Nay .... leave as it is ... Anti- leftist,liberal by God; Conservative by nature ... Republican ... by spirit
Posted on 06/13/2003 1:55:59 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
Is Free Republic too "Republican?" I've been receiving a lot of complaints lately that FR is not really conservative, it's Republican. Is that a bad thing?
When I started FR (see the wayback machine) I don't think I even used the labels conservative or Republican. But, even though I was a registered Democrat at the time (I registered when I was very young), I was definitely anti-Democrat. And definitely anti-big government, anti-government corruption, anti-government abuse, anti-liberalism, etc. And I still am.
As FR became more and more popular, people started referring to it as a "conservative" web site and so eventually I posted the label to the front page. If it no longer applies, big deal. What's in a label? I'll change it to "Republican" if demand warrants.
I'm still anti-big government, anti-government corruption, anti-Democrat and anti-liberalism. I just happen to believe that in the current political environment we stand a better chance of defeating the left (liberalism/socialism/marxism, etc) by using the Republican Party to defeat the Democrats. The organization is there. The platform is there. The winning candidates are there. The dollars to run winning campaigns are there. The momentum is there. And the vast majority of the conservative voters are there.
Makes perfect sense to me. I want to defeat the left, and I want to do it as quickly as possible. I'll go with the organization that can get the job done.
My current goal is to defeat liberalism by defeating the Democrat Party. If that labels me a Republican, then so be it. If the vast majority of the FReepers want it so, then Free Republic will officially become the newest "Republican wing" of the Republican Party.
Long live Republicanism. Long live the Republic!'
What say you, FReepers?
Jim....I think you may have found your new slogan/heading that embraces it all! It sure has my vote!
Once this site was devoted to defending the Constitution of the United States. Now it seems more an unoffical organ of the Republican party.
Here is Texas we have for the first time in 130 years Reublican controled government. And what do we get? Higher taxes, bigger governemnt, hate laws, yada, yada, yada. Yall can have your GOP.
We are independent. We are political. We are Free Thinkers of the first order (so very important).
As the Republican party finds itself being slowly morphed into something that really has nothing to do with it's roots, it is important - nay, imperative - that a strong, loud, persistent voice of conscience exist for the Right, if for no other reason than to shame what is supposed to be our standard bearer into (occasionally?) taking stands it is supposed to take!
Remember back in '78 - '81, when intellectual ferment was what made the Republican Right the place to be? That was an exciting time (at least for me).
FR has the potential to fill that need now, and on a permanent basis. Why sully that perception by allying it with a political party that's been subject to suspect marketing in the past?
Without the impetus of outfits like FR, it is doubtful that the Republican party, let alone America in general, would have a clue about what's supposed to be done today.
No, leave FR just the way it is. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
CA....
Jim....I think you may have found your new slogan/heading that embraces it all! It sure has my vote!
Oops...forgot to address this to JRob also. Sorry!
Secondly, were the site to carry a formal party affiliation I should think the Republicans should join FR rather than the other way around. You might have to give them their own forum group, so that internal party matters could be dealt with in "chat" where they belong. But I'd pay big bucks to turn the Viking Kitties loose on some rambling screed by the likes of Jeffords or Whitman or McCain. "Feel the power of ZOT, you miserable tax-hiking slug!" Yeah...you'd love it. You know you would...
As far as driving a stake through the heart of liberalism, I am less optimistic. The dark side of that political movement has been to the fore for half a century by now, and I don't see it changing much: the tendency to mooch, to envy, to covet, and to expropriate the rewards of success in the name of the unsuccessful, and subsequently to steal even that; that dark face is older than America, older than party politics even. It must be addressed on a philosophical and ethical level, not on the level of deciding who gets to run the spigot on the trough. Just as the Democratic party has sold out to that tendency (and I'm afraid that to a very great degree it has - for power the cost is one's soul) we want the Republicans to embrace the tendency toward liberty, free markets, and free minds. But is isn't really natural for any party seeking power to embrace doctrines that ultimately cede it back to the individual. I think that fight will continue as long as we have human beings.
Trent Lott could have finessed Jeffords into not jumping, but he didn't and we all know what resulted. When control of the Senate is at stake, you bend a little to a fellow Republican....for now. It's one of the unspoken reasons why Lott was dumped as Majority Leader.
It could be called...the ZOT Party!
That was my point.
Too bad Jeffords didn't "bend a little" to his fellow Republicans with control of the Senate at stake. But then, was he ever really a "Republican"?
There are conservative Republicans still in office and I believe even at the federal level. However their voices have been drowned out by moderates in the party in the rush to push for massive expansions of the government's power in everything from healthcare to Homeland Security. Is that a Republican ideal? Or Conservative?
My statement still stands. When he, not you, asks for the yeas and naes then we'll address that. I got it.
My current goal is to defeat liberalism by defeating the Democrat Party. If that labels me a Republican, then so be it. If the vast majority of the FReepers want it so, then Free Republic will officially become the newest "Republican wing" of the Republican Party.
Big "R," yes.
Small "r," not nearly enough.
If your goal is to defeat liberalism, and by that I take you to mean the forces of the Left, then more than just the Democrat Party needs to be targeted.
There are far too many Republicans who are no less venal, who will sell out principle and the Constitution, simply to hold power. When the lust for power becomes the function and purpose of a politician, that that person becomes a threat to liberty, whether a Democrat or a Republican.
The notions that the Republicans can do no wrong or that President Bush can do no wrong, when they become the approved credos of Free Republic, lead to an atmosphere where posters who hold such absolutes can do no wrong. This is already occurring far too frequently in this forum. How is knee-jerk support of President Bush any more intellectually honest than knee-jerk criticism of him? "Support" like this is the Siamese twin of the mentality that led Democrats to lock arms with the Clintons during Impeachment, yet it has been nurtured here by an indifference to its danger.
Cults of personality are always wrong, and always fascist, regardless of whether the object of the cultists' devotion is wicked or decent. Yes-men, sycophants, and bootlickers proliferate.
Becoming anyone's "official" wing, in any fashion, is not a wise course. It is a surrender of freedom, independent thought, and ultimately, power. Power corrupts, or so I've heard, and Republicans are not immune to Lord Acton's observation of human nature.
No. Free Republic should not become a wing of the Republican Party.
I vote nope, however I also says thanx for all you've done!
Its not so much the support of the GOP that I am concerned about, its the support of the state or the myth that power does anything but corrupt.
Amen!
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