Comments on: Colin Powell: GOP Should Be More Inclusive And Stop Listening To Rush Limbaugh

By: jeff_pickens

jeff_pickens — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 03:21:01 +0000

Although, (and I agree with the flow of the conversation here,) Glenn Greenwald has some surprising things to say about bipartisanship that I think makes a lot of sense, and my hope for our new Congress is not necessarily "agreement" on issues, but government processes put back in place, and genuine debate and dialogue and reason and evidence as virtues. Maybe that's a pipe dream.

Here's Glenn's article from Nov 18th:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/...

By: kritt11

kritt11 — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:39:25 +0000

Jim– Your last sentence should be tattoed on the forehead of every partisan politician who has obstructed progress in dealing with the massive problems Americans are facing.

By: Jim_Satterfield

Jim_Satterfield — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 05:13:40 +0000

davigoli beat me to it. It's a chicken and the egg question. And kritt is right about how the bile spewed by the Republican media works against having a nation that can work together towards anything. When they make compromise an obscenity they make governing effectively a virtual impossibility.

By: kritt11

kritt11 — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:58:40 +0000

Excellent point, davigoli!

Limbaugh used to be considered a wingnut kook, that almost no one listened to. After Clinton was elected people began listening in earnest. His audience grew by leaps and bounds during the Bush 43 years- to the point that Rove faxed RNC talking points to him, and he was called to the WH with other conservative hosts on more than one occasion to help get out the word. Many conservatives see him for what he is a — party hack– but many others would never question anything he said.

When Chuck Hagel was recently interviewed he said that Rush and others like him are ruining the Republican party. And in truth conservative talk radio hosts are quite capable of drumming up citizen outrage- as they recently have on the immigration issue and on the Dubai ports issue. Any Republican who works with Democrats is crucified on those shows, and almost every Democrats is portrayed as ultra liberal , socialist or communist. How can that possibly help us unite as a nation or the GOP regain its standing in national politics?

By: davigoli

davigoli — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:18:24 +0000

@AustinRoth – Well, that's the idea – as long as Rush Limbaugh has the ear of 20 million base Republicans (as he claims), the Republican party will go nowhere fast. We can debate about causality – whether Rush is responsible for keeping the party behind, or whether people listen to him out of laziness and lack of a better example, or some of both – but one way or another Rush's continued commercial success means Republicans will have a hard time getting out of these woods.

By: AustinRoth

AustinRoth — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:57:53 +0000

Jim – you are now agreeing with me, it seems, which is good.

Leadership does not follow the base – it takes them where they need to go. The media is a reflection of the base, and LACK of leadership, which was my point.

No party should be driven by the base or media. It was the failure point for the Democrats for years, and it is the failure point for Republican now.

Take all the pundits off the air, and nothing will change. To get out of the woods, so to speak, Republicans do not need to worry one whit about Rush and such; they need to find strong leadership.

By: Jim_Satterfield

Jim_Satterfield — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:15:25 +0000

Rush and the pundits are what passes for leadership in the current GOP. The base follows them and agrees with them. This is the nature of what currently passes for both Republicanism and conservatism in this country. The Republican media is a reflection of the party, both its membership and its leadership.

By: AustinRoth

AustinRoth — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:55:35 +0000

Jim - Your constant need to reflect your biases onto my comments is getting tiresome. I don't mind being challenged on what I do say, but I do mind having to defend what people want me to have said so they can attack me.

I was not and did not say because I don't listen to him, he does not have influence when I said I have listened to him very little. I was just making the point I am not a Rush fan, and was not defending him in particular.

It doesn't change my point, though. Rush or not, Ann, Hannity, etc., the real issue is not people like them in the media. It is the lack of leadership within the party, the lack of vision. At most, Rush and his cohorts are a symptom or a bellwether, but not a source, of the problems in the Republican party.

By: Jim_Satterfield

Jim_Satterfield — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:38:28 +0000

It wasn't your comment about them needing leadership but your thinking that because you don't listen to him he doesn't hold a great deal of influence with much of the core Republican base, AR. It just doesn't hold up.

