Posted on 04/05/2007 8:46:45 PM PDT by Pistolshot
I came here in 1998 looking for conservative, logical, thoughtful conversation and debate on the things that matter to us the most. I was a Reagan Republican. One of those who had watched in horror as our embassy staff in Tehran was taken by fanatics. The answer should have been overwhelming force, but it was Carter, that limp-wristed, cant-we-just talk-this-out, weakling who had made the military a shambles, and stripped it of its soul because of VietNam. I knew from the beginning that there was no room in this world for weakness and that was the beginning of my road to conservatism.
Now here we are, in the beginnings of a campaign to deny the Democrats not only the White House, but the two houses of Congress. It is extremely early in this race, the leading candidates that have announced are far from acceptable to a large majority of us. Yet, day after day on this site we have the Rudy machine, the McCain people, Mitts people, and every other supported candidate backer posting missives about their guy. Some are repeated vitriol that has no debatable content, and only begs to be ignored. Some of it is the adage of Dont like it, too bad. He will be our candidate. In the past Ive seen posters here who were thoughtful, logical, literally passionate about impeaching Clinton, but with a HUGE degree of civility.
What is taking place here, and I am guilty of it too, so dont think I am pointing fingers here, is the destruction of what is good about this site. WE ARE CONSERVATIVES, first and foremost. We have our passions that lead us to the candidates we have running. Debate is the give and take of ideas to reach a consensus about a direction. A direction we should all look at for the country, not because of the he can beat Hillary dogma, but because the candidate we choose is THE one to carry what our hopes and dreams are for this great nation. I have seen posters here demean others, insult integrities, bash people they DONT EVEN KNOW ON A PERSONAL LEVEL, and generally look like some of the slime that lurks on DU.
We are supposed to be better than that. Its time we stop acting like we cannot debate without insult, stop treating each other as if our opinions dont matter or our vote. Its time that Jim starts looking around and suspending or closing some accounts for this type of behavior until it gets under control.
We are not DU here. The candidate we vote to carry the platform will be the one who reaches out to the most diverse among us. If that doesnt happen for your candidate, Im sorry. But to stoop to some of the tactics Ive seen here based on a persons opinion or religion is despicable and speaks poorly for all of us.
As someone who served in the military during the Clinton administration, I am getting pretty sick and tired of people having such little faith in our troops that they believe that they'll allow a fundamentalist Muslim government take over if Rudy is not elected. If you really believe that nonsense, I can't imagine living with that kind of stress.
And it sounds like you have abandoned your principles to become a yellow dog Republican.
I followed that thread until the bitter nasty end. I had a few remarks (none nasty) around post 400.
When did you request it be pulled? Around post 600?
The mods should have pulled it even before then. But it got to over 800 replies.
Some of the replies actually were on-topic!
But most as you know were off-topic pi$$ing contests regarding Rudy.
I’ll keep my opinions to myself (for now) regarding Rudy, but the mods must do a better job on controlling these out of control threads.
Including this one — I might add.
I’d hate to see a limit on replies like that other website has, and I’d hate to see a total ban on vanity posts, but the mods need to be quicker on the thread deletion button.
IMHO.
With all due respect there's nothing new about that at all. I don't know what you call spam but there was a time when all manner of graphics were allowed. That ended around 2001 or 2002 with a software change in FR's programming.
The phenomena of cliques of FReepers shouting down and name calling others into submission or silence also began sometime in 2002, as I recall, when it became anathema to criticize the President. That has morphed numerous times into other verboten subjects.
Those who have the support of management have the upper hand. Those who don't stand on shaky ground. That is the way it has always been and since this is Jim Robinson's private website that is the way it should be. At least it is in the mind's of those who respect property rights.
Good post potlatch -
Always remember over 15% of FReepers are leftie sleepers
Add those to those FReepers knocking Republican candidates instead of dems and you have the recipe for another 1992, 1996, 2006
Then they will scream and kick for 4-8 years or more that is because they were ignored
I’ve got my ammo and toys or load my own
Hillary’s plans may put a slight crimp in the disruptor’s lifestyles and finances
Reagan publicly backed the Brady Bill in 1991 and signed amnesty for illegals while in office - And Reagan did what about Roe?
Revisions of history are alive and well on FR as well as at DU
Let’s see another single digit candidate trotted out again tonight kids
My graphics post, yes, thank you.
Good comments from you.
Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That’s orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it’s reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the ‘Milky Way’.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It’s a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it’s just three thousand light years wide.
We’re thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go ‘round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that’s the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space,
‘Cause there’s bugger all down here on Earth
I’m taking notes and will be remembering and acting accordingly in 2007 - & 2008 - esp. after the election
What? Howlin is definitely not that! She is close to the most informed member here on a vast majority of political issues and I have been just lurking this thread, but you crossed the line on that. You should do a 180 in your communications immediately. That was a disgusting and vicious and most definitely a slanderous post!!!!!!!!
You have more than made your point! Let everyone just think about it now. There is a thing called going overboard.
I totally disagree with this statement. The candidate we vote for will be the candidate that reaches out to the majority among us, not the most diverse among us. The candidate has to appeal to what the majority of us have in common or he won't win.
I'd think seriously before I posted a nasty keyword. The keywords can be reported as abuse and the moderators can see who posted a certain keyword.
Guns, borders, abortion.
Now, on defense and fiscal conservatism. . . .
Don't I know it? I was in Young Americans for Freedom, after all.
You mean if the nominee is not in accord with their principles. That's not a bad thin. Politics isn't just about "my team wins and your team loses." It's not just about winning for the sake of winning. If we "win" by electing someone who is substantially like the othre guys, what have we won?
Of course, no two people will agree 100 percent and we all have to compromise in politics, but somewhere you have to draw a line of principle and oppose anyone ho crosses it, even if that person is "on your team."
That is the kind of crazy talk that RINOS are spreading all over the Internet. They are trying to intimidate those of us who are for strict border control so that we'll just shut up and let them have their little bilingual paradise with their illegal alien gardeners.
Another example was that insane decision on Dubai Ports.
This kind of "Our leader can do no wrong" atitude is what gave birth to the term "Bushbots." While most of us here support the President, when he's wrong he deserves to be criticized and fought just like anyone else. There was a real risk in the fact that Dubai, a country that harbors and pays money to terrorists (and Bill Clinton), would have controlled the manifests. This could have enabled them to sneak dangerous thing s into our ports. There is no way to check everything that comes in without a mssive increase in resources, but we need to do it for just that reason.
From RINOs trying to shut off debate.
Politics is a team sport! Ya does yer fighting in the primary! When a candidate is selected in the primary, ya close ranks behind that candidate! Oh yeah - Ya urge Ralph Nader to run ............... FRegards
Yes, I know.
You misunderstood my meaning.
The problem was more with my writing than with your reading, I will admit. But my point is- you can be uncompromising with your principles and still be reasonable, polite, and focused.
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