There might be some merit to a conservative quiz on each homepage showing what things a Freeper supports and is most passionate about. But many Freepers wouldn't want to fill one out for reasons that have nothing to do with their ‘conservative credentials’. And people lie.
I would also like to see some way to segregate ‘no horseplay’ threads for those who wish serious debate or organization. However, unless you limit the membership such as on the caucus threads in the religious forum it would be hard to control. Once again, people lie.
Concerning my analogy of perpetual political war, it is as firm as ever. Weak leaders and traitors have always been a part of political and military war. The Union should have defeated the South in less than 12 months. Unfortunately, the North's generals were weak, incompetent and indecisive. The South's were not. We have a bunch of McClellans in charge of the GOP right now. Until we get a few generals like Grant (who won by refusing to yield the field of battle) it will require bold action by junior officers and individuals to hold the lines.
And I always try to read every post by a given individual before replying to them on a thread - I did read yours before I posted to you.
It seems that Free Republic continually has to walk the middle of the road somewhat - not ideologically, but between gravitas and entertainment.
***That there is some dern good ritin’, FReeper. And so was the rest of yer post.
There might be some merit to a conservative quiz on each homepage showing what things a Freeper supports and is most passionate about. But many Freepers wouldn’t want to fill one out for reasons that have nothing to do with their ‘conservative credentials’. And people lie.
***The fact that someone doesn’t fill it out would be very telling in itself. And it’s the liars that would get found out — those are the ones who are here for some kind of disruptive purpose and my hope would be that the mods boot them if they keep it up.
I would also like to see some way to segregate ‘no horseplay’ threads for those who wish serious debate or organization. However, unless you limit the membership such as on the caucus threads in the religious forum it would be hard to control. Once again, people lie.
***Yes, again we go back to that system currently working so well on the religion forum. If there were some kind of caucus-type categorizing at the moment a person posts a thread it would save FR a lot of headaches. Right now there’s useless categorizing when a FReeper opens a thread, you choose between various subject matters. A simple addition of what kind of thread you’d hope to see, limiting troll behavior rather than letting it be a free-for-all, would signal a tighter set of rules for the mods to go by. Sounds like a winner to me. But I doubt JimRob would go for it.
Concerning my analogy...
***It was a good analogy. Another good one might be Julius Caesar about to cross the Rubicon. Or the Whig party and how it fell apart due to the social issues facing it and how it became the republican party. While we’re on analogies, here’s mine for big tent republicanism:
I’m a big tent republican.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1821435/posts?page=6245#6245
Here’s an analogy to work with. Take a small box and fill it with some rocks. Then add some rice, filling it to the top. Now take all the same stuff, but in a different order. Put in the rice first, then add the rocks. What you’ll find is that if you put in the big stuff first, the small stuff will fit around it. But if you put in the small stuff first, the big stuff won’t have room. The republican tent is the box. The Big issues are the socon issues, to be put in first. The little issues are things that can be accommodated around the bigger stuff. A candidate who tries to focus on the smaller issues first and leave out the bigger issues has no way of getting all of us into the tent. He splits the party. The candidate who gets the big stuff right and as much of the little stuff that will fit, he can fit more into the tent. We’re often amazed at how much rice can keep fitting in. Rudy Giuliani flunks some of the big issues, and on some of the little issues it looks to me like anyone else’s rice would do just as well. All that remains for us to agree on is which are the bedrock principles and which are not. Why would there be so much invective aimed at rudy from the right? Because there are some bedrock principles that he is leaving out. Bad move. I see rudybot postings all the time saying that they would vote for Hunter, and I see socon postings that say they would not vote for rudy. That’s a BIG indicator of a few bedrock principles that are being left outside the tent in order to let in some rice.