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.
Get over yourself.
How may WEEKLY readers do you have.
And did you or did you not write this "article" at the beginning of this thread?
And don't you DARE compare yourself to the Rhino. In your dreams.
I wondered when you would get around to that.:) Don't like the truth?
Funny I don't see a big uproar on FR about immigration or other issues of concern for the safety of this country. I don't see protests, write ins, or anything else from FR.
WarHawk42
Indeed.
But, the forum in which that challenge is presented is the question.
You can have all the free speech you want. Make your own site.
Get people hitting on it.
Good luck
The author is either a liar, or hopelessly out of his depth. I have found that one of the most frequently discussed topics on Free Republic is the cancer of RINOs, who by definition are "Republican".
"Dissidents", "JimBob", protesting too much that "Bush is not God", etc.... I don't know what this author is up to, but I don't like the smell.
You've avoided answering whether you wrote this article.
We have a right to know.
Bump that
Funny I don't see a big uproar on FR about immigration or other issues of concern for the safety of this country. I don't see protests, write ins, or anything else from FR.
And that only proves you are blind or dense.
Yes, I wrote it. Yes, I stand by it. I remember FR from when any politician embracing liberal social causes could count on a good Freeping anywhere he showed up for a public event. (I was in Freepings of Algore's 1999 Raleigh fundraiser and a later one of Jackboot Janet Reno at Duke when she spoke at a commencement there.)
FR cannot be great again just by being a chat room. To return to what made it great under the Klintons, it has to again picket any politician embracing liberal social causes - even if that's Jorge on guestworkers or amnesty for illegal aliens.
As for the comparison to the Rhinoceros Times, what in Alamance County is comparable - if Alamance Independent isn't? The print weekly Alamance News sure doesn't resemble Rhino; instead, it's largely a middle-class society paper of wedding coverage.
He's sure acting like it..
Self serving? I don't own or run FR. It isn't up to me what goes on it or where it goes. It's a simple observation. I've been around and fought the wars long enough to make it. You may disagree all you want that doesn't make your opinion any more correct or wrong than mine.:)
And that only proves you are blind or dense.
And that is just another opinion.:) Which coming from you doesn't mean a thing to me. I guess that makes us about even don't it?
WarHawk42
I've waded through the almost 400 posts (whew!) and am pleased to see that dissent and argumentation are alive and well in the conservative (read: thinking) part of the world. I've lurked over the DU and can assure you they don't debate (except with obvious conservatives). They assert without thought.
Unlike the liberals and RATs, we feel it is OK and our obligation to hold the line and do what is best. NOT because it is expedient, but because we CARE. The liberals are parrots -- we are free thinkers.
FR is a needed balm on the liberal sunburn of rights and thought.
Fight the good fight and know that you collectively are what make America great!
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