Free Republic

The Republican Party has a history of using desperate times to call for drastic measures and when bailing out AIG, bolstering Medicare or bombing Iraq, that party has always been willing to go big and bold on some of the largest government expansions in this nation’s history. But what about cutting government? You know, that stuff GOP politicians always talk about during election time? One might think that in a political environment in which so many are desperate to reverse what they see as unsustainable government growth, Republican rhetoric might at least attempt to reflect that desperation. But when GOP...

This week marked six months since Congress passed the healthcare reform bill in what has become all-too-typical legislative chicanery. Those in power crafted a mammoth piece of legislation and rammed it through Congress under a dire sense of emergency. Insisting on time enough to read the bill was dismissed as dangerous and crazy in a time of crisis. We were told that if we really wanted to see what was in the bill, we would have to pass it first. I cannot imagine the founding fathers intended for Congress to legislate in this manner. I would think if a Member...

When President Obama announced a new $50 billion stimulus plan Labor Day weekend, conservatives scoffed -- and rightfully so. Who does this guy think he's fooling? After the $700 billion TARP bailout, the auto manufacturer bailout, and an $800 billion stimulus, does this president actually think a measly $50 billion is going to successfully turn around an economy where greater sums have failed? But the president and his party have a ready reply for such naysayers: "Imagine if we did nothing?" This open-ended question will undoubtedly continue to provide cover for stimulus-loving liberals, no matter how often conservatives insist that...

Representative Lincoln Davis of Tennessee, described by Democrat Party Chair of Tennessee Chip Forrester as a "key vote" for Barack Obama, is in real trouble in the polls. This video is making the rounds in TN-04 on youtube, showing Lincoln "Houdini" Davis as being in favor of a single-payer healthcare system. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLgpLGh3n5o Davis, a self-proclaimed "blue-dog" democrat, votes one way in Washington and walks a different walk back home in his district. His Houdini act must come to an end. Dr. Scott DesJarlais, of Jasper, TN. is seeking to relieve Davis of his duties. He's a conservative physician that wants...

A NOTE TO THE PARTY BOSSES: Tens of millions of parents have been dragged into the Education Wars, the Reading Wars, the Math Wars, etc. They are profoundly sick of it. They are angry. They want change and improvement. The Republican Party has got to step up and hit this easy pitch. The Tea Party as well. Almost every American has watched Jay Leno go Jaywalking, and probably exclaimed the same words: “These people are voters but they don’t know anything. This isn’t acceptable.” The Republican Party should see the huge political leverage in pushing common-sense reform. Give the people...

It was called Operation Iraqi Freedom but it should have been called Operation Iraqi Self-Rule. "Autonomy" and "self-rule" are the political values which largely dominate the US and the world. Certainly more so than "democracy." And almost infinitely more so than "liberty." After over 7 years, $700 billion, and 4000 killed, a fairly-bad, socialist, shariaist dictatorship (headed by Saddam) was replaced by a moderately superior one (headed by Maliki). Was this death-agony of effort worth it? Did this unending exercise in nation-building and self-sacrifice profit us? Consider all the resultant violations of civil liberties at home, and support for friendly...

When it comes to politics, economics, and sociology -- as well as individual happiness and greatness -- freedom is 100% good in theory, and 100% good in practice. How is it people don't understand this? Freedom, free enterprise, free trade, capitalism, laissez-faire, live-and-let-live, voluntary social cooperation, unfettered personal interaction, socio-economic libertarianism, and other such similar ideas and lofty goals, are all flawless, and without conflict or contradiction, in both philosophic principle and real-world application. All are end-of-history correct and ideal, both intellectually and pragmatically. How can anyone not know this?

Speculating who might become America’s-next-top-conservative-idol has become common sport. No doubt, the GOP establishment would love to anoint a Mitt Romney, Scott Brown, or Tim Pawlenty. Many rank-and-file Republicans have begun to gravitate toward men like Congressman Paul Ryan and Senator Jim DeMint. One national poll has the Tea Party split between former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Texas Congressman Ron Paul. Ron’s son Rand, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Kentucky, and GOP outsider Sharron Angle, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Nevada, are also now being portrayed as national leaders of the rumbling that continues to brew on...

Normal, average, mainstream, moderate Muslims seem to support the hell out of this upcoming, loathsome, heinous "Cordoba House." It isn't just the "radicals" and "extremists." Enthusiastic support for the massive new World Trade Center mosque is evidently the true face of current world Islam. Rather than call it the Cordoba House, it could easily be renamed the To Hell with Freedom or Death to America or 9/11 Victory Dance or Osama's Glorious Triumph Over the West mosque. Privately, no doubt, most Muslims do call it thus. Mainstream, moderate Muslims are being deliberately, grossly insensitive here, as usual. It's hard to...

