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.
See ya!
Nope. Only "opus" I've liked is a penguin character in the comic strip "Bloom County." The ones posted here are holier-than-thou begging-for-attention vanities.
*LOL*
I voted for Bush. Doesn't mean I agree with him on all issues. You need to calm down and return to reality.
First of all, there IS a culture war going on whether you like it or not. The culture war is being waged relentlessly by the scumbags of the Democrat left who are USING the federal government (particularly the judiciary) to wage that war. If you don't want to get involved, then you are surrendering.
Second, if you "fear the social conservatives as much as the loony left", then I support your decision to leave. Buh-bye.
Ping some folks here, just fyi.
They come, they go. Some return, some don't, some hold their breath 'til they turn blue.
Some are good, some are bad, some are funny, some are a pain in the a$$.
Some you're happy to see go, especially the center-of-the-conservative-universe ones.
It all reminds me to have Madame Dufarge send that quarterly check to JR.
Well, I was all touched. Right up until this part: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 .....FR has left YOU? Now that sounds like a lot of hot air to me.
ha! I think you've got it! See my post, just below yours. ^ ^ ^:)
Sorry to see you go. We were both part of the wave that joined during the election 2000 mess, and FR helped me stay sane. Now sometimes, staying away keeps me sane.
FR's a big place, and you eventually learn which threads not to click on.
Thanks for the ping, meekie. What is ALIPAC? If Jim dropped it, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't care for it.
You know, instead of this being an opus to leave, these are the sorts of posts that folks should make in threads, or vanities, to get people re-focused on the task at hand.
The leaving in a huff detracts from the points made and turns a good post into a self-indulgent whine.
That stuff about "FR leaving me" is some real egomania though.
That is a great line.
It's too bad about you and poobah since you're posts are always interesting and thought provoking. However, when you feel you have to leave because people don't agree with your ideas, or because you've been called a few names, then good luck on your search for greener grass. I, however, would call those feelings being part of a family and you just don't quit a family. Have fun "lurkin" and God bless.
Hey there...thanks for the ping...
visual has a point further down. Leaving now wouldn't do anyone any good. Terri has passed, and now it is time to fix the problems that lead to her death, not point fingers and keep up this self indulgent finger pointing that has been continually going on the past couple weeks now.
Hey there...
I hope you guys will read this before you leave.
Stick it out. This was a very emotional time for many many people. I know that since Buckhead that FR has kind of being on a downward trend, but if you look at it, Buckhead was a revelation of sorts of the blog media. Things were bound to go down somewhat.
Don't fold. Be stubborn. Continue to say and do as you believe. Don't allow the screamers to drive you off. Continue to post common sense and be the light of reason and logic in times of chaos. Please.
I don't want you to leave hc.........for what that's worth. I have a great deal of respect for you.
(And for the record, some of the scariest people on earth are violence prone extreme rightists. Until I joined FR, I mistakenly thought only the left was certifiably insane. There aren't as many on 'our side,' but I wouldn't want some of these so-called 'social conservatives' living next door to me......)
Had all "Done to death by slanderous tongues"....walked away at the first protest of our arguments...this forum would no longer exist.......I bid you ado....
Self-indulgent, self-important, and sneaky.
It's really just a stratagem whereby the opusers poke people they disagree with in the eye with a pointy stick, run away, hide, and watch from the bushes to see which kids on the playground say to the pokees, "You deserved it, you jerks. You made my favorite poster cry and go home"
In the cases of cthutch and Poohbah, social conservatives are the pokees.
Infantile.
More worthy are long-time posters who have not opused, but been banned for taking honest and straightforward conservative positions in opposition to a few, vital controlling opinions at FR. I might not have always agreed with the positions of these posters, But I have to admire them for having the courage of their convictions and for going out fighting toe-to-toe, not playing cowardly self-serving and self-aggrandizing games.
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