Posted on 03/27/2018 1:00:28 PM PDT by The Citizen Soldier
My journey with Free Republic began in late 1998. It was near the end of the Clinton Presidency, and there seemed to be a new wave of hope and a sense of renewed patriotism as we gathered to defeat Al Gore and elect George W. Bush. But, on the whole, we lacked a platform, a vehicle, whereby we could gather together and speak with a common voice.
Jim Robinson provided that platform, utterly unique at the time, a place for conservative voices to sing out, to proclaim their views, to unite, and to encourage one another that we were not battling alone.
I would meet FRiends when I traveled to Washington D.C. in January 2001 to attend the inauguration of George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States. I’ll never forget the joy and the celebration of that day; a new day, a new hope, a new opportunity.
Along the way I lost my Free Republic password, and there was no way to recover it. And so I started anew as The Citizen Soldier on November 26, 2002. Over the past twenty years, Free Republic has been my go to site to confirm conservative stories, to read thoughtful and insightful conservative comment, and generally “lurk.” Actually, evidenced by my relatively few posts over the years, I would categorize myself as a life-time lurker at Free Republic.
In 2016, in the run-up to the election of Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States, I began to detect the seeds of dissension and disharmony at Free Republic, ala the “Never Trump” crowd that emerged. Less and less, I frequented the site because it seemed that every thread was a mini-battle, not with liberals and socialists—I would have welcomed that—but with ourselves; conservatives and libertarians taking off the gloves, continually entering the battle royal.
Oh, I participated now and then, but I tired of fighting our own side, and found new online homes where I could find more consistent support for our new President. Through it all, Free Republic has remained bookmarked and like a magnet it has continually drawn me back. I lurk again and again. But lately it has all become too much. Every move our President makes is scrutinized and criticized, often with the reminder, “I’ve always been a never-Trumper,” either voiced or implied. The thought of a Hillary Clinton Presidency, and the CERTAIN destruction of our great nation that would have brought, makes me cringe to this day, now into the second year of the Donald Trump's Presidency. But I feel like a voice in the wilderness, as the criticism of Donald Trump and his administration escalates week by week.
I’m not leaving. I’m 70 years old now, and I’ve moved from California to Arizona to enjoy the “sunshine years” of my life. Recently my 46 year-old son visited and before he left he said, “Dad, please don’t ever stop fighting.” And I won’t. But, my dear FRiends, Free Republic must recapture the spirit of independence and conservatism.
As a Christian, I end my comments with a paraphrase from Bob George’s, “Classic Christianity.”
“The answer is not simply calling someone wrong or proving yourself right. The real issue is what answer can we give to those who desperately need to hear the message of conservatism?”
Once Cruz started blaming Trump for the Chicago
riot he was dead to me (and getting the news firsthand from an
acquaintance who was there , more violent than reported )
Glad this is not an OPUS.
This site gets bumpy and I’m
The Drunk Uncle in the basement.
I’ve made Marines cry and
old ladies swoon but I just like
Shareing my streams of thought.
First of all Adam Smith is a Utopian a$$ in my opinion. His radical theories are counter intuitive to a citizen's right of self protection and self reliance. Also, unknowingly Smith's radical theories played right into Karl Marx's hand, a half century later, who advocated Free Trade as socially destructive and important as a step to socialism, then onward to Communism.
All of Marx's predictions are coming true right before our eyes! Smith makes no distinctions/morality judgement between nations which is also radical, ridiculous AND dangerous. Smith even advocated for retaliatory tariffs which always goes unmentioned.
But beyond Smith's inanities, Conservative believe consumption based taxes are superior to the very progressive income tax. Tariffs are the quintessential consumption tax that progs killed in 1913. Free Trade supports the income tax and eliminates the tariff which is an anathema to a true Conservative.
So my guess is Libertarians are really closet socialists as long as they can smoke legal dope and get perceived low cost junk from 3rd world and/or Communist nations.
The big joke is you and your Lie-bertarean ilk actually think you are Conservative.
I am curious what you are suggesting with ‘Bircher posters’. Do you have a problem with the Birch Society? I would sincerely like to know. I’ve never seen them to be anything other than absolutely pro-Constitution and America First. Have you had a different experience?
bump
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My problems with the Birchers isn’t so much ideology. The modern descendants of the society (and I would submit Pat Buchanan is a good example) tend to be overly sympathetic to the Palestinians and dismissive of Israel. They are also too quick to make excuses for Putin and Russia.
The major problem with the original John Birch Society was its obsessive concern that “everything” was a conspiracy and that the Bilderbergers and Trilateralists were behind “everything.” In my youth you could find their publications and they were full of what started out as simple statements of a truth that would soon grow like a cancer into a giant racket that the writer could tie into everyone. In other words your typical John Bircher could explain everything as a conspiracy. And they could get pretty far fetched doing it. Some even rabidly so.
I shouldn’t have included the Bircher-like posters in the original post because they aren’t like the other three. The Bircher posters don’t try to hide anything, but they will confuse the issue.
The problem here is that Republicans may have a majority in both houses of Congress and hold the Presidency as well, but they are not in power.
The civil service is pursuing its own policies independent of and in defiance of the lawful executive, and they are getting away with it. What events are showing is that we the people no longer control the government - an unelected conglomerate composed of the bureaucracy, the Democratic Party, the media, and rogue judges do.
It has never been hard for me to support him, warts and all. Any doubts that ever cross my mind, all I have to do is think of the alternative.
To have even a prayer to save this country we had to have a strong person, one that would fight back and not cower in a corner.
You’re a laugh riot.
You are correct about the open border people that were here. They were entrenched and that was a battle of its own. Many had an agenda, but many had simply swallowed the talking points from the left and believed anyone that was against illegal immigration and open borders were racist.
Republicans are definitely in power; you’re just confusing Republicans with their rhetoric.
Trump, while rhetorically all over the place, has done more in a year than all our GOP “conservatives” have done in the past 30.
I would agree with that, except most take it so far with attacks on others they leave no choice. I rarely see anyone banned in all the time I have been here that did not plainly ask for it.
I include myself in that, I was banned once and I had it coming. After a while I messaged the owner, apologized and was allowed to return.
The are against the Convention of States.
JBS is alive and well on Facebook.
And we have Bircher freepers. (Don’t worry. I won’t ping you or say who you are.)
You nailed it! I was not a Trump supporter early on, but never felt the need to trash him. There were many posters who could not seem to explain why people should support anyone else but trashed him non stop. Makes no sense.
Washington was? I thought his often misunderstood warning about avoiding foreign entanglements was in the context of keeping our foreign trade alive.
Has your brother seen the light yet?
Libertarians tend to be pro-immigrant and pro-open borders, and also more tolerant of gays, porn, and drugs.
The New York Sun was (is?) a libertarian paper and one of the editors threw the Fabiani Society into shock one evening by saying they were pro-immigrant.
They always stress that they are accepting of all views except those curtailing liberty. Hard to hold a party together when that’s your credo but you kind of have to be that way otherwise what’s the point.
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