Free Republic

Everyone knows this, but it's worth repeating: The Republican Party is the party of Abraham Lincoln and was established in 1854 to block the expansion of slavery. The Democratic Party was the party of slavery: Its two founders, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, owned large numbers of slaves, and every party platform before the Civil War defended the institution unequivocally. After the war, it was the Republican Party that rammed through the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution over Democratic opposition. Republicans also enacted a series of civil-rights laws that culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1875,...

RFFM.org Commentary In 1994 Republicans steam-rolled their way into national Congressional power behind the ideals of moral certainty, fiscal responsibility and a promise to change the way things were done in Washington, D.C. However, it didn't take long for the trappings of political intrigue to ensnare many of those who were swept into power by the 1994 Republican Revolution and, by the year 2000, it was hard to tell a Republican from a Democrat. Using the state of Illinois for an example, conservative members of the GOP probably reached their zenith of influence right around the time the national Party...

THE NEW YORK TIMES VS. HELMS, PART 529,876July 9, 2008 Last Friday, on the Fourth of July, the great American patriot Jesse Helms passed away. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson also went to their great reward on Independence Day, so this is further proof of God. Helms is now the second great American patriot I've always wanted to meet and never will, at least in this lifetime. The only other one is the magnificent Reagan aide Lyn Nofziger. (Wikipedia quote: "I sometimes lie awake at night trying to think of something funny that Richard Nixon said.") After a week of...

After nearly 15 years of attempting to describe how the mainstream media has often negatively portrayed conservatives, I have found there are some basic truths which have prompted such coverage. Certainly those who fall on the right of the political spectrum are not fairly represented or reported on by many journalists in the dominant press. However, the dynamics of conservatism and the varied views which make up this broad political idiom has, at times, fostered the coverage it receives...

For the next hour I sat behind the glass panel of the control booth and watched Limbaugh at work in front of the “golden E.I.B. microphone.” Unlike Howard Stern or Don Imus, he has no sidekicks with him in the room. He does, however, keep up a running conversation with an unheard voice. I always assumed that this was just imaginary radio shtick. Now I saw that the voice was attached to a human interlocutor, Snerdly, who banters with and occasionally badgers Limbaugh via an internal talk-back circuit. After the broadcast, Limbaugh waved me into the studio and offered me...

MCCAIN: PUMP THIS!by Ann CoulterJuly 2, 2008 Well, I guess we're all pretty relieved we didn't drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge back in 2002. What a disaster that would have been. The vote on ANWR was almost entirely along partisan lines, with all Republicans, except a handful of "moderates," voting for drilling, and all Democrats, except a handful of sane Democrats like Zell Miller, voting against drilling. John McCain opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because he polled soccer moms and found out they were against drilling. They thought it sounded too much like going to...

Last week, a conservative magazine reported that I would not vote for John McCain for President. The magazine based its claim on a column I had written in May 2007 about why I could not support John McCain for the Republican presidential nomination. The magazine was wrong. Though I did not support Sen. McCain in the Republican primaries, the moment he became the presumptive Republican candidate I endorsed him wholeheartedly for President Of The United States. Having not been a supporter from the outset, perhaps my endorsement of John McCain will carry more weight among conservatives who are still undecided...

Jason Chaffetz's promise to change Washington, starting with Rep. Chris Cannon, resonated with Republican voters, who appear to have ousted the six-term incumbent in a Republican primary tonight. "You rock, and you rocked the Republican Party," Chaffetz told supporters gathered in Springville, shortly after polls closed. "We've done this all with volunteers, with no free meals and no polling. We've done it the right way. You can never convince me that one person can't make a difference." With nearly three-quarters of precincts counted, Chaffetz led Cannon by more than 20 points. Chaffetz now advances to face Democrat Bennion Spencer in...

When someone starts yammering about transcending partisanship, renouncing “hatred and venom” and “bringing us together” – head for the hills. He’s talking capitulation on the right, with long lines of defeated, dejected conservatives in tattered uniforms being marched away to political POW camps. Former Bush flak Scott McClellan, author of a tell-all book on his White House service, is worse than a rat fink. He’s worse even than a fawning sycophant craving the establishment’s favor. He’s a defeatist who bids his party to stand with him in the middle of a four-lane highway at rush-hour. Can we say “road-kill”? Here’s...

