Free Republic

How has the growth of the immigrant population changed the political partisan leanings of the places where immigrants have settled? The answer to this question is of considerable interest to academic specialists, journalists, interest groups, and political parties engaged in the immigration policy debate. If the impact of mass immigration is politically neutral, there is no reason to be concerned that constituencies will change appreciably by the settlement and naturalization of new arrivals. In that case, immigration might have economic and cultural impacts that should be anticipated, but no one need be concerned about political shifts. On the other hand,...

And tea partiers now play the role of Red Army commissars who sat at machine guns behind their own troops to shoot down any soldier who retreated or ran. Republicans who sign on to tax hikes cannot go home again. Consider: Arlen Specter voted for the Obama stimulus and faced an immediate primary challenge from Pat Toomey, who took a 20-point lead, forcing Specter to quit the party to survive. Popular Gov. Charlie Crist embraced Obama on a Florida visit and got an immediate primary challenge from Marco Rubio, who now looks to be the next senator from Florida. The...

Evan Bayh's withdrawal from politics could be a harbinger of doom for the party—but it doesn't have to be. Let's be clear. The Democratic brand is in trouble—big trouble. There are at least eight Senate seats up for grabs, and another two or three potentially in play, putting control of the Senate in play. What then, do the Democrats need to do? First, they need pro-growth, fiscally conservative policies. The tea party movement is strong enough to elect a Republican House and Senate and shake up politics in ways we haven't seen or considered. A commitment to deficit reduction and...

<p>The power of the movement is its independence from Democrats and the GOP.</p> <p>There has been a lot of talk about combining the tea party movement with the Republican Party. And on a small scale, that seemed to happen last week in South Carolina after state GOP representatives agreed to create a "Tea Party Republicans" group to coordinate activities with tea partiers in Greenville and Spartanburg.</p>

Why I will vote the Democrat ticket..... I will vote Democrat because I love the fact that I can now marry whatever I want. I've decided to marry my dog. I will vote Democrat because I believe oil companies' profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn't. I will vote Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would. I will vote Democrat because freedom of speech is fine as long as nobody is offended...

Does anybody know what it takes to be legal in terms of accepting political donations to funnel to a candidate or issue ? Do you need to be a PAC, or what ? It occurs to me that one could suck in donations from Dims, but have very little actually reach their candidate or cause after the fundraising expenses. Just by spending most of the funds on the overhead, salaries, advertising, etc. there might be only 10% left over to forward to the candidate. In this way, you could starve a candidate of campaign funds just by being an inefficient...

Who do we vote out/keep out? For starters, all who proposed, supported, joined or voted for: Abortion ACORN Amnesty Bailouts Ban on Drilling Big Government Big Spending Cap and Trade Debt Limit Increases Expanding any Federal Program Gang of 14 Gay rights Geithner Global Warming Gun Control Holder, Eric McCain-Feingold McCain-Kennedy McCain-Lieberman Obama's Budget ObamaCare PORKULUS RomneyCare Sotomayor TARP Tax Increases The UN Please add to the list. Please name names. Should any exceptions be made? Please justify.

To a political extremist (left-wing or right-wing), the best-kept secret for years has been the sleeping constituent. An American more concerned about the outcome of American Idol than what’s taking place in Washington has been a dream come true. And it’s worked especially well for Barack Hussein Obama, hasn’t it? But like the Japanese in World War II, Obama pushed the American people until we awoke “with a terrible resolve.” Suddenly, the big smile and teleprompter sincerity aren’t swaying the masses like they used to. And the backlash has begun.

E.J. Dionne’s excellent column in this morning’s WaPo sums up the Democrats’ dilemma quite well. Dems have the right ideas, but they are losing the message war: If you want to be honest, face these facts: At this moment, President Obama is losing, Democrats are losing and liberals are losing. Who’s winning? Republicans, conservatives, the practitioners of obstruction and the Tea Party. The two immediate causes for this state of affairs are a single election result in Massachusetts and the way the United States Senate operates. What’s not responsible is the supposed failure of Obama and the Democrats to govern...

SnipThen, Scott Brown won election to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts. No one is laughing anymore. In fact, Democrats are facing political annihilation this November. Not only do Democrats face the possibility of losing their congressional majorities, massive losses in state house races could jeopardize redistricting next year and set back the progressive agenda for at least a decade. So, the Clinton Empire is planning to strike back. Big Government has learned that Clintonistas are plotting a “push/pull” strategy. They plan to identify 7-8 national figures active in the tea party movement and engage in deep opposition research on them....

