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This post, written by Steven Reynolds, originally appeared on The All Spin Zone
Ron Paul supporters are not Republicans according to RedState.com, so they're going to limit what Ron Paul supporters can say on the web site. Isn't speech supposed to be for all people, RedState?
Not only are Ron Paul supporters "a bunch of liberals pretending to be Republicans," but they are now restricted in their use of the RedState.com website. In a stunning move against supporters of a Republican candidate for President of the United States, the powers that be at RedState.com, a magnet site on the conservative end of the political spectrum, has decided to censor those from the party RedState supports. I got this stunning news from Politico, but let's look at Leon H. Wolf's words. He's from RedState. (Since comments are closed on this post over at RedState, I invite Ron Paul supporters to comment here by posting nearly all of Wolf's rant:
Effective immediately, new users may *not* shill for Ron Paul in any way shape, form or fashion. Not in comments, not in diaries, nada. If your account is less than 6 months old, you can talk about something else, you can participate in the other threads and be your zany libertarian self all you want, but you cannot pimp Ron Paul. Those with accounts more than six months old may proceed as normal.
Now, I could offer a long-winded explanation for *why* this new policy is being instituted, but I'm guessing that most of you can probably guess. Unless you lack the self-awareness to understand just how annoying, time-consuming, and bandwidth-wasting responding to the same idiotic arguments from a bunch of liberals pretending to be Republicans can be. Which, judging by your comment history, you really don't understand, so allow me to offer an alternate explanation: we are a bunch of fascists and we're upset that you've discovered where we keep the black helicopters, so we're silencing you in an attempt to keep you from warning the rest of your brethren so we can round you all up and send you to re-education camps all at once.
Hey, we're sure *some* of Ron Paul's supporters really are Republicans. They can post at any one of a zillion Ron Paul online forums. Those who have *earned* our respect by contributing usefully for a substantial period of time will be listened to with appropriate respect. Those who have not will have to *earn* that respect by contributing usefully in the other threads... and not mentioning Ron Paul. Given a month of solid contributing, send one of us an email and we'll consider lifting the restriction on your account.
You may now resume your regularly scheduled RedState activities. Everyone but the Ron Paul spammers, that is. You can resume your regularly scheduled activities somewhere else.
Man, there's trouble in RedStateland. Imagine! They've got a candidate doing far better than anyone thought he could. Ron Paul. They've got other candidates who are about as middling as middling gets. the whole collection of McCain, Thompson, Romney and Giuliani have maybe half the excitement and firepower that Ron Paul does. Certainly Ron Paul has the supporters who are willing to work for him. So what do these Republicans at RedState do? They ban the speech of the Ron Paul supporters.
Even Republicans care about free speech when it is their own. What RedState has done here is offend some highly vocal Republicans. It won't harm RedState one bit when they hear the whining and complaining from the Ron Paul supporters. But it will hurt the eventual Republican candidate in Fall '08, because some of those Ron Paul supporters will not be voting for the eventual Republican candidate, and none of those Ron Paul supporters will work for the eventual Republican candidate. RedState is pissing off the Libertarian wing of the Republican Party, the only wing of the Republican Party that acts like Republicans used to act, with care for balanced budgets, real moral values and sensible foreign policy ruled by facts, not Dick Cheney's fantasies. (Sorry to put that tiny image of Dick Cheney's fantasies in your brains -- just down a shot or two and maybe you won't remember the horror.) Yes, RedState's move will hurt Republicans.
Tagged as: conservatives, redstate.com, election08, paul
Steven Reynolds is a regular blogger for the All Spin Zone
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