BUSH'S AMERICA: 100 PERCENT AL-QAIDA FREE SINCE 2001June 11, 2008 In a conversation recently, I mentioned as an aside what a great president George Bush has been and my friend was surprised. I was surprised that he was surprised. I generally don't write columns about the manifestly obvious, but, yes, the man responsible for keeping Americans safe from another terrorist attack on American soil for nearly seven years now will go down in history as one of America's greatest presidents. Produce one person who believed, on Sept. 12, 2001, that there would not be another attack for seven years, and...

Republican activists across Texas sued their state party in a Harris County court today to block what they call an attempt at next week's state GOP convention in Houston to minimize grassroots dissent. Represented by lawyer Gary Polland, a former Harris County Republican Party chairman, the group alleges that party leaders violated procedural state laws at past conventions and plan to do so again. The suit asks a judge to order the party to follow the law, and Polland said an initial hearing by County Court at Law Judge Roberta Lloyd could come as early as this afternoon. Texas law...

   Are You Kidding Me? May 22, 2008  Talk about pots and kettles! Can you imagine receiving a solicitation letter from RNC (Republican National Committee) treasurer Tim Morgan asking if you’ve “deserted our Party”? Who should be asking whom about desertion? The very first sentence of the letter says it all, “I don’t want to believe you’ve abandoned the Republican Party, but I have to ask...Have you given up?”.Well...yes and no. Have I given up on the current Republican leadership and its goals (euphemism)?  Yes. Have I given up on my Conservative values (what the Republican Party was supposed to stand for)?  Never. The answer to...

The Republican Party is dead. That’s what the smart people say. The “brand” has lost its meaning. I don’t know if the party is dead, but I do know it has lost its soul. It has abandoned its traditions and principles, and America seems to be just about done with it. Ironically, those who want to save it are the ones who have killed it. When Arnold Schwarzenegger says he wants to chart the course of the Republican Party, you might as well turn off the lights and go out of business. The Republican Party has lost its purpose by...

Billary gave an impassioned speech in Boca Raton Florida in attempts to gain delegates in both Florida and Michigan. In her speech she states that her campaign’s struggle to succeed at this task is similar to the ending slavery. Clinton goes on to say: that it is also similar to “fighting racial discrimination at the ballot box” she stated. “This work to extend the franchise to all of our citizens is a core mission of the modern Democratic Party” Clinton adds. Let’s rewind to 2000 when Condoleezza Rice spoke at the Republican National Convention shall we? Rice recalls: “The first...

Below is the FairTax resolution I submitted to the Platform & Resolutions Committee of the Illinois GOP Party Convention. Marilyn Rickert, Illinois FairTax, President The FairTax reflects the values, ideals and principals of the people of Illinois and the nation. I respectfully submit this resolution to be adopted as part of the Illinois Republican Party platform. FairTax Resolution background: The resolution was adopted by the ...

...This week, as the Democratic contest winds down, CBS News' Brian Goldsmith talked with Republican National Committee Deputy Chairman Frank Donatelli about his party’s prospects for November’s elections. (snip) CBSNews.com: Getting back to the environment, the highest wrong track number ever recorded in opinion polls, the highest disapproval rating ever recorded for a sitting president. How big is the magnitude of the problem? Frank Donatelli: Well, the political environment represents the starting point is what I would say. And it's fair to say that, in 2008, we start off, just on a generic basis, behind by five or ten points....

In my last column, I argued that conservatives must leave the Republican Party. That wasn't a conclusion I came to lightly, nor did I enjoy doing so. But I think we must, for three reasons: • First, because I think a debacle is pretty much inevitable. The GOP has no money thanks to its alienating of its base. Congressional candidates have already been told it's every candidate for himself, and the one guy with enough of a bully pulpit to turn this around, Sen. John McCain, steadfastly refuses to do so, instead pre-emptively surrendering to liberals. • Second, so that...

