Posted on 05/26/2007 1:49:34 PM PDT by Eurotwit
A few weeks ago – in between Hillary Clinton’s official entry into the presidential race and the first Republican primary debate of the cycle – the fiery online conservative forum Free Republic marked a decade in operation as one of the premier online forums for right-wing political discussion.
It also experienced one of the biggest internal battles to rock the site since the 2000 election of George W. Bush -- a tumultuous campaign year that nearly tore the site apart, as its founder and chief administrator first cleansed commenting ranks of Bush supporters, then, later, rallied to his support.
At the heart of the latest controversy: the fight over the conservative bona fides of Rudy Giuliani.
Over the past few weeks, chaos has reigned in the “Freeper” community as members sympathetic to the former mayor's candidacy claim to have suffered banishment from the site. They were victimized, they say, by a wave of purges designed to weed out any remaining support for the Giuliani campaign on the popular conservative web forum. Another significant chunk of commenters have migrated away from the controversial site over the action, according to a number of former site members and conservative bloggers who have been tracking the situation.
In a plaintive post on the blog “Sweetness & Light,” exiled commenter Steve Gilbert, who says he does not support the former mayor’s campaign, blasted the site’s new “anti-Giuliani, anti-abortion jihad.” Since George W. Bush was elected president, he wrote, “there haven’t been any large scale [Free Republic] purges to speak of – until now.”
The fight began one month ago, when site founder Jim Robinson posted an anti-Giuliani manifesto titled: “Giuliani as the GOP presidential nominee would be a dagger in the heart of the conservative movement.” Then the virtual ax started to swing. Longtime posters to the freewheeling discussion threads, used to serious no-holds-barred web etiquette, were still stunned by the intensity of the anti-Rudy activity; conservative blogs buzzed with the development.
“Jim Robinson has been going on a tear demonizing Rudy Giuliani, because Rudy (agreeing with the vast majority of Americans), is personally opposed to abortions on a moral level…” complained a user on the GOPUSA Web site. “Anyone who posts any support for Giuliani at the site, if it's at all forceful, will be banned.”
(“Normally, we don't allow complaints about other conservative forums,” chided the moderator, but “…because it is being discussed all over the Internet, I'll make an exception.”)
Just a few months ago, Rudy Giuliani placed second in an early Free Republic straw poll; now, his support on the site has been virtually eliminated. “After the ‘April Purge,’ I don't think there are any Rudybots left around here,” noted Free Republic commenter “upchuck” in one recent post. “And if there are, they're not posting pro-Rudy stuff :).”
The forums weren’t the only venue for the Free Republic’s new antagonism toward Mr. Giuliani, which coincided with a wave of comments expressing similar sentiments from other corners of the conservative movement. A few days after Mr. Giuliani’s equivocal Roe v. Wade comments at the Republican presidential debate on May 3, a new “STOP RUDY NOW News & Information Thread” was featured on the site, and a newly-created stand-alone category debuted via a link from the homepage: “The Giuliani Truth File.” (So far this campaign season, Mr. Giuliani is the only candidate – Republican or Democratic – to be singled out for that level of scrutiny from the Free Republic.)
Why Rudy? Why now? Some conservative bloggers and former commenters contacted for their view of the continuing controversy say they believe that site founder Jim Robinson holds ideologically middling Republicans like Mr. Giuliani responsible for the GOP’s congressional loss and current woes. (They asked that their names be kept out of this story for fear of antagonizing the famously frisky site regulars.)
Others claim that the former mayor’s top-tier status is spurring frantic site administrators into action. Finally, one popular theory holds that the Free Republic is secretly hoping for another Clinton presidency that would send its Alexa ratings soaring back to levels it hasn’t experienced since its halcyon days of the Clinton impeachment, when a since-soured relationship with blog pioneer Matt Drudge and overwhelming anti-Clinton sentiment in Republican ranks helped make Free Republic one of the hottest Web sites in the nation. It hasn't recovered that luster since the Bush administration took over.
“It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s an observation,” said one blogger, who describes himself as a half-hearted Mitt Romney supporter. “They’ve still got a brand name that means something, but they’re not what they were in terms of real-world impact. A Hillary presidency would get them there.”
