of the California Secretary of State recognizing Edward C. Noonan as the rightful chairman of the American Independent Party and the legitimacy of the actions of the July 5th State Convention in Sacramento, said, “We gratefully accept the AIP State Central Committee’s decision to affiliate nationally with us. We share a...

A JAW-dropping political miracle may be on the horizon. No, I'm not talking about the second coming of the Obamessiah. I'm talking about the long-deserved comeuppance of troop-smearing, pork-feasting, scandal-tainted Democratic Rep. Jack Murtha of Pennsylvania. The 18-term congressman's challenger, staunch conservative Republican newcomer William Russell, raised nearly $670,000 in the second quarter. Earmark king Murtha scraped together a measly $119,000. Russell's underdog campaign bested Murtha without the perks of incumbency, national name recognition, big PAC donations or mainstream media support. Even more amazing: The challenger, a Desert Storm veteran and Army reservist who survived the 9/11 Pentagon attack, wasn't...

A stray cat had kittens in our yard. My wife attempted to barricade the kittens in a contained area to protect them from predators. Short of caging them, this proved impossible. The rambunctious kittens escaped my wife's protection to explore, wrestle and play. With every fall, their climbing skills improved. Mama cat taught “gecko catching 101”. Soon the kittens were supplementing their breast milk with gecko snacks. Had my wife been successful in her intrusive attempts to protect them, the kittens' growth would have been stunted leaving them ill equipped to survive. The kittens scenario illustrates the superiority and compassion...

It’s only been a week or so since Tony Snow’s passing, and I can still hear him speaking to me. Snow was an outstanding fill-in host for Rush Limbaugh a decade or so ago, and at times he seemed to be a superior host to “El Rushbo” himself. Snow explained and defended his conservative views with a clarity and skill that was as effective as it was entertaining. Like fellow Limbaugh fill-in Dr. Walter E. Williams, Snow made conservatism intellectually as well as emotionally appealing. I’m sure that he convinced some liberal listeners to reconsider their views. Cancer has not...

ALMOST anything can happen in an election year, but among conservatives, almost everyone seems to agree that no matter who captures the White House in November, the movement that has ruled the Republican Party since the 1960s and mostly dominated American politics since 1980 has lost its way. Across the spectrum of the right, writers and thinkers have turned their relentless analysis inward, a kind of political EST seminar aimed at self-transformation. Consider the case of the AEI, which last week announced that Arthur C. Brooks, a business and government professor would succeed its president, Christopher DeMuth, who is stepping...

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's statement last week that economic conditions are "skewed to the downside" was the most muted assessment of a dismal situation since Emperor Hirohito, in his surrender broadcast after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, said, "The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage." There often are, however, upsides to downsides. Furthermore, in this transformative summer, America's political argument is being fundamentally recast in two ways that will reverberate long past November. In today's Niagara of bad news, the melancholy fact that General Motors' market capitalization recently dipped below that of the Hershey chocolate company testifies to...

Address on behalf of Senator Barry Goldwater Rendezvous with Destiny October 27, 1964 This speech is a verbatim transcript of "The Speech" given as a portion of a pre-recorded, nationwide televised program sponsored by Goldwater-Miller on behalf of Barry Goldwater, Republican candidate for the presidency whom Ronald Reagan actively supported. 4,626 words Thank you very much. Thank you and good evening. The sponsor has been identified, but unlike most television programs, the performer hasn't been provided with a script. As a matter of fact, I have been permitted to choose my own ideas regarding the choice that we face...

My new book White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement places conservatism within the big picture of modern American history. The book traces the origins of modern conservatism to the 1920s. It explains why conservativism triumphed in the late twentieth century and why it is has fallen into disarray under the leadership of President George W. Bush. The review of my book in the New York Times by former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum shows that at least some diehard defenders of the Bush administration do not wish to enter into in a serious conversation about...

I think it's time to let Congress feel our election fury this November. As reflected in the latest Rasmussen Reports, "Just 9 percent (of Americans) say Congress is doing a good or excellent job." It is the first single-digit approval rating for Congress in Rasmussen's history, and it makes Bush's 30 percent approval rating seem like a stat to boast. The study went on to explain: "Just 12 percent of voters think Congress has passed any legislation to improve life in this country over the past six months. That number has ranged from 11 percent to 13 percent throughout 2008."...

