“If FR is any indication of conservative thought, the current thought is to smear and expel the libertarians.”
If memory serves Mr. Robinson had something to say about Mr. Paul specifically, but that was directed at his Iraq stance.
(see #s 150, 212, 216, 232 on http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1933229/posts)
Note: this is mild compared to what Mr. Robinson wrote about Mr. Guiliani, hehe.
As you would expect for a political site that has occasionally made significant impact out in the real world, the opposition would like to discredit FR. While there are many real libertarians and conservatives who support Paul for good reason, there are also a good number of Dim-RATs who support Paul for the sole reason that he’s taken the same tack on the war as ‘Code Pink’ and other far-left groups. These individuals have often elected to masquerade as ‘disaffected conservatives’ here. So we have had a number of Paul trolls trying to disrupt things - with the effect that Paul is not well received here generally.
Libertarian (small-l) thought continues to flourish here and competes vigorously on many threads. Unlike DU, people here do not think in lockstep and argument is the order of the day. That’s normal and if it ever stopped I’d worry.
Thanks for your thoughts in this exchange. I keep coming back for a reason. Rock on, FRiend.