My friend and colleague David Karki is about as devoted to the United States Constitution, along with its principles of limited government, as anyone I’ve ever known. And unlike the Ron Paul types who have tumbled from this perch headlong into international isolationism, Dave still recognizes and respects the blessing of American exceptionalism and our need to maintain a strong international presence – including in Iraq, where he steadfastly supports American victory. Now that’s what I call a real conservative. So why is David Karki OK with the prospect of Barack Obama becoming the 44th president of the United States?...

It goes without saying that the GOP is taking a dreadful thrashing right now. Conservatives are unmotivated, Democrats are obliterating Republicans in the fundraising arena, and the GOP's poll numbers have dropped off a cliff. George Bush, the face of the Republican Party, has an approval rating of 30% and according to Rasmussen Reports, one of the best polling agencies in the business, 41.4% of Americans consider themselves to be Democrats while only 31.4% say they are Republicans. Worse yet, voters trust the Democrats more than Republicans on the economy, government ethics, the war in Iraq, health care, Social Security,...

Sacramento Republican Activists Launch Effort to Support the Republican Wing of the Republican Party (Sacramento) - Limited government, lower taxes and family values are just a few things that voters usually associate with the Republican Party. But recently, elected Republican officials have been actively taking positions against these bedrock Republican values and have supported efforts to increase minimum wage, driving up unemployment; proposed a tax increase on homeowners to pay for fire protection that they are already paying for; and fighting against an effort to protect the definition of marriage, as between a man and a women. Some say you...

<p>Manipulative. Shameful. Race-baiting. Those are the only words to describe a new television ad from the Republican Party running in North Carolina that attacks Senator Barack Obama as “too extreme” for the state.</p> <p>Senator John McCain was right to condemn the ad and demand that state Republican Party leaders pull it — a demand they refused. As of Friday, the state party’s Web site was soliciting contributions to “keep this ad on the air.” The country cannot afford such divisiveness.</p>

RUSH: In the first hour of the program -- and I want to go through some of this again, because it's crucially important. As you know, the North Carolina Republican Party has an ad. They are not going to pull the ad. It is an ad that is... Its intent is to cause doubt among North Carolina voters about the Democrat gubernatorial candidates. It uses sound bites from the Reverend Wright. Here is that ad. FEMALE ANNOUNCER: For 20 years, Barack Obama sat in his pew listening to his pastor. WRIGHT (screaming): And then wants us to sing God Bless...

RUSH: Here is the ad that will run -- by the way, Reuters had a story yesterday that the North Carolina Republican Party pulled this ad. They have not pulled the ad. I don't know who told Reuters this or if Reuters just made it up, but they have not pulled the ad. It is going to run Monday. We have seen to it, though, that even if they do pull it, it's going to air. They're not going to pull it, and McCain is fit to be tied. Here is the ad in question, the North Carolina Republican Party...

GOP Vice-President Slot Still Open, But Is Huckabee Getting Serious Cconsideration? RFFM.org Commentary by Daniel T. Zanoza Yes, I know. Supposedly there are no bosses in the Republican Party any longer. But even though the smoke-filled back room may be a thing of the past, there is an elitist faction of the GOP who makes decisions for all who believe in the Republican brand. Well, they try to make decisions. But as an institution starts to crumble, power brokers have less and less command over what goes on. Such was evidenced during the past presidential primary season. I believe Party...

After 20 or so years of working within the GOP to try and reform it into a more Christian/conservative Party, Dr. Alan Keyes is leaving the Republican Party. He will soon make this announcement and explain why he can no longer, in good conscience, remain a Republican. Many things over the past two decades or so have contributed to Alan’s decision to leave the GOP. One recent example: A secret meeting of some conservative “leaders” discussing not how to oppose John McCain but what promises McCain might make to allow conservatives to sell-out and support him for President. When Alan...

