In many ways, Free Republic is a news aggregator like GoogleNews performing the sort of work once done by the Associated Press. However, instead of article selections being driven by a mindless computer algorithm or a small number of editors who see themselves as elite gatekeepers determining what constitutes newsworthiness, the articles are hand-selected via crowdsourcing by tens of thousands of conservative individuals who pick out things they think are important for the rest of us to know about.
Who said technological innovation is limited to the leftists? They just get more credit for their ideas since they run the traditional mainstream media. Jim Robinson came up with Free Republic and was changing politics while Howard Dean was a minor New England governor of a small state whose “netroots” and “netizen” concepts hadn't yet been promoted on the national stage.
@RFEngineer: We agree on the realities of being pragmatic in politics. Under the American system, as opposed to European-style proportional representation, if we can't get to 50 percent, we don't even get a seat at the table. I frankly haven't decided yet what I will do this fall — my concern is not so much about people supporting Romney here on Free Republic, but rather people going far beyond that position to say that religious “bigots” shouldn't be allowed. That leads to a French-style secular republic, not the Judeo-Christian foundations of the United States.
1,180 posted on Tue May 08 2012 08:08:00 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by metmom: “Hey! What are you doing on this thread making sense? ... And thanks for the coherent, well thought out and expressed evaluation of the situation.”
Thanks! It is, after all, what I'm supposed to do as a reporter — listen to lots of people, analyze what they've said, and write an article that makes some sense out of what happened at the meeting I attended.
@CharacterCounts and ohioWfan: Yep, the thread has been hijacked.
Now back on track, in a hope to unhijack things and get back to the root issue:
1,175 posted on Tue May 08 2012 07:21:52 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by wagglebee: “I would also vote for a Mormon under these circumstances, although it would be with a great deal of hesitation. Nevertheless, this is a moot point as Romney IS NOT a conservative pro-life, pro-family, anti-abortion, anti-homosexual-marriage Mormon and to pretend otherwise would be an insult to the Mormons who actually are.”
We agree.
I understand the desire of Mormons to support “one of their own.” The perils of Roman Catholics backing John F. Kennedy despite his liberal views could be instructive to Mormons.
On the other hand, if Romney loses, maybe after this election the LDS will do some housecleaning. If Reid, Romney and Huntsman become the new face of Mormonism, it won't help their church any more than the Kennedys and Archbishop Weakland helped the Roman Catholic Church.
I do not believe Mitt Romney can win this fall. But whether he wins or loses, those of us in the conservative movement have a major problem either way.
I agree with much of what you say, darrell, but not this.
If you know what happened here in Columbus when Obama "began" his campaign, you'll understand the trouble he's in. They were going door to door begging for people to come, they bussed students in from OU and they still only filled half the arena.
The kids were Obama's bread and butter, and they're no longer interested. He's given up on trying to win white blue collar voters, he's lost independents, and his horrific policies will continue to fail in front of the American people's eyes until November.
His speech was reduced to admitting that it's going to take a long time for his policies to work, but that we have to keep moving "forward" not backward.
The whole thing was a joke.
Yes, he has endless money, but unlike what some people think here on FR, people will come out in droves to work to defeat him....in spite of the fact that Romney may have been their last choice in the primaries.
People out here in the country "get it." Obama MUST go, ergo Romney WILL win.
Here in Ohio, there is an incredible young man running against Sherrod Brown for Senator. His name is Josh Mandel, and he's bright, courageous, rock solid conservative, and he told us, ready to take on "President Romney" if he has to. (And he will).
We need to work like crazy to get a majority of conservatives in the Senate, a bigger majority in the House, and hold President Romney's feet to the fire every single day of his presidency.
Excellent point.
However, there is even more to it than that. Catholics supported JFK in a time when matters like abortion and homosexuality were non-issues. The only other Catholic nominee for president was John Kerry and he didn't get the majority of the Catholic vote.
Conservative Mormons on FR would do well to take a cue from Catholic FReepers, four years ago the Catholics on FR overwhelmingly rejected Rudy Giuliani.
I do not believe Mitt Romney can win this fall. But whether he wins or loses, those of us in the conservative movement have a major problem either way.
No candidate in American history has ever won without the enthusiastic support of his own party. Look at the primaries, the only states Romney won by large margins are liberal states that the GOP won't win anyway.