Were it me, I'd go with either a Genesis framework child theme, either Lexicon, Magazine, Education, AgentPress or Lifestyle (or possibly Prose, if you're comfortable with setting lots of options yourself), or iThemes Builder's Foundation or Patriot (not a Builder child theme).

Using a Child Theme means you make changes to the child theme, while the base framework is what gets updated (in Genesis' case, automatically). This means your customizations stay through upgrades.

Genesis themes come with 6 layouts that can be utilized on any page or post. So you can do a 3-column layout.

For the Issues page, you'd just need to have a page that listed categories. Or you could use a plugin like Section Widget to allow you to arrange that page how you like. With over 11,000 plugins on the official site, you should be able to find something you like!

Another thing about Genesis is that the SEO was optimized by Mark Jaquith, who is huge in the SEO world. No plugins needed, and just leave the settings at default.

But if you're not pretty conversant with how WordPress works, or how HTML and CSS work, you're going to have a learning curve. While it does reduce having to chase down where exactly to put code, you kind of have to know what various things do first. If you like how the demos for these sites function, you won't have to do much, but you will have to upload a header, and put the various widgets into the right locations to get it looking like the demo.

Notice that with these themes, you upload your own artwork banner. That helps it not to be a cookie-cutter site. Most of the patriotic WordPress themes I've found still have the typical blog look, which is probably why so many people used to other CMS systems think it's blogging software. It might have started out there, but it's come a long way.

I don't know your level of experience using WordPress, or I could make better recommendations. Headway will allow you to build your own themes, which is great if you're an artist but not a coder. iThemes Builder is ok if you're neither, but doesn't currently have anything I think would work for a patriotic site, unless you take their Foundations Blank theme and customize it. Frugal, Hybrid and Thesis themes are all more for people comfortable working in code, or at least know what to do with it. All of these use child themes, which I highly recommend.

The Freedomworks website is actually developed using the Drupal CMS and not Wordpress. If you are looking to accomplish something similar to Freedomworks, you may consider developing it in Drupal as you probably have a bit more flexibility. If you use Drupal, this theme may get you started.

If you are adamant about using WordPress, you could try the Who's Who Theme by Elegant Themes. It is politically focused and has the image slider, email collection, and three column style that Freedomworks has. You might also check into the Conservative America theme. Finally, it none of these really satisfy you, you can look into the WhiteHousePro theme.

The themes listed above should work well right out of the box. If you have a good deal of technical and web design knowledge, I may be able to suggest a few more - but you will have to spend significant time customizing them to get them to where they would resemble the FreedomWorks website.

The difficulty with finding a similar theme is that their site is developed in Drupal and not Wordpress. Therefore, in order to achieve the content management capabilities you see in Drupal, you are going to have to do some major engineering and use various plugins for your Wordpress, blog-based site.

As far as the layout of the site is concerned, it isn't that different from most 3-column Wordpress themes. Just do a search for 3 column themes here:

http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/tag-filter/

You will then need to create some custom graphics for menus and use CSS to get the menu styling and color scheme you wish. But, as I said before, the content is generated much more dynamically due to Drupal's internal capabilities that would require custom PHP development of any theme to recreate in Wordpress.

Honestly, I don't know of any 'theme" that clearly will define your answer. The website you are referencing is more tailored and customized to their business; thus, I can take an educated and solid answer that by going with a standard/basic WP theme and then utilizing specific plugins (login, seo, contact form, etc), layout customizations (login, banner ads, blog feeds, content design and placement, etc), and usability and design customizations (jquery slider, jquery dropdown menu, etc) can get you where you want to be.

The above answer also rings true to some extent. You can utilize certain elements of each thematic templates (technology, fashion, blog, ecommerce, etc) and use them to create your own unique theme. For example, using the blog function on one theme, the dropdown jquery and slider in another, the content and design layout of a third, the ad/banner placements of a fourth, and so on.

I think, if you're sticking to a layout similar to freedomworks.org, then the best themes would be something like technology, ie in the sense of ipads, cell phones, apps, computers, other hand held devices.....that sort of stuff.

Or go in the direction of "green technology." Advances and what is being done to protect the earth and its natural resources........

I think either one of those would get you a lot of hits at your site!...........Or you can always go celebrity gossip!!!!

I like to read up on technological advances......but do enjoy my guilty pleasure of celebrity dirt!!!