"A HOUSE DIVIDED" - Pukin's FReeperversary Rant

[Pukin Dog]

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." – Abraham Lincoln, 1858

It is getting somewhat strange around these parts when not only the President, but yesterday the First Lady was personally attacked by someone claiming to be a ‘Conservative’. Can there be any doubt that there are forces among us looking to drive a wedge between us?

A few weeks ago, this forum’s owner attempted to remind all of us of the big picture, that regardless of any personal animosity towards the President or Republican Party over their adherence to Conservative principles, that they are still a clear choice over the alternative Democrat Party rule. At that time, I assumed that FReeper-sanity had been restored, and that some of the negative rhetoric aimed at those in Washington D.C. would be dialed back.

Free Republic is a political forum with a proud history and vision, responsible for dragging Dan Rather from his post, and providing countless radio-talk shows with their daily talking points. FReepers are unique in their determination and energy towards protecting and defending the goals of our Founding Fathers.

We are also quite a powder keg of emotion and anticipation, expecting our Republican majorities to take advantage of this opportunity to make permanent gains in our Conservative agenda. Some might argue that this opportunity has been squandered, but those persons would be ignorant of history, lacking understanding that change cannot occur overnight in Washington, and that this is the way our Founders designed our Republic.

In frustration, impatience, and ignorance, we have allowed this forum to become a haven for those who do not share our Conservative goals. I do not blame our enemies anymore then I would blame a scorpion for stinging me. If anger and stupidity were one’s nature, I would expect the trolls that infect this forum to be angry and stupid consistently, which also makes them somewhat easy to detect.

The trolls are not the problem, though. The problem is that so many of us are allowing ourselves to be taken in by those who seek only to prevent us from going to the polls in November to keep their stinking hands off our government for another term. There can be no doubt, that no matter how disappointing our current government has been in promoting the Conservative agenda, that the alternative, enabled by our staying home will be MUCH worse.

The way to deal with Republicans who have actively worked against our goals is to defeat them in Primary elections. We do not even have to defeat them all, only enough of them to send the message that we will indeed target them if they work against our agenda. It should be the goal of EVERY conservative to see that Lincoln Chaffee is defeated in November. His seat is one we can afford to lose. Were I a Rhode Island resident, I would vote for the Democrat if only to send a message to Snowe, Hagel, Collins, Graham, and especially that bastard Specter that their primaries just got a lot tougher.

We only need to get one of them, and Chaffee is the one to get. It does not really matter if a Democrat takes his seat; he will be junior and mute as long as we maintain our overall majority in the Senate.

The one thing that bothers me here like nothing else, is the simple disrespect of the President. Am I am Bush-Bot? Damn straight I am. If you want to know why, click on my handle to read Southack’s excellent list of Bush’s accomplishments in office. But if Bush had done almost nothing in office, it would be no excuse for some of the slights and disrespect he has received from some of us on this forum.

Some of the things I have read here this past week match in tone what one can find on our favorite Democrat sewer site. Someone calling himself or herself a FReeper was promoting shooting aliens at the border until they stopped coming. Is that what we are about? Obviously not, and that so-called Conservative has been eliminated from this forum.

I think it is important to remember that you and I have just as much responsibility as George Bush does in changing our culture to better reflect Conservative values. Right now, this very moment, Conservatives have the government they deserve. We put them there. They are not our mommies and daddies sent out to bring home our Conservative bread. That responsibility lies with all of us. These Republicans represent us, they don’t serve us. Our job is to pick the best individual and send him/her to Washington in the hope that their CHARACTER will see them through.

This is why it is such a nutty thing to consider punishing the Republican party, when we should be letting them know that we’ve got their back, but if they cant do the job, we will replace them with ANOTHER Republican, instead of handing the reigns of government to the party of anger, hopelessness and despair. We sometimes like to think that those people we send to Washington are different from us, that they are capable of meeting our every need and desire.

I want every one of you to think about what you would consider to be your perfect mate. Maybe some of you think you have found that person. If you are married and totally in love with another person, that is great. Now I want to ask you to think about the last time that person you love, who is PERFECT for you, completely pissed you off. Remember, this is your perfect mate, your one true love. Do they do everything you want them to do? Obey your every desire? If you answer yes, I am going to put you on my troll list.

Those people in Washington do not even cut your lawn, yet you expect perfection. Get over it.

I am issuing a challenge to every person who considers him or her to be a Conservative; why don’t we all commit to a return to HONOR? Do we honor our Conservative agenda when we comport ourselves in disgraceful ways? Is it an honorable thing to suggest that our President is a moron, as I read here a few days ago? Is it honorable to attack Laura Bush or any other person representing true Conservative values?

Some of you might argue that George Bush is not representing Conservative values to your liking. I would remind you that the first thing Bush said upon taking office, is that he was going to be President of ALL the people, not just some. You know that if you followed Bush from the beginning that he campaigned of the very immigration platform he is defending right now. Did you vote for him? Yeah?