I disagree not only that the issue supersedes all others, but also with the assumption that McCain is right about the conduct of the war. Need I remind everyone it was John McCain who nearly single-handedly stripped our troops of the interrogation tools they needed to defeat the enemy and prevent attacks on innocent Iraqis and our own soldiers? More than anyone else in American politics, McCain led the fight to stop coercive interrogations, an absolutely essential weapon in our arsenal in the conduct of this war and future wars. McCain calls it torture. But it is not. Coercive interrogations...

Alan Keyes Leaving Republican Party By John Lofton, Editor, TheAmericanView.com JLof@aol.com After 20 or so years of working within the GOP to try and reform it into a more Christian/conservative Party, Dr. Alan Keyes is leaving the Republican Party. He will soon make this announcement and explain why he can no longer, in good conscience, remain a Republican. Many things over the past two decades or so have contributed to Alan’s decision to leave the GOP. One recent example: A secret meeting of some conservative “leaders” discussing not how to oppose John McCain but what promises McCain might make to...

I just got back from the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., where conservatives began lining up behind a man who’s been sticking it to us for years. By a process of self-hypnosis, many have managed to convince themselves that McCain is actually one of us. Not for nothing did Benjamin Disraeli call conservatives the stupid party. What part of John McCain do we not get? McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Feingold, McCain-Lieberman, McCain-Edwards -- among other socialist, anti-speech, open-borders, enviro-Marxist measures he’s co-sponsored with the hardcore left of the Democratic Party over the years. If Il Duce had served with...

THERE'S A DEMOCRAT BEHIND DOOR NO. 1, 2 AND 3February 13, 2008 A few more primary wins and B. Hussein Obama will be able to light up a cigarette during a televised speech and still get the nomination. It looks like the only thing that can stop him now is an endorsement from Al Gore. Gore is always lunging into a movement just as it has passed its prime -- the Internet, Howard Dean, global warming, trying to talk black when he campaigns at a black church. He probably bought a big house a few months ago. Gore is such...

In a rousing speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called for a conservative “declaration of independence” from the Republican Party. He also warned that Republicans face a “catastrophic” election this year unless the GOP changes course. Gingrich pointed out that on Super Tuesday, 14.6 million voters took part in the Democratic races, compared to 8.3 million Republicans. “There were 14.6 million Democrats who thought the presidential nomination was worth voting for, and there were 8.3 million Republicans on Super Tuesday,” Gingrich said. “That is a warning of a catastrophic election. I was...

WASHINGTON -- President Bush pledged Sunday to assist Sen. John McCain's campaign for the presidency assuming he wins the Republican Party nomination -- but acknowledged that the Arizona senator has "got some convincing to do" among the party's conservatives. In an interview with "Fox News Sunday" at his retreat at Camp David, Md., Bush was careful to note that two Republicans are still competing for the nomination, and he did not express a preference. But Bush made clear that he was willing to set aside the tensions he has had with McCain in the past, and he praised the front-runner...

How would you feel if tomorrow, you found out your parents were not your parents, and they lied about it for all these years? How would you feel if they somehow benefited from that lie? With the arrival of yet another Black History Month, it's time again to remind those who have purposefully rewritten Black history purely for political gain, that the truth is out there.

A decisive chunk of the Republican primary electorate didn't find this goofily endearing. When Mitt stood up and warbled, they didn't like his tune. They wanted something meaner and rawer and tougher, and there was John McCain. At the risk of overextending my musical analogy way beyond its natural 32 bars, it should be noted that the defining McCain moment came back in the fall when he responded to Hillary Clinton's support for public funding for a Woodstock museum. If you're under 70 and have no idea what "Woodstock" is or why it would require its own museum, ask your...

Last week, The Weekly Standard ran an article by academics Benjamin and Jena Silber Storey praising the rise of Sen. John McCain in the Republican presidential primaries. The Weekly Standard has long been a McCain supporter, going back to the 2000 election. The magazine adores McCain's rugged, Theodore Roosevelt philosophy of governance, one that emphasizes American might, exalts public service, and believes that so long as the right people are governing, government can be a transformative, transcendent, almost mystical force for good in the world.The Weekly Standard began in the mid-1990s, on the heels of the dramatic GOP takeover of...

