I don’t ever remember a time when it was easy to get banned from free republic. The most difficult times I remember were the Rudi Guiliani campaign and this past Trump campaign. In those FR decided not to support Giuliani and to support Trump. Those were announced and fair notice given, and that was for election solidarity reasons.
I never recall FR being mainstream GOP, but the Bush/Rather falsified documents and the Sore Loserman meme certainly had us sided with GW. I was. I’m saddened by what has since transpired with him.
It was for sure mainstream GOP when it came to border policy.
We were banned just for supporting the Minuteman movement.