Free Republic

American electoral politics suffers from wildly unrealistic expectations about the power of elected officials — especially the president — to determine the nation's economic performance. The American economy is not managed in any real sense: It is, by and large, a free-market system operating within a complex global marketplace. Of the forces that affect our economy, far more are outside the president's control than are within it. And to the extent a president can shape the economy, the effects of his decisions will often become apparent only after he leaves office. Still, there is no getting around the importance of economic issues to voters,...

The political right communicates wrong(ly). The depressing spectacle of Barack Obama inaugurating a second term should not obscure this truth: Conservatives win on issues. They lose in elections because they don’t know how to frame the choices, even on those many issues on which the majority of the public is in their corner. Consider the most recent poll numbers. Gallup on abortion: “Would you consider yourself to be pro-choice or pro-life?” Answer: 50 to 41, pro-life. Gallup on whether government “is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses” or instead “should do more...

When thinking of Canada, I strongly doubt that the first thing to pop into most people's heads would be "bastion of political conservatism". Yet in this liberal country, prime minister Stephen Harper has carved out an impressive reputation as one of the world's most successful centre-right leaders. Through two minority Tory governments (2006 and 2008), and since May 2011 at the head of a majority government, Harper has balanced strong leadership with a confident domestic and foreign policy agenda. Canada may be a middle power, but our prime minister will accept nothing less than a seat at the top table.

Here’s an excerpt from a letter I received the other day from a college professor: “….throughout this election I discussed with students the differences between ideologies. The majority of them are on federal financial aid. They are fine with more taxes as long as they will be taken care of. It is disturbing to hear that they are willing to spend their own money on tattoos and cell phones but cannot buy the book for class until the financial aid comes in.” For those who see social conservatism as an annoyance and argue that Republicans must purge this agenda from...

On November 7,  Andrew Klavan called upon conservatives to commit intellectual and financial resources to end the domination of liberal thought in our culture coming from academia, entertainment, and mainstream news. I would add that it would be a smart move to circumvent or leapfrog the current liberal framework and not waste time and money trying to change old media institutions or replicate ones that are fading in importance.A virtual academic system, as opposed to brick and mortar, is the future. Salman Khan has revolutionized the teaching of math and physics with The Khan Academy funded by Bill Gates. It...

Eighteen months ago, Ted Cruz was a starry-eyed Texas Republican with long-shot hopes of becoming a United States senator. On Tuesday, the former state solicitor general looks headed to an unlikely runoff victory over Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, win that would defy the power of the state’s GOP establishment. ((snip)) So how did Cruz stay competitive and even climb into what looks like the driver’s seat? He leveraged national acclaim from conservatives like Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and George Will into strong local tea party support, winning an impressive 34 percent of the primary vote and forcing a runoff against...

Conservatism is poorly understood in the United States. It is not right-wing liberalism or nationalism; nor is it political Protestantism. It has nothing to do with a neurotic longing for an ideal past, and reactionaries, who insist there is nothing left to conserve, show that they don’t know the meaning of the word. Conservatism has always had to make the best of a bad situation—the human situation in general. But conservatism earned its name in the context of a particular kind of bad situation, that of imperial Europe in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The great conservatives of the...

I was recently having a drink and cigar in the office of a good friend who runs one of the conservative movement’s most powerful advocacy groups. I’m not going to name him because this problem is not unique to his group – nor, in fact, is it unique at all. My friend showed me his group’s latest video. It needed a little work, but overall it was excellent. The only problem is no one who matters is ever going to see it. It will be polished a bit, put on the Internet and sent to donors. And that’s about all...

Great article about Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America, by Mark Levin. http://www.newcriterion.com/m/articles.cfm/Dystopia-in-America-7299

....have your candidate focus on that are not part of the current dialogue?

While I certainly understand the frustration of those who complain of RINO primary rise, it's important to accept the reality of how it happens. It is not, as some would say, a matter of the "Republican Party giving us another John McCain." Nominees aren't appointed; they're elected. It is not the result of a New World Order conspiracy bent on keeping the Ron Pauls of the world from power. Voters may sometimes have chips on their shoulders; there are no controlling chips in their brains. Of course, the media can and do shape public opinion, but they only truly sing...