If you have ever had a steak at a Ruth’s Chris restaurant, you know that sometimes they bring that wonderful steak to your table with a sprig of parsley on it. I hate parsley. Hate it. If I were to treat my steak the way some of us want to treat our President, I would have to throw out the steak, due to that nasty parsley that comes with it. I can deal with the parsley to get the steak, and that is what I am asking FReepers to do.

Expecting perfection from any person, group or team is a recipe for disaster. George W. Bush is my president. You can disagree with him, you can blame him for your problems if that is your desire. If you disrespect his office, his service, his risking his life to be with our troops in Iraq, his steadfast desire to bring a new tone to Washington, or if you just like the way he keeps Democrats so pissed off they lose their minds on a regular basis, I ask you to treat him and his wife with respect and cut the personal attacks. If you call him ‘Shrub’ or ‘Jorge’ consider yourself my enemy.

Right now, our real enemy are the Main Stream Media, the Democrat Party, and all who follow and support them. If you want to jump-ugly on someone, why not start with those leaky bastards and give our side a break?

Do it for Pukin.

I knew that you could.

[BlueStateDepression]

You pose a good point there jackson. Many of our elected officials obstruct using various tactics and then scream to high you know what when nothing gets done.

Maybe someday they will be held to account for that action.

[Toby06]

People have gotten banned for not being bushbots,plain & simple. They had conservative idals, and opposed the presidents policies as too liberal. That's one major reason the post volume on FR has decreased by a third in 2 months.

I know it's a private entity. I understand arguing with mods isn't bright, but to get kicked off a conservative site for espousing conservative ideals is ridiculous.

[RegulatorCountry]

"Name a "good" Dem and you can't use Zell Miller, he's gone and you can't you Joe LIEberman, because he stinks!"

I remember watching the Dim presidential nominees "debate," and I recall thinking that it was pretty darned scary when the only one making any sense whatsoever was Al Sharpton, who was only intermittently intelligible.

[nopardons]

I think I did a pretty good job, on clean-up; however, I might have to come back, yet once again and beat the ashes, a bit more. :-)

[Protagoras]

I'll see your Souter and Kennedy and raise you Roberts and Alito.

The problem for you is that my two are in the present and your two are in the future.

My two are definitely liberal and your two are perhaps conservative.

[F.J. Mitchell]

This act of Kindness by Reagan, Amnesterizing three million illegal aliens, begat us twelve million illegal aliens a mere 20 years later. Considering that twelve million is four times three million, amnesterizing this twelve million, should begat us forty eight million for the 2026 amnesty.

A little understanding of basic math, would be very beneficial in waking up the "what's the big deal about a few million more amnesterized illegal aliens?" dodos.

[GretchenM]

BTW, I'm sure Rod Parsley forgives ya.

Thanks for the great anniversary rant. Too many favorite lines to requote the ones I liked the most.

[Pukin Dog]

People have gotten banned for not being bushbots,plain & simple.

That is your opinion. I think the mods asked you to prove it, did they not?

[nopardons]

BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO! Your editorial is perfect and has long needed to be said!

[JRandomFreeper]

Y'all cant read that fast

We don't move our lips when we read silently.

Speeds up the reading about %300.

Good rant. And yes, I read it all.

I voted for Browne in both general elections. I never voted for our President. (I'm from Texas... I knew my vote wouldn't do anything but send a message)

I voted for Keyes in the primaries. To send a message.

My simple message is: "It's about guns and babies."

Babies need to stop dying in the womb. American citizens have the right to bear arms. Period. Paragraph. Turn the page.

I will not vote for anyone that thinks that killing babies is ok, nor will I vote for anyone that wants to relegate the 2nd amendment to duck hunting.

I will work with the machine when their candidate supports those two big-ticket items.

Otherwise, I support the candidate that supports my views.

All of the forgoing applies, and I have great respect for our President. I want him back as Lt. Gov. here in Texas, when he gets paroled from that big white house up north.

/johnny

[Becki]

The victory of conservatism won't come in my lifetime, but it's defeat could if we let it.

Excellent perspective, Slim. This country was built with an eye always to the future. We need to remember the ramifications down the road.

If the Constitution were written to satisfy just the needs of the day, it would never have lasted beyond that generation.

Becki

[MissAmericanPie]

"Some of you might argue that George Bush is not representing Conservative values to your liking. I would remind you that the first thing Bush said upon taking office, is that he was going to be President of ALL the people, not just some."

Perhaps if he had been honest and up front and said this before the election he would never have had his hand on George Washington's bible.

One other thing, that isn't parsley on your plate, it's globalist nation killing, I would throw out the parsley, the steak, the waitress, the cook, and bull doze the cafe rather than eat one bite.

