Posted on 05/26/2007 1:49:34 PM PDT by Eurotwit
A few weeks ago – in between Hillary Clinton’s official entry into the presidential race and the first Republican primary debate of the cycle – the fiery online conservative forum Free Republic marked a decade in operation as one of the premier online forums for right-wing political discussion.
It also experienced one of the biggest internal battles to rock the site since the 2000 election of George W. Bush -- a tumultuous campaign year that nearly tore the site apart, as its founder and chief administrator first cleansed commenting ranks of Bush supporters, then, later, rallied to his support.
At the heart of the latest controversy: the fight over the conservative bona fides of Rudy Giuliani.
Over the past few weeks, chaos has reigned in the “Freeper” community as members sympathetic to the former mayor's candidacy claim to have suffered banishment from the site. They were victimized, they say, by a wave of purges designed to weed out any remaining support for the Giuliani campaign on the popular conservative web forum. Another significant chunk of commenters have migrated away from the controversial site over the action, according to a number of former site members and conservative bloggers who have been tracking the situation.
In a plaintive post on the blog “Sweetness & Light,” exiled commenter Steve Gilbert, who says he does not support the former mayor’s campaign, blasted the site’s new “anti-Giuliani, anti-abortion jihad.” Since George W. Bush was elected president, he wrote, “there haven’t been any large scale [Free Republic] purges to speak of – until now.”
The fight began one month ago, when site founder Jim Robinson posted an anti-Giuliani manifesto titled: “Giuliani as the GOP presidential nominee would be a dagger in the heart of the conservative movement.” Then the virtual ax started to swing. Longtime posters to the freewheeling discussion threads, used to serious no-holds-barred web etiquette, were still stunned by the intensity of the anti-Rudy activity; conservative blogs buzzed with the development.
“Jim Robinson has been going on a tear demonizing Rudy Giuliani, because Rudy (agreeing with the vast majority of Americans), is personally opposed to abortions on a moral level…” complained a user on the GOPUSA Web site. “Anyone who posts any support for Giuliani at the site, if it's at all forceful, will be banned.”
(“Normally, we don't allow complaints about other conservative forums,” chided the moderator, but “…because it is being discussed all over the Internet, I'll make an exception.”)
Just a few months ago, Rudy Giuliani placed second in an early Free Republic straw poll; now, his support on the site has been virtually eliminated. “After the ‘April Purge,’ I don't think there are any Rudybots left around here,” noted Free Republic commenter “upchuck” in one recent post. “And if there are, they're not posting pro-Rudy stuff :).”
The forums weren’t the only venue for the Free Republic’s new antagonism toward Mr. Giuliani, which coincided with a wave of comments expressing similar sentiments from other corners of the conservative movement. A few days after Mr. Giuliani’s equivocal Roe v. Wade comments at the Republican presidential debate on May 3, a new “STOP RUDY NOW News & Information Thread” was featured on the site, and a newly-created stand-alone category debuted via a link from the homepage: “The Giuliani Truth File.” (So far this campaign season, Mr. Giuliani is the only candidate – Republican or Democratic – to be singled out for that level of scrutiny from the Free Republic.)
Why Rudy? Why now? Some conservative bloggers and former commenters contacted for their view of the continuing controversy say they believe that site founder Jim Robinson holds ideologically middling Republicans like Mr. Giuliani responsible for the GOP’s congressional loss and current woes. (They asked that their names be kept out of this story for fear of antagonizing the famously frisky site regulars.)
Others claim that the former mayor’s top-tier status is spurring frantic site administrators into action. Finally, one popular theory holds that the Free Republic is secretly hoping for another Clinton presidency that would send its Alexa ratings soaring back to levels it hasn’t experienced since its halcyon days of the Clinton impeachment, when a since-soured relationship with blog pioneer Matt Drudge and overwhelming anti-Clinton sentiment in Republican ranks helped make Free Republic one of the hottest Web sites in the nation. It hasn't recovered that luster since the Bush administration took over.
“It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s an observation,” said one blogger, who describes himself as a half-hearted Mitt Romney supporter. “They’ve still got a brand name that means something, but they’re not what they were in terms of real-world impact. A Hillary presidency would get them there.”
