Rush Limbaugh Does NOT Head the Republican Party – That’s a Clever Democrat Ploy
For probably close to thirty years, I have been a registered Republican and have voted Republican in most – but not all – elections. Rush Limbaugh does not represent me as a Republican, and I don’t know too many Republicans who would say he speaks for them either. And for sure he is not the leader of the Republican Party. As one of my most intelligent Republican friends said to me the other day, “Rush Limbaugh is no leader. He is just a provocateur.”
Of course it is not Rush Limbaugh who has anointed himself, although no doubt he is reveling in the attention (even if only for economic benefit). This is all a Democrat hatched plot – think Paul Begala and James Carville – to tar all Republicans with the stigma of Rush Limbaugh. Even Thomas Friedman piled on in the New York Times yesterday, referring to him as “the de facto G.O.P boss”. Pretty smart politics, I would say, but just plain wrong.
I will admit – and even many Democrats will concur – that Mr. Limbaugh makes some very valid points, as do many pundits/talking heads/or whatever one calls them, be they Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or Green. But his delivery is calculated to shock, to rile up and to foment extreme partisanship. When he is criticized for his appalling statements or for his delivery, he is quick to hide behind his role as an entertainer. Personally I hate that kind of ‘entertainment’ which is why I eschew his show and the shows of other blowhards, both Democrat and Republican. Some may find his calling women femi-Nazis cute or funny, but I find it repulsive. Saying – or should I say screaming – that he wishes President Obama to fail is a revolting way to express his disapproval of policy.
If Rush Limbaugh were really the leader of the Republican Party, he would try to help his audiences to understand why he disagrees with the policies being espoused by President Obama and the Democrat Congress. He would explain clearly why the policies are harmful, why they will fail and what should be done instead. That would be leadership.
Tags: Politics
March 12th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Patricia,
I am so enjoying your blogs… your clear and illuminating writing makes sense of the world, even when it is a crazy as it is! Bad enough being a Republican these days, but to have Steele as our leader and Limbaugh posing behind him (or in front of him, depending on who you are listening to) is just depressing. Thanks for giving me something to smile about these days, or at least something reasonable to read.
Eileen
March 12th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Patricia,
I speak as a fallen away Republican of three dozen years duration. I quit precisely eight years ago.
Bush et.al. were the last straw. Truth be told, the Republican Party moved away from me over the years. It drifted too far to the right and found a home with narrow ideologues and dogmatic evangelicals.
Just as “nature abhors a vacuum”, so too does politics. “Republican leadership” has become an oxymoron. And Limbaugh is the moron to fill the vacuum. Consider the alternatives.
John
March 13th, 2009 at 2:29 am
Eileen,
Thank you – I am sure I am wrong as often as I am right, but I try to be honest.
Patricia
March 13th, 2009 at 2:32 am
John,
I guess the point I need to make better is that neither the far right nor Rush Limbaugh represent the Republican Party. They are simply the noisy ones. It won’t be too long before we all regret the errors or Big Government. That having been said, the mess we are in now cannot be blamed on any party – it was our Government (mostly under the aegis of Democrats) and Wall Street (which as you kow is both Democrat and Republican) and a host of other influences that have wrought us today’s economy. I was a Mitt Romney supporter and remain so, and believe he would have been the best president to get us out of this mess.
Best,
Patricia
March 13th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Here, here on the Mitt Romney idea!
April 29th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Sad to say but your party made a deal with the devil decades ago when it made the calculation to embrace the religious right as the reliable army to get out the Republican vote. You lost control of your party to people who are basically unable to cope with a complex modern world and whose only response to inevitable change is xenophobia and race-baiting. Your party willing turned our airwaves to a few large media companies who make a pretty penny off fear mongering demagogues like Hannity, Beck and Limbaugh. Good luck with that combination. Looks like the Regan Revolution went the way of the French and Russian Revolution. As smaller and smaller group of idealogical hard-liners tossing out anyone insufficiently pure in thought.
Gus