Let me say, first instincts are truest, and my response, strictly based on the extant adieu without prior association is:
Yet the statement itself demands parsing, diagramming, "unpacking" or "deconstructing", and response.
FR has changed. Deal with that fact boys and girls.
Bombast, patronization.
Many of us grew up in a more conservative era, where our nation and our freedoms were first and foremost. Now we learn that it that is not the case. Principles are for losers according to the Bots and most of the ignorant posters here on FR. To create noise and call those of us who have been loyal to the conservative cause such creative and wonderful names as "Soros lovers", "Mobyites", "communists"(now that's a good one for those of us who have been overseas staring at AK-47's), "DUers" and names which are forbidden for me to mention but ok for the Bushbots.
An appeal to an ideal "conservative cause" not defined. Generalized slander re "bots", "ignorant", reminiscent of Kerry's "murderers and rapists". Ah, but I went door to door for Barry Goldwater, listened intently to M. Stanton Evans, prefer the tax cuts of Bush to the tax hikes of Kerry, and so am ipso facto conservative.
The noise has driven off many of the best posters from this site. Now FR has become the Fluff of the RNC, posting such creative threads as "Pray for President Bush - Day 1276", "The Economy (Freep this poll)", " FReeper After Actions", "After Action Freep A.N.S.W.E.R. AUSTIN TX 3/20/04", etc...
The charge of "fluff of the RNC" is not supported by the anecdotal evidence of a handful of threads. Each day presents hundreds of threads, tens of thousands of posts.
It sounds more to me like everyone is proud of responding but no one has the convictions excpet for what the RNC faxes them. This election should not be about "Republican" v. "Democrat" principles. Neither party has any principles. If you morons believe that, then you are bigger fools than I thought. This is about the future of America an the viability of capitalism in this nation.
Item: my fax machine has received no talking points from the RNC--your hyperbole is tedious. Though you claim this election should not be about "Republican" v. "Democrat", November 2, there will be those two choices--you're dangerously close to moral equivalence. More namecalling with "morons" and "fools"--this kind of "repent, sinners, the end is at hand" is not helpful. It is about--among other things--the viability of capitalism, but Bush is procapitalist while Kerry is a battery-operated toy of anticapitalism.
Why "FReepers" can not see this and hold "their man" to the Hamiltonian principles of limited Federal government and enhancing our freedoms by reducing dependency on any government. By controlling immigration, restructuring the tax system to pre-1916 form, and by enhancing the defense of this nation by using actions instead of words when dealing with foreign powers (little things, like enforcing the acts against nations which do business with Cuba, as Bush promised in 2000). Unfortunately you mind numbed morons don't care. If you're 401K shows a fiat currency positive figure, you're all happy as a fly in a cow pasture.
Hamilton doesn't do it for me vis-a-vis limited government; Jefferson, now there's a limiter. Repealing the income tax is a swell idea; so is perpetual motion, a cure for cancer, and almost anything free. As for "enhancing the defense of this nation by using actions instead of words when dealing with foreign powers", while you were out, Bush has led our forces in two successful wars of liberation, Libya is copping to a plea, and the rest of the pirates have been struck dumb. Again with the namecalling: "mind numbed morons", "fly in a cowpasture"--and I don't even have a 401K.
What I do have is a great respect for the enormous effort Jim has applied to create the largest forum for intelligent discourse and activism on the right.
It is not enough, it is never enough to merely have an opinion--you must make that opinion popular with a majority of voters in order to be effective.
This is why Bush will beat Kerry and a third party will remain a marginal issue.
