I would like to preface this diary by saying that I am a progressive/liberal who is a long time member of both DailyKos and RedState. I was actually banned once from RedState too. I live in Chicago, and have voted for Kerry, Nader, and Clinton in the last three presidential elections.
Ben Domenech (Augustine) has rightfully resigned from WaPo, and his plagiarism is unjustifiable. That being said, the people over at RedState are in an uncomfortable position...
The Editors at RedState have instituted a mass banning of trolls over the last week, and have implemented a policy of not letting new members post comments or diaries for a week after joining.
This may seem unreasonable at first, but I think that the Editors correctly did what they had to do. RedState is a much smaller website than kos, and they have been inundated with liberal bloggers questioning Augustine and his writings. They banned 30 people alone yesterday, and another 20 today before lunch. When a normal day for RedState has something like 30-50 posters, with an exceptionally long comments section having 60 comments by a small number of people, this invasion was overwhelming. Imagine what Markos would do if suddenly 50% of the posters at dailykos were wingnuts?
There is a way for liberals and progressives, or at least non-conservatives, to post productively at RedState.
First, they value honest discourse above anything. They will trot out rhetorical devices and ad hominems to attack people, and they usually don't listen AT ALL to counter-arguments, but they will also consider you a valuable poster if your arguments do not exist just as a Pointy Stick.
There are quite a few moderate-liberal posters over there that have a lot of respect from the whole community, including flyerhawk, casualobservations, and Aleks311. Posters like Arkie Liberal and bink have good reputations too.
Instead of stirring up a hornets nest, if you go to RedState try to respect their rules and they'll let you voice your opinion.
With regards to Ben Domenech, he is a founder of the site. They have been defending him relentlessly as any of us would defend kos, Armando, or Hunter if they were in a similar situation. Domenech IS a plagiarist, but he is also a friend of theirs. Many at the site recognize that he did do wrong and must be punsished for it.
In conclusion, I think that RedState can be a great site to go to and voice your opinions. The more respect you show the members of that site, though, the more respect you will get in return (you know... standard Golden Rule stuff).
UPDATE: About my "honest debate" comment... yes, they do not value it all the time (re:abortion), but for the most part they will engage you in discussion if you have the patience.