All Hail the Free Republic!

by Patrick Gibson

There are, occasionally, developments that have the capacity to fundamentally change the landscape of our political culture. Historically these fundamental changes have happened once or perhaps twice in an average persons lifetime. In these times of weblogs and twenty-four hour news channels, we are seeing these fundamental changes happen all the more frequently and with all the more suddenness and impact upon our lives. No matter what the nature or scope of an event, or where it is in the world, and despite my subscriptions to God-knows-how-many news sources, I probably choose to get about 75% of my breaking news from one source, http://www.freerepublic.com/.
It isn't that the freepers have such an ivy-league staff. In fact, it's not likely that any of the bright minds I read comment by on that blog could be hired in the mailroom of the New York Times, much less writing commentary and columns for them. The unread snobs at the inside-the-beltway institutions are paid big bucks to make sure that comments like I read every day from freepers never see the light of day.
You see, the greatness of FR lies not in its staff, or in the resumes of its posters, but rather in the honest truth and heartfelt concern for our nation's future that emanates from so many articulate, well-thought, and insightful posters. To be sure, there is an element of crackpottery on the site as in any open forum, but I have yet to see any posts that even come close to the vile nature of some of the stuff I have read on The Daily Kos and Huffington Post, among other, more celebrated, less criticized sites in the blogosphere.
While the mainstream media (MSM in Freeper-talk) has ignored such stories as Jeremiah Wright and President-elect Obama's connections with Raila Odinga in Kenya or tried to hush them up like Obama's connections to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the irresponsible riff-raff that were allowed to drive them into failure at such great cost to us all, the freepers have been on the case. When there was buzz of a tape from Africa featuring the president-elect's wife, the consensus was that it was a hoax and that it was a distraction and a waste to discuss. Once again the freepers' instincts were correct.
I am expecting a tidal wave of new policies, new crises, and new activism by our government in light of the President-elect's promises. I have forsaken the mainstream media that not only lies to me but seems to be so full of itself and so populated by idiots that they either don't know they are misleading us, or they don't care. However I am more well-informed (FR is a compilation of news sources) and more up-to-speed than ever before on breaking news and current events, as well as how these events are being recieved by the average American (the type that has a job, not liberals). Thanks, FR. Thanks for the openness. Thanks for the quirkiness. Thanks for being Bob from Oklahoma and not Katie Couric. Thanks for being real.