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.
I actually used to hang around over there. The echo chamber effect on that site is truly remarkable, and knowing the place as I do, I can see why they'd purge the Rudista -- they simply violate too many litmus tests of what it takes to be a Freeper. Of course this sort of thing is what the entire Republican party is facing in microcosm. The hardcore are going to react very, very badly to any attempts to wrest control of the party away from them by moderates, but if the moderates fail, it will lead to another electoral disaster.
Glad it's happening to them and not us... :)
Comments (4)
Yeah, those darned right-wingers. They go so far out of their way to silence opposing voices, they...
Hey, wait a minute. Isn't this "Wizbang Blue?"
1. Posted by cirby | May 29, 2007 12:36 PM
Posted on May 29, 2007 12:36
having spent time at places like DailyKOS and myDD, i don't think anyone on the left is in any place to be throwing stones on the issue of ideological purity of thought.
not that i agree with their actions, but it is their site to do with as they please. just be aware that it's at least as bad on the left.
2. Posted by ke_future | May 29, 2007 2:20 PM
Posted on May 29, 2007 14:20
Add Democratic Underground to that list, KE. And I don't visit any of them because reasonable discussion is impossible because everybody's trying to prove they're more radical than the rest.
3. Posted by Paul Hamilton | May 29, 2007 3:33 PM
Posted on May 29, 2007 15:33
I like having DU and Kos around, though. Every time some left-leaning poster says "nobody on the Left believes that," you can usually find a few dozen posts over there that prove them wrong.
4. Posted by cirby | May 29, 2007 8:11 PM
Posted on May 29, 2007 20:11