I have no intention of staying home from the polls, but there will be a lot of blanks or write in's on my ballot. I'm not going to lose Senators or congressman from my state with good grades, but again, that may depend on their vote for this amnesty. Because once passed it's all over anyway. As for voting for a President in 2008, the Republican Party better come up with a candidate for President that is right of Attila the Hun, who prefers tents made out of hide.

The truth is the enemy we are fighting in the Republican Party are the party elites at the top. They are neither conservative, patriotic, or America firsters, they are globalists. And if they continue their hold on the party, we are not members of a conservative party, but a globalist party. You can kill the messenger, but there it is, the bald, unflinching, truth.

[nopardons]

A PETA member are you?

Actually, it is chickens, whom the PETA folks talk about as you have beef and it is chicken factories ( Tyson ), which is connected with hiring illegals.

And no, "our health" is NOT "failing"! We, all of us, are living longer, healthier lives than people 100 years ago.

Facts matter..............learn some.

[RushCrush]

I agree with that. It's just the extremes that I could do without....but you're exactly right about peeling away the reasonable from the wacky. It's been kind of a blood letting on our side to get there, it seems.

[Publius6961]

The attack on Laura Bush made me realize I have been too quiet while the trolls took over. I will no longer be silent and let those threads go on and on with their mindless, unopposed degradation of everyone in this administration.

Welcome back Miss Marple. Just to shed a little light on the subject of this thread, and to validate my usually accurate "gut feeling", were these attacks made and sustained by genuine Freepers of a few years' standing?
Or flash-in-the-pan legends in their own minds?

I suspect that we may be giving the trolls way more attention than they deserve, and their message exposure that it would not get otherwise.

I've always been of the opinion that banning the little darlings, and ignoring their message is the best tactic.

[nopardons]

Your tinfoil hat isn't working; perhaps it's time to graduate to a tinfoil full body suit!

Your conspiracy theories are just that.

[JRandomFreeper]

we are the people who eat the stuff that is factory farmed and our health is failing because of it

I'll give you a quarter if you purchase a clue with it.

I live in cattle country. There ain't no factories around here, churning out cattle. Bunch guys in gimme caps trying to break even at the next auction.

You know... those people that built, take care of, and feed most of the world.... us down here in fly-over country.

The only thing that your post inspires is that if Atlas does Shrug, you won't be bothering the internet.

/johnny

[AntiGuv]

I used Starr County because it's the most Latino county in the nation, so you pretty much have nothing but a pure Latino vote when you look at the returns. It's also a border county, and the question at hand is how new Latino citizens vote, not how just any Latino citizens vote. It's well-known that later-generation Latinos vote more GOP than do first & second generation Latinos (Cubans excepted, where the opposite is true).

Moreover, the Census figures do not translate well into voter breakdowns, because the Census also counts non-citizens who can't vote. So, the drop-off in the Latino proportion of the vote is exponential to the drop-off in the Latino percentage of the population.

Whatever the case, here's how the top 20 Latino counties in the U.S. voted in the 1996 presidential election:

1 Starr County TX: 86.94% Clinton; 10.41% Dole
2 Maverick County TX: 80.58% Clinton; 15.94% Dole
3 Webb County TX: 76.67% Clinton; 19.02% Dole
4 Brooks County TX: 84.43% Clinton; 11.84% Dole
5 Zavala County TX: 82.32% Clinton; 14.50% Dole
6 Jim Hogg County TX: 79.30% Clinton; 16.94% Dole
7 Hidalgo County TX: 66.49% Clinton; 28.84% Dole
8 Duval County TX: 84.94% Clinton; 11.65% Dole
9 Zapata County TX: 72.90% Clinton; 21.27% Dole
10 Willacy County TX: 70.02% Clinton; 24.62% Dole
11 Cameron County TX: 61.76% Clinton; 32.63% Dole
12 Presidio County TX: 70.22% Clinton; 22.32% Dole
13 Dimmit County TX: 74.96% Clinton; 20.19% Dole
14 Santa Cruz County AZ: 64.17% Clinton; 27.62% Dole
15 El Paso County TX: 62.33% Clinton; 32.11% Dole
16 Mora County NM: 68.76% Clinton; 23.43% Dole
17 Guadalupe County NM: 69.59% Clinton; 25.12% Dole
18 La Salle County TX: 69.69% Clinton; 26.10% Dole
19 Val Verde County TX: 53.05% Clinton; 41.10% Dole
20 San Miguel County NM: 72.51% Clinton; 20.09% Dole

You'll likely dispute my use of 1996 instead of 2000 or 2004, but most of these are in Texas and GWB had a strong home-state effect. If it makes you feel better to go with 2004 though be my guest..

[VRWC For Truth]

Isn't it time for another Opus from you?

[nopardons]

And what happens, after that fence is built and the tunneling becomes more rampant?

I'm not saying that I am all that much against a fence; however, that alone, is NOT the answer; neither is pulling our troops home and stationing them on the Southern border.