Studying the Supremes Emily Miller, July 14, 2008 The media is quick to paint Chief Justice John Roberts’ Supreme Court into an ideological corner, tagging it conservative or liberal, minimalist or imperialist, unified or deeply fractured. But these overarching broad analyses reported by the press are often inaccurate, says Dahlia Lithwick, scrutinizing the Supreme Court’s 2007-8 term in a panel discussion hosted by the Heritage Foundation. Anyone who attempts to make broad conclusions about the Court’s political leaning, or predicts which way the justices will vote, does so in the way of an “optical illusion.” Lithwick explains that it involves...

I'm very saddened to learn of my friend, Tony Snow's passing from cancer, this morning. I've known Tony for more than two decades--since I was literally in junior high school, and he was an editorial writer for The Detroit News before it transformed into the Detroit Newsistan. At that time, the newspaper was actually worth reading, and under then-Editorial Page Editor Thomas Bray, Tony was a rising star as his deputy. Tony was not afraid to write very pro-Israel editorials in the face of rising Muslim and Arab whining in town. My dad introduced me to Tony's writing in the...

When Lady Thatcher revived the British economy, she was reviving profound social virtues that the British had once exemplified to the world—the Thatcherite “vigorous virtues” described above. In 1979, they seemed utterly destroyed by 50 years of statism and socialism. In fact, they had merely been driven underground by government over-regulation and intervention. As James C. Bennett has observed, it took only a few years of Lady Thatcher’s application of free market solutions for these virtues to become vigorous again. Once that happened, it took only a few more years for those revived virtues to transform Britain from the sick...

It was said of the restored Bourbon monarchs of France after the French Revolution, “They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.” The same can be said of today’s Republican congressional leadership. Many Republicans hoped that after losing their majority in the 2006 debacle, the congressional leadership would put together a reform agenda that would emphasize core conservative principles to recapture its majority. Yet those hopes have been dashed as lately it has been more of the same and voters have continued to punish Republicans with devastating defeats. It would appear that things will have to get worse before they get...

In death, Sen. Jesse Helms is being honored as a conservative hero. My question is why? Yes, the six-term senator defined right-wing political stands against communists in Cuba, Nicaragua and the former Soviet Union. Yes, he blocked international treaties that limited U.S. sovereignty. And, yes, he was masterful in his use of direct mail to stir contributions to conservative causes. But "Senator No" also created an angry, scolding, close-minded face for the modern GOP, exactly opposite to the sunny optimism of Ronald Reagan. Helms did not invite people into the party; to the contrary, he seemed to delight in excluding...

I understand the frustration of many Republicans who just can’t understand how some conservatives just can’t bring themselves to support John McCain even though Barack Obama would likely be an even worse president than Jimmy Carter.  I really do feel your pain.  However… It’s still a long, long way to election day.  Many conservatives who are saying today that they can’t vote for McCain will come around and vote for McCain in November.  Heck, I might even be one of them.  But let me warn partisan Republicans that you’ll catch more wayward conservatives with honey than you will with vinegar.For...

THE NEW YORK TIMES VS. HELMS, PART 529,876July 9, 2008 Last Friday, on the Fourth of July, the great American patriot Jesse Helms passed away. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson also went to their great reward on Independence Day, so this is further proof of God. Helms is now the second great American patriot I've always wanted to meet and never will, at least in this lifetime. The only other one is the magnificent Reagan aide Lyn Nofziger. (Wikipedia quote: "I sometimes lie awake at night trying to think of something funny that Richard Nixon said.") After a week of...

Plunging necklines blamed for plunging sales by female M&S shareholders Last updated at 19:42pm on 09.07.08  Plunging necklines have been blamed for plunging sales as Marks & Spencer chiefs today came under fire from lady shareholders.Executives faced complaints from some that its fashions are too young, offering too much cleavage for its loyal older customers.Investors have been getting worried because the value of M&S shares has slumped in recent days after the iconic high street chain revealed a fall in sales.And today at the company's AGM at London's Royal Festival Hall, shareholders lined up to offer a diagnosis of...

Since 9/11, most Western nations have, for obvious reasons, became increasingly sceptical of Christian and Muslim symbiosis. In this regard, PC Norway, PC Denmark and PC Sweden are exceptions as these small Nordic countries have continued to welcome Muslim immigrants, referring to various sorts of UN policies and UN "legislature" (an apparatus Scandinavian tax payers, to a large extent, actually uphold as many other nations have lost the interest of financially supporting and being directed by this organization). Yet, there are strong evidence Scandinavian political correctness is at an all time low.. The article: "After decades of being the noisy...

