Free Republic

Following the presidential election, numerous stories surfaced about how “fake news” influenced the results. This prompted a reaction from the media and a concerted effort by the social media giant Facebook to crack down on the phenomenon—announcing that it would in part by using liberal fact-checkers to distinguish the “real” from the “fake” news.The truth is that while the American media landscape has been in a constant state of change over two centuries, the spread of hyperpartisan, scurrilous, and even phony news stories has been more common than uncommon throughout the history of the republic.Ultimately, despite the increasingly Wild West...

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers by the consent of the governed,…” That quote, from the Declaration of Independence sums it all up—we all have equal rights from nature and nature’s God and laws are established with our consent to protect those rights. Once understood, these simple truths make it easier to understand the proper role of government...

Progressives are fond of selling old ideas as somehow being new, and the only real point that they have to rely on is that someone won't go and look it up. Meanwhile they engage in revisionist history, erasing and covering up historical facts, then progressives top it all off with the arrogance to claim that "Well the Founders could not have fore saw........" (finish the false claim) Mr. progressive, you would be wrong - as you always are. As recorded by James Madison, Gouverneur Morris made the following comment on August 9th, 1787: Mr. Govr. MORRIS. The lesson we are...

Because Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College, there are now voices clamoring for America to abandon the Electoral College and become a pure democracy with the winner of the presidential election by popular vote. Not a good idea. In fact it is a very bad idea. Americans should remember that the United States is not a democracy — it is a federated form of government where the role of the federal government is limited to delegated powers by the Founders. This action was then solidified by the 10th Amendment that declares “The powers not delegated...

Yes, it is good that Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, especially in light of revelations of her private email security breaches and pay-for-play administration of the State Department. If true, she belongs in prison. However, what is ominous is the number of voters who, despite all that was known of her crimes, still voted for her. This is not a sign of a healthy American electorate. It seems the same citizens who voted for Barack Obama in 2012 after his disastrous first four years voted for her. Many people who go the polls in our generation are simply not thinking....

Three universities in Virginia associated with our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia, James Madison University, and George Mason University, are embroiled in free speech battles over what faculty, students, and employees can or cannot say. University of VirginiaLast week, UVa faculty released a letter to President Sullivan wherein they requested that she stop quoting Thomas Jefferson in mass emails to faculty, students, and employees. For many of us, the inclusion of Jefferson quotations in these e-mails undermines the message of unity, equality and civility that you are attempting to convey (here.) Ostensibly, the rationale had something to do...

In the last week since Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in a stunning electoral blowout, there have been calls from many on the left to abolish America’s unique presidential election system.It still hasn’t been settled whether Trump or Clinton won the popular vote, but many Democrats are upset about the possibility that their candidate may have won more total votes, yet lost the election.Progressives are taking aim at the Electoral College and want to replace it with a national popular vote. This would both remove the indirect mediation of the electors’ votes, and more damagingly, eliminate the power of states...

The Electoral College remains in place over two centuries after the framers of the Constitution empowered it to select presidents. Though occasionally maligned, this system of electing a chief executive has been incredibly successful for the American people. Many modern voters might be surprised to learn that when they step into a ballot box to select their candidate for president, they actually are casting a vote for fellow Americans called electors. These electors, appointed by the states, are pledged to support the presidential candidate the voters have supported. The Electoral College holds its vote the Monday after the second Wednesday...

WASHINGTON ― Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump advocated for a literal interpretation of the Constitution during the third, and final debate, on Wednesday. “The justices that I’m going to appoint will be pro-life, they will have a conservative vent,” Trump said in response to a question about how the Constitution should be interpreted. “They will be protecting the Second Amendment. They are great scholars in all cases ― and they’re people of tremendous respect. They will interpret the Constitution the way the founders wanted it interpreted.” That’s not cool. Here’s what was going on when the Constitution was written in...

“I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe. Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing. Make them intelligent, and they will be vigilant; give...