The latest Battleground Poll numbers have been released. There have been more than twenty Battleground Polls over the last ten years, and the most consistent datum in these polls has been the response to Question D3, which asks Americans to identify their ideology. Sixty percent of Americans called themselves "very conservative" or "somewhat conservative," while thirty-six percent of Americans called themselves "very liberal" or "somewhat liberal." The Lilliputian "moderate" or "refused/don't know" has seldom for either been higher than two percent. The poll taken in late August 2011 appears to show a trend away from this overwhelming conservative majority. Question...

Late last week, the New York State Senate voted to legalize homosexual marriage, giving  equality with heterosexual marriage, the foundational unit of every single human society in the last 5,000 years of recorded history.This is an enormous victory for the gay rights movement and for the American left.  Like most of the left's victories in recent years, it could not have happened without the support of the Republican Party (which controls the New York State Senate).  Republican fingerprints are all over Roe v. Wade, No Child Left Behind, affirmative action, amnesty for illegals, and the expansion of Medicare.  Indeed,...

Hamilton County Clerk Bill Knowles, noting that Valentines Day is a favorite day of the year for some couples to tie the knot, said he is getting ready for a rush on his marriage license office. Mr. Knowles said, “If the past is a prediction of the future, our office will experience another high number of couples applying for a marriage license on Monday.” Couples must present proof of age. Acceptable identification is driver's license, birth certificate or passport. Mr. Knowles said, “The Tennessee General Assembly enacted a law in 2002 requiring couples to complete a premarital preparation course. The...

After watching as much as I could take, this debate came down to between Jonah Goldberg a Fox News Contributor presenting in-depth points in this debate moderated by Megyn Kelly, and I do give her credit for keeping things in line, while syndicated radio talk show host Nancy Skinner looked very, very disorganized over the course of the debate as Mr. Goldberg stayed on track. The highlight was when Mr. Goldberg called liberals “ideological ambulance chasers” those who would exploit this very tragic and senseless act in AZ. Spot on Mr. Goldberg.

A legislative committee took no action Tuesday after investigating an alleged threat made by one House member to another on opposite sides in the speaker's race. Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, told the House General Investigating and Ethics Committee that a post-election phone call from Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, contained threats that members who oppose incumbent Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, could lose their seats after redistricting next year. Phillips called the allegation "unequivocally false" in brief testimony before the committee, which spent most of the morning behind closed doors. Neither legislator recorded the phone conversation. The committee concluded that neither...

Sheila Bair, the chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, began her week with a bit of honest heresy, the kind that only she, among all the bank regulators, seems willing to utter in the wake of the financial crisis. Deep in a speech she delivered Monday before the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers — a speech that got surprisingly little attention — Ms. Bair listed her three main recommendations to “put the mortgage industry on a sounder footing.” The first two were the usual suspects: better consumer education and protection, and a reformed securitization market. Her third proposal, however,...

THERE are many theories for why very conservative Republicans seem to be doing so well lately, taking their party’s Senate nominations in Florida, Kentucky and Utah, and beating Democrats head-to-head in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia. Some attribute this to a generalized anti-incumbent mood. Others say it reflects the tendency of parties in power to falter in midterm elections. Recently it has been fashionable to ascribe right-wing success to the Tea Party movement. But the most obvious explanation is the one that’s been conspicuously absent from the gusher of analysis. Republican success in 2010 can be boiled down to two...

Looking at the state of both parties after President Obama’s health bill win in the House, ABC’s Terry Moran elevated the view of “prominent conservative” David Frum, author a year ago of Newsweek’s “Why Rush is Wrong” cover story, who blamed Rush Limbaugh and Fox News for what he’s dubbed the GOP’s “Waterloo.” On Nightline, Moran contended “anger, stoking it, expressing it, riding it...was the Republican strategy to defeat health care. And over the weekend all that anger got ugly, as some Democratic Members of Congress were called vial, racial and anti-gay slurs.” But, he warned, “in the wake of...

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) released its fourth annual national Civic Literacy report today called "The Shaping of the American Mind: The Diverging Influences of the College Degree & Civic Learning on American Beliefs." In past studies, ISI has broken new ground by demonstrating empirically the failures of colleges and universities to effectively teach their graduates the fundamentals of American history, government, foreign affairs, and economics. On an individual level, less than 60% (sometimes far less) of college graduates can identify on a multiple-choice test the three branches of government; seminal passages from the Declaration of Independence and Gettysburg Address;...

