Free Republic

Reporting from Washington — For decades, Republican doctrine has viewed Russia as a power to mistrust. But in Donald Trump’s GOP, Moscow’s sins seem to matter less. The platform written at the GOP convention in Cleveland this week eliminated references to arming Ukraine in its fight with Russia, which seized the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and has supported separatists in eastern Ukraine.Those represent sharp departures from U.S. policy and recent GOP positions and sparked immediate concerns that Trump would abandon treaty commitments to allies. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is not attending the convention in his home state, was among...

In February 2017, the Washington Post’s Miller had the lead byline on a story based on leaks of Trump’s conversations with Australia’s prime minister and Mexico’s president. Six months later, the Post published the entire transcripts of both conversations in another Miller story. It was through such national security correspondents that anti-Trump sources -- intelligence officials -- pushed leaks of classified information and other tidbits intended to damage Trump into the media. There it merged with other anti-Trump currents in nearly every corner of the press, where it blossomed into Russiagate. After a nearly two-year investigation, the special counsel found...

She threw out a claim, got challenged, and immediately admitted, "I don't know." MSNBC’s Katy Tur got burned by making an unfounded claim during her show on Monday. She made a claim that has often been made as evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. “At the Republican National Convention, the Republican Party decided not to arm Ukraine against Russia,” Tur said, trying to wrap up her show. Former Trump campaign adviser Sam Nunberg interrupted her, however, and pointed out, “But Ukraine is armed.” The former adviser, who says he can no longer stand Trump, was most likely referencing reports that the Trump...

Phyllis Schlafly, the St. Louis-born American intellectual who grew from a shy and beautiful girl to become one of the most influential political activists of the 20th and 21st century, died today, Monday, September 5, 2016 according to Eagle Forum. Schlafly has written or co-written more than 20 books, on military policy, education, legal and social issues. Her first book, “A Choice, Not an Echo,” is credited with winning Barry Goldwater the Republican nomination for president and inspiring the conservative movement that eventually led to Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Her military work was a major factor in Reagan's’ decision to proceed...

Even as the GOP establishment drifts ever leftward, mutating into a “progressive” monstrosity nearly indistinguishable from its DNC Capital Club drinking buddies, a group of conservative delegates has crafted what’s being called “the most conservative Republican Platform in history.”By the grace of God, this platform was adopted in toto this past week at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.Now, to unify the Republican Party and admit into triage an America on the precipice of total collapse (and to put us on the road to recovery), nominee Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress should immediately pledge to implement every plank...

Pro-LGBT Republicans, both gay and straight, say the party is going through a fundamental change. Equality issues are not controversial among younger Republicans, majorities of whom support gay marriage and other measures. Richard Grenell, an openly gay former diplomat, told The Hill he is encouraged by how much progress the party has made, even over the last four years. During the 2012 campaign, Grenell stepped down as Mitt Romney’s national security and foreign policy spokesman after to a conservative backlash over his sexuality. “When I walk through the convention, I see politicians, activists and staffers who swarm me to tell...

The Trump campaign worked behind the scenes last week to make sure the new Republican platform won’t call for giving weapons to Ukraine to fight Russian and rebel forces, contradicting the view of almost all Republican foreign policy leaders in Washington.

The Republican platform’s language relating to Israel was adopted by the party’s platform committee on July 12. In past elections, the official Republican and Democratic positions on Israel and the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were largely identical, signaling the remarkable success of pro-Israel organizations and brass from both parties in ensuring that one of the most emotional topics in international affairs wouldn’t become a partisan issue in the U.S. But that bipartisan consensus is fraying, at least as far as the parties’ official positions go.The Republican platform language—touted by presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and others as the...

It also encourages the teaching of the Bible in public schools because, the amendment said, a good understanding of its contents is “indispensable for the development of an educated citizenry.” Additional provisions included those that promoted state laws to limit which restrooms transgender people could use, nodded to “conversion therapy” for gays by saying that parents should be free to make medical decisions about their children without interference and stated that “natural marriage” between a man and a woman is most likely to result in offspring who do not become drug-addicted or otherwise damaged.

If Donald Trump was hoping for GOP unity leading into next week’s convention, there’s a ways to go. In addition to the last breaths of the #NeverTrump movement, the Log Cabin Republicans are denouncing recent developments for the party’s 2016 platform, calling it “the most anti-LGBT platform in the party’s 162-year history.” The organization, which represents LGBT conservatives, issued a letter from its president decrying the platform’s changes, which have been reported as “a rightward lurch even from the party’s” 2012 positions. “Opposition to marriage equality, nonsense about bathrooms, an endorsement of the debunked psychological practice of ‘pray the gay...