The head of San Francisco’s school board wants to strip the names of slaveholders off local public schools like George Washington High School, one of many schools in The City named after dead white men with “problematic” histories, he said Monday. Board of Education President Matt Haney is expected to introduce a resolution as early as next week encouraging schools in the San Francisco Unified School District that bear the names of men with questionable human rights legacies to consider proposing new monikers. Haney is hoping the school district can have more schools named after people of color, women and...

What happened to bring us where we are today – on the brink of social, moral, and financial collapse? We forgot the Principle set forth in our Declaration that the sole purpose of civil government is to secure our Natural God-given rights by protecting us from those who seek to take these rights away from us. We were seduced and deceived into believing that civil government should 1) Provide for our needs; and 2) Protect us from the risks and uncertainties of Life. The belief that government is responsible for all our needs is self-destructive. Historically, when this ideology has...

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” -The Declaration of Independence It is not the federal government’s job to secure ALL of our Natural Unalienable Rights, just those appropriate for a “federal” government. Other God-given rights are secured by state and local governments. How is the Natural Right to Life Secured?...

A few months ago, I wrote and posted a defense of Donald Trump entitled “Why Would We Elect as President a Guy Who...? In it, I attempted to point out that MANY of those we have elected to the White House (as well as the myriad men and women who occupy high positions) have been – like ALL of us – frail, flawed and fallen fellow human beings and, yes, sinners. My defense of Trump – but, more critically, the vital need to keep the most corrupt candidate to run for the office in my lifetime OUT of the White...

Donald J. Trump, "citizen" candidate, is being viewed as an "outsider" to the political class in Washington D.C. In reality, our founders, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson among other founders, were affluent plantation owners and capitalists. In this context, Trump has more in common with our founders, also "citizen" politicians, then any political class Republican presidential candidate since our founding.

Most world governments have historically given way to tyranny when allowed to seize too much control over their people. However, American citizens, accustomed to unprecedented freedom, will only endure a “long train of abuses” for so long. When the federal government behaves more like a king and master than a servant by plundering fundamental rights through unjust laws, decrees, or bureaucratic policies, it is the duty of state and local officials to stand against it. For this very reason, America’s Framers established the essential principle of “dual jurisdiction.” According to the 10th Amendment, the bulk of governmental authority is retained...

“We, the People . . .” are the three most powerful words in the history of world governments. It was the promise of a new way of self-governance; a profoundly unique experiment born of America’s 13 colonies and defended with the blood of Patriots. But today, battles rage among a divided people over an array of issues. At the center of the conflict is an oversized American government no longer bound by constitutional limits and retaining only a vague recollection of the finite powers delegated to it at the time of its creation. As Americans we should honor and celebrate...

Many historians call the Founding Fathers "Deists," and many of them were not true Christians -- after all, Thomas Jefferson tore all the miracles out of the Gospels! But judging by the Declaration of Independence, our Founders were more religious than many think: our founding document mentions God no less than four times.This is not to say America was founded as an explicitly Christian nation -- the federal government has never had an established religion. But the Jewish and Christian understandings of God deeply influenced the founding generation, and that influence radiates from the Declaration of Independence.Here are the four...

The key to victory, the key to the courage that brings victory is not simply fighting the fight, but KNOWING we fight a righteous battle for the One who gave us Liberty. Our founders were in a position to pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor because they were firmly rooted in ALL the assurances of Liberty. Our founders knew that Liberty is a gift from God and those that stand for God’s gifts will be victorious through God’s promises. They firmly believed that living in tyranny was worse than dying for Liberty. Did these brave men and...

Our contemporary American experience seems often Orwellian. We have a Congress that denies our Rights in the name of security. We have a president who not only writes laws with his pen, but is also in the habit of rewriting history to serve his political purposes. Many patriots have expended a great deal of energy this year in the fight to see our Liberty protected and America’s greatness restored. We are all well aware that there are still many struggles ahead and mountains yet to be conquered. But let us be reminded of a hope that is rooted firmly in...