Why Does Rush Matter?
It’s interesting that other conservatives are now realizing what I’ve known for about 15 years: that Rush Limbaugh is a windbag that is more concerned about boosting his ratings than he is about trying to rebuild the GOP.
But now, that conservatives and liberals are chatting about the rotund radio announcer, I am left wondering something:
Why Does Rush Matter?
Why have so many bloggers spent so much time writing about this guy?
Yes, I know that he seems to hold a big sway over a lot of conservatives. Yes, he made a big speech at CPAC which is the big gathering of movement conservatives. But why have we made Rush and CPAC the be-all and end-all of American conservatism when they aren’t?
Rush’s message is a damaging to the GOP- I get it. CPAC is big, it is what made Ronald Reagan. But if Rush is not going to listen to reason and if CPAC is more interested in Joe the Plumber than in trying to build from the ashes, then maybe it’s time to start to build a counter movement. Maybe it is time to build a new kind of CPAC that is more inclusive and more focused on solutions than in slogans. Maybe we need to ignore Rush and his blatherings and get our own ideas out in the open.
Think about it: the Democrats created new vehicles to carry their message. Moveon.org used the internet to get the message out. Yearly Kos became the liberal version of CPAC with progressive bloggers coming together to find ways to get the progressive message out there and pick candidates who could win. When the party and ideological apparatus was not responsive, they created their own structures.
It’s interesting talking about how conservatism is dead and all that; but I know it is alive in people like David Brooks, David Frum, Reihan Salam, Ross Douthat and others. What it needs are new structures to carry that new message along. Rush won’t do it and neither will CPAC or for that matter, Michael Steele and the RNC.
The GOP and American conservatism can survive; it just needs stop focusing on Rush. As Dr. Seuss once said: “Those who matter don’t mind. Those who mind, don’t matter.”
Rush Limbaugh doesn’t matter.
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5 Responses to “Why Does Rush Matter?”
Wanna bet the Rush voted for Obama just to have more fodder for his show. I mean, that is all the really matters, putting more $$ into his bank accounts.
Good luck with that. Seriously. It will take a few election cycles before the Republican Party kicks the Rushtards to the curb. They still believe the GOP lost because it “wasn't true to its core conservative principles.” That's bubble-speak, as if the Democrats lost in 1984 because Mondale didn't go left enough. And, yes, there were plenty of people in the Democratic Party who thought Mondale lost because he “mishandled” his relationship with Jesse Jackson, thus alienating part of the Democratic base.
Regarding Rush Limbaugh’s hope for failure —
The Republicans need to find some path to bipartisanship. The Democratic Congressional leadership needs to both encourage and facilitate Republican bipartisan efforts. Thus far, both parties have failed the public.
The country is more fearful than it was after 9/11. Many, many more people are directly affected by the economic collapse that started in 2007 and became evident in September.
I am 61 and have lost my job. My 401(k) is worth about 40% less and dropping. If I get my job back by September, I'll be okay. If not, then I'll cash in my 401(k) and hope to make it last a year. If I don't get my job back, or some job, by September 2010, then I will go bankrupt and lose the house. At which point I will take my Social Security and a modest pension from a former life and, ever mobile, I’ll become a member of the lower class (might be pretty close to the poverty line). I would hate to disappoint my wife of more than 30 years with an impoverished retirement, but it could happen.
The financial system is truly broken. The public has lost confidence in the leadership of the private sector. The federal government is the only player left standing. Without taxpayer support, most of our financial institutions would be bankrupt.
I expect Congress to achieve a unity of purpose rivaling the country's response to 9/11. Republicans have an important, if somewhat unflattering, role to play to help shape a new and better regulated financial system to support our markets. For the 12 years that preceeded the collapse (1995 – 2007), Congress was controlled by Republicans. They should be in a good position to shed light on the regulatory failures that led first to the instability of the financial system, then to its collapse.
Public confidence requires the Congress to unify and support the President. The Republicans must find the political courage to admit that the system they promoted has failed the people. If they would be less defensive and more analytical they could make important contributions to helping the country out of this mess.
Rush Limbaugh has the right to voice his opinion. He speaks for that part of the Republican Party that understands patriotism only in terms of bullets and coffins — lapel pin patriots. Apparently the collapse of the financial system and the economic hardship it imposes on citizens does not require a patriotic response. And so, Rush hopes for Obama’s failure.
Those members of Congress, as well as Rush, who think we ought to just let the institutions fail, that any intervention will make the problem worse, should be voted out of office. These people are in a state of denial that the failure is systemic. They think it's part of the business cycle, only they can't find any economist who agrees. Hell, they would be hard pressed to find any bank CEO who agrees. The free market fanatics have taken credit for fabulous returns for so long that they cannot call it, as a CNBC documentary recently did, A House of Cards.
Rush seems to think that health care and environmental issues are the collateral damage of free markets. “We didn’t mean it and we are very sorry it happened …it is just one of those regrettable things that sometimes happens.” This doesn’t make it okay.
He's pretty sure that anyone trying to constructively address these issues is a “liberal” whose real purpose is to move us all towards “socialism”.
I find it interesting that the right wing is doing to the Republican Party today what the left wing did to the Democratic Party in 1968. The fringes of the parties tend toward ideological purity resulting in an inability to compromise. When an inability to compromise begins to affect the entire party, its days are numbered. The truth is the inability to compromise is the inability to govern. Fortunately the public knows this and, in the fullness of time, throws the laggards out.
And so I've come full circle — compromise is at the heart of bipartisanship. The Republicans need to learn again how it is done.
“Rush Limbaugh doesn’t matter.” and “Rush's message is a damaging to the GOP”
Put the two together and you'll see exactly why Democrats want Rush to stay in the limelight, why they want Rush to matter, why they want Rush to succeed
Dorian
rustbelt
Excellent post, thank you.