Posted on 04/01/2005 2:39:59 PM PST by hchutch
Six months ago, Free Republic was riding high, and I was proud to be a part of it. It was coming off having blown the cover off of Dan Rather’s use of forged memos against the President. The President was well on his way to winning re-election. It was a great time to be a Freeper.
However, things have changed. It started with the justifiable removal of ALIPAC. I supported that move by Jim Robinson, but the ugliness directed towards Alberto Gonzales. He was accused of everything under the sun, and Senator Mel Martinez was viciously attacked for speaking Spanish on the Senate floor. The tone and outright viciousness (terms like FROBL and traitor were fired off at anyone who did not toe the line established by Michelle Malkin and Tom Tancredo) on immigration threads had concerned me, but I had concluded it was an isolated incident. After ALIPAC was removed from FR, I had hoped the tone there would improve. But it only got worse. I was point-blank called a traitor because my views on immigration differ from those of Michelle Malkin’s groupies. On immigration threads, questioning the questionable is not allowed. One must accept the unacceptable and allow folks to defend the indefensible. Never mind that VDARE, American Renaissance, and other sites are racist or have no problem hanging out with those that are racists (I’m just going to call a spade a spade here).
There were folks who had the long knives out for Senator Rick Santorum, one of the strongest pro-life members of the United States Senate. Why? Because he endorsed Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey. It was stunning to see these long knives out for a conservative. And all it would accomplish would be his replacement by a Democrat. How in the world replacing Rick Santorum with a Democrat would aid conservatism is beyond me, but it was demanded because Santorum endorsed Specter. The long knives were out, and I suppose it was a sign of what was to come.
The whole Terri Schiavo case has changed everything for me. A mob mentality took over the first few days after the order to pull the tube was given. Anyone who did not toe the line was attacked. I saw a dedicated active-duty member of our armed forces called a “Maine liberal” for simply asking why troops in harm’s way did not get the same sort of “all-nighter” attention that Terri Schiavo got. It was a reasonable question – we have 40-year-old P-3s still out there. We have a war on terrorism still going on, in case folks have not noticed. We have to get Social Security fixed. I say this as a person who believes that at best, Michael Schiavo’s relationship with a woman (and having two kids with her) meant he had a conflict of interest – and that he had decided that Terri was inconvenient. I cannot take his word alone that Terri would have wanted this. I also believe that George Felos is a supporter of euthanasia, and that he is using this case for his own ends. Those folks give me the creeps, and I think that Jim Robinson was on the right side of this issue. However, I also got a very bad feeling when the Schindlers embraced the likes of Randall Terry and Bo Gritz. I had to wonder what has happened to the conservative movement when the threads were allowed to spiral so out of control. The concept of euthanasia is repulsive and disgusting, but it does not excuse allowing the threads to spin out of control.
I have seen the President of the United States, George W. Bush, and the Governor of Florida, John Ellis Bush, take huge political risks in an effort to save Terri’s life. I believe they were doing their best to do the right thing, and that the original law passed in 2003 was a reasonable one that was wrongly stuck down by Judge Greer and the Florida Supreme Court. I think that the Republican Party has taken a huge risk to give Terri a chance at life, and I am disgusted with those who seek a pretext that will justify leaving the GOP in the lurch. I’m sick of the way the Terri threads spun out of control, and the vicious attacks launched at reasonable people who came to a different conclusions about the situation or who pointed out facts that certain people found inconvenient. This is not what I signed on here for.
I believe in a strong national defense, cutting taxes, and in general trying to keep government involvement as minimal as possible (there are times when the best one can do is to limit government involvement in a situation). I am pro-life (with exceptions for rape, incest, and to protect the life of the mother) and pro-Second Amendment. However, I do NOT want the federal government to be involved in any culture war. “Culture” was never mentioned in the constitution, thus I believe it is left to the States or TO THE PEOPLE (see the Tenth Amendment). I do NOT think immigration is a problem, but I believe some mistakes were made along the way (like eliminating the bracero program). I also think that the President of the United States has proposed a sensible plan that will go a long way towards solving the problems on our border with Mexico and do much to alleviate the problems surrounding illegal immigration. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that it is time for me and Free Republic to part company, because Free Republic has left this limited-government neoconservative. In the process of Free Republic leaving me, I now find that I fear the social conservatives as much as I fear the loony left. As a result of coming to this conclusion, I ask that my account be deleted and all posts I have made, save for this opus and the ping to my friends be removed.
I do this with regret, since I will miss some of those who I have met here, but I feel no other choice. So long.
The smokey back room, huh?
Sounds good.
I've been avoiding everything also, except the Day in the Life thread which is another haven of sanity.
I respect Jim, but I think the last couple of weeks would have been a good time for the rare action of shutting down some of the Terri threads like Lucianne Goldberg.
They accomplished nothing except repetition and vitriole.
Of course, I never made any implication of the sort, but thanks for providing a textbook example of the strawman argument for newer viewers.
You want respect for your seniority, join a union.
Are you being facetious? If not, I mark your post as historical irony.
I'm going to miss you, my good friend.
I would be more than happy to be enlightened as to the opus. All I know is that I've seen an opus from DU right here on FR and everybody was quick to make fun of it (rightly) but we have it going on right here.
Good Grief. Nice of you to be here, but why does everyone that gets fed up need to write a diatribe. I've been lurking here for 6 years and posting for 2-1/2. It ALWAYS gets rough and tumble and impolite when the topic is a scorcher.
So my advice to those leaving: quietly disappear and come back when and if you want.
BTW, contribute before you leave.
Because the babies are so CUTE! And, if you don't feed the babies, the parents mug you.
Perhaps more because the sight of Bill Gate's sexy eyes and massive hard drive were too much to resist (I'm a woman btw!).
(sorry, all, this was the best I could find--mysteriously, these pictures seem to have disappeared from the original Teen Beat thread)
"(Man, what did people use for metaphors before 1933?)"
Hilarious. Can I use that?
It's a good site with mostly good people. Just because the crazy uncles came out for a while and posted is NO reason to bolt.
There is NO perfection on earth HC, but FR is darn close considering we have mere humans at the controls here.
You are also not going to get people to here and agree with your view if you run away IMO.
I think you should stay and debate what you feel for your position and get in the struggle rather than run from the fight. But that's just me!
That is a stuningly great question. I must now go ponder it.
Bye, all! Play nice.
Your entire lament is grounded in a revulsion against boorish behavior (which I share) or a call for more censorship - a call which finds no resonance with me. It is not clear which deficiency prompts your withdrawal. I would simply state my position that choking off the free exchange of ideas merely to protect the subjective sensitivities of some posters is a practice that ultimately will lead to the destruction of all that is good about this forum.
Are we naught but blushing virgins who cannot be confronted with a pin up on the warehouse wall lest we sue for sexual harassment? No, the subjective feelings of a class of victims is too nice a basis upon which to order society. So it must be here at Free Republic: Every time one of us acts boorishly, he advances the cause of the left. But every time we censor a point of view, Free Republic becomes less than it was destined to be.
I do not blush anymore and I certainly am no virgin, so I say, speak out! Let us hear all sides. My conservatism is strong enough to survive the fatuities of the left and my person has integrity enough to endure a few indignities without turning like a child to the moderator and crying "troll."
Thank you Bear, our trusty archivist!
It has now begun to rain... just in time for me to leave work and catch the train. Oh, goodie!
Later!
I figured your hyperbole deserved an equal response...
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