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"Free Republic is the premier online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America."

"As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Constitution, pro-Bill of Rights, pro-gun, pro-limited government, pro-private property rights, pro-limited taxes, pro-capitalism, pro-national defense, pro-freedom, and-pro America. We oppose all forms of liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism, feminism, homosexualism, racism, wacko environmentalism, judicial activism, etc. We also oppose the United Nations or any other world government body that may attempt to impose its will or rule over our sovereign nation and sovereign people. We believe in defending our borders, our constitution and our national sovereignty."

"We aggressively defend our God-given and first amendment guaranteed rights to free speech, free press, free religion, and freedom of association, as well as our constitutional right to control the use and content of our own personal private property. Despite the wailing of the liberal trolls and other doom & gloom naysayers, we feel no compelling need to allow them a platform to promote their repugnant and obnoxious propaganda from our forum. Free Republic is not a liberal debating society. We are conservative activists dedicated to defending our rights, defending our constitution, defending our republic and defending our traditional American way of life."

You said "...maybe you've been here to long and are just taking some important things for granted."

I am taking nothing for granted. Perhaps you haven't been here long enough and are seeing FR as you would like it to be rather than what it really is. What you see quoted above has all been taken from the FR mission statements as articulated by Jim Robinson. That this is a conservative site for conservatives could not be any clearer. The point of my earlier posts was that FR should remain a conservative site for conservatives and not be slowly dragged toward the center which is exactly where the GOP Big Tent RINOs/Liberals/Moderates would like to take it.

I have also pinged a couple of others to this post and hope this will shed some further light on my comments and perhaps respond to some of their questions as posted to me earlier. Other Freepers who often share the same views have been pinged so they may be aware of what I have said here and have an opportunity to agree or not as they see fit.

One thing I've noticed recently on FR is that there's much less activism (FReeps) or discussion regarding ideas for FReeps. Now, part of the reason for that is that during the days when the Democrats were the majority and during the Clinton ~~Administration~~Aberration, we had a "common" enemy in influential positions (a target rich environment, you might say). Of course, the MOST famous FReep was the "Get Out of Cheney's House" FReep (that's what brought me here), and there have been some other doozies. But today, there's much more discussion/debate over things WITHIN the Republican party and conservative circles. There are lots of "new" conservatives, and lots of "new" Freepers that don't seem to want to "assimilate" with Free Republic's ways (for instance, I'm amazed at the number of FReepers that just refuse to use html tags--I can always tell a newer or unassimilated FReeper because they don't italicize when quoting from another post.) But, like I said, that's all superficial. You're right, Czar, about Jim Robinson's mission and the references to conservatism. This isn't the RNC website, it's Free Republic. The difference, to me, is illustrated most recently for me in the posts leading up to the SCOTUS nomination. My opinion is that Alberto Gonzalez is no conservative (abortion rulings, La Raza affiliation), but there were FReepers whose only comments about him were "Don't worry. Bush won't appoint him." Well, he's Attorney General, and that's bad enough given his jurisdiction over immigration and his La Raza affiliation. Another example are those who are Apologists for the Administration's soft stance on border security. They argue economics and present their views absent of a central conservative theme--American Sovereignty. But, I digress. Yes. FR has changed. No. It's not and shouldn't be an RNC site. Even if Zell Miller had never given his Republican Convention speech, his conservativism would've fit in with FR better than some Republicans in Washington.

Thanks for the ping and reply. I agree with most of the "bedrock issues" in FR's description of conservativism.

IMO, you are correct about the forum changing. In just the three-plus years I've been here, I've noticed a change, too, to a more "moderate" membership. (As a matter of fact, I remember more right-leaning Freepers flaming me in the past - as in, "What do you mean you don't want religion in schools?! Are you a troll?" - whereas now the flames come from a more left-leaning crowd here - as in, "What do you mean you don't think there should be public schools?! Are you crazy?!"). ;-) Another example: there were many more homeschoolers here when I first signed up, and now that's just not the case anymore.

But I can see why the FR tent has widened. First, there are those of us whose views are right-leaning in a more "libertarian" sense (like Boortz and Elder). We tend to take the idea of limited gov't to an extreme, but I think we belong here.

Nowadays, there are newer Freepers who just seem to have "pet conservative issues," while taking a moderate stance in a few other areas. But, I can see why they'd belong here, too. It'd be worse if they strayed to the other side; the more votes cast for conservatives, the better. Anyway, the President himself takes a moderate position is quite a few areas (to the dismay of some of us).

"The point of my earlier posts was that FR should remain a conservative site for conservatives and not be slowly dragged toward the center which is exactly where the GOP Big Tent RINOs/Liberals/Moderates would like to take it. "

***Well said. Sometimes it does seem like FR is being co-opted, but it still remains healthy for the most part. I wonder if that is kinda inevitable, being dragged into more moderate territory. It's probably just a byproduct of becoming the most popular news site on the web. We need guys like you to stick to the original standard. Keep up the good work.