My husband's cousin Paulette called me the morning of January 20 from Massachusetts. Breathless with excitement, her words tumbling out so fast I could barely keep up, she recounted the joy of Scott Brown's win in the special election to the U.S. Senate. Paulette is 66 years old. She and her husband are retired. She has an active social life which includes lots of friends and competitive amateur tennis. She babysits her granddaughter and checks on her 92-year-old father in Florida every day. She told me she'd never been politically active, "except for voting, of course." But all that changed...

"One year ago, Michael Williams announced his plan to run for the United States Senate. Williams is a staunch conservative who would become the lone African-American Republican in the Senate, and his campaign has gained attention nationwide. Join us to learn more about the candidate and his views." - Evan Smith, Texas Monthly Talks, Broadcast 01.21.10

A recent article predicted that the tea party movement will fail and fade away because it does not have an official leader promoting a single agenda. I disagree. After attending a Florida tea party, Rhonda Lochiatto, an elementary school teacher, decided to run for school board. In her own words, "I am tired of the mismanagement of funds that goes on in the school district and of the current policies and procedures that are taking place when it comes to grading, etc." Rhonda epitomizes what the tea party movement is all about: concerned citizens and true patriots stepping up to...

It appears that some state and county Tea Party groups are trying to cleanse their ranks of libertarians. That's a shame since the movement started with Ron Paul and his libertarian followers, and was then co-opted by mainstream GOP Sean Hannity types. Lawrence Samuels, editor of Facets of Liberty: A Libertarian Primer and participant in the Monterey County Tea Party, is witnessing the purge firsthand: [A]fter a successful 4th of July Tea Party parade and Freedom Rally in Monterey, the cracks in the alliance split wide open. I was accused of belonging to too many leftist organizations. In fact, I...

Hillsdale College is getting into the public school business. The college plans to establish a charter school in the near future and possibly create more, should the first prove a success, said administrators. They have not yet chosen a location for the first school. "It is an opportunity to break the mold. The idea here is that we're going to seize upon the charter school concept to do something similar to what we do with our private school [Hillsdale Academy]," Associate Professor of Education Jon Fennell said.

November 04, 2009, 0:00 a.m. True Conservatives Just Want a TurnConservatives have had to put up with a lot of moderation and ideological flexibility. By Jonah Goldberg If there’s one thing liberal pundits are experts on these days, it’s the sorry state of conservatism. The airwaves and op-ed pages brim with more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger lamentations on the GOP’s failure to get with President Obama’s program, the party’s inevitable demographic demise, and its thralldom to the demonic deities of the Right — Limbaugh, Beck, Palin.   Such sages as the New York Times’s Sam Tanenhaus and Frank Rich insist that the Right is...

Things seem to be looking up for conservatives. Books like Mark Levin’s “Liberty and Tyranny” and Michelle Malkin’s “Culture of Corruption”, are also wildly popular. Glenn Beck and his colleagues at Fox are mopping up the competition. Sarah Palin has had a monstrous, unprecedented reception for her unpublished memoirs. Even usually tone-deaf, main stream Republicans seem able to say “no” occasionally to the liberal governing machine. But most uplifting is the birth of a grass roots conservative populism, an aggressive, fearless, public energy against big government unlike anything any of us on the right has ever seen. I am reminded...

Facts about Sarah Palin by Dewie Whetsell, Alaskan Fisherman The last 45 of my 66 years I've spent in a commercial fishing town in Alaska. I understand Alaska politics but never understood national politics well until this last year. Here's the breaking point: Neither side of the Palin controversy gets it. It's not about persona, style, rhetoric, it's about doing things. Even Palin supporters never mention the things that I'm about to mention here. 1 - Democrats forget when Palin was the Darling of the Democrats, because as soon as Palin took the Governor's office away from a fellow Republican...

DISSENT IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF PATRIOTI- . . . No, wait, that bumper sticker expired January 20. Under the stimulus bill, there’s a new $1.3 trillion bills-for-bumpers program whereby, if you peel off old slogans now recognized as environmentally harmful (“QUESTION AUTHORITY”), you can trade them in for a new “CELEBRATE CONFORMITY” sticker, complete with a holographic image of President Obama that never takes his eyes off you. “The right-wing extremist Republican base is back!” warns the Democratic National Committee. These right-wing extremists have been given their marching orders by their masters: They’ve been directed to show up at...

