Posted on 06/13/2003 1:55:59 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
Is Free Republic too "Republican?" I've been receiving a lot of complaints lately that FR is not really conservative, it's Republican. Is that a bad thing?
When I started FR (see the wayback machine) I don't think I even used the labels conservative or Republican. But, even though I was a registered Democrat at the time (I registered when I was very young), I was definitely anti-Democrat. And definitely anti-big government, anti-government corruption, anti-government abuse, anti-liberalism, etc. And I still am.
As FR became more and more popular, people started referring to it as a "conservative" web site and so eventually I posted the label to the front page. If it no longer applies, big deal. What's in a label? I'll change it to "Republican" if demand warrants.
I'm still anti-big government, anti-government corruption, anti-Democrat and anti-liberalism. I just happen to believe that in the current political environment we stand a better chance of defeating the left (liberalism/socialism/marxism, etc) by using the Republican Party to defeat the Democrats. The organization is there. The platform is there. The winning candidates are there. The dollars to run winning campaigns are there. The momentum is there. And the vast majority of the conservative voters are there.
Makes perfect sense to me. I want to defeat the left, and I want to do it as quickly as possible. I'll go with the organization that can get the job done.
My current goal is to defeat liberalism by defeating the Democrat Party. If that labels me a Republican, then so be it. If the vast majority of the FReepers want it so, then Free Republic will officially become the newest "Republican wing" of the Republican Party.
Long live Republicanism. Long live the Republic!'
What say you, FReepers?
When I finally registered, after a year and a half of lurking, my first thread called for using the power of "party". That was when you were still very concerned about the background of a Texas Governor talking of running in the primaries.
You ask:
Is Free Republic too "Republican?" I've been receiving a lot of complaints lately that FR is not really conservative, it's Republican. Is that a bad thing?
As one who always advocates using to power of party organization, I would still answer that in many ways it is too Republican in climate. A swift running privateer needs a light hand at the tiller, and in the last year two years, first with defeat of the Dems in sight, and then support of the Nation during a time of threat, that old Navy man in you has come out. The hand on the tiller has been firm, but almost too firm.
If ideology is the mistaken relience on a simplistic, simple, saving formula, and true conservatives adhere to First Principles instead, we will sail the fastest with that simple adherence.
There has been a lack of relience on the weight of opinion of the posters on the site to self-correct those taking the side paths. We know the Captain wants a certain outcome at primary time and at election time, but if the ship is truely sailing for Restoration of the Constitutional Republic, we hope he flies the banner of his candidate on the wheel house alone, and not on the side of the whole ship.
Jim, what makes your site great is not what it can accomplish in elections, primaries, and supporting a sitting President.
Instead, it is COURSE CORRECTION, to keep the nautical analogy afloat. If we want Constitutional virtues, honest government and conservative First Principles to prevail in government there are a lot of times when the Republican party I have actively supported for many years is sorely lacking. In the long view of your original course, we will do the most good as the privateer you originally chartered.
As that Privateer, you need some of the wilder Pirates. Yes, and even some that have walked the plank.
Sail on, great Captain.
To the extent that Republican supporters are allowed to take insulting excesses with Republican detractors here on FR, even if in violation of FR's rules, and even when a fair-handed review of the topic in question would find the Republicans lacking, yes, FreeRepublic is too Republican.
Also, if I started a website that said it was created to prevent the killing of tree frogs, and spent the first couple of years decrying all who killed tree frogs, that would make sense.
But, if I then over the years began supporting companies and people who killed fewer tree frogs than others, I would have turned my back on my original mission statement. I would be being unfaithful to the principles which I once held dear.
Moreover, to claim to be against Government corruption and largesse, and to then back one half of the most corrupt, pork-strewn bunch of anti-Constitutional criminals in this nation's history, and to do so under the banner (guise?) of "conservatism..."?
That's either blatant hypocrisy, profound ignorance, or both.
That the Republicans appear, in this fungal stage of America's conservative decay, to be more "conservative" than the Democrats is just a symptom of the disease that is killing this country, and neither I, nor you, nor FreeRepublic, is doing anythig to stop it.
;-/
Mr. Robinson seems to be seeing what it feels like to be a politician, please all the people all of the time or pick a small group, and watch the name calling begin. He should run for office. The question is what party affliation, as only one of the two party system has a chance in the game so he would have to be a republican proudly of nowadays-but don't cut-off the religious/social right wing or you will loose.
Seriously Mr. Robinson should run in 08 against Hitlery!This would be the only way the Republican name would be first and foremost.If there are no political aspirations for Mr. Robinson, let the REPUBLIC, CONSERVATIVE site carry on to continue exposing the DemocRATS.If someone is so against Bush or any republican, or conservative ideals- they can go make their own party affiliation site.
But turning this into a Bush Republican site, and nixxing even "the word" conservatisim, would elect someone like Hillary. The "engine" is diversive.
Sometimes voting for RINOs yields the same result. Remember Jim Jeffords?
But some content has seemed to be dominated by Neocon internationism. Some of those singing the change-the-world "Internationale" are now posing as Republicans. Clinton's Kosovo bombing (unopposed by 'Republicans') was a clarifying moment.
Currently there is a fault line developing around Bush's Road Map for peace. There are some who threaten to abandon Bush if we veers the ship of state away from their war agenda. In other words people posing as Republicans will ride the Bush horse as long as he responds to their bit.
As a Republican I agree. Uniting under conservativism is much more encompassing and effective, imo. And why would FR want to give anyone more reason to be accused of being a GOP tool?
Dittos. CB^)
Exactly, but the day could soon come (some people say it's already here, but I don't)...
Damn straight. They have to earn my vote.
Let's see....you believe that the GOP is the best alternative at present. A Republican candidate that the people select through the primary/caucus process to run against a Democrat so that the GOP can get and/or keep control of Congress, approve judges, cut taxes, etc.......where does the "earn" come in?
On is from the National Republican Congressional Committee naming me "2002 Republican of the Year" representing Massachusetts...
...and the other is the National Republican Congressional Committee's award, signed by Majority Leader Tom DeLay, naming me as Honorary Co-Chairman of President Bush's Business Advisory Council.
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