Is Free Republic too "Republican?"

Jim Robinson

[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?

[Exit148]

This is the 3rd time I've tried to answer! I keep getting interrupted, so I'll make this brief:

Is Free Republic too Republican?

NO!

I am 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.

Ditto!

[Protagoras]

Tie your name to a party and live and die with the label. You may be proud to be a Republican now, but if you lived in Illinois and had yourself tied to George Ryan and the pack of ciminals and liberals they all turned out to be, you might change your mind.

Stick to your principles, they will never abandon you, (you may abandon them, but never the other way around) but the Republicans are humans, and they will sell you out for power just as easy as the Democrats ever did.

Ideas matter Jim, not titles.

I learned my lesson, maybe you will be more thoughtful and not make the same mistake.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Tie your name to a party and live and die with the label. You may be proud to be a Republican now, but if you lived in Illinois and had yourself tied to George Ryan and the pack of ciminals and liberals they all turned out to be, you might change your mind.

That's exactly what I was referring to in #539. Good post.

[Kuksool]

As an Illinois resident, I can attest to your statements. With the driver license scandal constantly following George Ryan around, he become political pollution for the IL GOP. After the 2002 election, the IL GOP is virtually in shambles. The RATS control the Governor's Mansion, the General Assembly, and the State Supreme Court. IL Pubbies are completely shutout of the political process. The IL GOP has been so poisoned by Lying Ryan that the 2004 Senate looks like a sure RAT pickup.

[jlogajan]

Is Free Republic too "Republican?"

What? Is the Republican Party purging members who occasionally disagree with Bush too?

[Buckeroo]

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" ... if your ticket is punched "American" you're entitled to whatever freedoms are on the menu." -- budwiesest

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I suppose you feel that what ever our individual freedoms consist of, they are conformal to any political parties diatribe; separate and distinct of our nation's foundations which are about our individual rights, liberties and freedoms.

[Tall_Texan]

This thread has already exceeded 500 post so I won't read everyone's replies. As for me, I am an uncomfortable Republican. I believe they are a better alternative than liberal/Democrats but, in their desire to build a majority, the Republicans have adopted a lot of the Democrats' issues and tactics.

Particularly in the Senate, I see few Republicans that truly represent me. I want folks that support smaller government, conservative principles, Judeo-Christian values and Constitutional reverence. What I see are Karl Rove Republicans that were "left" enough to get elected but wind up back-stabbing conservatives when it gets down to enacting conservative laws and programs.

I felt better with folks like Phil Gramm, Bob Dornan, Jesse Helms, etc. not Norm Coleman, John McCain, Christine Whitman and George Pataki.

Government is compromise but, at some point, you cease being a party that stands for anything when you become a party that embraces everybody.

I'm willing to give George W. and company a long rope because I know what pressures they face but I'd hope that, particularly in a second term, they will start listening to conservatives and governing like them instead of Democrat Lites.

As for Free Republic, I consider it more conservative than I do Republican. We are the grass roots, not the country clubbers. We don't resemble Pierre DuPont or Steve Forbes.

I also don't think Free Republic needs a label. It is what it is and the left loathes us as if we were Republicans. Being a FReeper is in some ways worse to them than being a Republican because they know we are both informed and active. Their bullying tactics don't work against us like it does our elected representatives. That makes them very afraid indeed.

FReep on!

[Jonez712]

No, just keep the conservative label. It seems nowadays that the only difference between Democrats and Republicans is national defense and tax cuts. Republicans in Congress are basically "Repub-lite," and concede way too much as the majority party.

Of course the Republican Party is the right party to vote for and the party I would rather have in power (the proverbial lesser of two evils), but I've been very dissappointed by the behavior of RINOs, and Congressional Republicans (and the President) as a whole recently.

[KrisKrinkle]

If the vast majority of the FReepers want it so, then Free Republic will officially become the newest "Republican wing" of the Republican Party.

I vote no.

I don't think of my self as either a Democrat or a Republican. (My parents were Democrats, but today's Democratic Party is not "Your father's Party" (not if you're old enough) and it would horrify my mother if she were to vote from anything but past conviction. They've both passed on, so they are probably still voting the straight Democartic ticket.

If I had to lable myself, it woudl be Reform-Progressive. To explain that concisely and thus maybe badly, by "Reform" I mean that a lot of people need to go back, read and understand the "instructions", then follow them. The term "instructions" covers a lot or area here, to include the Constitution and the laws as written, not as someone cares to misuse them. By "progressive" I mean that things change, and sometimes the "instructions" don't cover everything or continue to apply appropriately, so you rewrite, not ignore, them. (Remember I said concisely and badly.)

I agree that liberalism as we know it (not classic liberalism) needs to be destroyed and that liberalism and the Democratic party have become so entwined that the Democratic party has to go, at least as a major player. (As far as I am concerned, it can stick around as a splinter party. That'll give "those" people a place to congregate where they can talk to each other and be watched by the more responsible elements of society. Also, it doesn't hurt to have a few nay sayers around, as aggrivating as that can be.)

