Funny thing about FR.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

I used to spend some time there reading posts, just to find out what "the enemy" was up to. Tried posting once, was banned after one post that didn't even have any text, just a link to a Boston Globe story about JK's Vietnam service for "clarification" on a thread.

I couldn't really read it anymore, all the hatred was way too depressing.

I consoled myself a little by saying, "These are hateful, hate-filled people. They represent a vile fringe of 'conservatism' and the Republicans." After all, most of the Republicans I know (and I know a lot, living here in TX and having spent most of my career as a military officer) are not as hate and anger filled as this. (Though some are.)

But the sad reality is, I think it IS representative of the core of the current Repub party. Look at the fact that a guy like Corsi, a FR poster, was the co/ghost author on John O'Neill's book, and the fact that "Buckhead" was some kind of Rovian tool in this memo-gate deal. Pretty clear that Rove's Repub Party has no problem embracing these brownshirts.

What say you? Fringe element not representing the core of Republicanism? Or, THIS IS your Republican party now!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. No, they are the Orcs...

Of the repukes. Nothing more or less.

[jdj]

3. what is an orc?

the fact that these guys so high up in the rnc actually post there shows it is another bought and paid puke operation...

does Clinton post here? Gore? Carville? anyone know their usernames?

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. The twisted, evil footsoldiers of the dark lord Sauron

in Lord of the Rings.

[mitchum]

2. The crazed lunatics and their puppetmasters are the core of the...

modern republican party. The takeover started in 1964, when racists and xenophobes flocked to the GOP. Moderate and "Rockefeller Republicans" are now the fringe element of the GOP.

[Liberal Gramma]

8. I agree

but I think they are fringe rather than core. I shudder to think that any of these hate-filled ignorant hicks were once Democrats, but I suspect some of them were....until the Democrats betrayed them by supporting Civil Rights. Best thing we ever did, and as a side benefit, all these undesireables left the party.

[amber dog democrat]

4. It started with Nixon

Here you had an incumbant in the middle of a war with more than enough support to win re election hands down and what does he do? He becomes obsessed with paranoid delusions and authorizes a plethora of illeagal, unethical, and unconscionable actions aimed against the Democratic Party.

This junta he creates sets the pattern for suscribing to a doctrine of the Ends Justify the Means that is in effect all the way through the Reagan and Bush Administrations.

They have forgotten how to run honest campaigns since Goldwater's time.
I honestly feel the Republican Party has been in a state of ethical and moral decay since 1972.... but even so things have taken a turn for the worse.

These last two elections have me remembering that line from Yeats,... " what beast, its hour come round at last, slouches to Jerusalem to be born ".

We are entering the era of Caligulae. I hate to put it in such Manichean terms.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

5. The difference is, unlike Nixon, shrubya has got nothing. He wouldn't

be within shouting distance of reelection if not for whore media, hate radio, and dirty tricks galore.

[amber dog democrat]

6. Nixon gave us ABM treaty, openings to China

envormental laws, and began the painful process of extracting us from the mess in Vietnam. No I think today its all about blood and circusus to keep the citizens happy -
If people were not so dumbed down by the pathological toxicity of the media that they have forgotten how to think critically, we would be holding these so - called leaders accountalbe for their actions.

For all his flaws, Nixon stands head and shoulders above ANY of the current Republican leadership. It will take decades for the Republicans to clean house and become the conservatives they once were. Not that i always agreed with them but I wish we could have Eisenhower or someone like him take the leadership to account.

[Old and In the Way]

10. Ed Muskie (D-ME) led the charge on Air/Water pollution.......nt

[Old and In the Way]

9. Bush is the end-of-the-line for the Republican Party.

He is the culmination of decades of Bush inbreeding in a Republican Party that is now devoid of any ethical/moral principals except getting itself re-elected and looking out for their corporate benefactor's best interests.

I'd rather lose elections than become one of them.

.

[amber dog democrat]

13. i too am wondering just how much worse can it get?

But after reading Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, a couple of times I don't think we dare to allow things to run their course. With these narcissistic neocons in charge I feel things could get very bad indeed. Remember they hijacked a party that was already shedding its ethical and moral principles... and made it worse.

In my mind, Republican = corporate fascist.

[OutsourceBush]

23. I tell people that Bush is

to the Democrats what Clinton was to the Republicans.

Bush will hopefully be the best thing that ever happened to the Democrats, just like Clinton was the best thing that happened to the Republicans. Bush and his hateful zombies galvanize the opposition (Dems) in the exact same way. We already see dems organizing websites and Air America Radio rolling out city after city. Hopeful the Republican 'stock market of hate' is getting ready to CRASH.

[mitchum]

12. Actually it started with Goldwater and the OC right wing crazies...

who were quickly joined by their cracker brethren.
Don't give Barry too much credit for reasonableness just because he seemed to wise up as the reaper drew nearer.

[brook]

7. I don't think they're 'fringies'...

They are the 'new breed' of Republican - and a disgrace to what that party once was. I'm old enough to remember being able to have intelligent - even courteous -discussions with GOPers. Freepers are pod people - inhabited by Falwellian familiars. Unreasonable, unthinking, unwilling to deal with the fact that they are marching off a cliff. When they end up at the bottom - illusions dashed - they won't even have the guts to admit who it was they followed. It will always be we liberals' fault. Meanwhile, they'll be the first at the trough. Like their 'leader', they never take responsibility.

