Free Republic

In recent weeks, it has become clear that the Biden-Harris regime is applying pressure to the Israeli government, in support of the Hamas-led terrorist cause in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government knows that it needs to continue to hammer Gaza without letup, as they continue to discover even more weapons caches, even more terrorist tunnels, even more evidence of military sites in civilian areas, virtually every day. If Israel pulls out before the job is done, then all these months will have been for naught. There are ten million Israeli citizens – Jewish, Muslim, Christian and more – all...

On the morning of October 19, 1781, General Charles Cornwallis was ashamed of himself. Equestrian Washington The prior week had begun with General Cornwallis finding himself – along with his 8000 British, Loyalist American, and Hessian troops – hemmed in at Yorktown. He had consciously settled in there that spring, erecting fortifications, seemingly declaring the site permanently “British-held ground.” But gradually, things went against him. The American Commander in Chief, General George Washington, and French General Rochambeau moved in with their American and French troops… The great British Navy under Admiral Thomas Graves was unable to offer support, as French...

Political Satire: Having trouble surviving these times? You’re not alone. Join us in columnist John F. Di Leo’s exploration of an alternate universe, where we imagine the impossible: An aging, corrupt old fool somehow becomes president in his basement, and every night, an aide has to bring him his soup and discuss the events of the day as he prepares to receive his nightly meds… January 20. Begin Transcript. “Well, that was a busy day!” “Yessiree, boss, sure feels good, doesn’t it?” “Yup. All that reading, and speaking, and signing things… and walking up and down stairs… And I didn’t...

The 2024 primary season is well underway. Most of the candidates will have announced by Independence Day; the first debates commence in August, and petition filing for ballot access in the primaries begins mere weeks after that. We have a recent incumbent president, a recent incumbent vice president, and a plethora of sitting and former politicians, not to mention a couple of unelected businessmen in the Trump model, already lined up to crowd our debate stage. Every other op-ed will address the qualifications of the candidates, their strategies and styles, their hopeful paths to victory. But one thing that perhaps...

Former congressman, veteran, and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard (D, Hawaii) made news this week by leaving the Democratic Party, with a stinging public rebuke to the corruption and warmongering of its current leadership. She wins points with reasonable people whenever she's on television, and why not? Tulsi Gabbard is attractive, well-spoken, logical... always a welcome talk show guest because she's willing to call out her fellow Democrats for some of their extreme, destructive positions. But don't be fooled. Tulsi Gabbard is NOT one of us. America may owe Tulsi Gabbard a debt of gratitude for her wonderful takedown of Kamala...

On Friday, June 24, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The Dobbs ruling was significant, for two reasons: It settled a question regarding abortion at the national level: that it’s not the federal government’s business, so it’s up to the states. Also, since it overturned a 50-year-old ruling, it reminds both the general public and future courts that our respect for precedent should not be so blind as to allow blatantly unfounded rulings to stand if a chance comes up to correct the error. The outcry was loud and immediate, and no wonder:...

Our second President, John Adams, attended Harvard, the oldest college in America, already over a hundred years old when he attended. His successor in the White House, Thomas Jefferson, attended William and Mary… and his successor, James Madison, attended the College of New Jersey (now known as Princeton). Most of our earlier presidents, those who led the Continental Congress and its successor body, the Confederation Congress, were similarly well-educated men. For example, John Jay went to King’s College (now Columbia); Thomas Mifflin attended the College of Philadelphia. The various colleges of both the United States and Great Britain were well...

Let's say I claim the right to collect tolls on the Brooklyn Bridge. (I need cash, you know, and there’s money there). So, I fly to New York; I erect tollgates, and I start collecting tolls from cars and trucks crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. Now, as you might imagine, I have no right to do this. I just did it, and dared people to stop me. Well, people did. They didn’t waste much time, either. Let’s assume that people sued me, and it went all the way to the Supreme Court, where SCOTUS said "This is ridiculous! John, you don't...

US Rep Adam Kinzinger of Rockford, IL has again grabbed some undeserved attention, this time by throwing the Republican Party under the bus, going on national television to attack GOP efforts to put an end to Democratic election fraud. The Kinzinger quote with which the Left is having the most fun is "I think if we're going to be in charge and pushing conspiracy and pushing division and pushing lies, then the Republican Party should not have the majority." Now it’s easy to dismiss this as just “Kinzinger being Kinzinger.” He likes being this generation’s version of Jim Jeffords or...

