Free Republic

It is time to confront the unhappy fact about our country: There are now two Americas. Not a rich one and a poor one; economic status plays little role in this division. There is a Red one and a Blue one. For most of my life I have believed, in what I now regard as wishful thinking, that the Right and Left wings have essentially the same vision for America, that it's only about ways to get there in which the two sides differ. Right and Left share the same ends, I thought. That is not the case. For the...

Just as Charlie Gibson did in his interview with Sarah Palin, Katie Couric set out to humiliate the Republican vice-presidential candidate with a series of "gotcha" questions. This tactic -- rarely employed with major liberal candidates -- could be used equally effectively against Couric, or most any other liberal member of the television news media. It would be highly instructive to have Couric asked questions in the same way in which she (and Gibson) asked questions of Palin. For example: Q: Critics of the war in Iraq argue that prior to the invasion of Iraq, America had never attacked a...

f Senator Larry E. Craig resigns Saturday as expected amid accusations that he solicited sex in an airport restroom, his successor will be chosen by a fellow Republican who knows better than most what voters in this deeply conservative state will tolerate when it comes to the private behavior of public officials. .... Some top Republicans say that the relationship between Mr. Otter and Mr. Risch is frosty, that their styles are different and that Mr. Otter would prefer someone like Mr. Simpson, a conservative from eastern Idaho with whom he served in Congress. Mr. Simpson has made nuclear energy...

NBC recently made the gutsy decision to renew this fall the superb but little-watched Friday Night Lights, its rookie drama about high school football in Texas. In a season marked by quick exits for highly promoted serial dramas with big stars — notably Fox’s Drive, ABC’s The Nine and NBC’s own Kidnapped, all of which were quality shows — this is a remarkable event. The renewal is especially noteworthy because, in its own laid-back way, Friday Night Lights is one of the most politically incorrect shows on television. Maybe 24 hero Jack Bauer drew all the fire from the ACLU....

Is the Clerks and Dogma creator next going to attack middle America, Conservatives, Republicans and Christians in an upcoming movie? It certainly seems so with a recent interview he gave that appears on the moviefan website called Rottentomatoes.com. Smith, known for his irreverent skewering of conventional mores, seems to be in the midst of production on a horror movie based on a "Fred Phelps" styled character. UK audiences recently saw documentary journalist Louis Theroux spend time with members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, a controversial church group made largely of members of the Phelps family and run...

Editorial Observer A couple of weeks ago, I checked into a hotel in Bloomington, a Minneapolis suburb framed by the airport and the Mall of America. On the hotel door was a sign: “Firearms Banned on These Premises.” The next day I drove to St. Joseph, an hour west of the Twin Cities, where I saw the same sign. Slowly the logical conclusion sank in. If firearms are banned on these premises, then they must not be banned in other places. Sure enough, a year ago the State Legislature passed a “concealed carry” law, which means that it’s legal to...

A Marine who's planning to marry a Texan got an early Christmas present: A fellow shopper picked up the tab for a $3,000 diamond engagement ring after the two struck up a conversation in a jewelry store. The 54-year-old Dallas woman who paid for the 1-carat, princess cut diamond ring wants to remain anonymous, Helzberg Diamonds spokeswoman Stacey McBride told The Associated Press on Friday. The woman's father was in the military, her brother was a Marine who died in Vietnam and her nephew just got back from Iraq, McBride said. Marine James Lynaugh, 28, of Patuxent River, Md., was...

Mr. Bush as a person, as an individual, is as attractive to Republicans as he is unattractive to Democrats. Republicans like him because he seems like a normal guy--business, family, sports, Top 40 on the iPod. Democrats hate him for this--how common, how plebian; he'd have more elevated tastes if he were a more elevated man. Republicans like him for the one way in which he is obviously extraordinary: When he says it he means it, and if he promises it he'll do it. Democrats see this as evidence of derangement: He doesn't change his mind because he thinks he's...

But new long-term population projections from the Census Bureau show that anyone who believes Democrats can consistently win the White House without puncturing the Republican dominance across the South is just whistling Dixie. The census projections present Democrats with an ominous equation: the South is growing in electoral clout even as the Republican hold on the region solidifies. Veteran demographer William H. Frey, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, this month extrapolated the census numbers into projections for the electoral college over the next quarter century. His conclusions, in a paper titled "The Electoral College Moves to...

Kansas Voters Approve Ban on Gay Unions 2 hours, 20 minutes ago U.S. National - AP By JOHN HANNA, Associated Press Writer TOPEKA, Kan. - Voters in Kansas overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment Tuesday banning same-sex couples from marrying or entering into civil unions. With 97 percent of the vote reported, 395,468, or 71 percent, voted "yes," and 163,766, or 29 percent, voted "no." Gay marriage is already banned under Kansas law, and the law is not being challenged. But supporters of the ballot measure said the ban must be in the Kansas Constitution to insulate it from legal challenge....

Kansas voters gave a resounding yes Tuesday to a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage, providing what supporters hope is momentum for more bans nationwide. With 133 of 210 precincts reporting statewide, the measure was leading with 70 percent of the vote. In Johnson County, with all precincts counted, the measure passed with 60.14 percent of the vote. The Rev. Jerry Johnston of Overland Park, who pushed for the ban, said the amendment was not about discrimination, as opponents claimed. “This was about being pro-family,” he said, as he monitored results with a small group at his First Family Church. Archbishop...

Do this, Democrats. Announce you will apply pressure to antireligious zealots throughout the country. You have nothing to lose but a silly and culturally unhelpful reputation as the party that is hostile to religious expression. What you could gain is respect and gratitude. Pick up that Christmas tree, Terry, take it outside and put a star on top, stand next to it, yell Merry Christmas and ring a bell. That's a manipulation of symbols that would actually make sense.

If Democrats intend to compete for support in "fly-over country," generating fresh appeal to hardworking, religiously committed red-state voters who shop at Wal-Mart without guilt, they must escape their identification as the party of Beverly Hills dilettantes and self-righteous celebrities. This means learning to live without Hollywood money, and focusing less obsessive attention on fighting Ralph Nader (or other radical leaders) for a handful of high-profile endorsements on the marginal left.

Many liberals are beside themselves. Things were bearable when they could delude themselves into blaming their loss of power on a "stolen" election. But with this decisive defeat, they're thinking, "It's not our America anymore." As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote, "But what troubled me yesterday was my feeling that this election was tipped because of an outpouring of support for George Bush by people who don't just favor different policies than I do -- they favor a whole different kind of America. We don't just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America...

The electoral map featuring red and blue states, illustrating Republican and Democratic victories, became even more red this year as Republicans claimed two formerly Democratic states — New Mexico and Iowa — while nearly scoring victories in other Democratic strongholds, such as Wisconsin. Democrats, by contrast, this year claimed only one state that the GOP had won in 2000: New Hampshire.