On April 4, 2008, mourners gathered at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York to memorialize William F. Buckley, Jr., who had died five weeks earlier. That same Friday, mourners one thousand miles away gathered at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis to memorialize Martin Luther King, Jr., who had been murdered there exactly 40 years before. The coincidence resonates. Drawing on exceptional rhetorical talents without ever being elected to public office, each man transformed the terrain where mere politicians clash. Buckley and King, born less than four years apart, both attained national prominence while still in their 20s. Buckley founded National...

Syndicated columnist Bob Novak, writing about the surprising number of conservatives who are backing Democrat Barack Obama rather than Republican John McCain for the presidency, captured their widespread sentiment when he quoted one "Obamacon" with impeccable GOP credentials: "The Republican Party is a dead rotting carcass with a few decrepit old leaders stumbling around like zombies in a horror version of 'Weekend at Bernie,' handcuffed to a corpse." These Obama supporters hold no illusions about Obama's liberalism, but they are so angry at the GOP, Novak writes, that they seek a "therapeutic electoral bloodbath." Thomas Jefferson argued that "The tree...

If Ronald Reagan was the sunny and optimistic face of modern conservatism, the uncompromisingly defiant exemplar of it was Jesse Helms, who died yesterday at age 86. While Reagan has undergone a revisionist makeover by many historians who now recognize his accomplishments, Helms is still the conservative liberals most love to hate. But while they still disdain his views, many liberal groups are now using their own forms of the rhetorical and campaign techniques that Helms honed to perfection. Jesse Helms was an influential television commentator in North Carolina when he decided to leave the Democratic Party, winning a U.S....

SPECIAL TV BONUS! 13 Quotes ABOUT John McCainJohn McCain doesn't even to pretend to like conservatives--unless there's an election going on. This all may be confusing to some readers: is he or isn't he? So here are 36 John McCain Quotes, plus 13 bonus quotes about McCain--to enable the reader to make up his own mind. - - - "The first thing that I would do is call in John Kerry, Bob Kerrey, Joe Biden, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry Kissinger, Dick Lugar, Chuck Hagel, and several others and say, ‘We’ve got to get foreign policy, national security issues back on...

From a description of coyotes surrounding our hero, Odd Thomas, and Annamaria in Dean Koontz' latest book, Odd Hours: ...Coyotes can sometime have a goofy charm. They are more closely related to wolves than dogs, lean and sinewy,efficient predators, but with feet too big for their bodies and ears too big for their heads, they can appear a little puppylike, at least as cute as Iran's homicidal dictator when he puts on a leisure suit and has his photo taken eating ice-cream cones with grade-school children whose parents have volunteered them to be suicide bombers.With narrow faces, bared fangs, and...

For the next hour I sat behind the glass panel of the control booth and watched Limbaugh at work in front of the “golden E.I.B. microphone.” Unlike Howard Stern or Don Imus, he has no sidekicks with him in the room. He does, however, keep up a running conversation with an unheard voice. I always assumed that this was just imaginary radio shtick. Now I saw that the voice was attached to a human interlocutor, Snerdly, who banters with and occasionally badgers Limbaugh via an internal talk-back circuit. After the broadcast, Limbaugh waved me into the studio and offered me...

I was sitting at lunch with a colleague a few weeks back, and he mentioned that he did not understand the general media hubbub over Michelle Obama's unpatriotic statements. "So she said that she hadn't been proud of America in her adult life," he said. "So what?" I answered that many Americans, rightly, were offended at the idea that a prospective First Lady of the United States was not proud of her country. "If you don't believe this is the best country on earth, don't live here," I said. "That's 'love it or leave it,'" he answered. "I don't have...

Last week, a conservative magazine reported that I would not vote for John McCain for President. The magazine based its claim on a column I had written in May 2007 about why I could not support John McCain for the Republican presidential nomination. The magazine was wrong. Though I did not support Sen. McCain in the Republican primaries, the moment he became the presumptive Republican candidate I endorsed him wholeheartedly for President Of The United States. Having not been a supporter from the outset, perhaps my endorsement of John McCain will carry more weight among conservatives who are still undecided...