Reflections on the anniversary of the first ratification convention’s conclusion… On December 7, 1787, at Elizabeth Battel's Golden Fleece Tavern in Dover, Delaware, the state of Delaware became the first state to ratify the new Constitution of the United States, and did so by a unanimous vote of thirty to zero. With such an auspicious beginning, we might think that national ratification would be a foregone conclusion, but ... no such luck. As easy a decision as it was for some states, it was a very difficult one for others. We think there are huge differences between the states today...

Who’s to blame? Every time there is a shooting, a bombing, any kind of mass killing, a heartbroken nation asks ourselves, who’s to blame? We must begin, of course, with the fact that the person who did it, did it. Period. The person who pulled the trigger, set the bomb, drove the van, was responsible. Unless he was hypnotized, or otherwise physically and mentally controlled from afar, the killer himself bears criminal responsibility for the crime he commits. No excuses, no reprieves, no blaming a cruel society or bad childhood. When a killer kills, he owns the responsibility, and he...

Bringing it in just under the wire, negotiators representing Mexico, Canada, and the United States announced a new trade deal, to be named the USMCA, on Sunday, September 30, enabling the replacement for NAFTA for which many have long clamored. With the agreement to switch to this new program, the three nations are taking some steps – however small – back in the direction of the goals that Free Trade Agreements have always promised to support, but which have been largely forgotten in the quest for their side effects. Free Trade Agreements, in fact, are not designed to reduce taxes...

Every time the President talks about trade negotiations, it makes the news. On July 18, he mentioned – for the umpteenth time – that he might prefer to break NAFTA up into two agreements, and the press went ballistic again. We have hundreds of major issues in United States politics – taxes, unemployment, crime, foreign policy – and people can talk comfortably about them because they are always on the collective mind. But trade is different; it’s only an issue once every generation or so. So this is an issue with tons of misconceptions, not only in the electorate, but...

At the end of March, 1776, following the year-long Siege of Boston, General George Washington and the Continental Army drove the British out of Boston, following their stunning victory in the Battle of Dorchester Heights, one of the true masterstrokes of the War of Independence. But the British just went to Halifax to regroup, and to gather reinforcements for a real assault, to follow that summer. In June, the expected redeployment of British troops began, as his forces headed south, bound for New York, to meet with other reinforcements he had called for. General Washington knew what was coming. In...

It rained in Chicagoland last night. That may not sound particularly exceptional, but it’s mid-January, and it’s been very cold lately; we usually get our precipitation in the form of nice fluffy snow this time of year. But it rained – hard – and that caused the night crawlers, gasping for breath, to climb out of the ground and slither onto our sidewalks and pavements, to escape drowning in the waterlogged soil. And we humans, being nice folks who never want to take another life without cause, watch our step, as we walk to and from our cars. We try...

Aaron Burr, Patriot and Vice President On February 6, 1756, a boy was born into privilege in Newark, New Jersey. Young Aaron Burr, Jr. was son of the president of the College of New Jersey, and grandson of Jonathan Edwards, the Calvinist theologian regarded as a leader of the evangelical movement of the 18th century, an equal to the great preacher George Whitfield. Privilege then wasn’t quite what privilege is today, of course; there were no Rolls-Royces to drive, no Waldorf Astorias to stay in during constant vacations, no jet-setting to Monte Carlo, no celebrity photographers and magazines to put...

Reflections on isolationism and foreign policy, on Decoration Day... When the field is crowded, candidates find a way to differentiate themselves. No surprise there. One way that some candidates have chosen in recent years is to set themselves apart from the “war hawks” of the other party, or even of their own party, by preaching isolationism, and by declaring that isolationism is the true heritage of our Founding Fathers. They will quote Presidents Washington and Jefferson, who warned, on occasion, of the need to “avoid entangling alliances” like those of the Old World. And they will imply that isolationism –...

The Republican Party suffers from a terrible illness, and it goes on and on, season after season, without even attempts to cure it. This illness is our presidential primary system. Since the beginning of the New Deal, the Republican Party has only nominated two conservatives for the Presidency: Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Ronald Reagan in 1980. One suffered a huge defeat, the other enjoyed two huge victories. As this record shows the conservative ascendancy, one would expect this to mean that the party would keep nominating candidates like their greatest victor in a century, at least until it stopped...

News reports on August 20, 2011 A.D. said that country singer Chely Wright was married to her girlfriend, Lauren Blitzer, at the bride’s – well, one of the brides’ – aunt’s house, because Connecticut allows gay marriage. So, if your source for the news is a marriage license duly issued by a government bureaucrat, or a People Magazine article online, then you can be forgiven for believing the story. It’s certainly likely that many of the two hundred guests believe it. But that doesn’t make it so. Now, I’m a huge fan of Chely Wright, as are most country music...