Cowboyway Opus

The year was 2012. Zero was running for reelection and the Repubs desperately needed a better candidate than they fielded in 2008 if they were going to regain the White House.

As usual, Freepers were posting articles and comments about the upcoming election, the candidates running for the Republican nomination, how to defeat Zero, etc. During the primary season of 2012 Free Republics owner enthusiastically campaigned against one of the candidates, Mitt Romney. If the only information that you had about Romney was what FR's owner posted you would have had to conclude that Romney was pure evil concentrated. However, when Romney was nominated to run against Zero, FR's owner reversed course and got behind the nominee.

I became disappointed in what I perceived as extreme hypocrisy from the head of the premier conservative forum on the internet and quietly left the site for several years.

With the 2016 campaign season being free of Zero and shaping up to be one of the more interesting campaigns of our maturing republic I found my password and logged back in hoping to engage in interesting, civil and conservative dialog. Everything looked the same but there was a different feel to the place. A lot of anger, a lot of fear and a lot of hatred of conservatives for conservatives.

I do not particularly like Mr. Trump and expressed my opinion on the subject. Of course that resulted in being attacked with reckless abandon by the Trump faithful. When I retaliated I quickly earned a couple of timeouts and limited posting privileges, in other words, second class membership, while those who attacked me continued posting their vicious slanders against anybody and everybody that wasn't on board the Trump Train. The double standard couldn't be more obvious.

Then, on 4/23/16, the owner of the site pledged total support to Mr. Trump believing that Trump is the only path to victory over the presumed democommie candidate, Hillary Clinton, regardless of the fact that Trump is not a conservative. Freepers who openly refused to pledge their support for Mr. Trump were quickly purged with Trump's exuberant peanut gallery fearlessly and gleefully shouting insults and catcalls for all non-Trump supporters to 'ride the lightning'.

[[Your observations are faulty. I saw with my own eyes, zottees saying that they were “NeverTrump”,]]

Yes soem did- not all- My observations are not faulty-

And even idf they say ‘never trump- many on here were saying ‘never cruz’ months ago and by golly that was fine- AND another important point is to make hte case that primaries and elections are always highly charged emotional situations where people always say “I will never vote for so and so” yet when the actual election comes around cooler heads prevail, and most- most people will allow reason to overrule emotion so that hte enemy doesn’t win-

[[calling Jim Rob a “son of a b——”, etc.]]

I am NOT talking about those few cases that did that- people; that resort to that should be banned- that’s a no brainer- I’m talking about the larger issue here- and i stand by my posts-

[[When you become the owner of one of the premier conservative sites on the internet, then you can sit back and have people second guesss your moderation skills.]]

I did run a website- for years- People were welcome to voice their opinion with the only guidelines being they were not allowed to personally attack others, use extreme profanity etc- I’m not talking from ignorance on the issue- I’ve also moderated sites- and been part of leadership position in other sites- I stand by what i said- anyone is free to go through the comments section and see peopel getting banned who did NOT call Jim what you said- nor did they claim to be never trump- not that that should even be a banning point- as I said- emotions run high, but cooler heads usually prevail come election time-

There was a pundit on the other night discussing how ‘many democrats were upset with her ‘wonderfulness’- yet when it came down to voting for the other side, they will not switch because they are afraid of the other side- and they won’t refrain from voting because they will in the end do their part to try to ensure the other side doesn’t win- The ‘worry’ was that bernie supporters wouldn’t switch over and vote for her if bernie didn’t win nomination- Many bernie supporters stating they will not vote for her- and there is a lot of truth to this- they will end up voting to try to keep any republican from being president- and most cruz and kasich supporters who claim ‘never trump’, will vote for him to prevent her ‘wonderfulness’ from destroying this country-

Banning people only serves to intimidate those who don’t support trump now, and only servers to drive the divisions even deeper-

It seems ot me the better alternative would be to simply make the case why trump is better, and make the case that if/when he becomes nominee, that we need to band together so that her ‘wonderfulness’ doesn’t win and destroy this country- As mentioned, most people will come around- it just takes time to one, admit defeat, and two, allow their rational side to reason the issue out better- it will happen- but driving them into the shadows just makes it even harder- banning them certainly isn’t helping- And again- I’m NOT talking about people who obviously can’t stand jim- and have been disrespectful to the enth degree- Those people don’t deserve to be aligned with he party- unless they reevaluate their rudeness- (But i will tell you- I put up with a hell of a lot of crap from people as owner/moderator=- Not that I’m perfect or my way is ‘the best’ way- but I simply felt that while some people are puke,s hey can sometimes offer value and sometimes come around- but you can be sure that banning because of opposing viewpoints especially on this type of issue would not have helped-

As I said- this is his site, and he can run it the way he likes- but I’ve stated my opinion and stand behind everything I’ve said- for hte reaons I’ve mentioned

this discussion wasn’t about any candidate’s policies- not sure why you are even going there?

