Free Republic

PINK MAFIA BEATDOWN– An unhinged mob of raging lesbians and beer-muscled gays beat a street preacher (video) at the Seattle Gay Pride festivities this week.

Are Americans becoming more libertarian on cultural issues? I see evidence that they are, in poll findings and election results on three unrelated issues -- marijuana legalization, same-sex marriage and gun rights. Start with pot. Last November voters in the states of Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana, by a 55 to 45 percent margin in Colorado (more than Barack Obama's margin in the state) and by 56 to 44 percent in Washington. In contrast, California voters rejected legalization 53 to 47 percent in 2010. These results and poll data suggest a general movement toward legal marijuana. State legislatures...

There are ugly stains in our past such as the Democrat Party formed KKK and the Democrat supported murderous Planned Parenthood founded by eugenicist Margaret Sanger. As a black woman, I loathe both of these organizations and wish that neither one ever existed. After all, they both aimed to target and destroy people with my skin color...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: New pope. I am not Catholic. But I have endeavored, I have dug deep, I have attempted to find out from sources that I trust as much as I can, that I can understand, that I could then relay to you about this new pope. He's the first pope from the Americas. I realize some of you from Rio Linda say, "What a minute. Argentina? That's South America." He's the first one. And he didn't want to be pope. But there's some incredible things about this man. He is a classic Catholic theologian. There appears not to...

By the time you read this, the world’s billion-plus Roman Catholics may have a new pope. And when the black smoke of Tuesday’s indecisive first vote has turned to the white smoke of final decision, don’t be surprised if the cardinals have chosen… a Catholic pope. After the election of Benedict XVI in 2005, I wrote that the cardinals had correctly ignored the desires of some people to install a wimpish equivocator willing bend with the winds of compromise. I believe the cardinals will show the same wisdom in 2013. In other words, the cardinals will choose someone who can...

Sandra Fluke, whom feminists had touted as the voice of a new generation, got the silent treatment from a bored and lackadaisical audience of college students during a 45-minute speech at Northwestern University on Monday night. Fluke reportedly fumbled awkwardly as the young adults ignored her verbal cues for their participation. “I have to tell you that here in Illinois, the number one point on the agenda is – ” she said, expecting a rousing reply. In time, she whispered her own answer, “Gay marriage.” “I can tell you’re passionate by your response,” she joked after deafening silence. Fluke told...

This is part two of a column on the state of Republicanism and how they should move forward.In 1973, the Supreme Court issued one of their worst rulings ever in Roe v. Wade. Largely made from “whole cloth,” the ruling has started a 40-year fight over abortion that unnecessarily has divided this country. If Republican principles were in place on this issue, then there would be a heated discussion; but the core of the fight would be defused and the issue would be handled at the state level where it properly belongs and where other issues should be handled. Without...

Win, lose or draw, we're always supposedly hitting a tipping point where social issues just no longer work for the Republican Party. At first glance, this would appear to be a rather puzzling sentiment. After all, in 2010, despite the fact that the GOP was just as socially conservative as we were this year, the Republican Party had its best year in half a century. Furthermore, in 2008 and 2012, the GOP lost despite running moderate candidates who were soft on social issues and who barely brought them up at all. If anything, you'd think that seeing two non-social conservatives...

Can there be political bubbles like financial bubbles? Financial bubbles, inflated by hopes and dreams, burst when reality negates any possibility that those hopes and dreams will be realized. At that point, sky high stock or bond or real estate prices come crashing down to earth. Can the same thing happen in politics? Can a skilled politician, who has become popular with soaring rhetoric and promises, deflate when it starts becoming clear that he is not going to deliver? Of course, I am thinking about our president. Mitt Romney demonstrated in the first presidential debate that the considerable gap between...

Charlotte, N.C. -- Going by the conventional rules of American politics, the Democratic Convention this week was an unmitigated disaster. And, going by the same rules, GOP convention was a disaster, too. So, either the rules of American politics have fundamentally changed, or at least one of the parties is taking an enormous gamble. Since the Nixon years, the GOP has enjoyed a marked advantage over the Democrats at the presidential level. Cultural issues -- race, religion, abortion, patriotism -- have worked to the Republicans' advantage. Until Barack Obama's election in 2008, no Democrat has won the presidency without aggressively...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Matt Hoagland, the county leader of a group of young North Carolina Republicans, is busy trying to ramp up enthusiasm for Mitt Romney at the grass-roots level. So there are a few things he avoids mentioning to prospective young voters he wants to woo, including the hot-button topics like abortion and same-sex marriage, which have dominated campaigns past. “Social issues are far down the priorities list, and I think that’s the trend,” Mr. Hoagland, 27, said. “That’s where it needs to go if the Republican Party is going to be successful.” ... Some young conservatives ... continue...