Like a script from some Sci-Fi channel movie Conservatives find ourselves in the “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. Instead of solid conservatives we ended up with a bunch of “Spaceballs”. A Prissy Easterner Yankee Banker, a NYC Yankee, Another Hillbilly from Arkansas, A country club political maverick known for his willingness to defy Republican orthodoxy, and a crazy uncle From Texas. What the Hell, slap me; tell me it’s just a bad dream. Did we just pick an old white guy; Bob Dole Redux? Oh that’s the ticket. Democrats are running a Woman and a smart looking Black guy. Do...

Tomorrow, Super Tuesday, there will be a number of you voting in your primaries/caucuses. Hopefully, some of you will attend your Republican precinct meetings following the voting. If you have never done this, start. The Republican Party is, as many have noticed, wavering in its mission and direction. The only way to change it is from within, and that starts with you. One thing I would suggest to help stave off a repeat of this election cycle, what with every conservative candidate run off early, is to stop allowing crossover or unregistered voters from voting in the Republican Primaries. This...

Today is February 2, 2008. I am over fifty years old. I am a product of American values, observed and experienced in the 1950s and 1960s, and sorely tried in the Vietnam, Watergate, and Carter years of the 1970s, and again in the Clinton years of the 1990s. This is the timeframe and events that formed my political worldview. I grew up when we still said a prayer and read Psalm 23 at the beginning of the school day. I remember doing the duck and cover in elementary school, to be safe in the event of a Cold War nuclear...

In a small indication of poor judgment, Sen. John McCain's operatives provided a link on his campaign Web site to the New York Times editorial endorsing Sen. McCain in the New York primary Feb. 5. The endorsement got more attention than it otherwise would because MSNBC's Brian Williams, one of the moderators of the GOP debate in Florida last Thursday, threw it in the face of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The editorial had consisted mostly of the editorial board explaining why they think Mr. Giuliani is an evil mean nasty rotten guy. Mr. Williams wanted to know: how...

Peggy Noonan aims her considerable cannon at George Bush this morning in the Wall Street Journal in the middle of her analysis of the primaries. She fingers him as the main culprit in the destruction of the Republican Party, discounting other and perhaps better causes and engaging in just a little hyperbole: On the pundit civil wars, Rush Limbaugh declared on the radio this week, "I'm here to tell you, if either of these two guys [Mr. McCain or Mike Huckabee] get the nomination, it's going to destroy the Republican Party. It's going to change it forever, be the end...

Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal is rejecting calls by the county Republican Party to give up his 2008 re-election campaign. His party's request came because of a scandal over affectionate e-mails Rosenthal sent to his secretary. Fifteen members of the Harris County Republican party's Advisory Committee voted unanimously yesterday to urge Rosenthal to withdraw from the March 4 GOP primary. Harris County Republican Chairman Jared Woodfill says Rosenthal had made a serious error in judgment and called the e-mails horrible. Woodfill says they've contacted about 10 potential candidates. He refused to name the potential candidates but said he is...

With Mike Huckabee's continuing surge, the Republican Party now has an Iowa front-runner whose religious beliefs are virtually identical to those of George Bush. He's anti-choice, born-again, against gay-marriage, and gets political advice directly from God. So why is the Republican establishment suddenly in a state of near-apoplexy about Mike Huckabee? Shouldn't they be happy? They've been cultivating evangelicals and fundamentalists for 30 years. Now they finally have a candidate who's truly part of the movement. So what's the problem? Actually, that is the problem. The evangelical crowd was fine when it was just a resource to be cynically exploited...

Why does the GOP Establishment fear Huck? Juan Cole's got a bad case of left-wing Huckenfreude: I simply can not tell you how much I am enjoying this. The GOP has been pandering to these stupid bastards for years, and every time I pointed it out I was called “anti-Christian” or something or other. Those of us who saw what the party was becoming were told to shut up, that it was good politics. Enjoy your new GOP, folks. And here is something else to think about- are the evangelicals going to support Romney or Giuliani if you do manage...

