Posted on 07/06/2002 2:31:54 PM PDT by B. A. Conservative
"Founded in 1996 by Jim Robinson, Free Republic is a loosely organized group of grassroots Americans who support our Constitution and look for honesty, integrity and honor from those in government."
What is our mission? "Free Republic is dedicated to reversing the trend of unconstitutional government expansion and is advocating a complete restoration of our constitutional republic." Jim Robinson has listed a great deal more worthwhile information and detail concerning the mission and a description of Free Republic. The current mission statement has been edited from an earlier version to account for past events. The original mission statement included language advocating the impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton, then President of the United States. Free Republic accomplished that portion of its mission statement by playing a central role in the events culminating in the successful vote in the House of Representatives to Impeach William Jefferson Clinton. For its role in the impeachment, Free Republic is an unequivocal and unqualified success.
However in evaluating and measuring Free Republic's performance with regard to the larger and by far the more significant role, "reversing the trend of unconstitutional government expansion and a complete restoration of our constitutional republic", I think the leadership and members of Free Republic need to refocus their thinking. By using any yardstick of your own choosing, there are few if any parameters in which conservatives can claim any improvement. And in any small victories that might have occurred, I would ask that you point out the role played by Free Republic in bringing it about. In short, I think that Free Republic has lost its focus on its most important reason for being.
Before offering my suggestions for getting back on track, I would like offer some thoughts on how and why we have become distracted from the primary focus as so eloquently stated by Jim Robinson:
The two courses of action most likely to offer a speedy and effective return to our Constitutional Republic are political and judicial. The left has used judicial appointments very effectively against the Constitution. Reagan advanced the task of recovering the federal judiciary, but we still have a long way to go in this area. Nevertheless, strategic use of the courts could be a very effective weapon in our arsenal. I think this should be the topic of some very serious discussions on how we can use the courts to attack existing unconstitutional government actions, laws and regulations. It takes someone to bring an action, and some legal thought to make such efforts productive. Forum shopping and plaintiff seeking are actively used by our opposition. I think this is an area where we can do much more than we have been doing.
And that brings us to the area of the greatest interest to us all. And it is in this arena that we are more likely to bring the quick results that we all desire. Well thought out, carefully crafted political activism can be effective. And each election offers opportunities to build on prior successes and to learn from prior mistakes. I will proffer that we have done little more than chat or indulge in wishful thinking. Our attempts at organized planning, coordination or unification of efforts, orderly assignment of tasks and delegation of responsibilities have been largely non-existent. All volunteer labor is hard to harness and effectively deploy. But it is not impossible.
Our computers and the internet provide the means to share and coordinate our efforts. It could also provide the means of choosing our leaders, delegation of tasks and responsibilities, and our most powerful weapon in recruiting new talents. Every human on the planet that has an internet connection has access to our materials and our efforts. It is a means to make our voices heard and to recruit more voices.
Everyone that frequents this site has visions of making their voice heard and making their vote count. Individually our voices are lost in the crowd noise. And even with our dismal lack of voter turnout, there were still more than 100 million votes cast in the last presidential election. It is difficult to know that your vote counted when it constitutes such a small part of the total vote. Political parties make a difference in the outcomes of elections by pooling the votes of like-minded individuals. Political candidates exercise power because each supporter transfers a portion of their individual power to the candidate. Coalitions gain power by pooling the individual powers of their members.
Free Republic can exercise the power of a coalition through uniting behind either common candidates or common issues or both. By acting as a unit, we can multiply our political effectiveness considerably. By recruiting and enlarging or attracting new members or supporters, we can multiply our effectiveness even more. We have proved that we can be effective. Ask the House managers and other members of the House how Clinton came to be impeached in spite of all the efforts of the media to prevent it.
We are approaching another election in a few months. Traffic on this site will increase progressively as we get closer to election day. Our political clout and power will increase exponentially as our viewing numbers increase. No matter what anyone wishes, the polls will be relatively close and the outcome of the election uncertain until the polls are closed. We will only have a good idea of the outcome when the exit polls and returns begin to come in. Before Election Day, the closer the polling data and the more uncertain the outcome of the election, the more our votes and our voices will matter. The more unified we are leading up to the election, the more our voices will be heard, and the more our votes will be courted.
We will have zero influence on Democratic voters or candidates. Any efforts directed at Democratic candidates will be a complete waste of our time and resources. Almost all directed at Democratic votes will have the same sad results. But our efforts directed at Republican voters and candidates can have a tremendous impact on the election and more importantly on the campaign leading up to the election. And surprisingly, our efforts in this election could have an even greater impact on the election of 2004.
