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.
Those who voted for him and complain have a different amount of clout from those who never liked him to begin with.
Truth in advertising, as AFPhys said.
Oh, no. To be as BIGOTED and RACIST as posters say - those who bring it up when they have no ideas or facts - it could not have been accomplished in spare time or as a hobby. It would have had to be 24/7 - just no time for anything else.
It is the worst thing in the world - to be a RACIST - you don't have to actually DO anything - just be a RACIST. When someone calls you that - you need to just roll over and play dead. When someone starts the 'America is the most RACIST nation in the world', we should all just shiver and start apologizing and writing checks to make up for all those things we 'are' - not the things we do - but what we have been accused of 'being'.
No someone else had to have built this country - we didn't have time with our fulltime RACIST and BIGOTED agenda.
Clout? with whom?
Give me strength, Lord ;)
Folks often refer to me as a pollyanna, but The Patriot Act will sure come in handy when The Southwest becomes an anarchic war zone!
Surely you understand this...all those callers on C-SPAN always say "I voted for Bush but I am so disappointed." You see it a lot here as well.
That is why I spoke out. Not everyone who lurks knows DO was a Buchanan supporter. His post left the impression that he was a Republican. I just wanted things to be clarified.
Well, I see what you are saying - as far as debating goes.
I never thought Bush was the best choice - just the only choice (in that no one else could get elected) - and I am not disappointed - I had few expectations - but he certainly has not lived up to those very few. What exactly does that make me?
On the other hand, I am quite pleased with him, and I feel he has done better than I had a right to expect.
But we CAN agree that Al Gore would have been unacceptable! LOL!
You must own an electron microscope to find it.
RAT Patrol> I have no idea.
Odd that you are quoting at 4:16 PM on Monday a post which was deleted at 8:55 PM Sunday.
alittlerebellion signed up 2002-12-02.
This account has been banned.
Maybe DO is in fact a Conservative and Constitutionalist...
Principle over party is to be commended, or should it not?
My choice is to stick with a team (the Republican party) which although it has its share of doofuses, on the whole most closely matches the way I think.
If you feel your way is the best, that is your privilege. My position works best for me. So far, it seems that most Americans are happiest in the two-party system, but of course things do change over time. Those who are in third party movements will have to work on getting a message that attracts enough voters to win. Until then, most accomplishments (or disasters) will be through one of the two major parties. That's just how things are right now.
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