Free Republic

Left-wing politicians think voters are stupid. Why do American voters reject big government candidates like John Kerry? Why do European voters reject more power for the socialist bureaucrats in Brussels? The answer, in both cases, is that they are stupid. Or at least that is what left-wingers are convincing themselves according to this article: "Whatever the rights and wrongs of the populist rejection of the EU treaty, the manner in which the 'No' campaign is disparaged by professional politicians betrays a powerful anti-democratic temper. It appears that professional politicians attempt to account for their isolation from the electorate by pointing...

Has anyone noticed the degradation of political activism as reflected in the quality of e-mail forwards? During the election, when this country was in the grip of political passion, the internet hummed with outraged forwards explicating and excoriating the current snakepits and malevolence of public policy. Every citizen in possession of a computer (and that's every citizen! Some citizens have several, one in every color for every mood!) forwarded madly his or her opinions. These forwards, judging by volume and pitch, were not just opinions: they were expressions of the forwarder's innermost soul, as radical in their way as the...

You’d think before liberals started passing judgment on their opponents, they’d at least pull out the old dictionary every once in a while. Instead, the party of ’tolerance,’ ’compassion,’ and ’inclusion’ continues to take childish potshots at President Bush. The latest “I know you are but what am I” Democrat is Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who last week said the following in the Las Vegas Review—Journal about President Bush: “I think this guy is a loser...He’s driving this country into bankruptcy...He’s got us in this intractable war in Iraq where we now have about 1,600 American soldiers dead and...

Duplicity is the name of the game for America’s liberals. It has been standard practice of the Democratic Party for decades to create a problem through poorly conceived and unrealistic legislation, decry and obstruct any attempts by Republicans to fix the problems the Democrats created as “racist,” sexist,” or any of the other myriad of “-ists” they concoct, and then when the problem is not solved, blame the Republicans for doing nothing about it. There is no “vast left wing conspiracy” orchestrating all of this deceit from behind the scenes. No secret bunker under Berkley’s city hall where Hillary Clinton,...

It looks like Teresa Heinz Kerry is rubbing off on her husband. And on Sen. Hillary Clinton. For the Republican Party, this is a very good thing. You'll recall that last month, Mrs. Heinz Kerry put on her shiniest tinfoil hat and blamed the Democrats' loss in November on rigged voting machines. As reported in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Mrs. Heinz Kerry openly questioned the election results and fixated on areas of the country where optical scanners were used to record votes. "Two brothers own 80 percent of the machines used in the United States," Mrs. Heinz Kerry intoned, and it...

Settled jurisprudence was fairly settled against prior restraints on free speech, except for "shouting fire in a crowded theater" immediate causes of grave harm. Then, along came the McCain-Feingold electoral reforms. McCain-Feingold's supposedly greater interest of restricting the role of big money in campaigns allowed legal and donor restrictions on campaigning. The media is exempt from restrictions. Critics of McCain-Feingold called it an incumbent protection act to reduce the resources of challengers. Realists said McCain-Feingold would result in contributions flowing some way anyway. Opponents of McCain-Feingold warned it restricted free speech, and this could increase. If free speech is surrendered...

It seems Republicans have been taking their recent landslide victory for granted both too much and too little. After winning 19 senate seats and reclaiming the presidency by a whopping 3.5 million margin in the largest popular vote in history, Republicans are apparently losing sight of those particular aspects of their social agenda which specifically accounted for this monumental success. Worse: the Democrats have been taking notes. Ironically, after months of incessant weeping and gnashing of teeth, the left may have ultimately learned more from the sobering election results than the GOP even has - so much that they have...

Something occurred to me as a result of leftover November buzz (what happened in November?) about the American youth, that much-hyped group who were meant to have blown this election (oh that) out of the water. One question? Why did this youth vote necessarily ally itself with the challenger – why did that word, “youth,” send shivers down the spine of the incumbent? Why did their slogan, “Vote or Die” necessarily attach itself to the sly “Vote for Change”? Well, so here’s what occurred to me – there’s a disconnect somewhere in this formula, and there is, more importantly and...

