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.
All the more reason to nominate a true conservative from the start, and not a Republican who advances a liberal agenda.
Vote for Bush 41 on the basis of what?? His calling for a "New World Order"?? His choice of David Souter for the Supreme Court?? His reneging on raising taxes ("Read my lips...)?? His indifference in outing Bill Clinton to the American people as to what he really was?
I will not ever vote for the lesser of two sh*ts. You may be satisfied having been thrown a turkey's sphincter carcass, but some of us settle for breast meat. And WE are willing to wait.
All the more reason to nominate a true conservative from the start, and not a Republican who advances a liberal agenda.
That a worthy goal, but whenever a "Clinton" is running, we have a duty to vote for the best electable alternative. Sitting out the election is not an option.
Yep, and it's time to deliver. It will be interesting to say the least.
No one bats 1000%.
Wrong. My duty is to utilize my vote in a way that I think best preserves my freedom, and the freedom of our posterity. By continuing to reward unworthy candidates with my vote, I am guaranteeing that all that will be offered is unworthy candidates. By voting my conscience and voting for a true conservative, I am not only preserving my integrity, but increasing the value of a conservative vote over time.
At times it may seem that it will take hundreds of years to "undo" what Clinton has done, but it really wouldn't take that long if Republicans started acting conservative again, if good-hearted people would do their jobs and do everything in their power to uphold the Constitution. We're seeing it happen slowly, but it isn't because of Bush or any other single personality. In fact, Bush has probably done just as much to solidify the left's ideology in the mainstream as Clinton did to motivate the conservatives to work against him. Leadership isn't figuring out where people are, and then giving them what they expect. It is doing the right thing in spite of the repercussions.
LOL -- a point to consider.
"And what are the WE waiting for?"
WE will wait out any scenario where certain GOP leaders cross the unacceptable sh*t barrier. WE do draw a line...
Is there anything a GOP candidate can do to make them unworthy of your vote?
In primaries, we usually weed out the unworthies. In any election, there is too much at stake to let a Liberal/Progressive/Leftist/Socialist.....have an advantage.
If you don't vote for any reason then you don't have a vote. If you don't vote against the enemy of your ideology, your are abetting them. If you let your principls trump politics, you will likely end up to be a principled runner-up (as in loser). Your opponents prefer a loser, principled or otherwise, patriotic or otherwise, with a sense of duty or otherwise.
You didn't get too good a look at the California election for Governor had you?
I'm curious -- common occurrances these days indeed have pitted, Liberal-Progressive Republicans vs. a Leftist-Socialist Democrats. In this scenario, tell me how "we" win?
As for me, I never have knowingly voted for my enemy, and that includes the Republicans who support the aforementioned legislation, while there was a choice to be made. If you have, then you have abbetted them in the destruction of respect for the Constitution and the principles that built this nation. We will never recover that respect by casting our votes for others who have shown no or insufficient reverence for the Constitution. I'd prefer we face the wolf if we know who he is, rather than face the wolf in sheep's clothing. The latter case is more dangerous, because it is just as deadly, but it is more liable to sneak up closer before it strikes, and we don't see it coming.
Of course I am. Are politicians, operatives, activists, and the media the only ones allowed to influence your vote? I don't think so. You are not an island unto yourself your vote or non-vote affects the whole country.
The people who get elected and their party and their appointees are the ones will govern me, my family, my friends and neighbors, our government and our country; and if your vote or non-vote helps a Clintonesque person get that power, than it's everybody's business, mine included. You really can't fathom that, can you?
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