There is a chasm between the GOP Party and the American people that has been created by a break-down of communication as to where the Party stands on issues relative to the good of America and the American people.

As the GOP in Congress appears about to be taking an "every man for himself" strategy for the fall elections, Gallup has just given the Republicans another gift (Americans Oppose Income Redistribution to Fix Economy). The results of this poll show that if the GOP ever gets back to preaching and adhering to the simple message that they used to have -- one that they've previously ridden to victory on -- they'd be shoe-ins in 2008. Whether or not the Republicans have cleaned their own house enough to take advantage of something like this remains to be seen. The numbers...

This is NOT an exerpt but a synopsis. AP should have no quibble This article details how Senator John McCain, in a secret meeting with Hispanic leaders in Chicago, double talked to them. He said on thing to them, but according to a very conservative Rafael Rivadeneira, a vice chairman of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Illinois, he says one thing to Hispanics at a meeting like this one, but says something totally different to white conservatives. The implication: he is a liar. No one really knows what he believes.

American Dream Revisited by: Bethany Stotts, June 18, 2008 The pursuit of happiness is an American “birthright” and should be at the center of American policy, argues Professor Arthur C. Brooks in his new book, Gross National Happiness. Drawn from international data, studies, and the General Social Survey (GSS), Brooks attempts to show that mainstream family values and morality cause Americans happiness. “I am confident in the findings in this book because multiple data sources told more or less the same story,” writes the Syracuse University professor. “The lesson in every chapter of this book is that our gross national...

Let me first say that I’ve been a long-time fan of Ben Stein as an actor, author, and commentator. I admire his entrepreneurial skills in both the academic (he holds a law and economics degree from ivy-league schools) and the entertainment worlds. His credentials as a conservative are strong in his defense of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But nobody is perfect, and in the case of Ben Stein, he has recently strayed from sound economic thinking in his ill-conceived and unrelenting attack on the rich and his recommendation that the wealthy pay a lot more in taxes....

Gordon Brown is privately ready to sacrifice the Lisbon treaty rather than allow the Irish no vote to create a two-tier Europe. Despite the Irish referendum, France, Germany and senior Brussels officials have insisted there should be no delay in implementing the European Union blueprint. But No 10 sources say the prime minister would rather see the entire constitutional treaty collapse than allow individual member states to be left trailing in a two-speed Europe. The collapse of the Lisbon treaty would take the heat off Brown as he faces down renewed calls for Britain to have its own referendum. If...

Like Davey Crocket and company at the Alamo, there are a number of steadfast conservatives who are holding out against John McCain, even in the face of what amounts to unvarnished socialism in the person of Barack Obama. Most of these individuals are committed, principled, conservatives, which means their allegiance to the Republican Party depends on the frequency and degree with which the Republican Party faithfully, fully, resolutely and competently fosters conservative ideals of governance. Quite simply, John McCain isn’t their man. Far more the maverick, compromising, bipartisan, sometimes-conservative, McCain has repeatedly raised the ire of conservatives not for his...

Sweden and the rest of the Nordic countries are definitely more "Socialist" than Hong Kong, Isle of Man and Bermuda, but especially those who claim the economic performance of the Nordic countries is evidence Socialism works ought to know that this part of the world is RAPIDLY developing into a POST-SOCIALIST economy - just like certain other parts of Europe with a much darker Socialist past like Poland, Hungary, The Czech Republic, Slovakia and many other proud nations. Nordic competence in the area of hard work and doing trade existed before 1917, before Karl Marx, before the British Empire, before...

Some folks can't get past it An instance of rejectionism of that kind occurred in a dialogue I engaged in recently on a popular conservative internet forum site. In question was an article I had written concerning significant distinctions between the views of Sen McCain and Sen Obama on some key issues. Reader: "Where are the sections on immigration and energy/global warming?" Myself: "Thank you for your reply. On the one hand the purpose of the article was that of �...examining issues on which Senators McCain and Obama differ significantly...� My perspective being that - those issues where Sen McCain...

OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself! ------------------------------------------- MODERN LIBERAL VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the...

When he calls donors to raise money for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint hears the same basic message that has vexed party fundraisers since the start of this election cycle: The Republican Party isn’t much to write home about, particularly not with a check enclosed. The NRSC, which gives money to help GOP candidates for the Senate, badly trails its counterpart, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The DSCC had raised $76.6 million and had $37.6 million on hand as of the last federal filing on April 30, while the NRSC had raised $47.9 million...

