I believe Free Republic is the most important conservative web site and should hardly be denigrated as a "chat" board. The physical landscape of free Republic was brilliantly conceived to force the posters to deal with real issues because they're confronted with real articles. Although vanity posts are allowed, they are infrequent and sometimes quite on point, and, in any case, the physical layout works toward the refinement of thought and opinion on any subject posted. I mean to say, that the author of an article or the author of a post will soon be braced if he crosses the barriers into misstatement, ill logic, or impropriety and they will all be there in context for everyone to see.
I also believe that free Republic carries great influence and that that influence is growing. It is clear that media personalities like Rush Limbaugh who have access to millions of listeners use Free Republic as a source and thus amplify our influence exponentially. I am quite sure that staff members of all parties and candidates on both sides of the aisle are assigned to monitor this web site. We know for sure that we are monitored by members of the mainstream media.
So we are influencing opinion and that is a very important contribution to conservatism.
Finally, I believe individual posters over time to have an influence on our thinking. I reflect on the opposition I used to generate to my posts criticizing the Bush administration on immigration in which I was called a bigot and so forth but which now have become the conventional wisdom on Free Republic. I've also seen a similar transition with regard to views about the war in Iraq.
Yes, we all owe a duty to fight the ground war but that does not mean that we should disparage the air war.
