Free Republic is a political forum and politics isn’t beanbag. The Founding Fathers of this country slung a lot of mud and demands by GOPe Freepers to moderate the tone is nothing but a form of censorship cloaked in calls for man ers.
In the presidential election of 1800 Jefferson’s camp accused President Adams of having a “hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” In return, Adams’ men called Vice President Jefferson “a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father.”
The point is that even with the “founding fathers” slanderous personal tones did nothing to change or futher the actual policy/position arguments.