[shraby]

11. Maybe some of them are Rove employees

who post to keep the hate going.

[brook]

16. That's entirely possible.

The neo-con agenda cannot survive without hate - and the divisivness it breeds. Ya know - your flag? my flag? your god? my god? All that crap.

[bo44]

14. Shitstains left on the Constitution after it was used as TP by the bfee

[Zero Gravitas]

15. Freeper Meltdown

Just imagine the Freeper Meltdown on Election Night when their Leader gets beaten! IF Bush has enough class to give a concession speech (doubtful) they will go nuts.

George W. Bush, your clock is up.

[tinanator]

17. they are already nuts

they really truly are. its one thing when the pros step in to use their board, but the grassroot whackjobs in that redneck of the woods will blow gaskets if Kerry is sworn in. Some of them could become very dangerous then. All that hate. Other than that though, they are weak minded powerless freeks who couldnt bust a grape. Unworthy of mention let alone fear.

[OutsourceBush]

21. They are all mouth

They have a hard time getting half a dozen people together for a protest that they plan weeks for. They are a bunch of keyboard commandos with big racist mouths, that's it.

[tinanator]

26. thats the facts jack

i would think you lived right here in freeper central to realize it.

[grasswire]

18. I've been monitoring them...

...since the very day that Monica Lewinsky's name hit the news.

On that day, I realized that something sinister was happening.

Then, freerepublic was peopled with all kinds of wingers. Discussions were often interesting. But thinking people were winnowed out, and the Bushbots are left.

The owner, Jim Robinson, has betrayed his conservative mission and sold his soul to the thugs.

[OutsourceBush]

20. I agree

The nazi redneck owner JR is good a bilking his braindead idiots for tons of cash, I'll give him credit for that. I knew some people on FR several years ago, so I tried to post there some to be social. I got banned when I tried to point out racist hateful posts.

The admin of a blog/forum... whatever... will create the tone of the website by who he/she bans and who he/she encourages. I believe that what you see with the FR website is a direct reflection of the sick racist hateful mind of JR himself and the far right nazi devil worshipping whackos he associates with.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

25. Hey Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Media_Lies_Daily]

24. Unfortunately, the thugs' political brethren are currently in control...

...of the centers of U. S. government. That gives these people a sense of broad entitlement to say and do anything they wish.

[WoodrowFan]

27. he had a soul

Rimjob had a soul? Must have been a tiny shriveled up little thing.

[Buddyblazon]

22. Their party has changed...even my Conservative father doesn't

...like it when I tell him he's a neo-conservative. He says he can't stand those freaks. Yet amazingly enough...he STILL supports Bush.

And he's a bright guy...has his doctorate. 20 years in the Army...retired as a Major. I guess that kind of explains it. But I can tell when we talk about his party...he's not overly excited about it. And the change has just come in the last few months.

The lack of fiscal responsibility of this administration has bothered him for awhile. But he got really quiet when I brought up the fact that Bush couldn't name a mistake other than that he had "hired the wrong people.". I could tell that it bothered him. And he certainly wasn't blindly willing to say that Bush won the last debate like all the other Kool-aid drinkers.

I think it has changed dramatically. This admin knows that their core will follow...without question...whatever quack policy they put in front of them. And they've really used it to mold the core.

Scary shit man.

[tom_paine]

28. Nop, they are as much a part of the Busheviks as the Brownshirts were part

of the Nazis.

No less and no more.

[MadHound]

29. Useful idiots is what they are

When the 'Pugs need some grunts to do the dirty work, when they need some brownshirts to do a hit, they turn to the Freepers. Far right whackjobs that are consumed with hatred for all things bright and beautiful, these people are perfect for doing the dirty work, at least if that work doesn't involve actual confrontation, or moving from their computer keyboards. They function as part of the RW echo chamber, instigating and amplifying even the most over the top lies and smears. In return, they are paid back with red meat rhetoric, and little else, as Bush continues to screw the poor and middle class, even those who worship at his feet.

The ones to watch in real life are the Protest Warriors. I think the BFEE became disenchanted with the Freepers after the miserable turn out time and again at their so called "rallies". A dozen counter protestors at an anti-war protest, with half of them guarding the porta-potties is so funny, pathetic and ludicrous that even their BFEE handlers realized that the Freepers were nothing without their computers, for while in cyberspace they are decent keyboard character assasians, in real life they are middle aged, overweight, bloviating embarrassments. Thus last year they rolled out the new, improved model of brownshirts, the Protest Warriors. Younger, more confrontational, these are brownshirt troops more in the traditional mold. Yet even these boisterous bullies fail to stand up to confrontation, wilting away when confronted with determined resistance, slinking back to their den whence they came, so they can lick their wounds and congratulate each other on their so called "success".

Yet while neither model isn't much more than hot air, they do bear watching if Bush achieves a second term. Emboldened by such an event, they could become much more of a physical threat, pumped up on hate and adrenaline. Putting a literal smack-down on them, while physically and emotional satisfying would only send them whining to the authorities. Better to catch their atrocities on tape, and send them to jail.