“Keep telling yourself that principles matter over anything. Principles are important, but if you don’t win elections, your principles and $1 will buy you a burger at McDonald’s.
People who are just as conservative as anyone else are being driven off. Their only offense is that they believe that it is better to have someone who agrees with us 60, 70, or 80% of the time than to have someone like Obama.
Is Mitt the one I wanted? No. I wanted Palin. She didn’t run. Then I wanted Bachmann, then Cain, finally I voted for Santorum. They’re gone. Romney is the nominee and FR is attacking him harder than DU ever has.”
Absolutely.
From what I see, Free Republic looks more like an anti-Romney propaganda site these days than anything else.
I’ve been here since 2001, and it’s a shame to see what’s happened here.
The fact is, if you want to see Obama defeated, you have ONE choice on election day. I would have preferred Palin, or Newt... but she didn’t run, and people didn’t vote for Newt, so that’s that.
If you attack Romney, obviously you do not want to see Obama defeated, since weakening Romney at this point can ONLY help Obama.
And why anyone would want to do that is simply beyond my ability to understand.
Indeed. At that time many posters were a mix of Mark Steyn and Christopher Hitchens. Intelligent, well-versed in political theory and history, and excellent at debate (though perhaps not down-the-line conservative). Agree or disagree, you'd better be on point or you'd be made to look foolish. The back and forth made us all more educated and improved our debating skills.
Lately it seems like the average poster is in the Michelle Bachmann mold. Throws out constant claims of conservativism, but seems to lack the education to fully understand why and the wit to argue it effectively. In the end, you just feel a bit embarrassed for them.
Please understand: Because a few conservative FReepers are not voting for Romney, and don’t trust him personally, does not mean Obama will be the recipient of our recorded votes.
The “principles” some posters are saying are worthless are not what is driving some contributors away from this site. They are leaving, or being left, because they have refused to believe the owner of Free Republic meant what he has been saying all along and now are acting like he really should not have meant it.
I have been drawn to this site because I agree with the (worthless?) principles espoused here on the main page and throughout consistently by the site’s operators.
Ross Perot oughta be a good lesson to remember right about now.