Free Republic

What is behind recent pessimistic appraisals of democracy's future, from Hillary Clinton, Adam Schiff, Brian Williams and other elite intellectuals, media personalities, and politicians on the Left? Some are warning about its possible erosion in 2024. Others predict democracy's downturn as early 2022, with scary scenarios of "autocracy" and Trump "coups." To answer that question, understand first what is not behind these shrill forecasts. They are not worried about 2 million foreign nationals crashing the border in a single year, without vaccinations during a pandemic. Yet it seems insurrectionary for a government simply to nullify its own immigration laws. They...

What ultimately destroyed the evil empires of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were bankrupt dogmas. Crackpot ideology destroyed free expression. It ruined meritocracy and ensured unequal application of the laws - and so paved the way for far worse. The Nazi idea of a superior Aryan race adjudicated everything from physics to tank design. Soviet commissars did the same, subordinating rational thought to communist agendas. Zealots in both systems infiltrated the universities and schools to institutionalize indoctrination. Wokeism, while not yet as lethal, is similar. Racial wokeism posits that the race and gender of the vice president and the next...

A recent Yahoo News/YouGov survey found a majority of Americans think we should “learn to live with” COVID and “get back to normal.” A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found three-quarters of adults describe themselves as "tired or frustrated" with the pandemic. A recent Monmouth University poll found seventy percent of Americans say COVID is “here to stay” and we should “get on with our lives.” The same survey found only forty-three percent of respondents supported vaccine mandates. The Supreme Court struck down Joe Biden’s unconstitutional shot mandate for companies with a payroll of one hundred employees or more. A...

Following the end of World War II hundreds of thousands of American military veterans returned home to America and set about resuming the lives that they had left behind when they went off to war. Or in the case of many veterans, they embarked on a new life that they had never had before. The opportunities were really endless for those who had the initiative and willingness to work hard and learn new things. American veterans had just defeated the evil of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan, and their future looked very bright. They were determined to now...

Washington -- Let us now digress from my usual preoccupation, which is politics, to the world of athletics or to the world of athletics as it is affected by culture wars. Of course, culture wars are politics by another name. Alas, we never can completely escape politics. If I wanted to write this week about cuisine at some point, I fear I would be capitulating to politics, for instance: how politics affects linguini or chop suey or beef. Politics is everywhere nowadays. I think the reason is that what was once called liberalism (and is now called the left) has...

To observe that the left and its cheerleading media have treated the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot as a solemn occasion would be to understate the point. For the left, the (actually) mostly peaceful demonstrations of that day, which for a small percentage of demonstrators did entail illegal trespassing of the Capitol, represented a watershed moment in the history of our "democracy." Jan. 6 was the day, the narrative goes, where "deplorable" Trumpians attempted to effectuate an "insurrection" and a "coup," seeking to "overturn" the results of the perfect and pristine 2020 presidential election. The...

Recently, Democrats have been despondent over President Joe Biden's sinking poll numbers. His policies on the economy, energy, foreign policy, the border, and COVID-19 all have lost majority support. As a result, the Left now variously alleges that either in 2022, when they expect to lose the Congress, or in 2024, when they fear losing the presidency, Republicans will "destroy democracy" or stage a coup. A cynic might suggest that they praise democracy when they get elected, only to claim it is broken when they lose. Or they hope to avoid their defeat by trying to terrify the electorate. Or...

It’s pretty common that when a sick person is dying, especially from a psychiatric disorder, they get spurts of life that can fool you into believing they’re getting back to normal. But what looks like signs of life can be deceiving. When sickness declines to a slow death, terminal lucidity, agonal breathing, and the Lazarus reflex become signs that death is imminent. Terminal lucidity, first described in 1833, is an unexpected return of mental clarity to a person who’s been gone, sometimes, for years. Agonal breathing looks like real breathing but are the last gasps of a dying brain –...

Despite the triumph of resident Joe Biden's inauguration, liberal celebrities didn't get much happier in 2021. It began with Donald Trump refusing to concede that he lost the presidential election. A year ago, one actor engaged in violent fantasies over this stubborn resistance to the facts. "Who arrests Trump if he refuses to concede? Who drags him out? Pepper spray? Cuffs?" This sounds like an action movie. But then it turned threatening: "A knee on his neck, cutting off his oxygen? Does he wheeze 'I can't breathe'(?) Just whale away on him like a pinata? Rodney King style? The thug...

Christmas is right around the corner. For those of us who celebrate the birth of Christ, it is a time of great optimism. It refreshes us and makes us hopeful knowing that a savior was born and sent by God to bear our sins so that we as believers would have eternal life. I realize not everyone who reads this is a Christian. But the vast majority of the people I’m going to write about suggest they are. It’s for that reason I sincerely ask my fellow Christians of a different political party if they’re tired of living and selling...

