“I’ll post elsewhere if I feel politically evangelistic, which I seldom do. I like strategizing victory with fellow warriors and not converting the ignorant or disinterested. I do that enough already.”
I appreciate your thoughtful response, and I am grateful. As you can tell, I feel passionately that JR is taking too strong a position in his post; and yet I feel that I have ceded from the outset that his position is defensible. It all depends upon the type of site he wants.
I just think that to turn folks away who hunger for what is available here is a huge, huge mistake.
I say this from personal experience. I don’t always buy the conservative line. I sometimes post my disagreements. I get trashed by most people; and sometimes a temperate voice explains to me why I may be wrong. As often as not, I end up coming around to the temperate argument. I think FR is a great vehicle for discussion and for evangelism.
I am merely sad that JR seems to be empowering the screamers and turning away the temperate (but more impactful) voices.
I question tactics, not principles.
Me, too. And several days ago I was actually involved in a thread in which I dared defend Rudy Guiliani in a limited way and that stirred up a bunch of hard feelings from the past that I had no clue about (I've been here a year.) Jim himself responded to my post and laid down the non-Rudy law. I also learned a lot about Rudy's political views that I did *not* know about and, frankly, ended up having little problem with throwing Rudy under the bus. ;0)
So hopefully you can see that I, too, want the thought police not to jump to any conclusions and I, and many FReepers I think, still need to learn a lot about individual candidates. And as you said, that is different from living and voting according to Conservative principles which I believe I've done my whole life.
Things go in cycles and sometimes there are waves of people that - regardless of their intentions - end up stirring up so much animosity and stupid political "dust" that reasonable discussion becomes impossible. Those are the times when I support the warning and/or even zotting of those who are vociferously advocating RINO or Conservative-lite positions. But only when the noise level is so high that a Conservative Adult needs to take a firm hand...
I consider you my FRiend until proven otherwise. I do *not* believe in thought police or I will someday make an honest opinion "error" and get zotted myself. And if I can't fit in at Free Republic then I don't think I can fit in anywhere!
The only other point I feel strongly about is the need to educate almost everyone (besides FReepers) about the distinction between a Conservative and a Republican. And a RINO is actually, I think, a Conservative-In-Name-Only but I doubt anyone will stop using the term RINO, it has so much traction.
(Long post, sorry.)
Drell, I've been following your argument here, and feel that I need to finally comment on your point of view with one of my own.
When I first came to FR, it was from lower grade political forums. They were very good for someone who was just beginning to dip his toe into the world of online political discourse, and I learned a great deal while there.
Our good friend Josh Painter was a regular at one of those forums, and used to post new threads which linked back to FR, quite frequently. Naturally, I followed some of those threads here, and spent much time exploring the place.
What struck me was the sense that this place was of a caliber that was far above those places where I hung my hat at the time. The level of discourse here was of a quality that seemed to me to be akin to the discussions of political scientists. I was very impressed, but didn't dare attempt to swim with the crowd here, at that time.
I lurked here for probably two years before finally signing up two years ago. It took me that long to learn enough in these pages to speak at the same level as the forum average.
The point that I want to stress here, is that when I first came to these pages, I was a conservative-leaning Republican. It hadn't been all that long since I'd given my vote to Arnold Schwarzenneger. I wasn't nearly the staunch conservative then, that I am today. I credit FR with sharpening my edge.
Instead of being turned off by the strident conservative views, and unapologetic patriotism of the members here, I was invigorated by it. Like Ronald Reagan said many times, "conservatism works wherever it's tried." Well, it works at FR, and every other place where unadulterated conservatism is spoken. People respond to it well, because it is the political philosophy which most closely aligns with our Founding American Ideals.
If strident conservatism turns people off on this forum, then it will not work as public policy, either - but we both know that it works whenever it's tried, and that it's actually what the people want.
I don't believe that allowing non-conservative views into the mix here will help us to attract more members at all. On the contrary, I believe that people will respond better to this community if there is a consistent, and persistent conservative message being communicated here.
I know of political forums where there mission is to allow all views, but those communities don't actually stand for anything, because they allow everything. I don't want to see the same thing happen to FR. It's the most popular conservative meeting place in cyberspace for a reason, and that is because it is unabashedly conservative.