Personally, I don't WANT to know what happened. Personally, I am SICK of hearing/seeing this debate being bantered about at a time when we as a nation are going through what we are going through.
And it especially to hear/see the rhetoric posted in his opening to this thread.
After his last few temper tantrums, the number of posters who were unhappy here, surely were NOT outnumbered by those who are happy here.
Obviously this problem did not get resolved to JOE'S satisfaction. He does have an alternative yanow.
The closeness of the 2000 election and the fragility of the Republican margin in Congress, have led many on this site, including Jim Robinson, to become little more than Republican cheerleaders. Worse the motivation is not that they love the Republican Party, but rather that they hate and fear the Democrats so much. It is the fear of Democrats that drives much of the discussion on this site and to some extent the behavior of individual posters.
Any American who doesn't hate what the Federal, state and local governments in this country have become, is unworthy to consider themselves supporters of the Constitution, freedom, or the American dream. Government of every level in this country has become the enemy of its people. Al Qaida or any other terrorist group is only a threat to a few American lives. The terrorists pose no real danger to our way of life or system of self-rule. Here the only enemy is the enemy within ourselves. In the past, conservatives have correctly recognized the enemy of freedom and the enemy of Constitutionally correct government (CCG as opposed to pc) as the Democratic Party, aka the enemy of a free people. On a very disturbing and increasing scale, the Republican Party has become more like the Democratic Party. Could it be that now that the Congressional Republicans since coming to power in 1994 have acquired a taste for power and its accompanying perks, and that they are now more afraid of losing control than of losing their freedoms and are now willing to sacrifice your Constitutional rights to keep themselves in power.
BADJOE and many others on this site recognize that blind allegiance to the Republican Party because of an even greater fear of the Democratic Party keeps the water in the pot increasing in temperature. Meanwhile the frogs, not shocked by the slowly heating hot water and seemingly unaware of their increasingly precarious position don't jump ship or make a complete change. Quite frankly, I don't think there is time to make a complete change to a brand new political party absent an enormously popular charismatic conservative leader with the stature of a Ronald Reagan. The United States, faced with huge insurmountable unfunded liabilities in Social Security, Medicare and other federal programs, has only two politically acceptable alternatives: inflate its way into oblivion or forced bankruptcy.
I believe that the only hope of restoring our Constitutional freedoms in a meaningful way within a time frame that matters, is to bring about a substantial change in attitude of Republican elected officials and future Republican candidates. I have suggested what I believe to be the quickest and best way to accomplish this task. I believe that there may be other approaches worthy of discussion. So far, no one, including Jim Robinson, has called my attention to a plan of their own, let alone one that might be workable. Simply supporting Republicans because they are not Democrats is not going to result in a meaningful change within the time frame remaining. This site was founded because Rome is burning. While electing Democrats is the equivalent of pouring gas on the fire, electing Republicans is the equivalent of fiddling while Rome burns. Avoiding debate on how to motivate the fiddlers to get off the pot and motivating them to do something equates to keeping the firemen at bay because they aren't union.
FreeRepublic and Jim Robinson deserve immense criticism because they are suppressing, or at least not participating in active free unrestrained debate on ideas of how to reform the Republican Party and in turn restore our Constitutional Republic. Two months ago, I asked the question, "Is FreeRepublic a Failure?" If the standard by which you measure success is whether or not it brings you pleasure, only you can answer the question. If the standard by which FreeRepublic is to be measured is whether or not we are freer and whether or not government is being reduced in size, power, and scope; then the answer is most assuredly that FreeRepublic has not succeeded in accomplishing its primary reason to exist and is therefore a failure. Good intentions count for Democrats. Good intentions don't for count for conservatives who measure performance by success.
I think Jim Robinson and any Freeper who is willing to cast their vote blindly for Republicans using the excuse as their best reason, "that they are not Democrats" is simply fooling themselves and making fools out of anyone who believes this is a serious effort to restore our Constitutional Republic. Rome is on fire. And FreeRepublic is ignoring those who know how and are motivated to save the Republic.
Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. Help me relight the torch that can rekindle the fires of freedom before it's too late.