Posted on 10/25/2006 11:10:46 AM PDT by Blackirish
As the Republican base fragments and Christian conservatives consider a “fast” from politics, the polling data point to a mid-term Republican thumping. Less than two weeks from now, Republicans will begin their post-mortem soul searching. And as the corpses of their House and Senate majorities grow cold, so should Karl Rove’s 2006 campaign strategy.
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
Many just for disagreeing, and others for "getting out of hand" to a far less degree than the people they were debating (who remain unbanned, and in fact have just gotten worse and more emboldened). On certain topics, there's a very distinct and grossly uneven double-standard, or at least there has been in the past year or so. Prior to that, the mods were a lot more even-handed.
Other biased and unethical stuff has been going on as well, such as repeated removals of someone's Freeper homepage for expressing an opinion contrary to the "party line" (without explanation or notification, even after repeated questions to the management about it), a moderator removing multiple messages that debunked falsehoods written by a good friend of the moderator (on a thread where the moderator was also participating in the discussion as an advocate for the same side under a non-mod screen name), upwards of a dozen people have been banned for no obvious reason at all or explanation, "coincidentally" all from one particiular side of certain issues, an old-time Freeper with thousands of posts under his belt was suddenly banned with the one-word so-called explanation of "Troll", publicly known and announced "sneakbacks" (people who were previously banned but returning under a new screen name) are allowed to remain here as long as they are on the "proper" side of the "party line", etc. etc.
Before about a year ago, all of the moderator decisions made sense to me -- even the times I thought they jumped the gun a bit or took a bit too long to take action, I agreed that things were near that point where action needed to be taken. But within the last year or so, dozens of their actions have prompted a, "what the hell??" reaction from me, as well as from a great number of other longtime Freepers I've discussed it with. Something has very much changed. Either Jim has altered his management style, and he says that he hasn't, or one or more intolerant moderators (who perhaps took on the job a year or so ago) have been pursuing their own personal agenda whenever they think they can get away with it against Freepers with whom they disagree.
Something has gotten way out of whack recently, and it's not good for FreeRepublic, and it's not right.
A significant segment of the Religious Right has not been supporting Republicans for the proper reason - because Republicans will fight for freedom of worship against Democratic legislation that tries to curtail it. Rather, they have stayed on board in the hope that their beliefs would some day be written into law. Thus, there is anger at Bush for not doing enough to advance the social conservative agenda - they want laws passed, not speeches.
The grand coalition is fragmenting a bit.
Apparently, you retread libertrollians have absolutely no regard for private property rights. Zot!
It doesn't mean that.
But you can blame them for confusing small L libertarians from big L Libertarian party members.
Their platform has core values, and everything flows from that. The end results do tend to match the opposite sides on the surface.
For example, drug legalization. Libertarians want it because of the concepts of limited government size and power, freedom of the individual, and individual responsibility ("I was high" becomes an aggravating factor in a crime, not a way to evade responsibility). The concept exists even if a person, like me, is against the use of most recreational drugs (you're not taking my caffeine!).
The leftists just want to get high and be excused from responsibility for anything stupid they may do when high.
It's a big policy difference when you look closer, but most people don't.
The place is marginalizing itself to hell in a bucket. Every science thread now is a snake pit, and it's the people who try to answer the freak show who seem to be on thin ice with the management.
Please post a link to the phantom small "R" party website.
It's bad enough for the liberal media to pile on, but now the National Review is doing it too.
Funny how "having absolutely no regard for private property rights" doesn't count against the many known sneakback retreads who are allowed to remain, as long as they agree with the designated "party line" on certain issues. Some animals turn out to be more equal than others.
See also post #41.
Jim, you are of course free to run this forum any way you choose, but I submit that certain kinds of choices are not good for the health and reputation of the forum, and that the effects are already being felt in many ways, including how it is taking longer and longer for the quarterly Freepathons to meet their goals.
You are right- language itself has no authority. What matters are the issues. I have no intent to deceive, so I'll lay my cards on the table.
For or against illegal immigration? Against.
For or against abortion? Against.
For or against war in Iraq? For.
For or against Patriot Act? Mostly for. Not in favor of so-called sneak-and-peek warrants and a few other provisions, but very much in favor of everything else.
For or against legalization of drugs? Not in favor of the War on Drugs. I believe it should be a state matter to regulate drug use.
Same here.
Same here.
Socially, I'm 'live and let live'.
Until it directly affects others. To me, that's when it becomes political. Politically, I'm conservative, as in "conservative with my money". Careful. Like the grasshopper and the ant.
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