Hot Air commenters have made clear their intent to avoid contributing to Republican PACs in favor of individual contributions to conservative candidates. Senator Jim DeMint has another solution: The Senate Conservatives Fund. He will launch this new PAC today, which will focus on candidates that support conservative policies, especially on spending and federalism. DeMint wants to promote candidates that will represent all three legs of the conservative platform — strong defense, limited spending, and traditional values:When he calls donors to raise money for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint hears the same basic message that...

What Is Modern Conservatism? Part 1: A Comparison There's been a lot of talk recently about the conservative movement being "adrift." People asking where the movement "goes from here" and so forth.Blather. Conservatism is just fine. Conservatives may feel a bit unmoored lately. The GOP may have strayed from conservative principles in recent years. But the principles themselves are the same as they've always been. The same can be said of the left. Their principles remain the same too, and the contrast between our two ideologies is quite stark indeed. To wit: Never forget what you stand for. Never forget...

Since our last meeting we have been through a disastrous election. It is easy for us to be discouraged, as pundits hail that election as a repudiation of our philosophy and even as a mandate of some kind or other. But the significance of the election was not registered by those who voted, but by those who stayed home. If there was anything like a mandate it will be found among almost two-thirds of the citizens who refused to participate. Bitter as it is to accept the results of the November election, we should have reason for some optimism. For...

You don't have to agree with everything in this monumental account of politics in the 1960s and 1970s to find Rick Perlstein's "Nixonland" (Scribner, 896 pages, $37.50) interesting and even engrossing. The book is a masterful retelling of the turbulent period between the crushing defeat of Barry Goldwater by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and the equally stunning loss by George McGovern to Richard Nixon in 1972. Mr. Perlstein's use of the elections of 1964 and 1972 as ideological goalposts may be arbitrary, but it is easy to see why he selected them. Could two such different countries really be...

I was privileged to spend some time with fellow conservatives, Republicans and concerned citizens in Hershey, PA., last Friday, where I addressed the state GOP. Here's what we discussed. We are not here tonight just because we are Republicans. We are here because we know that we have the strongest, freest and most prosperous country in the history of the world, and that if we adhere to the traditional principles of the Republican Party, which are the first principles of our country, we will keep it that way. We know that we were given a country based upon certain eternal...

Academic research, as analyzed in Peter Schweitzer’s new book “Makers and Takers,” shows that conservatives are more honest and have better behaved children. At 1:13, Schweitzer does a nice job explaining why it is liberals are more apt to find cheating and lying acceptable. Hmm...conservatives have children that are much less likely to take drugs, smoke, and have premarital sex? Maybe there is something to this whole conservatism thing.

Why the Conservative Crisis? To me, Conservatism is mostly the child of Wisdom and Common Sense. But what do we do when common sense is no longer common and wisdom is no longer held in esteem? That is the current state of Conservatism in America. Slandered and slapped, belittled and maligned. Many conservative Americans are shifting nervously in their seats, unsure of what they were once sure of. The power of a constant drone of the media, academia, and even popular culture can make even the most headstrong believers hesitate. When the perception is built that almost nobody believes as...

Without a doubt, the Republican primary for California's Fourth Congressional District was the highest profile legislative race taking place in yesterday's statewide elections in California. Whether you look at how the race shaped up locally, or how it was covered Inside The Beltway, the battle between conservative State Senator Tom McClintock and moderate former U.S. Representative Doug Ose was truly looked to as an election-day indicator of where the heart and soul of the GOP was, and whether Republicans want to see change in direction that their party has taken in the United States Capitol. Despite the massive financial advantage...

George Will was on the Colbert Report last night, and he was quite good. When asked to describe the difference between liberals and conservatives (2:10), Will succinctly answers, "the difference between the truth and confusion." Well said, George.

As congressional Republicans contemplate the prospect of an electoral disaster this November, much is being written about the supposed soul-searching in the Republican Party. A more accurate description of our state is paralysis and denial. Many Republicans are waiting for a consultant or party elder to come down from the mountain and, in Moses-like fashion, deliver an agenda and talking points on stone tablets. But the burning bush, so to speak, is delivering a blindingly simple message: Behave like Republicans. Unfortunately, too many in our party are not yet ready to return to the path of limited government. Instead, we...