This is Courier New.
This is Times Roman.
Looks to me as if they'll use more ink and less paper. Personally, I find Times Roman to be much more legible, particularly in long passages as one might encounter in bureaucratese.
Now, it's time for Free Republic to reconsider its fonts. Why not something conservative, like Old English Text?
I think that FR has no forced font. You should be able to go into your browser options (like Internet Explorer- Tools, for example) and make the default whatever font you want. I'll stick with the Times New Roman I read FR in, thank you.
Belonging to the tri-focal group, I set my browser to use Verdana 18, makes it very readable. Of course I have a 23 inch cinema display too.
FR is set up so that we can choose our own fonts, and view the site the way we like. Try changing your fonts if you'd like to view it differently. Click View > Internet Options > Font > Proportional Font.