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've gone from being a "vast left-wing conspirator" to a "dissident". No one tells me anything.
Have some cheese.
They're annoying and they've run hundreds off, maroon.
If you've been cryogenically frozen since 1861 and are unaware this in the 21st century, it is. Sort of like the Mexican publications who think the southwestern U.S. is "occupied" Arzlan territory.
?
Myself, I always liked women, particularly the intelligent ones. I can see where an intelligent woman might be annoying to you...of course in your case that would mean any woman with an IQ that exceeds her bra size.
We have the President, House and Senate we want.
Did you support Bush in the 2000 election? If you did not, have you come to believe that he is the president you want?
469 posted on 12/01/2002 7:00 PM PST by Miss Marple
Let me answer your sophmoric question this way.
After voting for Republicans for over thirty years, I changed parties in 2002 and voted for Pat Buchanan. If the leaders of the Reform party had called a Republican candidate Hitler, I'd have dropped them and found another party. This is what I did when the Republican leaders call Pat the next Hitler in 1996.
As I watch my state go Hispanic, while the Hispanic leaders speak of separatism and demand whites get out of California so the state can become the first territory of Astlan, I find this to be the most important issue for me. Pat Buchanan was big on this issue. I voted for him.
After I voted for Pat, I helped organize four large protests in Westwood California to support Bush, so that Gore couldn't steal the election.
You like to think that the Buchanan supporters are one issue people. Okay, that's fine by me. I was born in California. I love my state and my nation. Pardon me for not wanting to see either of them disappear out from under me.
I sit here and read on this forum over and over again that California should be turned over to the liberals, hispanics and racists from the other side. Well, I happen to love my homeland. Ronald Reagan came from this state. Free Republic was developed in this state. I do not want to turn it over to anyone. What part of that do you not understand?
You ask me if Bush is now my man. The United States is still my homeland. California is still my home. The person that protects that reality is going to get my vote. If Bush can't get up off his feather duster to take action on this subject, he'll sooner see cows fly than get my vote in 2004.
I live under the Constitution of the United States. I claim it's protections. Article IV Section 4 states that the federal government will protect all states from invasion. I cannot support any candidate who doesn't recognize what is going on and try to stop it. California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas are being flooded with Mexican nationals. Conservatively 1.8 million of them are crossing the border into the US every year. If we took the most radical estimations of illegal immigration, upwards of double to quadruple that amount are coming in. To put these numbers into perspective, the invasion at Normandy involved 350,000 allied troops. Our first large campaign in the Pacific involved 250,000 troops. Anywhere from three to ten times as many people "each year" are flooding across our borders as were involved in those invasions.
One year after 09/11, we have not seen Bush tighten up our borders enough to stop 105 persons on a terrorist watch list from entering our nation. How can I state that he has won me over? How can I say he is now the President I want?
I will state I prefer him over Gore, but then Gore is about as unacceptable as they come. However, with regard to the border, I'll bet he'd have handled things the exact same way as Bush.
I spent my whole life voting for folks based on the assumption that they would do what was best for our nation. Now I watch as the highest elected officials in our nation damn my state into oblivion. I may not be voting for the winners in the future. I can tell you one thing, I won't be voting for people who are willing stand on the sidelines as our nation desintigrates as states leave the union one by one. If this is truly what they are willing to do, and I'm not totally convinced Bush is yet, I will gladly damn them to hell.
Oh sure. I'll bet its 70 degrees where you are.
They do sound a bit whipped don't they?
If you grab a pitchfork and join the Brigades, I've found they generally leave you alone, Fred. And they might even say a kind word to you now and then if you're diligent about taking a bath on Saturday nights.
I also love California. Immigration, liberalism, crime.... these are huge issues here for us. Being told that we should fall off into the ocean with the next earthquake isn't helpful either. It sometimes feels like taking a "last stand", just being here.
My "seniority" has nothing to do with it. I only stated I had been on the lines protesting Clinton to let you know I was talking from experience. Nothing more.
Clinton is not in power and isn't the one allowing our borders to remain open for any and all to walk across. The ones who committed the horrendous acts of 9/11 were in this country, more still are and nothing is preventing more from coming in. Will it take another 9/11 to wake people up? Are you as concerned about that and other issues as you are protesting Clinton?
Those are the questions.
WarHawk42
ROTFL!
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