The founding document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, states that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Today, however, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% disagree and say the government does not have the necessary consent. Eighteen percent (18%) of voters are not sure. However, 63% of the Political Class think the government has the consent of the governed, but only six percent (6%) of those with Mainstream views agree. Seventy-one percent (71%)...

The Obama Administration continues to proclaim the strength of the nation's economy, and foreign governments are responding with a collective "yeah, right". ABC News reports: Foreign owners of US government debt reduced their holdings by the largest monthly amount ever in December, with China offloading so many Treasury securities that it is no longer the largest foreign holder. According to new data released Tuesday morning by the Treasury Department, foreign holdings of Treasury securities plunged by $53 billion in December, a record drop. China led the sell-off, reducing its holdings by $34 billion. The administration has continued to increase the...

In front of a crowd of Republican Party activists and the tea-party movement’s rank and file here on Tuesday night, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin seemed to put a damper on speculation that she might consider running for president in 2012 as a third-party candidate. Asked what her advice would be to conservatives as the November elections approach, Palin first lavished praise on the Tea Party movement, calling it "a grand movement" and adding, "I love it because it’s all about the people." But she quickly pivoted to the broader question of whether the Tea Party movement might successfully field...

The battle for 2012 began in Arkansas on Tuesday night when Sarah Palin brought her celebrity to an arena filled with state GOP elite and Tea Party commoners who had never attended a political event. It was Palin’s first fundraiser for a state party in the country, although she charged a speaking fee rumored around $75,000. After costs, the party will gross about $400,000. For all the red, white and blue pageantry, there was one noticeable absence: Mike Huckabee. “Huckabee will be elsewhere in the country,” said Doyle Webb, state party chairman. While governor, Huckabee dominated any GOP event, his...

Democrats just can't stay away from ACORN. Even as scandal piles on top of scandal, they continue to embrace the organization. The latest is that the Senate just confirmed Patrick Corvington as chief executive of the Corporation for National and Community Service. Corvington and ACORN have quite the history as Matthew Vadum notes: Read more at the Washington Examiner:

How glorious is the tea-party movement? Some talk of its purity of heart, its patriotic spontaneity, and its abundance of republican virtue. To hear others tell it, the movement is but a few steps away from sacred. After attending the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, the prominent blogger Glenn Reynolds wrote last week in the Washington Examiner that the movement amounted to "America's Third Great Awakening," a massive popular rising against "politicians and parties" that have "grown corrupt, venal and out-of-touch." How strange, then, that this flowering of populist integrity should have been tended and pruned and succored by...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney ducked answering whether former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is qualified to be president, saying only that he has not decided whom he will back in 2012. Mr. Cheney also dismissed Mrs. Palin's warning that President Obama might declare war on Iran for political purposes, saying U.S.-Iran differences will not be resolved by "simple political calculations." In an appearance Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Mr. Cheney was asked by host Jonathan Karl, "Is [Mrs. Palin] qualified to be president?" Mr. Cheney neither answered the question nor mentioned Mrs. Palin specifically, saying only that whoever he backs...

Sen. Evan Bayh's stunning decision Monday to pass on a reelection campaign in Indiana is the latest blow to a Senate Democratic majority that is suddenly within striking distance for the GOP. While the retirements of Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) had a clear political logic to them — both involved vulnerable incumbents badly trailing their prospective opponents, according to publicly released polling — Bayh’s calculus was less obvious since he had a comfortable double-digit cushion and a nearly $13 million head start. Either way, the two-term senator’s departure now places 10 Democratic-held Senate seats at...

52% say Obama doesn't deserve reelection By Michael O'Brien - 02/16/10 01:35 PM ET 52 percent of Americans said President Barack Obama doesn't deserve reelection in 2012, according to a new poll. 44 percent of all Americans said they would vote to reelect the president in two and a half years, less than the slight majority who said they would prefer to elect someone else. Obama faces a 44-52 deficit among both all Americans and registered voters, according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll released Tuesday. Four percent had no opinion. The reelection numbers are slightly more sour than Obama's approval...

President Obama will be traveling to speak in favor of Democrats running for re-election on Thursday, February 18, 2010 in what may turn out to be a dog-and-pony show. A dog-and-pony show is defined as an elaborately staged activity, performance, presentation, or event designed to sway or convince people.