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.
I get in their minds. I see what they see. It is my blessing, and my curse.
I rented one of the Cross Country station wagons a couple of months ago. It was OK. Just to slow. I'm used to un-PC gas eating tire smoking type sleds. But I did drive one of the Hummer H-2's a few weeks ago (a friend is a dealer). They don't go real fast but I liked it. It should have Tonka on the side. The original REAL Hummers are very cool. After driving one for a minute or two the male hormones start leaking out of your ears. And you have a strange desire to shoot something (not someone mind you). Which is natural for Texans anyway but the REAL Hummer elevates that desire.
Let's drill ANWAR and other places and keep these kinds of toys running! Big and fast American cars, not those little Volvo things.
And I'm glad you feel that way about FR; has it occurred to anybody else that the things we like most about FR are the things they dislike the most.
I suspect they are not happy wherever they go. God help their family and friends.
BTW, ace job on the McKinney thing......I hope she saw you!
Slow your roll. This unhyphented American wants absolutely no part nor portion of 1950s America.
If these types want 1950s America as it was in full, then I'd have to vociferously decline. I've read many times here how we are somehow "losing" our freedom. But I guess this comes as a matter of perspective. To wit, I'm freer than my grandfather was.
Ain't that something?
There shall be no mercy.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.
While I agree that life is too short to be letting people like that ruin your day,Cosby is a hypocrite. Remember Twayna Brawley,the black girl from NYC that claimed she had been raped by a gang of white men,but was in reality a 15 ear old whore her step-father was pimping-out? Cosby bought here a expensive piece of jewelry as a gift,and donated at least $30,000 in cash to the family to "help them resettle". They moved to government-subsidized housing in Virginia Beach,Va,and her pimp bought a new Lincoln Mark V coupe. Cosby was also one of the people who invested in the NASCAR race team some black driver put together. Seems like the only time Cosby had anything for white people,it was a little something he had for his white girlfriend/hooker who lived in Vegas.
My own observation is that while JimRob and the moderators may not pull a thread that is critical of Bush, the Bush-bots here pounce so fiercely that there is not much chance for the issues to be debated. There's is nothing sacred about the government and to question and challenge the government is still our birthright.
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