Posted on 06/06/2002 9:57:11 PM PDT by Big Guy and Rusty 99
Dear Mr. Robinson,
I have been a loyal member of the Free Republic since before the 2000 election. I have been a Conservative since the early days of Clinton. When I found this site, I thought "Thank God, people who think like me." I have continued to think this until the more recent days. Now, it seems that there are threads left and right bashing our President.
Why? There are things the President has done which I don't agree with but my loyality still lies with him. I am not sure if these "Bush-Bashers" fail to see the reality that with politics comes comprimise or it is something worse. I feel there is a cancer in the Free Republic. Some are eating their own.
I feel that some of these people are members of the dreaded democratic underground disguised as disgruntled conservatives. They are only here to stir up trouble. What's worse, they are doing just that. I am not sure what I think you should do.
As a conservative, I believe in our moral code but I also realize the reality of politics. I back our President but if he were doing something unsavory (like lying under oath,) I could not support him. This is unlike the left's clintonista dogma. What President Bush is doing is not betraying the conservative cause. He is using politics to confound the left. Those who do not understand this are either leftists themself or unable to separate themselves from their zealousness.
This is your show. You choose who gets to be a member and who does not. Those who break your rules are banished from the kingdom. I am not discouraging free speech, but this is free speech in your forum. These Bush-Bashers are brining us down. When this infighting happened in 1992, Bill Clinton got elected. let's not let that happen again.
Yours,
Big Guy and Rusty 99
This is, no doubt, why Bush has been so vocal about making airport security something besides an opportunity to frisk retired Army generals and old ladies. I also noticed that he insists that security personnel profile Arabs and that airline pilots be armed. Of course, he also has clamored loudly to secure the Mexican/US border as well. < / sarcasm>
To which security measures were you referring?
Well, and I am not a Bush-basher by the way, and there are certainly many here who are. But, this needs to be remembered:
The Republicans are politicians too. That means that their primary objective on an individual basis is to stay elected. They therefore have an incentive to please the left, if they know that the right is going to vote for them no matter what. This is why they need to know that we will not vote for them no matter what.
A big part of the problem does seem to be lack of understanding, or of taking the 'big media spin' and running with it, rather than doing enough reading to discern the truth of the matter.
Another problem seems to be downright distortion of the issues Bush ran on, and what his campaign promises were.
Bush ran as a "compassionate conservative" or a moderate - and one of Bush's main campaign promises involved more influence for the Dept. of Education.
I remember the FR debates after it was apparent he was going to win the GOP primary: should we back him to keep Gore from winning, or should we on principle vote for a more conservative candidate, whether Phillips, Buchanan, or someone else. Well, we can see what more of us voting on principle would have gotten us: Al Gore.
I can't say that Bush was even in my top 5 of the GOP candidates - but he's done about what I expected him to do, based on what he promised during the campaign. Better on some issues, not as well on others - but that could be because he's fighting a Democratic Senate.
The other thing to keep in mind is that the majority of the American people want the Federal government to first, protect us from terrorists, second, improve health care, and third, improve education. They think Bush is doing a great job on the first issue; they trust the Democrats more on the last two.
Until the American people become more educated or have an "attitude adjustment", we have an uphill fight on our hands. Someone who can't get elected won't make any changes - at least if we have someone there who is somewhat on our side, they can begin to steer the ship of state back our way.
Perhaps instead of "eating our own", fracturing the base, and lessening whatever influence we have, we need to be appreciating what we do have (an honest, patriotic, and moral man in the White House), and working to educate the American people so that they don't expect a European-style nanny state?
P.S. Insulting people & calling them names because they don't agree will usually not convince them to agree with you - it generally will only confirm them in their resistance to your viewpoint.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Another way to get rid of the Bush-Bashers is to just ignore them. In other words, just don't reply to their posts or comments and just let their threads fade into oblivion
Dissent is exactly what some people cannot face. And, those would banish free speech need to take a course on Americanism. Somehow, they misunderstand our Bill of Rights.
Such people are thoughtless fools.
They are just as foolish as people who support anyone with a (D) after their name. What matters is who a person IS, and what they stand for. Those of you who want everyone that doesn't support Bush to be banned or otherwise silenced, may I suggest that you might find the Communist style of squelching public opinion is more palatable to you? No? I didn't think so.
I realize of course that free speech is not something that applies at a private forum. However I humbly suggest that the moment you start refusing to allow certain opinions to soil your ears that you have ceased to be free. Just an idea.
I couldn't disagree more with this way of thinking. One of the reasons I am drawn to this forum is because it allows differences of opinion. If you want to see what banning people from a forum creates, visit Democratic Underground. It creates paranoia, muddled thinking, and mistaken conclusions.
mercy, be careful. Big Guy and Rusty 99 will be asking for your address.
He has a center alright--it's just not what some had hoped for.
Do you believe that matters such as airport security are brilliantly handled? This forum has burst at the seams with articles related the ridiculous charades that pass for airport security. The Bush administration has either overlooked those "status quo" measures, is unwilling or uninterested in the matter, or is satisfied with the way things are going. In any case, this administration has failed to provide real security to the American people.
Airport security isn't the only serious problem that goes unattended. Do you really propose that I, a responsible American citizen, should smugly sit back and smile confidently and pretend "our man" has matters well in hand? Don't you think it might be better to clamor for some signs of intelligence in order that the lives of my fellow citizens be truly safe?
If you really think dissention is a bad thing, then you are just like the folks from Arkansas.
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