Free Republic

The biggest surprise of the presidential election so far is the emergence and persistent strength of Donald Trump. Although Ben Carson is remarkable in many respects, he is the latest iteration of a familiar figure in Republican primary campaigns: the favored candidate of conservative evangelicals. By contrast, Mr. Trump is the staunchest champion of the white working class that American politics has seen in decades. Thanks to a recently released survey, a collaboration between the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and the Brookings Institution, we can now identify with much greater precision the sources of Mr. Trump's support and the...

In the days since Friday's horrific attacks in Paris—the most deadly act of terrorism on European soil in more than a decade—something approaching a consensus has emerged among politicos, pundits, and the political press corps in Washington: The fear-inducing violence in France could bring order to what has been a chaotic Republican presidential campaign here at home. The New York Times reports that the attacks have "thrust national security to the heart of the presidential race, forcing candidates to scramble and possibly prompting voters to reconsider their flirtations with unconventional candidates." Bloomberg Politics calls it "an important gut-check moment for...

Ann Coulter took to Twitter on Friday night to respond to the Paris terror attacks, saying that “Donald Trump was elected president tonight.” The conservative commentator tweeted a series of reactions to the attacks that left more than 120 dead, calling for “no more Muslim immigration.” She also targeted recent U.S. college student protests, as well as American gun and immigration laws and proposals. Coulter ended her string of Tweets with: “They can wait if they like until next November for the actual balloting, but Donald Trump was elected president tonight.”

The best way to sum up Mitt Romney’s approach to foreign policy is: Build peace through strength rather than generate contempt through apology. Mr. Romney laid out this vision for American national security at the Virginia Military Institute on Monday. President Obama’s camp predictably dismissed this point of view as “outside of the mainstream and often to the right of even George W. Bush.” This is from the administration which has made targeted killings the centerpiece of its counterterrorism strategy. This is from the administration that has attempted— poorly —to make a legal case for assassinating U.S. citizens abroad. The...