Jim, I am honestly not following what is going on here on FR over the last couple of days.
I said that the people are the ones voting for the GOP nominee and you reply that I am pushing GOP-e lies and that it is highly offensive.
What the heck?
We have the nominating process we have and (of course) it is imperfect and also (of course) the well-connected GOP players, call them "the GOP elite", have an outsized influence on the rules and the results. This is true every cycle no more or less than this year.
This cycle we had the candidates we had, and one after another they have all fallen by the wayside until now it looks like, barring a miracle, we have Romney as GOP nominee. There are six or seven people that officially declared as GOP candidates who I would choose over Romney but the simple fact is other voters in the various GOP primaries made a different choice than I would have.
I worked for Cain and then Newt but both lost. Things weren't entirely fair and above-board but the truth is both men were deeply flawed as candidates. Cain dropped out on his own accord and Newt has come in third or fourth again and again. Many more voters chose Romney than chose Newt.
Where are the "GOP-e lies" in any of this?
As a friend I am honor bound to tell you that it seems to me like you are letting your strong antipathy for Romney (which I have not refuted in any way; everything you fault him for I fault him for as well) cause you to say things that just don't make sense to some others who are genuine conservatives and have been here for a long time.
Romney vs. Obama is a terrible choice to have before us, and it is critical to ask ourselves how we got here and how we might do things better in the future. But you're saying that anyone who thinks it possible that some decent conservatives voted for Romney in the primaries, or that some decent conservatives might vote for Romney in November, is a liar. You are thereby creating a narrow and esoteric definition of "FReeper in good standing" that does not include many people who have been here for a long time, including me.
People have been trying to tell you this while avoiding the zot for days now, and it seems the situation is getting worse not better. Now might be a good time for you to take a deep breath and ask yourself what you want your amazing creation, FreeRepublic, to look like in January 2013 when we inaugurate our next President who will almost certainly be either Romney or Obama.
Regretfully, I have to say you may have to find a new home on the net. I am not going to be like the blacks who are kept on a government plantation by the democrats but continue voting for them election after election even though it’s never in their best interest. Socialism is the enemy of freedom. I am a pro-life, pro-liberty conservative and I absolutely will never vote for or support the GOP-e anointed, endorsed, backed, funded, foisted and delivered abortionist/homosexualist/socialist Romney whose record is 100% opposite of my values and the founding principles of this great nation, even if he does become the “R” nominee. No thank you. I will not vote for evil liars.
What FR ought to look like in January is a site that will oppose any liberal policies coming from the government. Isn’t that what it already looks like? Why would it change?
You need to understand that conservatism does not equal GOP by default and GOP does not equal conservatism by default. Like Sean Hannity says, he’s a registered conservative, not a registered Republican.
If Romney is elected, sites and forums standing up for true conservatism rather than “team playing” GOP cheerleading will probably become even rarer, making FR an all-the-more desirable and valuable destination.
You stated the facts so what is your question? Maybe it really was just a mistake that they held up announcing the wrong winner in Iowa. I could have told you years ago who the nominee would be, in fact I did tell you that we would have no voice in the process, at least not a voice that means anything.
The primary is rigged to prevent just the kind of rebellion you are now witnessing, we nearly undid them. They may have shut us down, but they will not get our vote period.