Prior to September 11, 2001, Afghanistan’s repressive Taliban regime was known to most of the world only on account of a single controversy involving its decision to destroy two ancient Buddhist statues. Of course reaction to this incident was one of universal outrage, loudly condemned across the political spectrum as an abominable example of religious tyranny. Yet this desire by the Taliban to obliterate all religious symbolism with which it took umbrage has an ominous parallel within the borders of America in the systematic efforts by the ACLU and its ideological supporters to expunge every Christian expression from the public...

The unbelievable news came in on late last week. Some leaders in the Democratic Party, and I use the term loosely as are you a leader when you don't control anything, want Terry McAuliffe to stay on. Let's get this straight. This is the man that has raised money but has been at the helm of the Democratic Party under the biggest string of losses in the Party's history. Therein lies the problem. Americans just don't understand what is good for them. Especially in those fast growing Red States in the South and West, Democrats discuss with other Democrats at...

In 2000, 2002, and again in 2004, “we the people” saw to it that Washington (and the country) would be led by conservatives who represent the ideas and the will of the moral conservative majority in America. The old saying applies for my fellow conservatives, “lead…don’t follow, or get run over!” To the Democratic members of congress I say, most Americans are far more tolerant than those whom they tolerate. Don’t continue to mistake this tolerance as acceptance, or support for immoral un-American behaviors. Nobody is that tolerant, as you can see in your election results. Most Americans are not...

As a Bush re-election later this year looks increasingly likely, some left-wingers worry that Howard Dean is too risky a candidate to put up against a popular President. There is, of course, the obvious comparison to McGovern and the fear that a true believer may inevitably be a sure loser. There is also the worry that Dean may not in fact be so true a believer in the first place: he did support Newt Gingrich's Medicare reforms, after all, and has been a little too cozy with gun rights advocates; might he not betray the Left in order to appeal...

Below is the floor peech of Rep. Ric Keller (R.-Fla.) regarding Electoral Vote count delivered on January 6, 2005. There's a wise saying we've used quite a bit in Florida over the past four years that the other side would do well to learn -- GET OVER IT. Isn't it ironic that the only people who refuse to "move on" are the people from MoveOn.org and their hero Michael Moore? My colleagues across the aisle have two sides to choose from, the John Kerry side that acknowledges the election is over and President Bush has won. Or the Michael Moore...

Friends, This morning, Congressional Democrats return to their obstructionist habits of wasting American taxpayer resources on grandstanding for their Left-Wingnuts. California Senator Barabra Boxer (D) is set to object to the Ohio Electoral Votes, on what basis, nobody knows. But the result will be the futile delay of the confirmation process for Bush's 2nd term, returning the Senate to its chamber for a wasted debate on the subject. Meanwhile, other Democrats prepare their assault on Bush's appointment of Gonzales, intended to replace our nations retiring Attorney General, again, wasting taxpayer resources for partisan political purposes. I started the New Year...

I WAS ALL SET to write about the latest Anna Nicole court ruling when news broke that liberals support terrorism. The unofficial newspaper of France, or, as its known within the United States, "the New York Times," released its (completely irrelevant) list of "Real-World New Year's Resolutions," in which nearly every potential issue — except the most important, fighting Islamofascism — was addressed with glee. The Times hopes that in the next year we'll — and by "we'll" they mean the American taxpayer — end world hunger, put a stop to "sex trafficking," ensure "quality healthcare" for all Americans, fix...

Imagine: After months of prayer and preparation during campaign season, you wake up the day after the election and realize that all your hard work has actually paid off. You participated in the voting process and made a difference! Your candidates won! You played a vital role in our Republic and influenced the outcome of Election 2004! No need to imagine. It’s real. Such is the reality here in Washington, D.C., after the elections last November 2. Not every man and woman who supports the pro-family movement may have won their campaigns, but most of them did. The beauty of...