The Republican Party’s Platform Committee adopted a draft document Tuesday that not only recognizes the unborn child’s “fundamental right to life,” but also calls for defunding Planned Parenthood and states that the GOP will “not fund or subsidize health care which includes abortion coverage.” The draft platform still has to be adopted by the full GOP Convention, which will be held in Cleveland next week. The Platform Committee, which was chaired by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) — who has a 100 percent pro-life voting record, according to the National Right to Life Committee — and dominated by social conservatives, adopted...

Donald Trump said Thursday he would change the Republican Party platform's position on abortion to include exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. Trump made the remarks during a town hall on the "Today" show on NBC on Thursday morning when host Savannah Guthrie asked him about abortion exceptions. "The Republican platform every four years has a provision that states that the right of the unborn child should not be infringed," Guthrie said. "And it makes no exceptions for rape, for incest, for the life of the mother. Would you want to change the Republican platform to...

Republicans, already girding for their most tumultuous convention in decades, now have another fight brewing: a divisive battle over gay marriage on the party’s official national platform. It’s an issue that drives intense passion, and one that splits the mainstream and evangelical wings of the GOP. With the convention less than four months away, both sides are mobilizing in anticipation of a bitter clash over whether the party should embrace a more moderate approach to gay nuptials, in keeping with a public that is more open to it, or maintain the hard line the party’s base demands.

Republicans, already girding for their most tumultuous convention in decades, now have another fight brewing: a divisive battle over gay marriage on the party’s official national platform. It’s an issue that drives intense passion, and one that splits the mainstream and evangelical wings of the GOP. With the convention less than four months away, both sides are mobilizing in anticipation of a bitter clash over whether the party should embrace a more moderate approach to gay nuptials, in keeping with a public that is more open to it, or maintain the hard line the party’s base demands. Some of the...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Jeff Flake says it is "inevitable" that his party will see one of its own run for president while supporting gay marriage.</p> <p>The Arizona lawmaker on Sunday said the shifting political landscape will eventually yield a candidate who backs same-sex marriage and predicts that candidate would find support within the GOP.</p>

Washington D.C., Aug 22, 2012 / 06:03 pm (CNA).- Platform drafters for the Republican Party have approved language asserting a firm commitment to the defense of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. “The institution of marriage is the foundation of civil society,” the draft document states. “Its success as an institution will determine our success as a nation.” The document says that both experience and studies indicate that marriage has physical, emotional, academic and economic benefits for children. It reaffirms the party's support for marriage as the union of one man and one woman, while also...

<p>A subcommittee helping to draft the Republican Party platform approved preliminary language Monday that would affirm “dignity and respect” for gay Americans but a definition of marriage as the union of “one man and one woman” is likely to be included, according to the leader of a conservative gay rights group advising the GOP.</p>

Where is the Republican platform? I hear they're all scared again and acting too wimpy to agree to one...Paul Ryan's is apparently too "mature" to embrace. Argghh! One poster on American Thinker, "MajorMajor" said this: "If you want to see people fight over each other to get in the voting booth, all you have to do is promise the following: 1. Repeal Obamacare and Financial Reform. 2. Extend the Bush Tax Cuts and create new ones like no capital gain tax. 3. Pledge to reduce spending by 10% across the board every year for the next four years, no exceptions!!!...

Gallup: Republicans Now Strongly Pro-Life, Democrats Back Abortion Washington, DC -- The Gallup polling firm released a new report today looking back at its abortion polling from 1975-2009. It found that, over the last several years, Republicans and Democrats have become more polarized as Republicans move to a pro-life direction and Democrat embrace abortion. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat6089.html

With the tension brewing between the Tea Party movement and the Progessive/statist RINOs, and given the fact that out best chances may require working for change within the GOP, I would like to hear the ideas of fellow FReepers in the form of four proposed federal-level planks for the GOP. I'll offer mine, based on my limited understanding of the original intent of our Founding Fathers, and how that might fit with our current mess, but I'm hoping to hear the thoughts of greater minds and deeper thinkers here. Thanks. Top Four Federal-level Planks for the Republican Party 1. Fiscal...