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.
But only if you'll agree to change your screen name to Gasolinski. (I know. I'm a Buttinski myself.)
Like I said before, if you "feel" I have broken any rules, such as a personal attack like the one you posted above, then you should contact an admin moderator.
You can contact them by adding "admin moderator" to the reply box as I have done above.
I think I would be a little more sympathetic if Poohbah wasn't one of the old school. I mean, how could anyone post through the Trixie Wars, BatJack Thompson, CaL/Keyes, the Buchanan Brushfire, etc., and still say this was hot and heavy? I think the fact that remembered wounds seem less deep, combined with the fact that this time he was in the minority, skewed his perspective.
But you know, it's more than that. We all grow, and not always in the direction we want to. How many friends have you kept for literally all of your life (up until now)? Sometimes it's time to move on. He's obviously reached that point, which is fine and I respect. But the need to somehow find the cause in "everybody else" is just a little self-serving.
Look, I've been called really nasty stuff by some pretty "important" people here back in the old days (CaL being one... though we sorta' patched things up later). There have been times when the stuff that was posted and the way it was posted really p*ssed me off, so bad I couldn't even open threads on those subjects because I wanted to hit the CRT screen. The difference is that I wasn't ready to leave. I still could find some use and value in FR. If he can't, that's fine, but you'll have a hard time convincing me that the fundamental change is in FR and not him (sure, FR's flavor changes as the people change, but the root has always been the same).
It's the anthropomorphic fallacy: things are different, so you must have changed (not me)! It's human nature, and I don't fault him for that. But an objective observer has to say that FR isn't at some catastrophic low point in rhetoric. Were you here for Elian?!? Talk about venom!!!!
People leave FR when they a looking for something else. Dramatics aside, I wish Poohbah well. But his going says more about him (and his personal "place") right now than it does FR.
Like I said before, take a deep breath and just let it go.
When I feel the need to disagree in writing on FR I post it and go on. If I get replies attacking me I usually ignore them. It's not as if they can physically attack you.
I'm not refined enough to be "Gasolinski."
;O)
"What, no jerkettes??"
"Now my feelings are REALLY hurt."
Heh!
Agreed, they seem a nice sort of person who has over reacted.
My advice to you is to learn how to format your text so others will read it. You should also watch the personal attacks as they eventually will get you suspended or banned unless you have special status......which I'm almost certain you do not have.
I don't believe you.
;O)
I don't know what to say.
Or rather, write.
Thank you for the compliment, though.
It's much appreciated.
:)
-good times, G.J.P. (Jr.)
I don't agree with his decision to go. I told him so in advance when he signaled it. But I can't argue with your assessment that if it's right for that person, so be it.
I'm still in the assessment stage as to whether FR has fundamentally changed. We have had a lot of new posters recently. I think that's great, but it might have changed the intellectual demographics.
Shifts, we should all be able to adapt to, but not if they're extreme and prolonged. As a hyperbole, if FR is overrun by poisonous snake-handling evangelicals, I'm outta here. My tolerance for what happened here in the past month is higher than Poohbah's, but none of ours is unlimited. At least not for those who actually visit substantive threads.
If you believe immigration is not a problem for the US, your time here has not been well spent.
Too bad for you. I just hope there are very few like you on this forum that chose to put their heads in the sand.
A neighboring community put wire mesh and rocks around their pond. The geese don't like it much. They still have geese, but not the home sites they did before.
Good luck in finding a deterrent.
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