Back before the November election, many mainstream media pundits - trying desperately to get John Kerry elected -- began to harp on President Bush's unwillingness to stop certain federal gun control laws from expiring as scheduled. But their propaganda efforts came to naught because this issue was a non-starter with the American people. The fact is, in this day of post-911 increased security consciousness, most average Americans simply don't want more gun control. They want more guns on hand to defend themselves and their loved ones in the face of possible life-threatening danger. Soccer moms are now taking handgun proficiency...

Interesting and funny post by someone at redstate.org Nice Wad; Got a Brain to Go With That? By: Thomas Section: Democrats Ladies and gentlemen, I give you George Soros. I give you MoveOn.org. I give you America Coming Together. I give you the Media Fund. I give you Howard Dean's resurrection of Gene McCarthy's campaign, with a thousand well-funded baby soldiers, and the transformation of the modern Democrat campaign. I give you Democrat voters so terribly fired up -- and they mean it!! -- that they'll give 'til it hurts, and vote, and stamp, and stomp, and rally, to toss...

WE’RE ALL huffing and puffing about the best, brightest, and most memorable players of 2004 — and we’re all apparently obliged to include Paris Hilton. I don’t know why. Is it the sheer novelty of stripping for fame that attracts us? (Personally, I’ve never heard of such a thing.) Or is it the amazing fact that Ms. Hilton, a rich woman, proved herself as classless as a background-dancer in a Madonna video? These are questions that deserve deeper thought. Actually they’re not. We don’t need to discuss Paris Hilton anymore. We never needed to discuss her in the first place....

It may have all started with James Carville’s infamous political phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid.” The phrase was not intended to insult the American public. Certainly, they were not stupid. It was the sitting president that was stupid, of course. In his presidency, he had won a war in the Middle East, chased the Iraqi army out of Kuwait, and generally enjoyed overwhelming approval ratings until America began to focus on the economy…because they were told it was bad, bad, bad. Lets see, was it a recession…..or was it a depression? Whatever. Of course, the economy in 1992 was not...

Post mortems in the liberal press on the role that Vietnam veterans played in presidential candidate John Kerry's defeat mask the key role of the liberal press, which tried to suppress the vets' story and is distorting it now. I was there at the creation of a veterans group and all along, and know better. The American people deserve to know better too. In 1971 I organized Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace. John O'Neill enlisted to counter the smears of American servicemen in Vietnam. No one else spoke up for us, so we had to. The mainstream press was...

US Treasury Secretary John Snow said all options remained open for a bipartisan panel that will examine potentially far-reaching reforms to the American tax code. "The president will ask the panel and ask me to give him the very best thinking across the board on how to produce broad-based reform of the tax system. So everything is on the table," Snow said. The panel, which President George W. Bush has yet to appoint, will make its recommendations as soon as possible in 2005, and proposals could go to lawmakers before the end of next year, Snow told the "Fox News...

The Houston telephone book lists more than 16,000 lawyers, some clearly more famous than others. Very few – perhaps only one – can credibly claim to have helped pull the hand brake on a presidential campaign. John O'Neill had his day on the national stage 33 years ago, but this year he emerged from the weeds of his comfortable anonymity because of a burning belief that John Kerry would make an awful commander in chief – and had to be stopped. Love him or hate him, Mr. O'Neill turned a presidential election on its ear. For his drive, vision and...

But they won't be talking about those stories around the watercooler today. Instead, chances are good that many more will discussing Christmas plans, this weekend's football games, and former "Saturday Night Live" star Chevy Chase's tirade at the Kennedy Center. But it was Mr. Chase who lost control of just about everything this side of his bowels when he delivered a broadside against President Bush. He started by calling the President a "dumb f_ _ _."

KERRY LOST to the Republicans, so Democrats want Howard Dean, who lost to Kerry, to help them beat the Republicans. They also like Hill, mainly because of Bill, even though she only holds a Senate seat because Rudy Giuliani got cancer — and because New Yorkers were too depressed over Giuliani's illness to ask what, exactly, Hillary was doing in their state. Still delusional about Bush's win, Democrats now claim that they have no idea how anyone could actually believe that Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton are liberals. One columnist has decided that "they" — Republicans and conservatives — "will...

