Free Republic

Whether the issue is climate change, healthcare or gun control, libertarians are on a permanent collision course with evidence.The observation that science and politics make uneasy and often treacherous bedfellows is hardly revelatory. In science, all hypotheses must withstand the trial-by-fire of experiment; its methodology is self-correcting and objective, unconcerned with petty prejudices or personal conviction. Politics, by contrast, is deeply entangled with ideology – it is not bound to respect reality as science is, and thinks nothing of substituting convincing evidence for emotive rhetoric. And yet, when science and politics clash, it is all too often science that loses....

Jesse Benton, the campaign manager for U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, will resign his post as a bribery scandal from the 2012 presidential campaign threatens to envelop Benton and become a major distraction for McConnell's campaign. Benton told the Herald-Leader that he met with McConnell Friday afternoon and offered his resignation, which McConnell "reluctantly accepted." Benton said he offered his resignation, effective Saturday, with a "heavy heart." He maintained his innocence, faulting "inaccurate press accounts and unsubstantiated media rumors." "This decision breaks my heart, but I know it is the right thing for Mitch, for Kentucky and for the...

Former Rep. Ron Paul said he believes the U.S. government had prior knowledge of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and has kept this information hidden in a classified section of the 9/11 Commission report. Paul, who made the comments during a radio interview last Friday, also argued that the crimes of Osama bin Laden were “minor” compared to the harm the U.S. government has caused since the 2001 attacks. “I believe that if we ever get the full truth [about 9/11], we’ll find out that our government had it in the records exactly what the plans were, or at least...

How the same right allows for both same-sex marriage recognition and refusing to sell gay couples wedding cakes.How can a libertarian support gay marriage but also the right of businesses to decline to provide goods and services such as cakes, wedding dresses, and photographers for gay weddings? For many libertarians, it makes perfect logical, philosophical, and legal sense. But from the outside perspective, it often does not. As a result, critics looking for an opportunity to throw shade on the increased media and public interest in libertarian ideas can focus on just a piece of this mentality. We saw the...

Rand Paul and Ted Cruz’s differing tone in response to the Ferguson riots could provide clues for the divergent trails they're forging to woo libertarian voters in 2016. Both the Kentucky and Texas Senate Republicans urged that civil liberties be protected in statements following unrest in Ferguson, Mo.. After an officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18 year old African American teen, last weekend, riots have erupted and police have been criticized for using overly-aggressive force against protesters and reporters calling for answers. Strategists say Paul struck a more provocative tone against in his TIME op-ed, calling for the...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)"Rand Paul is right," Rev. Al Sharpton said on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Friday after the Kentucky Senator empathized with African-Americans who believe their rights were threatened by police officers. Paul published a TIME op-ed on Thursday discussing the issue of the "militarization" of the police force and what it meant in the showdown between police officers and protestors in Ferguson, Missouri reacting to the shooting death of Michael Brown. "Given the racial disparities in our criminal justice system, it is impossible for African-Americans not to feel like their government is particularly targeting them," Paul wrote, after criticizing the racial...

To paraphrase a memorable advertisement starring a young Andre Agassi: In Iowa, image is everything. It's a lesson that Rand Paul appears to be learning the hard way. Citing a "family commitment," the likely 2016 White House hopeful passed on attending Saturday’s Family Leadership Summit -- evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats’ annual gathering of social-conservative activists in Ames, Iowa. Few in the nation’s first voting state would have considered the Kentucky senator’s absence a big deal, especially since Paul has been extremely active building relationships in Iowa and has visited there frequently over the past year, including a three-day trip...

With each trip to an early primary state, potential 2016 Republican candidates are defining the issues and their own experience in ways that will bolster their presidential prospects. Pundits call this sort of activity “creating a narrative,” but whatever you call it, it can provide insight into the candidates’ self-image and what they think the primary electorate will want in a nominee. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), in an Iowa visit, sought to define five conservative victories: “Stopping the gun legislation that followed the Newtown shooting;” “stopping a bill reforming the International Monetary Fund that would have put more taxpayer money...

Last Sunday in Iowa, the two of us had the opportunity to meet Rep. Steve King of Iowa and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. After we identified ourselves as “DREAMers”— undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children — what we intended to be a civil, serious discussion turned into a tense confrontation with King. That tense confrontation became a viral Internet sensation when Paul fled the scene in the middle of eating a hamburger. Here’s the whole story. Originally, we had travelled to Iowa to meet other DREAMers and Iowans from King’s district. King is one of the...

As many others have noted, the high point here is Rand Paul bailing out mid-bite as soon as he hears the word “DREAM.” He’ll get in your face on foreign policy and he’ll push bold, controversial ideas like restoring voting rights to felons, but put him on camera in the middle of a squabble between Steve “Cantaloupe Calves” King and a pair of illegals when he’s gearing up for 2016 and all that’s left is one of those little dust clouds like in a Roadrunner cartoon. If not for that, my favorite moment would be Erika Andiola reassuring King that...

