[Still Thinking]

Why is the GOP willing to engender the fury of the conservative base when this results in the shut-down of various conservative web sites that have enabled any measure of conservative/Republican electoral success? Because the GOP leadership is packed to the rafters with morons and retards, that’s why.

Beg to differ on that one. Establishment GOP hates grass roots conservatives, so they have as much to gain from shutting down dissent as the [other] socialists to. They think that if they can remove the communication medium, they'd be able to claim conservatism and most (the politically uninvolved) wouldn't notice they were lying. I doubt it, but maybe they're right.

[Burkean Buckleyite]

Establishment GOP hates grass roots conservatives, so they have as much to gain from shutting down dissent as the [other] socialists to. They think that if they can remove the communication medium, they'd be able to claim conservatism and most (the politically uninvolved) wouldn't notice they were lying.

Indeed. They resent the peasants who dare to hold their feet to the fire now and then.