My conservative friends continue to tell me that the liberals (who just lost the election) “just don’t get it.” That is, liberals “don’t get” the destructiveness of the American Civil Liberties Union’s relentless efforts to ban any allusion to Christianity and any mention of God in a country that is 96 percent Christian. They “don’t get” that the vote recounts in Ohio and elsewhere – which are costing taxpayers millions of dollars – are not, as they claim, to insure the sanctity of the voting process, but rather a colossal example of sour grapes at its worst.

Following the Republican landslide victories of the 1994 midterm elections, conservatives watched in amazement as Republican “moderates” proceeded to completely squander the ground they had gained, culminating in the defeat of Bob Dole in ‘96. In the aftermath of this year’s elections, ominous signs point towards a repeat performance. Apparently, Republican Party operatives didn’t really comprehend why, in the middle of Bill Clinton’s first term, they won big. And to this day, political analysts still don’t seem to grasp the situation. Among conservatives, the conventional wisdom is that the newly realigned GOP Congressional majority had wrongly presumed too much of...

Did you really believe we’re too stupid to see, How you tried to deceive us with smug sophistry? Did you actually think we’d accept without thinking, That our ship of state’s hulled, our economy’s sinking? We saw how with help from your media tools, You picked just the right captain for your ship of fools. With your Cambodian Admiral at the helm of your boat You needed an ocean of lies just to keep him afloat. You put forward no spokesman with a true honest voice And offered the voters no acceptable choice. Your party got “jacked” by the loons...

Among the things that were brought to light during the recent Presidential campaign was what I would term the "unconscious message" that the Democrats sent to Americans. This unconscious message was a function of, primarily, two things: The impact of standard-bearers — including Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, and Whoopi Goldberg, among many others — who, because of their high profile, came to represent what the Democrat Party stood for to many Americans; and some of the tactics which the Democrats allowed to be employed in the name of electing their candidate. Indeed, while many high-profile Democratic spokespeople might have gotten...

According to Brian Yates of the Louisville Patriot, one of the many marxist professors at the University of Louisville, in Kentucky, is suffering from the newly discovered affliction called "post election selection syndrome". On the Thursday following the presidential election of 2004, he told his class, "It was the religious zealots who say they are voting on morals. I think we should all buy AK47’s and shoot them all! That’s what I would suggest, if it were allowed." He has to go buy a gun? That's a shame. I guess, as long as the coming Revolution waits a few days...

Just when you thought the 2004 presidential election was over, just when you thought it was time to move on towards other news stories, just when you thought the left was finally through with their whining and carping, just when you thought all that was done, here comes Je$$e Jackson. Yes, yes, my friends the supreme race-pimp himself, Je$$e Jackson, has found another way to get free airtime and free publicity. I guess he could not stand not having cameras on him for too long, because he is in Ohio stirring up tensions and dividing people, which is, of course,...

The role of moral values in the Bush victory has been the subject of countless stories. The New York Times reports that Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, said that "opposition to gay marriage was one of the most powerful forces in American politics today and that politicians ignored it at their peril." That's fascinating, coming from a paper that crusades for homosexual marriage and runs "wedding" announcements of homosexual couples. Obviously, the media are ignoring this "powerful force" of opposition to homosexual marriage, and have done so for years. In all 11 states, Rove noted, anti-homosexual marriage amendments or...

ODE TO THE LEFT BE-HEINZ When polls were closed, We all supposed It couldn't be much closer! Now Libs are torn, downcast...Forlorn, And poor Soros moroser! The votes were cast, And now at last The counting would begin. Monsieur LaMoore Was very sure His flick would do George in. But now instead, The states are Red, And Hollywood is Blue. Ben Affleck's mad, Sarandon's sad, And Whoopi's come unglued! Begala whines, The Left Be-Heinz, "The Boss" just wonders..."HOW?" James Carville pouts, O'Donnell shouts... No time to ketchup now! The Kerry crowd Was brash and loud; The cool and hip were...

