Posted on 12/01/2002 1:23:55 PM PST by BraveMan
What a long way Free Republic has come! From its birth in 1996 as what began as just a place where hardcore conservatives to post the latest news and analyze it, Free Republic two years later had a significant role in the neutralization of the Clintons - as it became the organizing point for enormous protests ridiculing Bill Clinton over Monicagate everywhere he went in the U.S. early in Monicagate throughout 1998. Some top liberals even blame Freepers for Al Gore's defeat.
Very early in Monicagate, Freepers brought Free Republic out of just being a sort of giant cybercafe for dissidents to talk things over - and made it into a very-effective organizing point for giant protests against liberals and liberalism, like the one in Houston at a Clinton fundraiser that not only like most greeted Clinton with hundreds of dissidents ridiculing him for his adultery and perjury, but even found a fire engine to hang a giant sign on that read "Bill Clinton Is A Four-Alarm Fraud." Freepers in Florida hung a giant sign on a cabin cruiser to float in a strategic position just offshore a fundraiser of his there. And here in North Carolina, about 30 Freepers picketed an Al Gore fundraiser in Raleigh's Volvo district in May 1999 - some dressed as Buddhist monks. The Clintons/Gore Regime just couldn't escape the conservatives from hell.
Other liberals were no luckier. The "Rosiecott" that ended Corporate America's willingness to indulge leftist politics was in large part organized on Free Republic. Freeper-organized boycotts were to Rosie O'Donnell's career what a later gay boycott was to advice-talk radio host Dr. Laura's.
But - just six years after its founding, just four years after the height of its power - Free Republic today is largely a total waste of time. As a reader commented, it isn't accomplishing anything anymore - with the giant protests against liberals formerly organized on it by Freepers over; as he agreed last week, the sole positive things it now does are to provide rapid dissemination of news, even from small-town dailies, to dissidents everywhere - and to guide dissidents to the various dissident newspapers that really are hardcore.
Some social issues are almost unmentionable on Free Republic today. More than one Freeper has griped that posted articles on immigration often just disappear. Other Freepers have been just blacklisted from Free Republic - for offending the sensibilities of founder Jim Robinson or the small clique under him that largely actually runs Free Republic now.
Today, Free Republic is every bit as handicapped as founder Jim Robinson - but by another problem. To all too many Freepers now, anyone calling themselves a Republican is God's brother - and cannot be criticized, no matter how Clintonesque their views on many social issues may be. And to all too many Freepers now, Pres. Bush really is God - uncriticizable, no matter what.
To make Free Republic great again, a number of things have to happen. First, all involved - from ordinary Freepers to "JimBob" himself - have to accept that having an (R) next to one's name doesn't make a politician beyond criticism. Second, all involved must also accept that Pres. Bush isn't God. And then, all Freepers must commit to doing again what made Free Republic great - hounding any politician at odds with Red Nation's masses on social issues; if that means picketing Pres. Bush everywhere he goes if he hints at amnesty for illegal aliens or tacit support of racial quotas, that's what it takes.
Free Republic didn't become great by being a Chinese-style "Democracy Wall" for dissidents to post articles from "mainstream" newspapers to and then discuss them. It can only became great again the same way it originally got great.
Thankfully, you're right on the money. But there are a few who hint at this type of thing.
There shall be no mercy.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.
I love it! Where's StoneColdGOP when you need him the most!
Have you ever noticed how these guys say that FR puts the kibosh on "controversial" topics and discussions, bemoaning a supposed political correctness. Yet these same clowns use code words and vagarities like "controversial subjects" instead of saying exactly what they are talking about.
My God, if they believe in something, they should come right out and say it, instead of bitching about someone else not allowing them to say it using their site instead.
Yeah, well I suppose that's one reason I stomp all over that garbage as hard as I can.
I don't want anything to do with it.
Dear (too long screen name):
I will be looking forward to the site that you create and get support for.
Please remember to ping me when it is up and running.
That mutant statement has to be one of the dumbest things I've read all year. Perhaps FR.com should have its own version of the Darwin award and call it the AssClown award.
Nothing racist whatsoever about it. It applies to any immigrant/potential immigrant of any race. And I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment--if you are in the United States, and not a tourist, then, by damn, you should speak the language of the country, which, for the US, happens to be AMERICAN ENGLISH.
The only group who seems to think differently are the "La Raza" guys--who by the very name they chose, are the REAL racists. All the other non-English-speaking immigrants have learned the native languge and are, by and large, succeeding.
Notice the absence of a question mark after the headline.
Lucianne reminds me of a bunch of grannies talking to their pet tweetie birds.
Really hardcore like Almanance, I presume? What a whiner.
AssClown? Oh, yes. But, how to differentiate from the well known Clymer category?
By declaring that people who choose to do otherwise will produce "mutants"?
If you don't know blatant racism when you see it, you are one sick person.
There shall be no mercy.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.
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