David Limbaugh, Lt. Col. Oliver North, Lt. Col. Steve Russell, Dr. Ergun Caner, Donald Wildmon and Jonathan Krohn will be speaking next week in Cumming, Georgia. Come to see them if you are nearby.

NRSC: Fail I and most RedState readers tend to be the practical sort. In a state like Delaware where conservatives cannot get elected statewide, I have no problem with the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) endorsing a candidate like Mike Castle, though I could not personally support him. In Illinois, a state with a wholly dysfunctional Republican Party, Mark Kirk represents a compelling, popular candidate who, though I disagree with him on a number of issues, would be a good Senator. The NRSC endorsement makes sense. As much as I loathed Arlen Specter, I could see the NRSC rationale behind...

Watch Zo's My Right Wingin Woman.

Michael Steele, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee wants the GOP to reach out to candidates who support gay marriage and are pro-choice. Steele told Fox's Chris Wallace that it was "important" to reach out to those voters. WALLACE: You are one of the co-founders of something called the Republican Leadership Council which supports candidates who favor abortion and gay rights. STEELE: Yes. (watch video) WALLACE: Does the GOP needs to do a better job of reaching out to people who hold those views? STEELE: I think -- I think that's an important opportunity for us, absolutely. Within...

Republicans are making a huge mistake by turning away from the principle of small government. Is it time for conservatives to give up our fight against Big Government? Some people think so. Mike Huckabee, the Baptist preacher and former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate, complained in May to the Huffington Post that the greatest threat to the GOP is "this new brand of libertarianism" that says "look, we want to cut taxes and eliminate government." That, Huckabee said, is "not an American message. It doesn't fly. People aren't going to buy that, because that's not the way we are as...

Responding to a recent document released by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that attempted to clarify the denomination's stance on debated issues, conservative Presbyterian leaders say the arguments are irrelevant. "We think there is an unfortunate but clear distinction between what is on paper and what is the working theology of the denomination," said the Rev. Dr. D. Dean Weaver, senior pastor of Memorial Park Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh and co-moderator of the New Wineskins Association of Churches – a network of dissident Presbyterians. PC(USA)'s stated clerk, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, and General Assembly Council executive director, Linda Valentine, addressed a...

Sound off Connecticut with Jim Vicevich 10am until Rush Jim Vicevich hosts "Sound off Connecticut" every weekday morning and although he tends to lean to the right "Sound off Connecticut" welcomes and encourages viewpoints from every side. So call in and voice your opinion. This is your chance to "sound off." http://www.wtic.com/pages/13975.php Jim Vicevich Jim Vicevich hosts "Sound off Connecticut" every weekday morning. Republitarian by nature (see Larry Elder, KABC), Jim has more than 20 years experience in broadcast television. With 6 Emmy nominations and 3 Telly Awards, Jim has worked most recently as business and financial reporter for NBC30...

Senate sources confirm for me that Mel Martinez was the famous “Senator Anonymous” from three weeks ago. Martinez, not wanting him name used, told the Politico “I don’t think we have learned much from the election in terms of what people want to see.” This senator said the Republicans needed someone who could “speak from the center” and wanted it known that “Sarah Palin is not the voice of [the Republican] party.”

Return to the Wilderness By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. AND SO THE LAMENTABLE November 4 presidential election is entombed in history… and in keeping with the benevolent wishes of the mainstream moron media the American conservative movement once again enters the wilderness. In the wilderness, all we shall have to comfort us is the L.L. Bean catalogue. As you might have noted, we have distributed several versions of the renowned Bean catalogue on your tables. My personal favorite is the fishing catalogue. Regnery prefers the hunting catalogue. Pleszczynski is waiting for his very own Polish-language edition. I urge you all...

