Free Republic

President Joe Biden’s proposed infrastructure legislation has the political class seemingly locked in a debate about what “infrastructure” means. Biden and Democratic leaders—backed by a majority of the U.S. population—believe that “infrastructure” is more than just roads and bridges and encompasses all the structures that help modern society function. Their new bill reflects that understanding, including improvements to water pipes and the electrical grid, universal broadband access, charging stations for electric vehicles, physical upgrades to schools and universities, and—perhaps most innovatively—home care for the elderly and disabled, support for families with children, and expanded access to health care. Republican elected...

And just as is the case today, that President had to kill it, or it would kill him. The far-Left rioters who attempted to topple the statue of Andrew Jackson in Washington, DC’s Lafayette Square several weeks almost certainly know nothing whatsoever about him. What they were told in the Antifa indoctrination camps that are called higher education these days is that he was largely responsible for the forcible exile of Native Americans from the Eastern United States, the Trail of Tears, and is thus to be reviled and hated forever. What they were not told is something that may...

The president’s critics thought his presidency was illegitimate to begin with. His Cabinet members changed frequently. Mainly based on policy disagreements, members of Congress demanded his ouster. Some lawmakers were willing to toss out constitutional norms based on what they said was the president’s “ignorance of the interest and true policy of this Government, and want of qualification for the discharge of the important duties” of his office. But we’re talking 1843, not 2019. In the midst of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry targeting President Donald Trump, many pundits make comparisons to the impeachments of Presidents Andrew Johnson in 1868 and...

The story of the Democrats (available in its entirety free; see details below) continues by exposing Andrew Jackson as the fake he was. The Trail of Tears Perhaps the worst instance of Jackson’s willingness to emulate the bellicose traditions of European empires was the genocide of the Cherokee Nation known as the Trail of Tears. It was carried out under the Indian Removal Act which was championed by Georgia Democrat Senator John Forsyth. Under its provisions the US Army would force the Cherokees to walk from as far away as North Carolina to modern day Oklahoma. The Bataan-like march killed...

June 26, 2012 A Statesman in Congress To the Members of the 112th Congress: This Friday marks the 160th anniversary of the death of Henry Clay (June 29, 1852). With only a few years excepted, Clay served in the House of Representatives and the Senate from 1803 until his death almost 50 years later. When he died, he was the most famous American of his day and received many, many eulogies. One of them came from a little-known, former one-term Congressman from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln, who eulogized Clay as "my beau ideal of a statesman." In calling Clay a "statesman,"...

Third Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Jonesboro, Illinois September 15, 1858 MR. DOUGLAS' SPEECH. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I appear before you today in pursuance of a previous notice, and have made arrangements with Mr. Lincoln to divide time, and discuss with him the leading political topics that now agitate the country. Prior to 1854 this country was divided into two great political parties known as Whig and Democratic. These parties differed from each other on certain questions which were then deemed to be important to the best interests of the Republic. Whig and Democrats differed about a bank, the...

The 17th Amendment is stupid: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years…. But let me start at the beginning.  Article I § 3 cl. 1 of the Constitution originally established the election of Senators through the state legislatures.  The Federalist #62 laid out numerous arguments for the Constitutional framework of the Senate and its method of selection. The senatorial trust, which, requiring greater extent of information and stability of character, requires at the same time that the senator should have reached a period of...

...Kennedy did only slightly better in 1960, scoring 49.8% against Nixon. His plurality was one of the smallest in U.S. history..... This election was significant in that it marked the occasion when TV played a major, perhaps determining, part. Roosevelt had already demonstrated the importance of radio when his skill at the media, honed in his "Fireside Chats" as president, helped to secure his landslide re-election in 1936. In 1960, the media (overwhelmingly pro-Democrat) judged Kennedy an outright winner in the TV debates. It was said that his team persuaded the studio to turn up the lights so that Nixon...

Fletcher is sworn into office in midnight ceremony CHARLES WOLFE Associated Press Associated Press Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher addresses people gathered in the Capitol Rotunda after being sworn-in just after midnight, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2003, in Frankfort. Fletcher is the first Republican to hold the office in 32 years. FRANKFORT, Ky. - Gov. Ernie Fletcher was sworn into office in a private, midnight ceremony to complete Kentucky's transition to a Republican administration for the first time in a generation. Fletcher simultaneously resigned his seat in the U.S. House - an act formalized Monday night in letters delivered to House Speaker...

Posted on Wed, Oct. 15, 2003 Because none of the four 1824 presidential candidates had won a majority of the electoral votes, the contest was ultimately decided by the House of Representatives. After some deliberation, the House voted into office John Quincy Adams, the distinguished son of former president John Adams. Andrew Jackson's supporters were outraged. They'd been robbed! Jackson had won a plurality of the popular vote: he deserved the presidency. Jackson's supporters screamed that their man had lost out only because of a "corrupt bargain" made between House Speaker Henry Clay and Adams. Clay only supported Adams, they...

New Hampshire mountain range to get name change A 'bump on a ridge' soon to be named Mount Reagan Associated Press MOUNT CLAY, N.H. (AP) — A peak that New Hampshire is naming for Ronald Reagan is one of the tallest in the White Mountain Range, at 5,553 feet, but it isn't exactly a popular hiking destination. The rocky summit doesn't even bulge high enough over its supporting treeless ridge to be a distinctive peak, according to the Appalachian Mountain Club, which doesn't include it on its list of peaks over 4,000 feet. "It's just a bump on a ridge,"...