Pioneer Behind Grass-Roots Conservative Web Site Gets Ready to Do Battle Again (Free Republic)

AP via St. Louis Today ^ | Tuesday, November 18, 2008 | John Ellis

[kristinn]

A Democrat is poised to take the reins of power in Washington, D.C., and Fresno resident Jim Robinson is feeling a sense of deja vu.

It was President Bill Clinton's 1992 election that sparked Robinson's political activism, driving him to create a Web site that made him a grass-roots leader among conservatives before Clinton's term was over.

This year, as Barack Obama prepares to sweep into office on another tide of Democratic votes, Robinson and denizens of that Web site, freerepublic.com, are preparing to do battle again.

"We'll double and redouble our efforts to fight for what is right," Robinson says. "We've got people just spitting nails."

Free Republic, founded by Robinson in September 1996, doesn't attract much attention from the national press and is not well-known among political experts. Many of its postings have a decidedly fringe feel.

But long before Red State, Daily Kos and Little Green Footballs arrived on the Internet political scene, Free Republic was building an audience -- and becoming a formidable political force among conservatives and libertarians that is admired even by some who disagree with its political philosophy.

In a study last month by the Internet ratings firm comScore, Free Republic ranked fifth among political blogs, just behind heavyweights The Huffington Post, Politico, Drudge Report and RealClearPolitics.

[floriduh voter]

8mmmauser tagged them Puffington Host and somebody in the media borrowed it. Same w/Obamanation (that was 8mmauser’s).

[unspun]

Don’t tell anybody, but I watch Battlestar Gallacitica on the SciFi channel. A company that big can’t help but have some quality in it, in spots.

[floriduh voter]

A little sci-fi’s good. It’s GE/NBC promoting green tek for their bottom line that is nauseating, not the sci-fi channel. msnbc’s pravda imo including Greenspan’s wife.

[unspun]

They are evil, alright.

[floriduh voter]

They are blatant propagandists. Joe Scarborough must be nuts to be there as well as Pat Buchanan.

[Xenophon450]

"Now the liberals seem to not have a clue about history they prefer art and crafts instead."

LOL Then I am certain there are no repressed liberal tendencies residing within me, I can barely draw a stick man not to mention my clay figurines for Art class... hideous things, of course nowadays that is considered a modern art masterpiece.

I believe I see what you are saying. Liberal(Socialist) ideology does not favor pragmatic, realistic approaches, and will always fail because they cannot grasp human nature. If History can truly teach one about anything it is that Humans will always be the same today as they were Thousands of years ago. No amount of Indoctrination can change them into socialist slaves, instead we need a system which can best utilize Humanity's basic tendencies to societal advantage.

At least to me, Liberals seem as though they will be the first to change Human nature at its very core, to brainwash them to be virtuous, honest and hard working socialists. It has never worked unless the person in question wills the change and not merely a nod of approval.

I guess I wouldn't want to spoil their Utopian fantasies of a bloodless Soviet Union and kindly Uncle Joe, that's akin to telling them there is no Santa Claus.

Thank you for the reply, always good to talk to a sane conservative individual after being around tingly legged liberals all day.

[potlatch]

Wow, thanks for pinging Meek!

{Many of its postings have a decidedly fringe feel.}

HEH, We are the “Surrey With The Fringe On Top” that keeps on going like “The Little Train That Could”. Justa rolling along.

I have a picture of that but won't post it, lol.

[SunkenCiv]

Heh...

[Lady GOP]

Not much to see here...just a bunch of bible clinging gun toters....move on ~~

[glock rocks]

Oh... ‘news’ on Google. My bad.

[modest proposal]

hahaha.

I don’t think most of what people write here is outlandish enough to be called fringe.

I guess a “NOOOOOOOOO!” reaction to some AQ leader saying Obama is a victory for AQ is fringe these days.

[sickoflibs]

I found you 1998.

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[GOPJ]

I love how the article describes posts here as “fringe” but Democratic Underground as “left leaning”.

You're right.

Reminds me of the early years when a search result would come up with lots of "right wing" references, but when the term "left wing" was used it only referred to the "left" wing on an airplane.

[manc]

you put it better than me there
thanks

must be weird to live in la la land IMHO,
I mean they ignore history and want to keep repeating past mistakes, Chamberlain comes to mind right away.
They shout tolerance and yet they do not tolerate another view point
they shout diversity and yet I never see them living in those areas.
They say so and so is racist and yet they ignore the more racist elements in our society,
They shout bigotry and yet they show bigotry to those who are not as well off or do not have the same yuppie lifestyle as they.
They want all inclisive society and yet they do not want to bring in those who another view point to theirs.

BTW
I too draw stick men , LOL

[DivaDelMar]

I resemble that remark......and I’m darn proud of it.

I’d rather be right than popular.

[Kadanne]

Amen to that!

[Xenophon450]

Well hopefully those mental incompetents will not see it fit to close down FR. Although as you have stated, their intolerance knows no bounds.

Well I must be off, goodnight sir, it is beginning to become more commonplace that two people can converse on FR in a well thought and civil manner. Although I guess that's because election season is behind us. lol

[Mr. Silverback]

WooHoo!

[Mr. Silverback]

University of California at Santa Cruz psychology professor Anthony Pratkanis sees similarities in Free Republic and Daily Kos, though they come from different ends of the political spectrum. "Both put out the spin that their supporters want to hear; both either exaggerate facts or just plain make them up," he said.

And Free Republic played a key role in driving an anonymous chain e-mail that falsely claimed Obama had concealed ties to radical Islam, according to Danielle Allen, a professor of social science at the Princeton, N.J.-based Institute for Advanced Study who studied the rumor.

Yeah? Prove it, jerks.