At the recent Republican Governors Conference in Florida, one superstar (Sarah Palin of Alaska) was center stage, while another (Arnold Schwarzenkennedy of Caleefornia) was conspicuous by his absence. Fresh off her rollercoaster ride as the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, Governor Palin gave a speech that was simultaneously humorous and serious, confident yet self-deprecating. Unshackled from the nitwits who ran the disorganized John McCain for President Campaign, she was relaxed and back in her element. She spoke of the states as a proving ground for the future leadership of the nation, and of the governors as the alternative to Washington's...

As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit. Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D. I'm bathing in holy water as I type. To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh. Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among...

You know, I had a co-worker today tell me that Obama is a conservative. No, really. As crazy as it may sound, it makes total sense that he would come to that conclusion. This is the conclusion that many other progressives will come to. It is very clear to me that a primary goal of the progressive movement is to utterly destroy the conservative party and they will do it by virtue of abrogating its nomenclature for themselves. "No no no," they will say, "WE are the centrist and the TRUE conservative party. They, those Bush extremists, are the evil...

Let's ROLL!

Last week, Tony Blankley published and Rush Limbaugh publicized what may prove one of the most important articles of 2008. I don't mean that the article was good - very much the contrary. But bad work can be even more important than good, if enough people can be got to believe it. --snip-- If I understand it correctly, the Blankley/Rush argument goes like this: 1) Reagan-style conservatism remains wildly popular with the American people. It was the "blueprint" for winning landslides between 1980 and 1994, and it remains the blueprint today. 2) Yet for some unaccountable mysterious reason, politicians are...

Why the Republicans Must Lose Nothing short of defeat will put the GOP back on its limited government track I grew up in a particularly conservative part of the already conservative state of Indiana. I voted for Bob Dole in 1996 and George Bush in 2000, generally because—though I'm not a conservative (I'm a libertarian)—I'd always thought the GOP was the party of limited government. By 2002, I was less sure of that. And by 2004, I was so fed up with the party that I did what I thought I'd never do—vote for an unabashed leftist for president. Since...

If the election were held today, Barack Obama would be the new President of the United States of America. The latest Real Clear Politics average of national polls shows Obama ahead of McCain by nearly seven percentage points. It looks like the Democrats are going to have control of both the White House and Congress for the next four years. And, mark it down, if there is a Democrat sweep, conservative Republicans will get the blame. The fact of the matter is, however, that President Bush and the Republicans who dominated Congress during most of his administration governed as anything...

When you buy a Lottery ticket, do you buy the "Cash Option" or go for the 20 equal payments from the Lottery over 20 years? At first, I called this my Conservative test. But then I realized that true conservatives probably wouldn't buy a lottery ticket. Now I call it the self-reliance versus government test. The question is a good one to use to help undecided voters and men and women that you believe would vote Republican if they thought the issues through. Compare the payout on Lottery winnings with Social Security, Medicare, and government health insurance. It's amazing and...

The selection of Sarah Palin as Republican vice-presidential candidate has revealed a serious chasm in conservatism, a chasm separating conservative elites – opinion leaders, pundits, spokesmen -- from the vast population of center-right Americans they purport to represent. If this is the choice of the conservative base, one said “Then we need a new base.� (We’ll leave names out of this for the moment, lest this deteriorate into an “I never liked him anyway� discussion. The problem is systemic, and not limited to a few individuals.) “It’s over,� another insisted of Palin’s candidacy (the later “explanation� for this remark was,...

July 25, 2008, 0:00 p.m. In the HeightsA recent musical set in Washington Heights is a rare voice for conservative views. By Monica Mullin Barack Obama is not the only one singing a hopeful tune these days. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical In the Heights — an exuberant paean to life in a New York City barrio — is overflowing with hope. A hope refreshingly based on essentially conservative values. What a far cry from Paul Simon’s ill-fated 1997 musical The Capeman, the play Ben Brantley of the New York Times once compared to “watching a mortally wounded animal.� Also set...

John McCain is clearly the preferable option for conservative voters come November. Although liberal in his views toward immigration, government intrusion in free speech, environmental issues, campaign finance reform, health care, education mandates, and a host of other issues that run contrary to conservative orthodoxy, McCain is solid on two (alas, two) vital issues that make the difference; spending and judges. From the frustration of eight years of a Republican Administration that began with so much hope and promise it pains one to say it, but there it is. Against the prospects of a President Obama, McCain wins. A victim...

The Dumb Blond: To US Citizens Who Hate the Greatest Country