Free Republic

Where do you side on social issues ... environment ... the economy ... domestic policy ... healthcare ... foreign policy ... education ... immigration? This is a fairly comprehensive survey. You give your position on the issues and they tell you which candidates you most agree with.

The dictionary defines one of the older lessons in science – that of cause and effect – this way. Cause and effect is “noting a relationship between actions or events such that one or more are the result of the other or others.” In today’s political world you could call this the “Obama Effect.” In which the far-left actions of President Obama are causing events inside the Republican Party, the result of those far-left actions pulling the GOP into a leftward lurching orbit. In the real world, the Earth orbits the Sun. The reason is basic science: lighter objects orbit...

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES COMPARISON Click on a rating to read more.

Donald Trump holds double-digit leads over Ben Carson in both South Carolina and Nevada, the third and fourth states scheduled to hold nominating contests in next year's race for the presidency, with Trump widely seen in each state as the best candidate to handle a range of top issues, according to new CNN/ORC polls. Trump holds 38% support in Nevada, with Carson in second with 22%, and in South Carolina, Trump doubles Carson's support, 36% to 18%. No other candidate comes close to those top two in either state; the third-place candidate in each case has less than 10% support.

Nobody can predict the future. Not Nostradamus, not Karl Rove, not the Oracle at Delphi. But as primary voters, we must try. Not because we’re going to Las Vegas to bet on the election, but because every primary race is dependent on some judgment about the likely result. In November, voters only need to ask one question: •Which of the major party candidates would be better in the office? But in the primaries and caucuses, we have several questions to ask: •Which of our choices would be best in the office? •Which of our choices has the best shot in...

Donald Trump is promising he’s going to release detailed policy stances soon. He told reporters in Michigan yesterday why he wasn’t getting into a lot of specifics at the moment. I think you’re gonna see lots of plans and you’re gonna see—also and you have to understand, when you’re coming up with a plan in business you have to be flexible. There’s got to be flexibility…if I would have sat down and said, ‘Here’s a 12 point plan to get Dural,” I didn’t do that. I went in and punched and punched and beat the hell out of people,...

Vice President Biden ✔ @VP Happening soon: VP Biden to speak at @genprogress' #MakeProgress National Summit. Follow along → https://www.whitehouse.gov/live Godlyencounter @godlyencounter @VP @genprogress how about you make a comment on what happened to our military today Sometime between President Obama’s personal visit with inmates at a federal penitentiary this morning and tomorrow night’s scheduled no-press fundraiser in New York City, his day was interrupted by the systemic assassinations of four Marines. The president did offer a brief statement this evening calling the shootings “a heartbreaking circumstance.”

Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat who was elected to the Senate in 2006 and served a single term, announced on Thursday that he is running for president. Mr. Webb, a Vietnam veteran and former Navy secretary under President Ronald Reagan, has policy positions do not fall neatly along party lines. Here is where he stands on the issues. Foreign Policy Mr. Webb has been a persistent critic of the Iraq war, warning in 2002 that “those who are pushing for a unilateral war in Iraq know full well that there is no exit strategy if we invade.” He has also...

"...Mr. Buckley would surely not be surprised at the Rolling Stone episode. He described it effectively a full fifty-five years before the story was published, not to mention long before the central participants targeted in the story were even born. Indeed he predicted this kind of story almost a full decade before Rolling Stone — founded in 1967 — existed. What Buckley knew in 1959 was this: >>> I shall be assuming that in most respects the liberal ideologists are, like Don Quixote, wholly normal, with fully developed powers of thought, that they see things as they are, and live...

This election presents tough choices for some voters. Many are upset that the Republican Party hasn’t formally enunciated its core principles, properly nationalizing the election in a simple, coherent way. The national GOP has, instead, settled for letting it be a traditional midterm, a referendum on the policies of that man in the White House and the party that unconditionally, unquestioningly, supports his every act. And yes, for many voters, that may well be enough. But for those voters who would like a clear presentation of the difference between the modern Democrat Party and the Republican opposition, that difference can...

“I call on every man in the Diocese of Arlington to search his heart and renew his commitment to purity. I call on every husband and father to renew his sacred commitment to his wife and children.” - Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde ARLINGTON, VA, March 7, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The growth of pornography use, particularly on the internet, is “a matter of utmost urgency for every son and father today,” Bishop Paul Loverde of the Catholic diocese of Arlington, Virginia said in a letter to his flock released this week. Titled “Bought with a Price: Every Man’s Duty to Protect...

The gender gap is alive and well in American politics. Indeed, it may be the defining characteristic of our political system as next year's midterm elections beckon. We're not talking here just about the well-established pattern in which women are more likely to vote Democratic and men Republican in presidential elections. That's true, but it appears to be only the tip of a gender-gap iceberg. On virtually all the hot-button issues that bedevil Washington today—guns, health, how to fix the economy, the state of the Obama presidency—the difference between men and women is striking. And it all adds up to...

Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s Senate campaign website “issues” page appears to have been copied directly from Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Nunn’s website “ideas” page BuzzFeed has found.

Here is the latest from Fox News on Aaron Alexis, the Washington Navy Yard shooter. He’s been arrested a couple of times for shooting at construction equipment tires and shooting through his roof at his upstairs neighbor because she was too loud. And according to his former roommate, he’s a Buddhist. Watch:

Republicans are now rated higher than Democrats on handling the economy and foreign policy, and the GOP's lead has strengthened on several other issues, including dealing with the federal deficit and ensuring a strong national defense. On topics such as health care, Democrats have seen their long-standing advantage whittled to lows not seen in years. The poll also reflected unease over the economy. Just 27% of Americans think the economy will improve over the next year, the lowest since July 2012, while nearly two-thirds think the country is on the wrong track. The jolt of support for Republicans falls well...

Frank Luntz may smugly believe that Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and other right wing talk radio hosts are "responsible for the stark polarization within the nation's political discourse" and therefore "problematic" for the Republican Party. I submit the problem is that Luntz, and a misguided over-reliance on focus groups, has neutered and thus destroyed any semblance of courage in the GOP's message. Luntz is conflating, as many wonks and number crunchers do, cause and effect with regard to the bigger realities and polarization. The country is polarized because, well, we are polarized. Rush and "the great one" didn't make it...

Academy Award-winning director Michael Moore had some harsh words for Sen. Harry Reid and his fellow Democrats after they decided not to include an assault weapons ban in gun-control legislation. Moore ranted against the Senate majority leader after Reid removed Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s proposal to prohibit military-style weapons from the bill because they wouldn’t have the votes. The director behind “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 9/11” said people need to “rise up” against the Nevada senator. “There will be an Aurora next month and there will be a Sandy Hook the month after that,” Moore told CNN.....

The 2011 - 2012 debates were a disaster. This is a modest proposal for changes "we can believe in." They are needed if Republicans are to win the presidency in 2016. For reasons which need not detain us except to note that they seemed initially to have had nothing to do with debates among political hopefuls, I tried to watch a The Voice segment on YouTube. Alas, it is unavailable in my viewing area. An alternative was to consult Wikipedia, according to which The Voice is a "reality" talent competition. The series consists of three phases: a blind audition, a...

The new conventional wisdom in the aftermath of the 2012 elections is that Republicans face two challenges: first, that the United States is no longer a center-right nation, but a center-left one; second, that the country’s demographic shift away from whites will make it tougher for Republicans to win votes. The proposed solution is that Republicans must compromise on the party’s core policies, from immigration to taxation to social issues. The conventional wisdom is wrong. I once worked in South Africa for a centrist party, the Democratic Alliance, which faced the same challenges as Republicans do, only far more extreme....