FreeRepublic has the power within its grasp to achieve its mission and change the course of history. Organization, delegation, and unity of purpose are the keys to success. On another thread, I have offered what I believe to be one solution to the problem. There may be others. That is what the mission of this forum is about. Let's Roll!
Why must you consistently linger on the subject of fornication?
Meter Maid??????
redrock
That's it...Stay in your little Conspiracy Kook World. Keep thinking they're out to get us all...Stay in the building while it burns...Just because David told you too. Then blame "The Man", of course.
My revolution??? Cannot say I understand where you were going with that statement.
It seemed to be a fairly constructive article.
redrock
Geez, you're being positive.
Look at this, most FReepers do not even post. There are a lot more Lurkers than there are FReepers, I know because I was Lurker for months before I dared to post. I assume that you did the same. Free Republic had a profound influence on the election of 2000, and if it was not for our effort, Al Gore will be President today, no doubt.
That was the first time that I realized that we became a force to reckon with and that we are here to stay! Look at where we are now, and compare it back in 1998. Boy, what a big difference. This community will only grow larger and have more influence to change America for good in the next couple of years.
Maybe I'm just young and idealistic, but I'm optimistic. You should be too, hey what more can we lose? We already lost much ground to the Left, and it is time for us to counterattack!
Even though it can be alot of fun to read (sometimes), alot of real issues get bogged down in mis-guided witticisms from people who think they're alot funnier than they really are.
I'm just thinking that the person who posted this thread would maybe enjoy another forum also where people had to be a little more "visible" to one another. I might also, and I bet $1,000,000 that in general the comments would be alot more civil.
1. This ruling was given by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, not the US Supreme Court. I hope that the US Supreme Court has never given such a ruling. The reason I make this point is an important one: Federal Power versus State Power. The States may, to some degree, enforce their morality on the citizenry, IMO, and may exert even more approbation as the level of government grows increasingly local, with individual communities possessing the greatest influence over individuals in the realm of moral norms.
How can I, a Constitutionalist, espouse such a belief? Because governments, as they become more local, become more reflective of the will of individual people. Also, individuals who disagree with a moral code in one community can move to a different community where different morals are held...eventually finding his place. The *fundamental* rights are upheld by the US Constitution, which permits States, Cities, Townships, and communities to exercise their moral codes (so long as the Constitution itself is not violated). That, IMO, is the way the Founding Fathers, being themselves divided on how best to worship the Almighty, felt it ought to be.
The Federal Government was supposed to stay out of religious matters entirely, leaving that to local governments where people could more directly effect the morals they felt right and comfortable with.
2. The world of the 18th Century, and even the 19th Century, would be considered intolerable by many living in the US today. The Puritans, especially, lived a lifestyle that was very strict and unyeilding. Whether God especially approved of the Puritans or not, he did give us Free Will and that extended, to some degree, to how individuals chose to worship Him. To put it a different way, God didn't seem to expect us to all worship him in exactly the same manner or he would've made us all exactly the same.
3. The Government of today is not the Government of the past. It can no longer be trusted, even so much as the Founding Fathers trusted it (which wasn't much at all). Do you *really* think that if you made the Government the sole or most potent arbitor of morality that it would settle on a morality you agreed with, or that Christians as a whole agreed with? No. Governments are about power and domination, and will only approve those moral practices which further their bid for more power and domination.
Even if I thought that if the government were given limitless power to enforce a moral code and to use it wisely (which will never happen), I would not agree to give it such power. That is because morality and goodness come from within, usually based on *examples* from without. Force may, on the surface, bring about good actions, but they would be for the wrong reasons, and shallow. While Man was told to judge a person based on actions, God judges based on what is within a person's heart.
In short, I believe that the People are too corrupt to willingly revert to Christian behavior. The government is too corrupt to be trusted to pressure people to good acts, but is rather more likely to itself perpetrate evil acts with whatever power we give it. Our style of government cannot survive long when the people are corrupt, and so our government will change, in actuality if not on paper. That is what we have been seeing happen for some time now, and what is going to continue in the future.
The citation you have given is from a time long past, dead and gone and never to come again in our lifetimes, and probably not in the lifetimes of any now living, if ever.
You cannot use the government to overcome the will of the people, especially when it is nominally run by the people.
Tuor
Give me liberty or give me death.
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