AUTHOR

Lou Zickar

  • In this edition

    by Lou ZICKAR Twenty years ago this fall, 367 Republican candidates from all around the country gathered on the West Front steps of the U.S. Capitol and signed the Contract with America. At the time, it was an historic moment because it helped give Republicans control of Congress for the first time in four decades.

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    September 11, 2001 was a day without adjective. Even a decade later, it is hard to properly describe the grief, anger, horror and pain we all felt watching the attacks unfold. 

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    With the 2012 general election less than a year away, it’s probably safe to say that the current crop of GOP presidential candidates has not exactly set the world on fire. 

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    For many Republicans who were young at the time, and for many other Republicans who look back on at that time fondly today, the 1988 campaign of Jack Kemp for President represents, in some ways, the GOP equivalent of the “dream that was Rome.” It was a moment when the possibilities that lie ahead for…

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    My last job on the Hill was for a Congressman who was elected as part of the GOP Class of ’94. I joined his staff in August of 1995 – well after the first 100 days that saw votes on every plank of the Contract with America, but still in the middle of the Republican Revolution. It…

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    One of the challenges of publishing a quarterly journal is that you want to stay relevant to the issues of the moment without chasing the headlines of the day. This latest edition of THE RIPON FORUM is no different. 

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    By LOU ZICKAR

  • In this Edition

    The famed screenwriter William Goldman once wrote a book about Hollywood called, Adventures in the Screen Trade. In it, he discussed his career working in the film industry and his experience as the creative force behind such hits as Marathon Man and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He also offered up what remains one…

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    Given all the negative headlines these days, it is sometimes easy to lose sight of what is good about America and what it is that draws people to our shores. More than anything, it is our system that sets us apart. It is a system based on freedom and individual initiative, and one that – despite…

  • The Back Page: Can you be a Republican and Still Like The Boss?

    I got turned onto Bruce Springsteen the summer before my junior year in college. It was 1984. Born in the USA had come out on June 4th. And my friends and I were on a 10-day road trip to Florida before school started back up in the fall.

  • In this Edition

    by LOU ZICKAR One of the storylines in Washington this year has been the inability of Congress and the President to come together on some of the key challenges facing our nation.

  • In this Edition

    Every time there is a mass shooting in America, a predictable political storyline unfolds — Democrats and those on the left say it’s time to pass tougher gun laws, while Republicans and those on the right say it’s time to reform the way we treat the mentally ill.

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