Free Republic

Together with my good friend and occasional courtroom adversary David Boies, I am attempting to persuade a federal court to invalidate California's Proposition 8—the voter-approved measure that overturned California's constitutional right to marry a person of the same sex.... Many of my fellow conservatives have an almost knee-jerk hostility toward gay marriage. This does not make sense, because same-sex unions promote the values conservatives prize. Marriage is one of the basic building blocks of our neighborhoods and our nation. At its best, it is a stable bond between two individuals who work to create a loving household and a social...

A number of Ron DeSantis supporters have taken to social media to announce they will vote for Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before they unify behind Donald Trump, despite the DeSantis camp pitching the Florida Governor as a facsimile of Trump with less “baggage” and more “effective” administration.“Since I have been reliably told for months by Trump supporters that they would write him in even if DeSantis or anyone else won the GOP primary, it’s good to have permission to support RFK in the general if DeSantis doesn’t win the GOP primary,” wrote DeSantis booster Scott Morefield, a...

Great meeting with America’s Governor @ChrisSununu at Poor Boy’s Diner in New Hampshire! 🇺🇸 #FITN pic.twitter.com/uQZl0BhhJa— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) June 10, 2023

Republican voters did their part. When one accumulates the popular vote for House races across the country, Republicans won by three percentage points—a margin that was once just under five points but narrowed as votes from deep-blue districts trickled in over weeks after Election Day. That kind of turnout for Republicans “would normally translate into GOP gains of 20-30 seats,” according to the Cook Political Report. But Republicans have as of early December netted only eight seats, bringing their total in the House to 220. At most, Republicans will hold 222. In races that seemed to be easy flips, Republicans...

When a significant number of House Republicans voted for a recent bill to recognize same-sex marriage at the federal level, those who most vocally made the case for the legislation were the younger members, especially Kat Cammack of Florida. The split in the GOP vote, with 47 voting in favor and 157 against, mirrors the divide within the wider conservative movement. At Young America’s Foundation’s National Conservative Student Conference last week, several students spoke to National Review about their receptiveness to a national gay-marriage law. But their views incorporated a respect not only for religious freedom but for the religious...

If you doubt conservatives are just slomo progressives, here's @DebraMessing RTing @Evan_McMullin promoting @NPR 's guide to truth

Kentucky governor Matt Bevin said last week that he hopes the Kentucky legislature won’t consider a transgender-bathroom bill in the upcoming legislative session; according to Bevin, “the last thing we need is more government rules.” He’s absolutely right, and I think it’s worth offering a conservative defense of transgender rights — which ought to be a conservative issue. On the American political spectrum, conservatism is the mind-your-own-business ideology. I know smoking is unhealthy, but I enjoy smoking, and my health is none of your business. I know motorcycles can be dangerous, but I like the wind in my hair; whether...

Watching the Sunday news shows, I realize America is finished if we have to rely on the Republican party. I just watched Senator Flake (R Ariz.) smugly go on that we will lose the war on terror because of Trump having a "religious test" for admission to our country. Also he says that's why we will lose the election not because Senator Flake isn't supporting Trump. We are facing Hillary Clinton and these republicans are everywhere saying Trump has to come to each of them and explain himself. Then he has to change to agree with them. These republicans don't...

Aristotle teaches that while we must love our friends, we must love truth more. Today, I am probably going to lose some good friends, which is painful. Nevertheless, my admiration for everything America was, everything modern civilization was, compels me to bite the bullet. Donald Trump may win the Republican presidential nomination. He may even be elected President of the United States -- stranger things have certainly happened recently. However, while his popularity is understandable, an essential question remains: Is Trump the kind of leader who might begin to restore a crumbled constitutional republic?

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee outraised its GOP counterpart nearly 2-to-1 last month, marking the second month in a row it has brought in significantly more cash than the National Republican Senatorial Committee. According to figures provided by the committees, the DSCC raised $4.3 million in February and had $5.1 million in cash on hand at the end of the month. The NRSC raised $2.2 million and had $3.1 million in the bank on Feb. 28. The NRSC, which paid down $500,000 last month, now has $9.5 million in debt from the 2012 cycle. The DSCC declined to release its...

Newt Gingrich took the stage at the Georgia Republican Party state convention on Saturday wearing a Mitt Romney sticker, focusing his attacks on President Barack Obama and attempting to energize the crowd around his former Republican rival. "To every conservative, everywhere in America: When your choice on the one hand is Barack Obama, and your choice on the other hand is Mitt Romney, no serious conservative could possibly believe that electing Barack Obama is acceptable ... for America."

I’ve noticed that George Will and Charles Krauthammer have taken time out of their many TV gigs to trash Sarah Palin. Other prominent conservatives seem to relish dissing the former Alaska governor. David Frum, Joe Scarborough, Peggy Noonan, David Brooks, Chris Christie; don’t forget Kathleen Parker, who parleyed her Palin envy into a CNN talk show that no one watches. This is not an attack on these conservatives. I read them all and often find a lot of worth in what they opine. I don’t understand why they actively, often unprompted, go out of their way to bash Palin. I...

Theodore Olson, the stalwart conservative lawyer and former solicitor general for the Bush administration, told the Spectator he will be supporting Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid. "I admire his character, his capacity for leadership, his instincts, and his principles," Olson said over the phone this afternoon. He said he will help Giuliani raise money as well as offer advice on legal issues and domestic policy matters that involve constitutional questions.

What's the difference between "conservative" and "neoconservative"? Who are the "neocons," anyway? And were they, as some charge, an unduly influential cabal of intellectuals who talked President Bush into going to war in Iraq after 9/11 as part of their long-planned crusade to plant democracy in the Middle East? To seek enlightenment on things neoconservative, I rang up four of the biggest names in the punditry business and asked them the same questions. Rich Lowry is editor of National Review. Paul Weyrich is chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation. Paul Gigot is editor of The Wall Street Journal's...