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.
So may most all Council of Conservative Citizens members - but that doesn't keep CofCC members who agree with him on guns and abortion from picketing his pet GOP congresscritters who agree with him on "free trade" and immigration in big protests down here!
Politicians' feet - even GOP ones' - need to be kept to the fire to keep them on our team. Remember how Bush Daddy sold out on social issues?
I give you credit for brass. You write a sophomoric rant that has been conclusively proven to be a pack of lies and yet you show your face in spite of it.
When you can show that is the case then you may have a point. The real problem seems to be that "censorship" is now being defined as any challenge to the "dissenter's "wisdom".
AHA! We got your number now!
Are you serious? Damn It must be true.
All I suggested was that the actual 'charges' are rarely discussed, only the character of the person making the charges. Isn't that what the clinton defenders did? - attack the accuser and ignore the issue? If an accusation is accurate, does it matter who brings the charge?
Prophetic!
The prophets were true!
Nice try. What "charges" are you talking about? I have seen post after post making "charges" that are so full of holes it would take a week to close them. I have seen "charges" so false that it is good that they are made against a public figure or Jim would be sued out of business. Some call Bush supporters "Bush-Bots" yet never look in the mirror and ask themselves if they take their guy to task be it Keyes, Buchanan, Phillips, Browne or any of the public faces of the various factions on FR. You asked MM if she was capable of changing her mind with the clear implication that she was a "bot" and could not. I have yet to see any mind "changed" on this site from the libertarians, paleo-conservatives or the Tancredo for President crowd. So get off the high-horse and stop accusing those that support the GOP and Bush being sheep when there are more than one flock of sheep grazing in this meadow.
Good, we agree so far.
"But, the forum in which that challenge is presented is the question."
Exactly right. The author of this piece is pointing out *his* belief that the forum has changed. I agree that it has changed and it is Jim's right to change it as he sees fit. I think that the posters have changed more than the Jim, although Jim has allowed, or at least not discouraged that change.
"You can have all the free speech you want. Make your own site. Get people hitting on it. Good luck"
If I didn't believe that this is still one of the best sites, with so many good people on it, I wouldn't be here. But to deny that there has been a change would be disingenuous at best.
"Will you?"
About my liberty? Never. I complained when the Dems were in charge and did things to jeopardize my liberty and I hold pubbies to a higher standard. They should know better and even claim to stand for freedom (smaller, less intrusive government and lower taxes) in their party platform.
Thanks, Fred.
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