By: Kathryn

Kathryn — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:13:21 +0000

Look, if Rush (and it's not just him Austin, that was Joe's point) was content to play a gadfly type role like John Stewart, we wouldn't be having this conversation. However, he, Anne Coulter, Hannity, the National Review, Bill O'Reilly and the rest of Fox news are constantly drawing lines in the sand and constantly saying they won't accept a nominee unless the nominee was ok with torture, blamed the divorce rate on gays, believed in creationism and believed a tax rate of zero will close the deficit.
Superdestroyer, yes BushGOP is pro-big government but pro-big government intrusion. Erosion of civil liberties and invasion of bedrooms is not moderate. Most conservatives, like the Club for Growth only define big government in terms of tax cuts. If you spy on your nation's citizens but offer tax cuts to the top percent, you are by their definition, not a “big government” conservative. If you are a so-con, big government, if it involves nanny-state commands, like forcing women who were raped to go through a pregnancy, seems to be fine. So don't try to pretend that the GOP has attempted to be moderate. Statism and Christianism are big government but they are the opposite of moderation.

By: AustinRoth

AustinRoth — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:48:40 +0000

I cannot believe someone was so offended by my remark about the Republican Party needing leadership, rather than focusing on media figures, as they way to get better that they felt the need to mark me down.

Just goes to prove that too many of you are fixated on Rush = Devil.

By: kritt11

kritt11 — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:16:37 +0000

Joe is exactly right. I've been trying to make this point all along on some other threads-- but some conservative always comes on and says that the GOP will REALLY become extinct if it becomes too much like the Democrats.

Under the Rove strategy, Republicans have united their party on issues that matter greatly to a few, but not much or at all to the rest of us. The last election was lost because they did not know how to address the current economic downturn and its effect on the middle and lower classes.

Picking divisive issues necessarily angers key segments of the population who then take their revenge at the polling booths. The best example of that was McCain's failure among Hispanic voters who blamed Republicans for xenophobic immigration policies- even though McCain himself favored immigration reform.

I would like to be able to vote for a non-ideological Republican like Powell, David Gergen, or Bobby Jindahl. But the GOP wants to run candidates like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich.

As long as the Republicans kowtow to the social conservatives they will continue to lose moderates and independents. That means that unless Obama does something really stupid or is involved in a massive corruption scheme- he will probably win reelection in 2012.

By: Stones Cry Out - If they keep silent… » Things Heard: e44v5

Stones Cry Out - If they keep silent… » Things Heard: e44v5 — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:15:24 +0000

[...] I’ve got the Rush part down, i.e., I don’t listen to him or for that matter any political radio [...]

By: superdestroyer

superdestroyer — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:36:07 +0000

Maybe Powell did not notice, but the Bush Adminsitration tried the big spending, racial pandering, compassionate conservatism and it did not work. All conservatvies received for supporting a non-conservative Repubicans is higher taxes in the future, bigger deficits, more government, open borders, and a more intrusive government.

Now Powell wants to double down on the idiotic idea of Democratic-lite. Powell is more out of touch than Rush is. Pandering to blacks and Hispanics means abandoning any pretense of being conservative and means that Powell just wants Repubicans to be a brand that will change with the times and pander to whoever needs to be pander to to win.

Maybe the Republicans would be better off paying less attention to quota blacks who jumped on the Republican bandwagon for careerist reasons and then jumped off for racial reasons.

By: Colin Powell: GOP Should Be More Inclusive And Stop Listening To Rush Limbaugh | Black Politics on the Web

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 07:08:07 +0000

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By: meB

meB — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 05:45:43 +0000

Please General! You turned your back on a moderate to suport a radical member of the other side. You abandioned your fellow military officer and a gentleman for what.? Now you want back in… because you won't be the only repblicn in Barry's cabinet, maybe. Forget it, sir. If you ask me, The GOP will be back if they sick to the conservative principals and don't deviate to the middle. Minority groups will catch on when there is a leader who can eloquently expalin why the constituion and conservative values, are their interest as well.. He's not on the radar yet……any suggestions?

By: D. E.Rodriguez

D. E.Rodriguez — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 05:01:10 +0000

Joe, you have identified exactly the conundrum responsible Conser vatives find themselves in. While, Conservatives would like to appeal more to the center, to be more inclusive, the likes of Rush Limbaugh can continue to make big bucks by ,as Colin Powell says, appealing “to [the Republicans'] lesser instincts rather than [Republicans'] better instincts”

As long as Limbaugh and his ilk keep raking in their millions from those “lesser instincts” (Powell's words), not much is going to change.

By: AustinRoth

AustinRoth — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:36:20 +0000

You know, I have listened to Rush maybe a total of 10 times in my entire life, but man, it is getting so ridiculous litening they way people try to treat him, and Rove, as the boogieman.

The Republican party has real problems, but it isn't Rush. It is a lack of true leadership.