Despite his current standing in the polls, Mike Huckabee remains an under-funded and chronically disorganized long-shot when it comes to actually winning the GOP Presidential nomination. While easily the most gifted TV communicator in the field, the former Arkansas governor displays some serious vulnerabilities as a candidate for the White House and his innumerable critics and rivals have attacked these weaknesses with gleeful ferocity. Even if he fails to win a place on the national ticket, however, Huckabee’s startlingly strong campaign provides potent benefits for both his party and his country. In the two weeks remaining before the Iowa Caucuses...

As I write this, my wife Gena and I are on the road in New Hampshire with GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and his wife Janet. We've traveled around visiting more great Americans from Boscawen to Tilton, Berlin, Littleton and Londonderry, experiencing just how large the Huck-a-boom is mushrooming. Ed Rollins, Mike Huckabee, me and Gena Joining us for part of the trip was Mike's new national campaign chairman Ed Rollins, who masterminded President Ronald Regan's landslide victory in 1984. Ed has likened Mike in lots of ways to "The Gipper," saying "I was with the old Reagan, and I...

Though I have formally endorsed no candidate, I made no secret of the fact that my favorites are Tancredo and Rep. Duncan Hunter – both, admittedly, long shots to get the Republican nomination. Bu I feel compelled to offer some more encouragement to Tancredo for his decision to boycott the recent Spanish-language debate. And he was the only candidate to do so. Tancredo got it right. "If they can't understand the English language, then, of course, they shouldn't be citizens," Tancredo explained. "They shouldn't be voting. And we shouldn't be pandering to them." That's what I like about Tancredo. Simple....

For the connoisseur of political hypocrisy, the shifting immigration stands of three GOP candidates are a veritable banquet. Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney have started doing passable impressions of Lou Dobbs. But can you trust a candidate whose record contradicts his campaign rhetoric? (That was a rhetorical question.) The CNN/YouTube debate was a hoot. Romney and Rudy squared off on what’s shaping up to be the defining issue of Campaign 2008 -- with the dignity of a couple of rabid mongooses. Rudy – who wants to “secure the border” (is there anyone, including Hillary, who says they don’t?)...

Timeless principles consistent with where Huckabee remains today and relevant to the recent headlines. Also nine years ago, Huckabee said the1998 Jonesboro shootings were driven by "the winds of spiritual change in a nation that has forgotten its God." "Government knows it does not have the answer, but it's arrogant and acts as though it does," Huckabee said. "Church does have the answer but will cowardly deny that it does and wonder when the world will be changed." He gets it. And the message of values grounded in the Word of God are timeless. The winds of spiritual change that...

And we must not fear conservative curriculum courses like world religion, ethics, Intelligent Design, and the most overlooked yet embedded text in Western culture and civilization – the Bible – which even our Founders expected us to teach. Provide Further Support For Educational Options If states continue to oppose conservative curricula and impose overarching liberal educational revisions and law like California recently enacted in SB777, which will in the end reverse discrimination against religious students and students with traditional family values, public schools should continue to expect an increased exodus. (A petition drive has until Dec. 20 to repeal SB777.)...

Just when he thought the media lovefest would never end–what with the deeply troubling open-borders and soft-on-crime charges of his critics failing to stick–GOP front-runner Mike Huckabee gets a Saturday surprise from the Associated Press, which dug up an old questionnaire probing his views on AIDS funding and homosexuality: Mike Huckabee once advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could “pose a dangerous public health risk.” As a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in 1992, Huckabee answered 229 questions submitted to him by The Associated...

That's very true. As America demonstrates, faith thrives in a free market. In Europe, the established church, whether formal (the Church of England) or informal (as in Catholic Italy and Spain), killed religion as surely as state ownership killed the British car industry. When the Episcopal Church degenerates into wimpsville relativist milquetoast mush, Americans go elsewhere. When the Church of England undergoes similar institutional decline, Britons give up on religion entirely. Instead of a state church, Europe believes in the state as church – the all-powerful beneficent provider of cradle-to-grave welfare. "Freedom requires religion," said Mitt Romney, and, whether or...