Worry about eroding religious freedom could sway Catholic voters further away from President Barack Obama, and the Catholic voting bloc typically predicts the winner in presidential elections. Yet, as conservatives continue to pound Obama in ads geared toward the faithful, some Catholics who care about the president's slip in polls plan to campaign for him on social media sites. Both sides, campaign strategists say, are trying to secure the important vote. "Catholic voters are a critical and crucial part of winning the election," said Burns Strider, a Washington-based strategist the Democrats brought on to hold Catholic and evangelical voters after...

Contrary to politicians who want to call a truce about social issues, there is absolutely no way to separate social and fiscal issues; they are locked in a tight political embrace. Politicians who say we can ignore social issues or avoid talking about them, are really saying that they have no plan to cut federal spending and the growing national debt. That’s because the social issue of marriage and its importance to our society has become a tremendous fiscal issue. The problem of marriage absence is now costing the taxpayers even more than national defense.

Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan had it just right - someone had better read Rick Santorum his Miranda rights. In the big leagues of national politics, she warns, "Everything you've said can and will be used against you." Keep in mind that Rick Santorum has said a great deal, and is still talking. In a world accustomed to bland politicians, Santorum breaks the mold. He admires conviction politicians, and he aims to be one. He speaks his mind, and then keeps on talking. On crucial issues of a moral nature, Santorum not only states his position, he explains it in...

There’s a chance Rick Santorum may still scrape out a win in Michigan tomorrow. This morning’s Public Policy Polling survey has Mitt Romney leading him by just a few points, 39 percent to 37 percent. But the internal numbers look worse for Santorum, and his ongoing slide in the state seems to be due to his focus on social issues: One place Santorum may have hurt himself in the last week is an overemphasis on social issues. 69 percent of voters say they’re generally more concerned with economic issues this year to only 17 percent who pick social issues. And...

RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell met with Republican members of the General Assembly more than 60 times in the past month — from formal meetings to glitzy social gatherings at the Executive Mansion — and he often cautioned them to exercise restraint. McDonnell warned his fellow Republicans to limit their socially conservative legislation and focus on job creation and the state budget, according to legislators. Otherwise, he said, they risked miring the session in needless disputes that would not benefit the GOP. He even signaled which bills he would support, a departure from previous practice. .....But apparently not...

Thanks to Professor Jacobsen of Legal Insurrection and Dan Riehl of Riehl World View for their timely and informative posts. First of all, I'll share a conversation I had with a Democrat in Michigan yesterday. She asked me why she had only heard of Rick Santorum within the past week. I answered that because of party politics and money-on-hand of the candidates other than Romney, the rest of the candidates are having a difficult time getting their name across. "Well, I don't like that Romney, he's buying the election," she said, "and I'd vote for Santorum but everything about him...

Yesterday on CNN's State of the Union, Candy Crowley asked Ron Paul about the new focus in national politics on social issues and whether a national debate focusing on them would help Republicans in November. Paul called it a "losing position" but neglects to mention that he has campaigned on his opposition to abortion at least since the Ames straw poll, an omission caught by CNS News: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO “Do you–are you uncomfortable–certainly Rick Santorum is the one who has been in the forefront of some of this talk on social issues, but there have been...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Santorum showed up yesterday on Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer. And, folks, it was like Bob Schieffer, who's, what, 90? Ninety-two? Bob Schieffer talking to Rick Santorum actually appeared as though Schieffer thought Santorum was from Mars. It was a space alien. What he thought, the things he had said, Schieffer could not believe that there was a human being alive on this planet who could think that way, who believed these things. He was shocked. He was stunned. And it goes to show the Republican establishment, clearly the Democrat Party establishment, do not have the...

And Baby Makes Seven Billion William McGurn has flagged a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) news item, "The State of World Population 2011." His comment: "Nothing brings out the inner Malthus like a newborn baby." [quote] At Columbia University's Earth Institute, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs tells CNN "the consequences for humanity could be grim." Earlier this year, a New York Times columnist declared "the earth is full," suggesting that a growing population means "we are eating into our future." And in West Virginia, the Charleston Gazette editorializes about a "human swarm" that is "overbreeding" in a way that "prosperous, well-educated families"...