The most vocally antagonistic element toward Bush here immediately rallied in opposition to that. FR is pristine, it has no political sanction, it is to be a platform to show how pissed and ready to abandon ship we all are.
They consider Free Republic a "watchdog" entity. That means, let's all celebrate abuse, insult and injury. Call people RINOs, NeoCons, Free Traitors and Bushbots. A Fellowship of the beseiged.
Myself, and many like you nopardons, see Free Republic as a remarkably potent "change agent". That entails stopping the listing and sharing of grivences at some point, and turning the bitching to a group discussion of political strategies to attack the problem, change the dynamic and ensure our interests. It's not Freeping with a sign or costume in front of the White House, at a Hillary signing or Gore appearance. That's what the powerless do. We need to oraganize action within the political institutions where sh** happens. At the money centers of the GOP. At our County Board meetings and our Representatives town hall meetings. Then we share our outcomes with each other and replicate the successes. But, on an issue of daily contemplation like illegal immigration, here's the typical give and take should some proactive focus be intorduced:
Angry A: There's too many illegals, Bush does nothing. Solution Focused B: Why are they coming here, who is providing a benefit, what do we do? Angry A and friends C,D,E ...: It's an invasion of illegals, Bush does nothing. Angry A: Our jobs are being sent to India and China B: Why are they going there? What is the economic benefit? C: Bush is sending all our jobs to minimum wage engineers in India. Betrayed A: Bush and the GOP can't get anything Conservative passed, why vote for them? B: How do we win the Senate, remove the roadblocks, get our stuff done? C: Bush and GOP have betrayed the Conservatives.
That's the crap we get here.
A while back, there were several articles ( posted to FR and in the news and talked aboutall over T.V. and radio )about such a site and it was a Dem/lefty one. The howls went up on FR and the screaming about how we are better ( nope, FR most assuredly is NOT , but should be ! )were amazing. The reason that FR is absolutely ineffective, are those, so well stated, by you. Because of this, FR is hardly more than a chat room and as such, is powerless and becoming irrelevent to the powers that be and the media.
The stated " goals " of FR, are likewise good, but also, as the with the posting rules, misleading and inapplicable to some.
FR isn't " pristine ",is unprincipled, Balkanized, and close to being broken without the possiblity of ever being repaired.
Fascinating.
This sounds incredible... Is there any possible way to start such a group within Free Republic for interested members? If necessary, we could use an additional moderated yahoo group for just those Freepers interested in participating in pro-active strategies and actions...