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I’m only spot reading this thread and I didn’t see those bannings so I don’t have an opinion on the mechanics.

But I feel sad when someone who was here long before me and who made me welcome and who has been kind and civil with me even when we have disagreed leaves or is banned.

And I also miss a bunch more who were less perfect.

But I do think what is happening is natural.

With Bill Clinton serving 8 years and both Al and Hillary itching to follow, it was pretty easy to build a big tent of opposition.

It is always easier to unify against a common enemy than to hold together after.

I do wish it wasn’t so wrenching for the long term members. There are real emotions here because people have known each other and invested here.

That’s a long winded way of saying I don’t understand viewing this separation as a cheerful thing.

I’m only spot reading this thread and I didn’t see those bannings so I don’t have an opinion on the mechanics. But I feel sad when someone who was here long before me and who made me welcome and who has been kind and civil with me even when we have disagreed leaves or is banned. And I also miss a bunch more who were less perfect.

That is completely understandable.

But I do think what is happening is natural. With Bill Clinton serving 8 years and both Al and Hillary itching to follow, it was pretty easy to build a big tent of opposition. It is always easier to unify against a common enemy than to hold together after.

You are absolutely correct. I think that after the eight years of the amoral Emperor Billigula, we were more than justified in expecting the incoming Bush Administration to restore the dignity and integrity to the Oval Office and to the Presidency that had been utterly ravaged and ravished by the Clintons, an administration that had more scandal, investigations, resignations, indictments than any other in history, even over and above that of Nixon.

Unfortunately, there was that underlying naive quality in George W. Bush which actually believed that he could 'change the tone' in Washington, and we can see now that the 'Rats and leftists were never going to so much as give him a chance, 9/11 or no 9/11. There are many many qualities in President Bush that I admire, and I voted for him in the primaries of 2000, and in the general elections of 2000 and 2004. I am however perplexed at his insistent refusal to tighten up our southern border and stop the Mexican/foreign invasion that continues damn near unabated.

Be that as it may, I think that most conservatives can agree that while GWB has certainly been more conservative than the globally warmed-up Al Ghoul, there are areas where conservative philosophy has been tossed out the window. I don't need to give a laundry list, everyone knows generally what those areas are. But he is our Commander-in-Chief, and I support him, and when he says that there is no option but victory in the war on terror, I believe him, and I back him on that. And I applaud him for the nominations of John Roberts and Sam Alito, because THAT is the reason that we've seen the barbaric state-sanctioned murder of nearly born babies banned, NEVER to return.

But to return to topic:

I do wish it wasn’t so wrenching for the long term members. There are real emotions here because people have known each other and invested here.

The real emotions that such people are feeling are certainly human and understandable. But those emotions must be put aside for the greater good, i.e., we as Freepers may have great friendships either online or offline with other posters who are NOT social conservatives, who happen to be in the camp of the Rudyphiles, and that unfortunately leads to a conflict of divided loyalties. One must choose if their personal relationships with liberal RINOs, RudyTooters, and faux-conservatives are more important than staying true to the principles of real Reagan-style conservatism, and specifically to the principles that are on the front page of FR, the same principles that JimRob has reiterated time and time again, i.e., we are a conservative website. We are not a Rockefeller Republican website, we are not a RINO website, we are not a Rudy4Ever Website, FR is (one more time) a conservative website. If someone can't handle that, if someone finds themselves compelled to beat their liberal heads against a conservative brick wall, they need to find themselves another online home, both for their own good and for the good of FR.

That’s a long winded way of saying I don’t understand viewing this separation as a cheerful thing.

I view the departure of the varied collection of RudyBots, trolls, liberal-RINOs, WideAflakers, whatever you want to call them, as more than sufficient grounds to be cheerful, not because I take glee in the idea that people may be saddened by the loss of online friends in this forum, but let's have a reality check here: those online friends who are no longer on FR are STILL ONLINE!

Yes, they are not truly dead, not exiled into some netherworld without dialup, DSL or cable connection, they're living still on websites like the aforementioned WideAwakes, DarwinCentral, et al, and if Freepers who are missing their old buds want to reach out and say hello, all they have to do is email, IM or phone (if the relationships have reached that degree of familiarity).

My cheerfulness about this housecleaning operation that JimRob has undertaken is based upon the realization that FR will be stronger as a result, it will not be constantly disrupted and taken off course by various Rudy-agitators who seek to undermine FR, and a liberal, gun-grabbing abortionist like Rudy Giuliani will hopefully be denied the GOP nomination because of the hell raising that is going on here today, and will be going on in the future because I believe JimRob when he says that he is going to work tirelessly to deny Giuliani the nomination, and once the former Mayor of NYC realizes that his candidacy is on it's way down to join the Titanic, he'll hopefully withdraw and the GOP will be able to nominate a candidate who won't make a mockery of the Party of Reagan, nor the beliefs and principles that Reagan carried with him to his grave.

That's where I'm coming from, and that's where I'm going.