Robinson himself could not be reached for comment, but his original post laid out his case against Mr. Giuliani – a graphics-heavy presentation of some of the former mayor’s most damning moderate quotes in mainstream media venues, along with a color-coded report card tracking his less-than-doctrinaire positions on abortion, immigration, gays and guns.
Robinson, it should be noted, famously blasted George W. Bush’s presidential candidacy back in 2000, before a dramatic late-campaign about-face that saw him emerge as one of the GOP ticket’s biggest supporters. But whether or not Free Republic experiences a similar election-year shift this cycle, the site’s current campaign is spreading a dangerous primary-season meme of Rudy Giuliani as big-city liberal – and turning one of the most influential web forums in conservatism into an exclusive gathering place for those who share that view.
Correct. And in my opinion, Clinton should NEVER have invited Arafat to the White House. But the fact is that he did and Arafat was technically a guest of the United States, it is not the place of a mayor to defy American foreign policy.
Bump!
GOOD post!
Indeed.
Hey, you!
Good to “see” you. ;o)
Mia T got banned? Why on earth?
I’m not happy with the membership thinning, but I was probably in the shower with JimRob asked for my approval. In a couple of hours I found 30 names no longer active. Some were evolutionists (like myself), others Rudy supporter (I could care less) who clearly did take it overboard, and others I don’t know. I see now that some are on DarwinCentral and WideAwakess. I’m not overly impressed with any of this.
So Ruddy supporters and evolutionists don’t fit into JimRob’s vision of conservativeism. Okay, It’s his call. I’m sure amputating them is not the right way to “right size” the Republican Party as a whole, but this isn’t RubublicanRepublic.com so that’s not the issue here. Whether or not they’re within the boundaries of Jim’s more social conservative vision of conservativism as applied to this community is totally up to Jim.
Did you address me on that thread even once? NO! Again, please be specific and provide a link.
There were several posters who routinely ganged up on and pinged the boss...like good little capos.
I never pinged "the boss" to anyone's post. If you have gripes with other posters, please address them to those parties.
Also, having been privileged to post in here for nine years, I've seen all the historic purges up close.
And that has something to do with your allegation that I am dishonest? The logic is missing.
This one DID have several posters appear like brownshirts. If you can't admit that, we have nothing more to say to each other.
You're entitled to that opinion, but I would question your historical knowledge of "brownshirts" in making the comparison. I find use of the term over-the-top. I guess we will agree to disagree.
??????? That was last night.
Not knowing anything more about it than what you reported, it sounds like one of the inevitable trade offs that were disproportionately associated with the Clinton presidency. In hind sight without knowing the details, it sounds justified.
What sounds justified?
First let me say that although I am registered at WideAwakes since March 15th, I am not part of any hidden thread. I don't know what "salt river" is.
Those FRiends that went to WA were relationships we nutured through the Impeachment in 98...the Florida recount of 2000...which I was very active in down at the SCOTUS.
Also, the Challenger catastrophe...Elian......911...Schiavo...Afghanistan and Iraq...it goes on and on!
I am not in any clique and always considered myself an outsider..but anybody that has followed my posts for nine years, knows that I'm not afraid to speak my mind.
The Bugzapper thread lessened FreeRepublic. The piling on....calling the boss whenever things got nasty...to me that's what brownshirts are. SS stormtroopers...jackbooted thugs jumping in glee as more and more moderate conservatives were forced out of here.
As far as your last comment that it was pre-planned...I seriously doubt that. But again, not being an insider, am not in a position to defend it one way or the other.
Cheers!
.....
Howlin & Peach were banned too
So, EVERY mayor in the country has the right to decide whether or not they will recognize established diplomatic protocol and establish his own foreign policy?
Yep, something about conservatives having their "foot on the neck" of Republicans too long.
Why is that a problem, this is a CONSERVATIVE forum, it's not a GOP forum.
I followed the bugzapper thread and what suprised me, many people who were zotted were making remarks for some time and I wondered why they wern’t banned earlier.
Right now at WA, it is still kumbaya.
When Rudy and Mitt are out of the race and the WA folks
run out of steam bashing FR, Wide Awakes will be even more irrelevant.
Are you denying that there is a hidden thread or simply stating that you don't participate in it?
Also, the Challenger catastrophe...Elian......911...Schiavo...Afghanistan and Iraq...it goes on and on!
Yep, it was their glee over Terri's murder that really established what type of people many of them were.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.