I'm not sure if we can believe anything in The Washington Post but this one needs mentioning even if they fabricated the story since it has to do with actually making Sarah Palin look good. What's wrong with this picture? Since when would the WaPo want to make a conservative like Palin look good under any circumstances? Nonetheless, Matt DeLong of the Washington Post quoted Sarah Palin as saying Barack Obama lacks 'the cojones' to tackle immigration. Here's the exact quote, copied and pasted from the WaPo story: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Sunday that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer...

The fight to preserve the liberty of all citizens in this nation is a fight that should be actively and prudently fought. Liberty is not a tangible thing. However, the American people would be at a loss without it. And that is where we are headed. America faces a series of challenges in the near and distant future, challenges that will affect not only you and I, but all Americans, Rich or Poor, Liberal or Conservative, Old or Young. Yet some Americans seem to not understand this, they do not understand that the impending end of freedom in America will...

Individual liberty vs. coercive social equality -- that's pretty much the uber-debate and story of the past 220 years! Freedom for the individual to economically and socially rise or fall, based on justice and the merits -- or at least based on the fairly-reliable and relatively-fair opinions of the free market and free society -- is the great political and social goal of all time. Forced equality of the individual with his fellows -- based on some sort of allegedly-wise-and-virtuous tyrannical and coercive government social mechanism -- is the all-time great evil.

In a recent issue of Foreign Policy magazine, journalist Peter Beinart reassesses the legacy of Ronald Reagan by first restating the most common assumption about our 40th president, that “Ronald Reagan was the Ultimate Hawk.” Is this true? “Not so much,” writes Beinart: “Today’s conservatives have conjured a mythic Reagan who never compromised with America’s enemies and never shrank from a fight. But the real Reagan did both those things, often. In fact, they were a big part of his success… Sure, Reagan spent boatloads — some $2.8 trillion all told — on the military. And yes, he funneled money...

Not once in the history of man has the government ever successfully "stimulated" the economy. Not once has the state ever "rescued" the economy or "made it grow." If the government could genuinely perform such financial magic -- successfully printing money, or conjuring wealth from the clear blue sky, etc. -- wouldn't it do it all of the time, and at a much higher level? In the history of the world, all that government intervention in production and trade has ever done is make various economic actors -- both labor and management -- behave in ways that they don't want...

If I had my druthers, the never-ending conflict between Israel and Palestine would be but a small news brief in American newspapers. But since we police the world, we must always monitor our global police scanner, where not only Israel's conflicts, but those of North and South Korea, the nation of Georgia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, and pretty much everywhere else is the United States' business because we insist on making it so. What many Americans bizarrely consider national "defense" is actually an aggressive and enduring offense, and yet we are always surprised when other nations get offended. Last week,...

The administration's terrible healthcare reform bill is now law, but the debate over how-- and whether-- the federal government should be involved in providing healthcare services is not over. It is not too late for America to correct its course and stop the march toward a government run, "single payer" healthcare system. Polls show that a large majority of Americans don't want Obamacare. Congress should seize the opportunity to repeal the very worst aspect of this new legislation, namely the mandate that forces every American either to purchase health insurance or face an IRS penalty. This mandate represents nothing more...

By the time I was ten years old I already hated the government. When I was eight, they almost killed E.T. When I was nine, they wouldn’t let Kevin Bacon dance. At ten, I watched Rambo attempt to bring home prisoners of war from Vietnam only to be refused and left for dead by government bureaucrats. Long after outgrowing my concern for aliens and dancing rights, the cheesy, over-the-top 1985 “Rambo” movie still stuck with me because the plot was at least plausible. Would our government knowingly leave POWs behind? Did they? In the introduction to a symposium in the...

This past week several emerging and ongoing crises took attention away from the ongoing sovereign debt problems in Greece. The bailouts are merely kicking the can down the road and making things worse for taxpaying citizens, here and abroad. Greece is unfortunately not unique in its irresponsible spending habits. Greek-style debt explosions are quickly spreading to other nations one by one, and yes, the United States is one of the dominoes on down the line. Time and again it has been proven that the Keynesian system of big government and fiat paper money are abject failures in the long run....

In every serious and important sense, Hamas-controlled Gaza and Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon have declared war on Israel. These two jihadi states are overwhelmingly committed to conquering and enslaving the local Jews -- if not exterminating them. And these Muslim monsters are very open and confident about achieving this new holocaust. Pretty much nothing could be more heartlessly evil. So why doesn't Israel effectively counter these massive threats, and defeat these two obvious Islamo-fascist enemies? The nations of Gaza and Lebanon profoundly need to be decisively and resoundingly defeated. Their two dictatorships need to be crushed into oblivion for all time. The...

The day after Republican Rand Paul's landslide primary victory in Kentucky, the mainstream Left tried to paint him as a segregationist, while the mainstream Right either ignored or attacked him. And for good reason. Like his father Ron, Rand represents revolution, and the establishment is petrified. Let's begin with the Left. Afraid that they can't beat a conservative Republican of Paul's pedigree in the Tea Party-influenced, anti-Obama political climate of 2010, liberals are trying to run against him in 1964. Cherry-picking irrelevant references Paul has made about private property rights and how they could possibly relate to the Civil Rights...