Good-Bye Cruel Free Republic

Well, it's been 4 years since I first found Free Republic. I have always felt like I belonged here and have really enjoyed the banter back and forth between us members. I am afraid all this is now over. I am really suprised and shocked at it's suddenness. Before I leave I want to thank a freeper from Michigan who sent me a DVD player last year to give to my kids for Christmas. You reaffirmed my faith in humanity.

I know this thread will be deleted before many people get to read it, but I just can't go without saying a final word. Every since 911 the 'vibe' here at FR has been decidedly hostile. I guess it was a matter of time before the newbie moderator got around to weeding me out for my sometimes unpopular views. So I join the ranks of A+Bert and so many others who gave FR a interesting flavor. I will miss coming here 20 times a day and keeping up on things. But without posting priviledges there is just no point. I must go find another conservative group to try to be a part of.

In the future, when a freeper who has been a loyal member since August 1998 crosses the line, how about a note instead of banning? Would that have been too much? I may have gotten out of line, how is beyond me, but if such a tresspass would have been pointed out I would gladly have refrained from doing so again. It is just not right to just ban an account with no explaination. Especially when the freeper has been here 4 years. I have no idea what I am going to do with my days now that I no longer have FR. Well, I guess I have said my part. It is a sad day when one has to leave family and friends. I feel like some of you were just that. But apparently I am no longer wanted around here. I bid my good day to you all and hope that karma pays it's respects to those who do injustice.

Congratulations on your successful adventure with your kiddos!! My hats off to you! We stopped homeschooling last early last year due to many life changing circumstances..health, a family problem and we moved to a new district. We are extremely fortunate. This school district encourages what we value in an education. (small town w/small town values) We have few complaints with the exception of MATH BOOKS...they are extremely disappointing) I don't know if you remember that we homeschooled for a very short period of time. It was either put them in private school or move..we chose to move. My middle child is starting college this fall..he did EXCELLENT on his entrance exam.. I was a nervous wreck while waiting for the results. My oldest was going to start college last spring but had a major set back. She is hopefully going to take one class this fall. Tis a long story..

Effectively, there are only two parties, Republicans and Democrats. They control the government. The party that holds the majority of members in the respective houses of Congress control the committees and therefore control the agenda. If we sit on our hands or vote third party then the Democrats will maintain control. If we vote out the Democrats in sufficient numbers to give the Republicans the majority, then we can at least control the agenda and the judiciary appointments while beginning to figure out how to remove the worst of the Republicans without turning control back over to the Democrats. - by Jim Robinson

This is where we disagree. I don't think the Republicans have ever won in sufficient numbers to give them a decisive majority except for the one time in 1994 when they presented the voters a clear choice with the Contract with America. With the exception of that lone election, Democrats have either won or gained seats in every other election.
If FreeRepublic starts now on an agenda to show Republicans that we are going to abandon them this fall unless they give us a real conservative agenda, ie. another Contract with America. I say to them, "Prove to us that you are worthy of our support." FreeRepublic has the power through our discussions on this forum to move the Republicans to a position worthy of support.
Both parties monitor this forum. Let's use our forum for effect. Make the forum work for us and the country. We can set the electoral agenda. Open your eyes; we impeached a President. Surely we can sway an election.
For the most part polticians are merely prostitutes in disguise. They will give the John what they think he wants. If we make our message clear, they'll deliver. And if they think they can take us for granted, we will always be bridesmaids, and never brides. 1319

So, you want to elect Democrats? - 1321 -JR

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No, I'd say we want some return to constitutional values by our politicians. -- And the ONLY way to get some more political respect for FR's position is to deliver a message much as B.A.C advocates.

To imagine that the Bush administration has been influenced in ANY way by FR's present garbled stance, is naive.
-- And to imagine that working for another Bush term, -- on a 'more of the same old politics' platform --- to imagine that this would make any effective change to a new political 'agenda' is sheer dreaming, imo.

So, you want to elect Democrats? - 1321 -JR

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No, I'd say we want some return to constitutional values by our politicians. -- And the ONLY way to get some more political respect for FR's position is to deliver a message much as B.A.C advocates.

{sorry, forgot to flag JR.}

"So, you want to elect Democrats?"

I want the results of elections to result in the restoration of our Constitutional Republic rather than continuing our decline into socialism. If Republicans can count on our votes, they will cater to the moderate left with impunity. Generally the Democrats win when Republicans cater to the left. But even if the Republicans win on a left leaning agenda, they keep the country moving left. Republicans normally only win by motivating the conservative base. When they are making promises to the conservative base, they generally provide a stronger opposition to the left. We want the Republicans afraid of the Conservative vote. We want them to want to earn our votes. If that is the only way they can count on being elected, we can move the country to the right. I think the country is on a falling trajectory that will result in the demise of the United States in less than two decades. The quality of freedom and life in the United States is deteriorating right in front of our eyes. FreeRepublic was founded to halt and reverse that trend. Are we enjoying the success of victory? Are the Republicans continuing to enact the conservative agenda? Have our property rights been restored? Can you ensure your own safety on an airplane with your personal sidearm? Have your taxes even decreased? My last noticeable tax cut was under President Reagan's watch. My taxes have increased ever year since. The number of pages in the tax code and code of Federal Regualtions has increased every year. The number of federal employees increases every year. I wants results, not rhetoric. And especially not empty promises. At least monthly, Bush has announced a significant left leaning new federal program or expansion of an existing program. We didn't get vouchers or teacher testing, only student testing. And the federal contribution to education exploded. We went from abolishing the Department of Education to the largest budget increase in history.

