Free Republic

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...