Free Republic

Too obvious perhaps to need saying: Republicans don’t have a problem with non-citizens voting, since there are no non-citizens voting. Republicans have a problem with black and brown citizens voting.

“Kristol was trying to remake the Republican Party,” Carlson says. A significant part of Kristol’s GOP makeover project was portraying antiwar conservatives as heretics. Carlson recounts, “Years later, writer Philip Weiss described a conversation he had with Kristol in which this [remaking the GOP] became explicit. There are Republicans, Kristol told Weiss, ‘of whom I disapprove so much that I won’t appear with them. That I’ve encouraged that they be expelled or not welcomed into the Republican Party.’” “’I’d be happy if Ron Paul left and ran as a third party candidate. I was very happy when Pat Buchanan was...

Crown Prince Abdullah is coming to America with threats and bluster. Is Saudi Arabia with us or the terrorists? ON THE EVE of his meeting with President Bush today, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia warned of "a strategic debacle" that could result in the Saudis employing "the oil weapon" against the United States and demanding that U.S. forces leave their bases in the Kingdom. Although the ostensible cause for these threats is the Bush administration's support for Israel's actions against Palestinian terrorists, the Saudi ruling family clearly has been unnerved by the president's commitment to win the larger war...

Russia may launch an attack on Ukraine on Saturday, February 19, 2022. The attack would likely begin with an air and missile campaign targeting much of Ukraine to decapitate the government and degrade the Ukrainian military as well as the ability of Ukrainian citizens to prepare to resist a subsequent Russian invasion. US and allied governments have been warning of such an attack for some days, pointing to the size of the Russian forces concentrated on Ukraine’s borders.[1] Western officials have additionally said that Russian troops have moved to jumping-off positions for an invasion over the past 24 hours. The...

[This open letter is being published simultaneously by The Bulwark and the New Republic.]We are writers, academics, and political activists who have long disagreed about many things.Some of us are Democrats and others Republicans. Some identify with the left, some with the right, and some with neither. We have disagreed in the past, and we hope to be able to disagree, productively, for years to come. Because we believe in the pluralism that is at the heart of democracy.But right now we agree on a fundamental point: We need to join together to defend liberal democracy.Because liberal democracy itself is...

The situation in Afghanistan is dire. But it is not too late to deploy forces to stabilize it, and ultimately turn it around. We can at least avoid the worst outcome, a collapse and slaughter that would be a catastrophe for the people of Afghanistan and a strategic and moral disaster for the United States. We know this is doable: General John Allen, who served as commander of the International Security Assistance Force from 2011 to 2013, laid out a realistic plan for salvaging the situation and avoiding the complete collapse of Kabul. Would a bold intervention now commit us...

The headline from the new Quinnipiac poll is pretty straightforward: The Republican party remains Donald Trump’s party.No fewer than 84 percent of Republicans have a favorable opinion of Donald Trump. Two-thirds of Republicans want him to run for president. And most of the rest of the remaining third would prefer a Republican candidate who mostly agrees with, rather than disagrees with, Donald Trump.Meanwhile, the most prominent recent Republican critic of Donald Trump—Liz Cheney—is now deeply unpopular with Republicans: 12 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of Cheney, while 52 percent of Republicans have an unfavorable view. One expects that...

Remember Never Trump? For four years, an influential clique of think tankers, Republican operatives and talking heads claimed that any conservative who supported ­Donald Trump was complicit with a uniquely malevolent presidency. But if Trumpian conservatives are ­responsible for everything the 45th president was faulted for, then Never Trump should likewise own the evils of the new Biden administration. Never Trumpers spoke of the Trump GOP almost as if it were Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party, a dictator’s discredited political organ, badly in need of a purge. “President Donald Trump leaves office with a crimson-stained legacy,” thundered Peter Wehner, vice president...

My suggestion last week that perhaps the best way some of us who’ve been conservatives can now help the country is to help the Biden administration succeed, and help the Democratic party move to the center, seems to have stirred up a minor tempest in the conservative teapot. I asked whether one shouldn’t “consider allying oneself with the Biden wing of the Democratic party? Aren’t the Red Dogs worth at least a thought?” And the answer, from several reasonable and honest conservatives, was, “Not really.” That’s fine. I wrote the piece to stimulate debate and I’m glad it did. I...