Robinson himself could not be reached for comment, but his original post laid out his case against Mr. Giuliani – a graphics-heavy presentation of some of the former mayor’s most damning moderate quotes in mainstream media venues, along with a color-coded report card tracking his less-than-doctrinaire positions on abortion, immigration, gays and guns.
Robinson, it should be noted, famously blasted George W. Bush’s presidential candidacy back in 2000, before a dramatic late-campaign about-face that saw him emerge as one of the GOP ticket’s biggest supporters. But whether or not Free Republic experiences a similar election-year shift this cycle, the site’s current campaign is spreading a dangerous primary-season meme of Rudy Giuliani as big-city liberal – and turning one of the most influential web forums in conservatism into an exclusive gathering place for those who share that view.
Kinda catchy. A new dance?
"C'mon, baby, we're gonna chant 'Sieg Heil'!
We're gonna stomp our jackboots for a while;
We'll do a giant goosestep every step we take
And dance the night away at WideAwake!
I do know since a few Julie-Annie lovers are no longer here, there isn’t much pro-homosexual agenda drivel being pushed.
***That zinger will leave a mark.
Yeah, phikapmom was here a long time. She’s very RNC but has opposed other RINOS in the past such as Fla Guv Charlie Crist (who makes me sick and for good reason).
I've been here longer than just about everybody except BobJ and Jim Robinson. I've been to and even organized several FReeps. I've FReeped with the DC Chapter several times and I live in Arizona. Which kinda shoots your theory down.
She is younger than I am, I'm not allowed to divulge her age, under penalty of death but my bride and I share a great grand child and another one on the way.
4 adult children, 12 grand children and 1.5 g.g.children.
I've changed more than a few crappy diapers in my time and that's right at the top of my list of the worst jobs ever.
You’re still here...
With little to fear...
Happy FR birthday to you...
We’ve got our EYE on YOU... ;-)
windsorknot
Since May 25, 2006
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windsorknot hasn’t created an about page.
I won't do anything for RINOS. They are users.
Let’s lighten the mood by talking about divisions on liberal sites for a change.
The Daily Kos Pie Fight
When an ad depicting two scantily-clad women with accompanying suggestive captioning was displayed on the left-wing website Daily Kos, the feminist wing of the site became outraged and accused the administrators of selling out “progressive” values and degrading and objectifying women. The “frat boy” wing responded by accusing their opponents of being whiny overreactors and looking for “signs of female subjugation under every rock.” Eventually, many of the feminist KosKids took the administrator’s suggestion to leave and form their own site.
This exposes the frat boy KosKids as typical males, despite their arrogant and hypocritical claims to be “progressive” and “superior” to those “damn right-wingers.” It also exposes the feminists as weak, whiny crybabies, despite their constant boasting about how “strong” and “tough” they are.
that is a great legacy sir
Check out the dates of membership on several of those who were banned. Many of them were from the 1998, 1999 period.
A few of them were also those who were most active on the freepathon threads.
I am worried about the health of the site. It seems we can't manage to disagree without having to whine that "Somebody is arguing with me, would you make them leave?"
I do understand the banning of some of them...but some of them make me shake my head in surprise that they would now be labeled as trolls.
Yes, Harriette Miers is now a verb.
It always was... It was like a game of "Old Maid" being played with a Supreme Court nomination.
interesting story
most contact I have with the left is the rare post I make on IMDB...which is hard enough
one sees how intolerant and ignorant the left really is
Newbie :-)
Bad, but not as bad as folding a fitted sheet.
566 hilarious typo
And your responses have nothing to do with my original post.
I gave that up a long time ago, I just go ahead and wad them up because that's what they would look like after I folded them anyway.
When changing diapers the thought crossed my mind a few times that it would be a lot easier to just trade in the baby for a clean one.
Were you involved in the Schiavo threads?
More hogwash. You haven't uncovered any BS, you've posted only slurs and innuendo. You still haven't backed up your earlier comments, instead taking the cowardly route of silence.
Some of the best missing FReepers were not ones who were banned or opused. They’ve simply passed on to a new Kingdom. They’re missed too.
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