"The party that holds the majority of members in the respective houses of Congress control the committees and therefore control the agenda.."

The Democrats controlled both houses of Congress under Reagan by such wide margins that Democrats routinely locked Republicans out of committee meetings. That did not stop Reagan from setting and advancing a conservative agenda. If Bush is half the conservative leader that you think he is, surely he can use his tremendous popluarity in the polls to set and advance a conservative agenda. If he is a genuine conservative leader with real ability, surely he can contain the Democrats while we teach the Republicans a lesson that they badly need to learn.

I can't believe you believe there are enough Buchanan conservatives in the United States that the agenda you're seeking would get passed in Congress.

Do you really believe that?

This is a country that has given Democrats the popular vote in three straight presidential elections. This is also a country that opposed the impeachment of Clintoon. This is also a country that likes public financing of education, NPR and PBS, the NEA, the NEH, airport security, etc.

Free Republic is a great web site, but surely you understand conservatives are a minority in this country. Buchanan would have been elected in 1992 or 1996 or 2000 if that weren't true.

Trying to convince millions of Americans to become conservatives would require the sort of proselytizing you see with the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons-- armies of believers going door to door and sharing the "good news" relentlessly. We are a long way from that.

I am to your way of thinking on this BAC and you stated your case very well. Rewarding Republicans just for being slightly less irresponsible than the Democrats is not a long-term winning strategy. I’m afraid it is going to take a devastating electoral defeat to shake out the RINOs that now infest the party. As long as the RINOs are in control the party will continue to drift leftward. After all, compromising with socialists is the name of their game. It took 7 years of political wilderness after Watergate to set the stage for Ronald Reagan. Maybe next time around we can get it right.

I don't think the Republicans have ever won in sufficient numbers to give them a decisive majority except for the one time in 1994 when they presented the voters a clear choice with the Contract with America.

Actually, they have - in 1946. ("Had enough? Vote Republican!" was their campaign theme.) The Republican Congressional landslides of that year (and in both houses of Congress, yet) created the Congress that Harry Truman, the old softie (ho ho ho), made such grand sport of deriding at every drop of a campaign microphone as "that good-for-nothing 80th Congress." And the record in fact shows the 80th Congress being far more accomplished than the Congress of Newtie and the Blowfish's Contract With America (and talk about breach of contract!) only wish they had been - the 80th Congress, unlike today's Republicans, walked the walk when they talked the talk.

David Frum has written compactly but effectively about the 80th Congress in his essay, "Not So Wild About Harry," included in his collection What's Right. Today's Republicans should only wish they were worth of being mentioned in the same air as were the Republicans of the 80th Congress.

"I can't believe you believe there are enough Buchanan conservatives in the United States that the agenda you're seeking would get passed in Congress."

I don't like Buchanan, and Buchanan is not a conservative in the sense that he believes in restrictions on trade and the empowerment of trade unions.

"This is also a country that opposed the impeachment of Clintoon.

Are you substituting your own wishes or the opinions of the media in place of the opinions of the people. This site overwhelmingly favored impeaching Clinton. And Clinton was impeached in the House. Trent Lott and the Republicans in the Senate prevented the presenting of the evidence gathered by the House to the public. Republicans and Trent Lott prevented Clinton's removal from office. Had the evidence been presented to the public, they would not only have removed him from office, he would have been lucky to escape being lynched.

"This is also a country that likes public financing of education, NPR and PBS, the NEA, the NEH, airport security, etc."

That statement is pure unadultered BS, and so is this: "but surely you understand conservatives are a minority in this country. Buchanan would have been elected in 1992 or 1996 or 2000 if that weren't true." Buchanan is not conservative. That is why he was and is not electable. And you wouldn't recognize a conservative if the GraniteState fell on you. "Trying to convince millions of Americans to become conservatives would require the sort of proselytizing you see with the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons-- armies of believers going door to door and sharing the "good news" relentlessly. We are a long way from that."

This is the sort of disruption that demonstrates the monitoring and importance of this web site. Most Americans are conservative. Even many Democrats would vote conservatively were it not for the successful propaganda campaigns and brain-washing by the media. The media and the press are totally dominated by liberals. Liberal propaganda, distortions, obfucations, omissions and misrepresentations have stolen elections and carried issues that would have been defeated had there been a fair disclosure of all relevant facts.

So-called GraniteStateConservative and B. A. Conservative will not be living together in the same country.

Who is your conservative White Knight then? Who do you think would be elected to force senior citizens to either take prescription drugs or eat? to slash government spending and give tax breaks to the rich at the expense of the poor? to shut down at least one Cabinet office without being accused of not caring about the issues that Cabinet deals with?

A Harris poll from November 1998 showed that only 24% supported impeachment and removal from office. Bill Clintoon surpassed Reagan's all-time-high job approval rating in December of 1998 when House approval of articles of impeachment brought him a 73% rating in a Gallup poll. After the House Judiciary committee approved the articles so they'd go to the floor in December, only 38% supported impeachment and removal from office in a Washington Post/ABC News poll.

I wished Americans supported it, but they didn't.

I am a conservative. I'm not a libertarian.

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