In this time of traditional thanksgiving for the families, friendships, freedoms and bounties we enjoy, it's only appropriate that we Republicans - in the spirit of appreciation, graciousness, charity and comity - give thanks to those whose contributions were instrumental in securing control of both houses of Congress, a majority of governorships, a plurality of state legislatures, a clear majority of the popular vote (for the first time in 16 years) and, of course, the re-election of President George W. Bush. Thank you, Terry McAullife. You will no doubt be remembered as the worst-ever chairman of the Democratic National Committee....

From Maureen Dowd's brother Kevin, a salesman who lives in Montgomery County, Md., here is a recent e-mail message, trimmed for space, he sent to friends: "Ladies and Gentlemen, Now, just as four years ago, I breathe a huge sigh of relief and rejoice in the common sense of the American voting public. Congratulations to President Bush for winning re-election in a poker game played with a stacked deck. No candidate, including Richard Nixon, ever had to endure the biased and unfair tactics of our major media in their attempt to influence the outcome of an election. He never complained,...

In the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election, liberals raged at the ''injustice'' of the Electoral College. Consequently, they demanded the standard ''ix,'' echoed every four years, of amending the Constitution to select the president by popular vote. But although conservatives breathed a sigh of relief in 2000, the delayed determination of Ohio’s vote this year, and its decisive role in President Bush’s reelection, predictably resulted in rumblings from the right that, indeed the Electoral College needs to be discarded. Once again however, the wisdom of the founders has been made evident, for those who are willing to recognize it....

Predictably, many on the Left responded to my column, “Bring Back HUAC,” by accusing me of stifling dissent. I addressed these concerns in the second paragraph: Debate, protest and even conscientious objection to war are essential elements of our political system, which is why such activities are protected by our Constitution. Treason is taking up arms against our nation, or giving aid and comfort to our enemies. Sedition is actively encouraging acts of treason. Treasonous and seditious activities are illegal; they are not protected as free speech. I never expect liberals to debate me on what I actually said. These...

Some blogs were wrong about the meaning of the exit polls but right about CBS. Engberg conveniently ignored the fact that the media were wrong about the 2000 election calls. Jay Evensen, editor of the Deseret Morning News editorial page, calls the 2000 election night a "perfect storm." "It was when we in the news business had to hunt for the Dramamine because of the motion sickness," he recalls. One wonders what Engberg would say about Cleveland anchor Sharon Reed of WOIO, who decided to go naked for a story in a craven race for ratings during November's sweeps.

Throughout the 2004 campaigns, the Democrats continued to practice one basic message. Each day, they got up and called George W. Bush a liar. Some Democrats carried these sentiments a step farther, labeling the President as a murderer and a war criminal. Liberal financier George Soros associated the Bush administration with Nazi Germany. In most political situations, men such as Mr. Soros would be alienated by any political party. However, as he made these statements, he was introduced by none other than New York Senator and 2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. However, most liberals have situated themselves with a more...

Since Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter for the Presidency of the United States, Republicans have won 5 out of the last 7 presidential contests. Since 1994, the Republicans have controlled both houses of Congress. While the 2000 presidential election has been sited as the “closest” in history (it was not) and, on those grounds, liberals would have the country believe that we are “deeply divided,” the 2004 election brings into focus a movement in the country that has been going on for some time. While liberals do not like very much the trumpeting of the “red” against the “blue” in...

OH, the poor, suffering little children. If we are to believe the outcry of the past two weeks, America's youth have been defiled en masse - again. This time the dirty deed was done by the actress Nicollette Sheridan, who dropped her towel in the cheesy promotional spot for the runaway hit "Desperate Housewives" that kicked off "Monday Night Football" on ABC. "I wonder if Walt Disney would be proud," said Michael Powell, the Federal Communications Commission chairman who increasingly fashions himself a commissar of all things cultural, from nipple rings to "Son of Flubber." It's beginning to look a...

"Hi. Are you nuts? "Forgive me for being so blunt, but your reaction to our reelection of President Bush has been so outrageous that I'm wondering if you have quite literally lost your minds. One of Britain's largest newspapers ran a headline asking "How Can 59 Million Americans Be So Dumb?", and commentators in France all seemed to use the same word - bizarre -- to explain the election's outcome to their readers. In Germany the editors of Die Tageszeitung responded to our vote by writing that "Bush belongs at a war tribunal - not in the White House." And...