Another newly launched criminal proceeding that is not getting much attention lately but which is very similar to the Biden administration’s witch hunt after James O’Keefe and Project Veritas is the September arrest of conservative attorney Jeffrey Moffatt. In 2016, Moffatt and his wife ran as Republicans for the state legislature and Congress in California, and as a result the Arizona State Bar, which has a lengthy history of targeting conservatives, went after Moffatt for a small infraction that blew up into arresting and prosecuting him when he fought back. Unfortunately, the facts in Moffatt’s case are so complex and...

ORLANDO, Fla.—Gov. Ron DeSantis delivered a blistering critique of President Joe Biden and his authoritarian policies, warning Americans they need to fight against the radical left to preserve our freedom. Speaking to roughly 800 supporters of The Heritage Foundation and its grassroots partner, Heritage Action for America, DeSantis took aim at Biden’s recently announced COVID-19 vaccine mandate. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.) The emergency rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires employers with 100 or more employees to make sure that those workers get the COVID-19 vaccine or submit to weekly testing....

Booker was the impetus behind the joint statement and did not accept Sanders' Bob Cusack, editor-in-chief of The Hill, explains why 'the moderates don't like what they are hearing from the president.' video The Hill editor-in-chief on Sens. Manchin, Sinema hit over infrastructure holdout Bob Cusack, editor-in-chief of The Hill, explains why 'the moderates don't like what they are hearing from the president.' Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., refused to sign a letter to condemn the actions of left-wing activists who confronted Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., in a public restroom because the statement did not criticize her "political views," a report...

House of Representatives approves $1b. for Iron Dome by landslide Eight Democrats — Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Cori Bush, Andre Carson, Marie Newman, Jesus Garcia, Raul Grivalva — and one Republican, Rep. Tom Massie, voted against

Seattle – A 28-year-old Bellingham, Washington woman was convicted Thursday in U.S. District Court in Seattle of violence against a railroad carrier. Ellen Brennan Reiche, was one of two people arrested on the BNSF Railway tracks near Bellingham, near midnight on November 28, 2020. Reiche was convicted of placing a ‘shunt’ – a device that interferes with train signals – on the tracks. The jury deliberated about three hours following the two-day trial. Reiche faces up to 20 years in prison.

This article is not meant to attack young people struggling with deep-seated gender confusion. To the contrary, it is meant to expose the attack on these young people. To be totally candid, it’s as if a spirit of madness has descended on our society targeting the youth in particular. It’s as if reality has been turned upside down and truth no longer matters – or even exists. And it is downright heartbreaking to witness. I have been warning against the trajectory of LGBTQ activism since 2004, and over these years, I have talked with countless parents and spouses and siblings,...

In the old days, Democrats had predictable agendas, supposedly focused on individual rights, the "little guy" and distrust of the military-industrial complex. The left, often on spec, blasted the wealthy, whether the "lucre" was self-made or inherited. The old-money rich were lampooned as idle drones. If the rich were self-made, they were deemed sellouts. A good example was '70s pop icon Jackson Brown's "The Pretender," with lyrics that railed about a "happy idiot" and his "struggle for the legal tender." Democrats talked nonstop about the "working man." They damned high gas and electricity prices that hurt consumers. Almost every liberal...

If a history professor asserted that black holes don’t exist, would anyone pay any attention to him? What about an English professor who advocates Lamarckian evolutionary theory over Darwin? How about a sociologist who believes in alchemy? What if these folks didn’t just have weird beliefs, what if they taught these ideas in their classes? What if they wrote articles and books and gave public speeches extoling them? The answer is obvious. They would be dismissed as kooks. And much more. On a typical university campus, the physics department would probably demand that the history professor stop spouting fake physics...

On September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key penned "The Star-Spangled Banner." Set to the British tune "To Anacreon in Heaven," "The Star-Spangled Banner" is inarguably one of the most difficult national anthems to sing. The backdrop of the song was the British attack on Baltimore during the War of 1812. Key had been sent to negotiate a prisoner release and boarded the British flagship HMS Tonnant. During the negotiations with British Vice Adm. Alexander Cochrane, Key overheard the war plans. Consequently, the British held Key captive until after the assault on Fort McHenry, forcing him to stay on the HMS...

By a vote of 415-14 in the House, with unanimous support in the Senate, Juneteenth, June 19, which commemorates the day in 1865 when news of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas, has been declared a federal holiday. It is to be called Juneteenth Independence Day. Prediction: This will become yet another source of societal division as many Black folks celebrate their special Independence Day, and the rest of America continues to celebrate July 4 as Independence Day two weeks later. Why the pessimism? Consider. Days before Congress acted, the Randolph, New Jersey, board of education voted to change Columbus...