[[What HAS happened is patience for “half-arguments” (Trump is not a Conservative,Trump funded liberals, Trump supports Planned Parenthood, Trump supporters won’t listen, etc...) delivered with no small amount of insult, has run out. ]]

Again, if what you just said is truly what is happening- then you just proved my point- ‘patience has run out, therefore bye bye- opposing opinions not welcome’? Really?

My previous post explains this all- I’m not going to repeat is as the rest of your post just goes off into a whole other direction-

The OP brought up valid points- I was addressing those point- I explained why I was addressing them- and again I stand by them

[[delivered with no small amount of insult, has run out. ]]

And just one final point- Yep- there are insults, however, have you seen the way these people are treated by trump supporters here? Some of those being banned are NOT starting their comments insulting trump supporters, yet they immediately get piled on with some pretty nasty stuff being said about them and about the candidate they support- then it devolves into a flame war- (and I’m talking about really nasty stuff- not simply just the typical forum heated arguments- Both sides react wrongly- but only one side’s bad behavior is tolerated- heck- it’s even encouraged by allowing it while driving the other side into the shadows-

Go through hte site in the last few weeks- thread after thread after thread is nothing more than a massive pile on of ‘cruz is an A$##$hole’ sentiments- you compalin about comments gthat are “delivered with no small amount of insult,” Yet seem to dismiss the fact that thread after thread after thread of “Cruz is an A$#$hole” contains exactly what you describe- by trump supporters, because no cruz or kasich supporter even dares venture a comment- it’s like a freaking feeding frenzy- the thread gets posted- the pile-on commences- with many calling cruz supporters the same things they call cruz himself-

The evidence backs up what I’m saying- As conservatives, we shoudl all be better than this- both sides-

For instance, you claim that Trump is not a conservative, when in reality an original piece was published on this site, which demonstrated conclusively that Donald Trump has been espousing these same conservative idas for the last 30 years or so. Citations were given which came directly from some of Donald Trump's many books that he has published over the years.

Immigration. Taxes...

“The hedge fund people make a lot of money and they pay very little tax. I want to lower taxes for the middle class... You've seen my statements. I do very well. I don't mind paying a little more in taxes. The middle class is getting clobbered in this country,” Donald Trump August 2015.

Sound Familiar:

“And I want to go further and impose what I call a ‘Fair Share Surcharge’ on multimillionaires because right now we're behind and we need to get the wealthy and the corporations to pay more [of] their fair share so I can keep my promise,” she continued. “Which is: I will not raises taxes on the middle class.” Hillary Clinton January 2016

"Instead of a tax code that crushes innovation [and] imposes burdens on families struggling to make ends meet, imagine a simple flat tax that lets every American file his or her taxes on a postcard." -Ted Cruz March 2015

“Abolish the IRS; take all 125,000 IRS agents, and put them on our southern border.” -Ted Cruz April 2015

Thanks, but i just hate seeing the site turn into a vitriolic smear cruz- or smear any candidate really, site- where the opposition is afraid to even say anything for fear of being banned- If the site wishes to turn into a ‘smear cruz’ site, that’s certainly the right of the leaders- but as pointed out, the OP brought up valid points- and I think many folks feel the way I do but were afraid to try to address the issue for fear of being banned- I’ve noticed several frequent thread starters haven’t been active here lately- , and noticed quite aq number of peopel who used to regularly discuss issues aren’t any longer, and it’s due directly to being intimidated and pushed into the shadows- people are tired of bing piled on for believing Cruz would be a better candidate- it’s almost like it’s become taboo to even suggest it anymore- or to point out the liberal ideologies of the other two candidates that concern us- That’s now forbidden territory here-

and the worst part is that many, even after saying ‘never trump’, would infact vote trump in order to stop hilarly despite the ‘bravado’ or emotional declaration of not voting-

I have to agree with you here. There really is no excuse for calling Trump supporters gullible fools who are being led astray by a huckster. No excuse for Cruz supporters to claim that Trump is a fake conservative, pro-choice liberal.

Physician, heal thyself. There are certainly enough outright character attacks on the pro-Cruz side to keep you busy until November without trying to get the mote out of all these Trump supporter’s eyes.

That’s the difference, as I’ve seen it regarding zots... if folks post positive things about their own candidate, I dont see them being banned. If their sole contribution is flinging poo at another Republican candidate, I don’t see them being FReepers.

Yeah, it’s gotten ugly from both sides, but you can’t fix the other guy’s faults first.

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