The safety and security of the 2020 presidential election has been verified over and over, including by the top Republicans in the country. President Trump’s own attorney general confirmed that there was no fraud that would have changed the outcome, and former Trump administration top cybersecurity official Chris Krebs called it “the most secure election in American history.” A great deal of attention has—for good reason—been paid to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who filed suit in an attempt to strip millions of Americans in four states of their vote. And Paxton was joined by attorneys general in 18 states...

Golden Globes was an indication she’s preparing to run for the White House. Kristol then took-up the hashtag #ImWithHer — once used by supporters of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton — to highlight his support for Winfrey’s worldview. In an email, Kristol said the tweets were "tongue in cheek." "Though if she runs, couldn't she win the Democratic nomination and the general election?" he added. "And wouldn't she be a better president than Trump?"

Conservative commentator Bill Kristol said that President Trump and Senate candidate Roy Moore (R-Ala.) are bringing out his "inner liberal." In a tweet Tuesday afternoon, the founder and editor-at-large of The Weekly Standard suggested that his long-held views are being tested by Trump and Moore, as well as a growing number of sexual allegations and the Republican Party's tax-reform effort. 

After attending a fundraiser for John McCain’s Senate re-election — a campaign in which McCain is locked in a tight race with conservative primary challenger Kelli Ward — Kristol mused on Twitter if McCain would run as an independent candidate in the presidential election. But while Kristol was just speculating, McCain added intrigue to the Stop Trump movement with his surprise announcement that the delegates should be free to vote their conscience at the upcoming Republican Convention

The Republican elites are not going down without a fight. Donald Trump shattered the GOP primary record this year by more than a million votes. He was running against 16 challengers – another record. But that won’t stop the GOP elites from trying to steal the nomination. The Weekly Standard today called on delegates to steal the nomination from Donald Trump at the Republican Convention this month.The traitors would rather see Hillary win than support Donald Trump.Bill Kristol at The Weekly Standard reported: This election cycle hasn’t been kind to Republican big shots. Their favorite presidential candidates—Jeb Bush, Scott Walker...

So I just stopped by the Corner blog at National Review Online to see their reaction to Trump's speech today. To my surprise, there wasn't a single post commenting on it. The NR writers spent the day posting about Brexit, and about Rubio's senate run, and about a picture of Trump they don't like. But not a word about Trump's speech. If that isn't proof that Trump hit a home run today, I don't know what is.

unday on ABC’s “This Week,” Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol commented on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s chances in the general election and said that he was “afraid” presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump could win.

Realville, as Rush often says, is where he lives. That’s a place without blinkers or rose-colored glasses. That’s actually where we all live, though some of us prefer to deny it. That is, until reality bites. Then our wishful thinking or willful ignorance dashes upon the hard rock of unforgiving reality. The crackup always smarts. Thus is the case with the 2016 presidential election. There’s Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. In other words, there’s Column A and Column B. That’s the choice. Column C is fairyland. Come November, tens of millions of voters will flock to the polls to choose...

Glenn Beck: Why Do Conservative Pundits Support Trump? Glenn Beck wants to stage a conservative intervention. The former Fox News host and prominent conservative commentator is confounded that so many Republican voters are attracted to Donald Trump. And Beck is particularly bewildered by the conservative pundits who are hooked on the bombastic real estate mogul. "Why are big name 'conservatives' supporting him?" Beck asked wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday. Beck went on to name names, calling out some of Trump's biggest boosters in conservative media: Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage. "I am not talking...

The Weekly Standard published “An Open Letter to Mitt Romney” on Tuesday night, begging the former Republican presidential nominee to launch a third-party bid. “[T]hese are extraordinary times, and your nation still has need of your service. I respectfully implore you to run for president as an independent candidate in 2016,” Jay Cost wrote. Cost slams presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s “Nixonian paranoia” of “enemies” and calls her Republican counterpart, Donald Trump, “a sympathizer with the nativist ‘alt-right.’ ” “They do not see Americans as Americans,” the letter continues. “They see each of us as potential allies or foes,...

Here is a sentence I never thought I’d type: After days of prayer, reflection, and serious study of the possibilities, I am not going to run as an independent candidate for president of the United States. I gave it serious thought — as a pretty darn obscure lawyer, writer, and veteran — only because we live in historic times. Never before have both parties failed so spectacularly, producing two dishonest, deceitful candidates who should be disqualified from running for town council, much less leader of the free world.