President Obama announced last week that he was imposing yet another round of sanctions on Russia, this time targeting financial, arms, and energy sectors. The European Union, as it has done each time, quickly followed suit. These sanctions will not produce the results Washington demands, but they will hurt the economies of the US and EU, as well as Russia. These sanctions are, according to the Obama administration, punishment for what it claims is Russia's role in the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and for what the president claims is Russia's continued arming of separatists in eastern Ukraine. Neither...

On Friday's Hardball, Chris Matthews and Howard Dean slammed the supposedly "lunatic" Republican Party for opposing President Obama's $3.7 billion request to deal with the ongoing crisis at the U.S-Mexico border. Dean likened the political stalemate over this issue and in general in Washington to McCarthyism in the 1950s: "It reminds me of the 'who lost China' debate...where one side is frothing at the mouth and finding communists under every bed; and the other side – including some reasonable Republicans...actually trying to run the country." Matthews endorsed the former Vermont governor's take, and targeted fiscal conservatives/the Tea Party as somehow...

For many Americans the country of Mexico conjures up images of a third world nation. The poverty, lack of basic services, and extreme violence has left the populace so desperate that thousands of people on a daily basis head to the United States for a better life. But according to Future Money Trends, all that could change in the near future as key Mexican financial leaders and politicians have been working to institute sweeping monetary change that, if implemented, could unleash a global power shift of epic proportions. “Take just three or four men out of the ‘anti’ group,” says...

Here’s a question for the proud Americans demanding that the unaccompanied foreign children showing up at our borders be deported: Suppose that one of these “illegal” minors was your neighbor, living with his aunt and uncle, going to school during the day, kicking ball with friends in the evening, trying hard to put the traumatic journey from his native, violence-ridden country to America behind him. Would you, with a clear conscience, pick up the phone and turn him in? If the answer is “no,” then it is time for you to throw out your “Return to Sender” signs. Why? Because...

The trite joke used to be that right-wing zealots would look for communists under the bed. A pair of political commentators writing at Bloomberg.com apparently can find them at the Cato Institute, or perhaps at LewRockwell.com. According to venture capitalist Nick Hanauer and Eric P. Liu, a former domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, "radical libertarians" are the "new communists." The authors acknowledge the apparent contradiction. "Most people would consider radical libertarianism and communism polar opposites: The first glorifies personal freedom. The second would obliterate it. Yet the ideologies are simply mirror images," they contend. "Both attempt to answer...

For some time now, Elizabeth Foley and David Rivkin have had two questions about the 44th president: “How is he getting away with this? And why isn’t someone doing something about this?” Foley, a professor of constitutional law at Florida International University College of Law, and Rivkin, lead outside counsel of Florida et al. v. United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of three Obamacare challenges that ended up before the Supreme Court in 2012, are doing something. They are the architects of the House of Representatives’ likely lawsuit against President Obama, which would challenge the president’s selective...

It’s not exactly the Ali-Frazier “Thrilla in Manilla,” but the ongoing Rand Paul-Dick Cheney pugilism certainly packs a punch. The libertarian ophthalmologist and the warlord emeritus have been pounding each other for months, and while it’s tempting to just kick back with popcorn and behold the entertainment, we do need to acknowledge the bout’s deeper meaning. Because this is really about something quite serious. Republicans are profoundly split these days over foreign policy: between the non-interventionists who are increasingly wary of American military involvement abroad; and the neoconservative hawks who blundered us into Iraq and want us to keep flexing...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)One U.S. lawmaker firmly believes the United States should keep its sons and daughters out of Iraq's increasingly tangled and bloody conflict. "I'm not willing to send my son into that mess," Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, told CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley on Sunday. Appearing on "State of the Union," Paul acknowledged that while the chaos in Iraq intensifies by the day, he believes advances by jihadist Sunni militants on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shiite government forces do not pose an immediate threat to U.S. national security. Though he refused to rule out some kind of U.S. assistance, Paul...

Senator Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, has waded into the ongoing blame game over who is responsible for the unfolding crisis in Iraq. A constant critic of President Barack Obama, this time the Republican presidential hopeful sided with the president and criticized the George W. Bush administration. Paul’s intervention follows an op-ed written by Paul for the Wall Street Journal in which he criticizes President George W. Bush’s decision to go to war to oust the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. “Much of the rationale for going to war did not measure up” to the “Weinberger Doctrine” by which President Ronald Reagan decided...

Like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) and former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), Dave Brat sends a shock through the New York/Washington axis. His victory shows a classic denial of political reality by the political establishment. It comes because the establishment holds fast to "the way we were" and won't let go. 'Twas ever thus, but all the money, all the influence, all the mainstream propaganda from Hollywood and the Eastern press cannot hold it back. The new century rises to new themes; the old falls away to ruins. I have been saying here that what we have been seeing...