But as far as turning FreeRepublic into a Republican Forum, I don't think that's a good idea. We definitely need to support them against the Democrats. And we need to promote incremental change except where we must not or can not. But Jim, if you and your brother start out on a trip from New York to California, and you take me along because I was going to North Dakota, and I share expenses and so forth, I will turn North when we get to Oklahoma (or thereabouts). The fact that we traveled together doesn't make me part of your family.

FreeRepublic needs to travel with the Republicans for a while, but that doesn't mean it needs to become Republican.

[kuma]

**In addition, most of these people seek out those who disagree with them, not vice versa.**

Eeesh *~_~* How about the spirit of debate. The art of persuasion. Can I help it if I was a member of my high school Forensics Club (debate club: my specialty prose)? I'm argumentative to the point I've persuaded myself to another opinion. I also enjoy attacking from all sides.

Sometimes I defeat my own points.
Sometimes I embarrass myself *~_^.
Somtimes I couldn't be more wrong ^.^!

It's fun!
I only complain when I think I've lost. Which is hardly ever ^O^!!!

On the subject of changing it from Conservative to Republican:

Nay! I'm an Independent. I haven't surrendered yet although I've thought about it.

[budwiesest]

If you think I am anti-Republican....you are dead wrong.

Your tagline is more than enough proof for me. For future's sake, I'm never dead wrong. Otherwise, how could I go by the name budwiesest? You're lucky that I even reply to your post. My family (liberals) are lucky to even hear from me.

I get so sick of hearing 'selected vs. elected' that I've committed the second ammendment to memory. What good are the rest if you can't emnbrace the most significant?

"A well regulated militia, necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed".

[Duramaximus]

Tell me how to win elections without the "middle of the roaders".

The Republican Party is becoming the party of alternatives", and this behavior risks dilluting our society. They need to acknowledge the values held by the majority in this nation. Compromise is not the way to win voters, it is a methodology for slowly destroying this nation.

Look at the numbers of people who fail to even vote in this nation. I submit to you that they are disenfranchised from the political process because of the liberal bent of the left, and the compromising behavior of the Republican Party. From those I have spoken to they are generally conservative thinkers who firmly believe that government fails to represent them. They look at voting as an exercise in futility. And you know, they are not totally wrong. Look at what happened to Prop 187 in Kalifornia. Talk about getting screwed, and not kissed.

The Republican Party should forsake their ruinous approach toward compromising their values to bring in middle-of-the-road voters. Instead they should focus on the issues that matter the most, and stand by these values.

A true Conservative is against big government, yet the Republican Party only offers a slower rate of growth than that proposed by the Democraps. If they would stop worrying about appealing to the middle-of-the-road voters, and focus on an agenda of smaller government, restoration of freedoms, and common sense legislation, the disenfranchised voters would return to the polls.

Harken back to the Republican agenda in 1994. People voted in droves for a Republican sweep in Washington. Some will say it was due to a backlash against Klintoon. But, I believe that it was because finally they had a platform people which the voters of this nation could relate to. It recognized their beliefs. Unfortunately, the Republican Party failed to continue their acknowledgement of these voters by becoming a "kinder, gentler party". Look where it got us, a Senate of RINOs.

So, until the Republican Party forsakes their "grand plan" of compromising their beliefs to attract middle-of-the-road voters I will continue to be wary. Republicans need to capture the hearts of non-voters by focusing on an agenda for this nation. Cuddling up next to homosexuals, ignoring illegal immigration, expanding government, sending billions of tax dollars to Africa to fight Aids, gun control, etc. will never win over non-voters.

[JudyB1938]

I am a registered Republican. I am prone to vote a straight Republican ticket. However, I would prefer that FReeRepublic not limit itself by that label.

I don't know ... it just seems to take away some of the self-identity that this website has as being a gathering place for ALL conservatives who are interested in countering what our nation has become.

In short, FReepers have made a name for themselves because they are grassroot activists, not because they are Republicans, per se. I truly believe that we are all conservatives first, as another poster stated, and Republicans (most of us) second.

[Cultural Jihad]

I truly believe that we are all conservatives first, as another poster stated, and Republicans (most of us) second.

Of course, the problem is that there are moral-liberals here posing as conservatives under the guise of wanting a smaller government, much as Sacco and Vanzetti or Al Capone so wanted. They formulate the opinion that people should be allowed to consent to destroy their own civilization without first getting the consent of the unborn who would otherwise arrive in a cruel world of their making.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Of course, the problem is that there are moral-liberals here posing as conservatives under the guise of wanting a smaller government

Bingo, just like the Republican party! You're catching on.

[JudyB1938]

They [moral-liberals] formulate the opinion that people should be allowed to consent to destroy their own civilization without first getting the consent of the unborn who would otherwise arrive in a cruel world of their making.

I don't understand what you mean. Can you give me an example? Thanks.

[Publicus]

I wanted to also thank you for the TERRIFIC job you are doing with this.

Re your question, how about a site referendum? Ask FREEPERS to vote on how they feel about officially endorsing GOP or keeping independent.

I greatly appreciate your original vision- independence is the best way to go and support on an issue specific basis.

[Hank Rearden]

Don't go officially "Republican", my friend.

Government is getting much bigger under a wholly-owned Republican setup - this is not what you want to be associated with.