Apparently Senator John Edwards had a close brush with the truth some months back, though like the proverbial ''broken clock'' that shows the correct time twice each day, he didn’t linger for long on the cusps of reality. According to Edwards, we live in a split society, which he described as the ''two Americas.'' Edwards attempted to portray this nation as being divided between the ''haves'' and the ''have nots,'' by which he delineated between those who are financially well-off, as opposed to others who struggle to make ends meet. However, another far more insidious divide exists across the nation,...

Despite my total disgust with the biased media, I had decided to move to another topic. That is, until today when I heard John Kerry discuss the reasons for his failure to win the presidency. I didn’t mind his excuse regarding his party’s failure to get out the vote, even though his people got him more votes than any other candidate, save President Bush, in the history of our nation. How’s that for gratitude? But rather, it was his comments regarding how FOX Cable News, Sinclair Broadcasting, and talk radio had done him in. This excuse was so pitifully lame...

As one of my good friends so kindly reminded me, CBS’s decision to dump Dan Rather from his throne at the Evening News is too little, and it comes way too late! It’s not personal, I don’t even know Dan Rather. It isn’t even political, it’s much bigger than any individual politician or even any particular political party. It’s about something much more important than Dan, CBS’s ratings, a single election, or anyone’s individual political ideology. Partisans on all sides debate among other things, who has control of America. Some think it’s the federal government, others think it is...

In the chic salons of Manhattan and the trendy bistros of Los Angeles they are saying they same thing. "How could Bush have won?" ponder the elitist vanguard of the left-wing status quo. "I don't know a single person who voted for him." On the networks -- 12 hours after the rest of us realized that John Kerry had fallen -- Dan Rather scribbles permutations on colored Post-It notes in an attempt to prove to himself that his chosen man could still take the day. Surfing about, I noted talking heads all agog over how they missed it. In the...

``In the aftermath, the Democrats will form their ritual circular firing squad of recriminations.'' -- Former Clinton advisor Sidney Blumenthal, writing in The Guardian on Nov. 4. Bruce Springsteen blames Jon Bon Jovi. Bon Jovi blames James Taylor. Taylor blames Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam blames the Dixie Chicks. The Dixie Chicks blame Dave Matthews. Matthews blames Michael Stipe, who blames Bono. Bono blames George Soros. Soros blames MoveOn.Org. MoveOn.org blames Michael Moore. Moore blames Don Imus. Imus blames Howard Stern. Stern blames Al Franken. Franken blames Jon Stewart, who blames Paul Krugman. Krugman blames Katrina vanden Heuvel. Vanden Heuvel blames...

The Osama bin Laden video tape was big news in the final days of the campaign, and this news event was spun by the media so as not to benefit Bush. A Washington Post story by Dana Priest and Walter Pincus said that bin Laden had "injected himself into the final days of the U.S. presidential campaign, warning that American voters will be held accountable for electing any president who seeks to destroy al Qaeda and persecutes Muslims." But near the end of the article, if you read that far, the authors cited evidence that bin Laden was on the...

History takes time. To understand the historic decline of the Democratic Party I have found it useful to reach back to a book I wrote in 1984, The Liberal Crack-Up. It is a diagnosis of what was then the core philosophy of the Democratic Party, liberalism, and a prognosis of its future. Doctor Tyrrell was not optimistic, but history takes time. . . . . The conservatism of President George W. Bush, a conservatism that has been governing America for most of the past 24 years, remains to these liberals shocking, dangerous, or "extremist," as they say. The liberalism of...

Your humble correspondent continues to slave away somewhere in the Caribbean (actually, at this juncture I am sitting in my stateroom looking out at Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands). Normally, I prattle on about my own concerns, but the words of much wiser men and women have been poured into my ears like the many tropical rum drinks I have… well, I've been hearing a lot of great stuff that I want to share. Today I want to focus on Dick Morris. He has said so many interesting things that it will take more than one piece to...