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.
Nite all.
There are just some places in this world that aren't intended for the presence of men.
I have no problem with that.
No, Fred. Tell us what you mean. (If you know.)
Both sides here are glad Bush is President, glad the House and the Senater are also Republican
Not so fast there...... :-)
474 posted on 12/01/2002 7:03 PM PST by Howlin
During the 2002 elections I was pleased to see things turn out the way they did. Now the Republicans are going to have to put up or shut up.
Daschle disgusted me, but now we have the spineless Trent Lott as majority leader. With the Senate margin of majority so small, it's going to take a guy who can play major league hardball to push Bush's agenda through. Daschle will fight him every step of the way. I do not think Lott is that man, and I do not want to see Lott used as the reason we can't get our agenda through for the next two years. If Lott becomes an issue, he should step down in six months. We only have two years.
We may lose this majority status in one or both bodies of Congress, or even the White House in 2004. We have two years to push our agenda. It may be two, four or fifty years before we have this status again.
The Democrats would not flinch. They would push for everything they could. Well, now it's our turn. Conservatism will make major inroads in all things political, or it will make a few inroads and leave much undone. If it leaves much undone, conservatism will have shamed itself forever.
There is one thing you're going to have to come to grips with. I want conservative action taken. I don't have to be a Republican to be a complete supporter of Conservative ideals. I know this is a tough concept for many here.
You saw it here first - "band" will become part of the FR Lexicon, along with "moose" and "cheese".
Let me give you an idea what happens - in cases where the kid at least looks like both parents, so at least he isn't not accepted by classmates of any race.
My former rabbi explained it this way. Jewish/Christian intermarriages invariably end up in hassles over how the kids should be raised. If the kid is raised in both religions, he ends up confused. If he is raised in neither religion, he ends up with no religious values as he goes through adolescence. The divorces actually produce files over 2" thick (last I saw one) over who gets kids for which holidays this year.
Think such upbringing creates well-adjusted teenagers and young adults?
Are you the result of a bi-racial union of did you become unhinged for other reasons?
I'm saying that there are actually people on this site who HATE it because Bush won.
Oh the irony of that statement.
All I wanted to know was if I correctly remembered that you voted for Buchanan. You did.
I also wanted to know that IF you voted for Buchanan, you had changed your mind about the President. Wading through your answer, I see that apparently you are not satisfied with him.
So, what is it with this WE stuff? You are not a Bush supporter, never were, and the phrasing of that statement is misleading.
I really don't care what your motivation was for dumping the Republicans (although I would point out to you that President Bush was the ONLY Republican who asked Pat to stay in the party rather than jumping, and he was not party to the odious Hitler comments of that weasel Roger Stone), but I do care that you not lead people to think that you are a Bush supporter "holding his feet to the fire." To leave that impression is a bit dicey, don't you think?
So because you helped to elect Bush with your vote, you shouldn't publicly criticize him? For God's sake, what do you do between elections, sit in a box and cheer? I listened to the man the first year thinking he had to get in and get used to the office. I listened the second year during 9/11 and expected retaliation for what happened. But now we're entering his third year and the government hasn't gotten smaller, it's gotten exponentially BIGGER. Somebody better start criticizing some of these politicians in office, because there's hardly five of the whole lot that have done anything of the sort they got elected to do
I don't remember a Republican during the Reagan years calling for prescription drug care plans (well there was one..), I don't remember a Republican calling for more government control and sweeping government powers to 'protect' us during the middle of the Cold War(sorry there was one..but nobody liked her very much then). Good grief, if a Democrat tried half of what Bush and some of the Republican candidates' platforms this year are proposing, I seriously believe there would be some here on FR calling for outright revolution with the other half already having the trucks fired up for a march on Washington DC. I've said this before, but I voted for him, I voted straight Republican that year. Didn't this year because of certain circumstances here in my state, but I usually do. So of all politicians, I have a right to criticize officials I helped put into office with my vote most importantly. How else do you get them to change their stance if you don't call them, don't write them, or share with others your concerns about your elected officials? Put a note in a bottle and hope the trade winds get it to Washington? But most importantly, no one will publically know?
Sheesh!!! Bush is not God, he makes mistakes just like the rest of us. He is a politician, so believe it or not in this day and age, he's going to lie to get certain blocs to vote for him. Now he's dropped the conservative wing of the party like a hot potato (especially us 'religious nuts' if Powell's statements hold water which I have no reason to doubt)
I don't necessarily agree with the aspects of this article and I think attacks on people's physical conditions are completely out of line. And I personally have not had any run-ins with censorship so I have no argument there. But your argument makes no sense whatsoever
Hey, your being series, huh?
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