Free Republic

Disillusionment with Woodrow Wilson changed the American Left forever. In 1916, German saboteurs destroyed Black Tom Island in New York Harbor.Click for Bettmann/Corbis pic. Today’s state-oriented liberalism, we are often told, was the inevitable extension of the pre–World War I tradition of progressivism. The progressives, led by President Woodrow Wilson, placed their faith in reason and the better nature of the American people. Expanded government would serve as an engine of popular goodwill to soften the harsh rigors of industrial capitalism. Describing the condition of his fellow intellectuals prior to World War I, Lewis Mumford exclaimed that “there was scarcely...

The raids constituted a horrific, shameful episode in American history, one of the lowest moments for liberty since King George III quartered troops in private homes. Friday, January 3, 2020 Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons | Public Domain (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en) Lawrence W. Reed Lawrence W. Reed Politics History Woodrow Wilson First Amendment Communism World War I Police State Exactly a hundred years ago this morning—on January 3, 1920—Americans woke up to discover just how little their own government regarded the cherished Bill of Rights. During the night, some 4,000 of their fellow citizens were rounded up and jailed for what amounted, in...

BLAST ASHCROFT; CHECK! [KJL] Paul Krugman makes you stop reading with his opener today: “No question: John Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in history.” I trust he suffers from selective amnesia and the name “Janet Reno” doesn’t even register with him. (And, yes, I’m ignoring any legitimate criticisms he may have—anthrax—because I stopped reading there….) Posted at 08:54 AM LIBERAL AMNESIA [Jonah Goldberg] That Krugman opener is a classic example of liberal historical amnesia. One gets the sense that Krugman didn't even bother to look at a list of former of AGs before he declared Ashcroft is the worst....

There are remarkable similarities between the al Qaeda terrorists of today, and the Communist terror conspiracy confronting America in the early 20th century. Like bin Laden's terror network, the left-wing Anarcho-Communists of 1920 were international, sought to destroy our capitalist system and Judeo-Christian way of life, and employed violence and terror as a tactic in their war against freedom. Our government, under the guidance of President Woodrow Wilson's Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, would break the back of this violent terror conspiracy without impinging on the civil liberties of freedom-loving Americans. Re-visiting this successful war on terror yields many lessons...