Posted on 10/23/2007 9:41:03 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
The ubiquitous and web-savvy supporters of Ron Paul now have one less forum in which to vent their rage.
The influential conservative blog Redstate.com placed a ban last night on all Paul commentary from readers who are recent arrivals to the blog.
Paul's followers are angry that the Libertarian congressman can’t seem to get traction in national polls as he bids for the Republican presidential nomination.
Paul — a representative from Texas who ran for president in 1988 on the Libertarian Party ticket — remains mired in the low single digits.
The post on Redstate, “Attention, Ron Paul Supporters (Life is *REALLY* Not Fair),” begins, “Effective immediately, new users may *not* shill for Ron Paul in any way shape, form or fashion. Not in comments, not in diaries, nada. If your account is less than 6 months old, you can talk about something else, you can participate in the other threads and be your zany libertarian self all you want, but you cannot pimp Ron Paul. Those with accounts more than six months old may proceed as normal.”
Redstate founder Erick Erickson said he woke up this morning bombed with hundreds of e-mails, “the overwhelming majority very angry.” His own readers, though, loved the ban.
“It is the most recommended user diary in Redstate history,” he said.
Paul's energetic online supporters managed to help him raise more than $5 million in the third quarter of this year, roughly tying Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
They’ve also ticked off an awful lot of people, including, apparently, Leon H. Wolf at Redstate, who calls them “annoying, time-consuming, and bandwidth-wasting.”
Wolf writes he is tired of “responding to the same idiotic arguments from a bunch of liberals pretending to be Republicans.”
Erickson said that he and the regular Redstate readers had just had enough.
“They’re terribly annoying and they don’t add to the debate. If people are adding to the debate we don’t have a problem with them coming here. But they’re just coming to promote Ron Paul. They talk over everyone. They yell at everyone,” he said.
Paul spokesman Jesse Benton said he questioned "the judgment of the decision," but added: "They are a private entity and they are certainly within their rights to do as they see fit.
"I'm sure there are a few Ron Paul supporters who get a little shrill," Benton said . "All we can control is what comes from our campaign."
The ban against Paul-supporting is not categorical, Erickson and Wolf made clear.
“Hey, we’re sure *some* of Ron Paul’s supporters really are Republicans. They can post at any one of a zillion Ron Paul online forums. Those who have *earned* our respect by contributing usefully for a substantial period of time will be listened to with appropriate respect. Those who have not will have to *earn* that respect by contributing usefully in the other threads ... and not mentioning Ron Paul. Given a month of solid contributing, send one of us an email and we’ll consider lifting the restriction on your account,” Wolf writes.
Wolf then shut down the comment thread for the post to avoid the deluge of irritation that was headed his way.
Erickson forwarded to Politico a number of the e-mails as examples of that irritation. “You are banning FREE SPEECH. Perhaps next you can forbid discussion of Democratic candidate names. It is a sad day for America when hypocrites who think they are right try to shovel their propaganda onto the rest of us. What goes around comes around,” wrote one reader with an e-mail exchange at socialheart.com.
Erickson finds this sort of complaint hypocritical itself. “So much for their respect for private property,” he said.
RedState.Org reminds of John McCain - left wing and willing to sell out their principles for 30 seconds of puff from Chris Mathews.
What a bunch of losers...
I wish, I wish, I wish FR would do the same.
Its called spamming and I don’t blame them. Bunch of new signups just to spam the site.
I read on Redstate. I’ve seen the Paulestinian newbie spammers firsthand. I consider the move less than ideal but justified.
Ron Paul is a nut case and so are his followers. I don’t blame anyone from not wanting them at their blog.
http://www.redstate.com/story/2005/10/12/125850/42
OMG how offensive and hateful! Let’s take Rush off the air too!
Paul, like Pat Buchanan, is brilliant in certain respects but, like Buchanan, he loses traction with his isolationist/nationalistic recommendations.
Ron’s the republican for wily clowns who are ashamed to hold conservative views among liberals. You can say that you like the guy without any stigma, precisely because nobody takes him seriously.
Similar to guilt-riddled white people who cower before any black demagogue. In trying to be “tolerant”, they become the biggest racists of all.
Were it my forum, I’d keep the spam from people like this down, too. Most forums (including this one) have no-spam policies for a reason. The fact that hese people are Ron Paul supporters is notwithstanding, in my book.
Ron Paul needs to educate his followers about just whom the Constitution puts restrictions on.
If your account is less than 6 months old, you amy not “shill for” Ron Paul — but you can attack him all you want.
IDIOT SAVANT
n., pl. idiot savants.
An intellectually disabled person who exhibits extraordinary ability in a highly specialized area, such as mathematics or music (or politics)
[French : idiot, idiot + savant, learned.]
Oh-baby-I-know-exactly-how-he-feels PING! ;)
This kind of statement makes me wonder about the Republican Party sometimes.
Personally.. there is not a single Candidate out there that is not a nut case. But the Hatred towards Ron Paul to me almost borders on pathological.
What is it about him that scares the “conservatives”?
You might not agree with him. But to call his supporters Nuts only disenfranchise people. I like allot of what the man says. To bad there is so much intolerance towards him.
But like I said before.. Free Republic use to be a board of discussion..
From what I read, Red State is just banning people with accounts less than 6 mo. old from posting RP stuff, but longer term members may proceed as usual. Hardly a case of stifling free speech, but a case for stopping the spamming for which some of RPs supporters are known.
Good for RedState.
MODERATOR: Are you suggesting we invited the 9/11 attacks, sir?
RON PAUL: I'm suggesting that we listen to the people who attacked us, and the reason they did it and they are delighted that we're over there, because Osama bin Laden has said "I am glad you're over on our sand, because we can target you so much easier." They have already now since that time have killed 34 hundred of our men, and I don't think it was necessary.
Ya, and it use to be a place where our internal polls didn't get spammed by Ron Paul supporters.
“Hey, we’re sure *some* of Ron Paul’s supporters really are Republicans. They can post at any one of a zillion Ron Paul online forums. Those who have *earned* our respect by contributing usefully for a substantial period of time will be listened to with appropriate respect. Those who have not will have to *earn* that respect by contributing usefully in the other threads ... and not mentioning Ron Paul. Given a month of solid contributing, send one of us an email and we’ll consider lifting the restriction on your account,” Wolf writes.
This isn't an unreasonable request btw. If your sole purpose is to join their site to spam for Ron Paul and show NO interest otherwise attacking longterm members if they deign to disagree that Ron Paul's the new messiah then you are a TROLL and deserve what you get.
"I'm sure there are a few Ron Paul supporters who get a little shrill," Benton said Oh, and Erick? Good work. I'm still not certain how many of these people can claim to be actual Republicans/Conservatives/Libertarians but I'm damn sure more then just a few come from the Left.
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