DISQUS

dmiessler.com | grep understanding: New Liberal Strategy: Accept and Promote Rush Limbaugh as the Head of the Republican Party

  • CarlM · 9 months ago
    I think it's a bad strategy. Rush is NOT the head of the Republican Party (and everyone knows this). He's a blowhard with some idiotic ideas and who has made some terrible statements over the years. While it's true that it is probably possible to convince some people that some of what Rush says is the Republican line, it's also true that the leadership of the Republican Party is in a bit of disarray. I suspect that a focus on Rush will add a sense of urgency to the Republican Leadership to get their acts together and develop a plan of action. This in turn would shorten the length of time that the Democrats have an opposition in disarray. Any short-term gains would be more than offset by the long-term losses.
  • Daniel Miessler · 9 months ago
    When you say "everyone knows this", I think we need to hash out what you mean by "everyone". I know a number of very smart, successful Republicans who think Rush is a leader and should step up for them.

    Again, there's a big difference between the Republican base and Republican leadership.
  • CarlM · 9 months ago
    A leader .. yes .. THE leader .. no. I don't believe that there are many people who _really_ believe that he is THE leader of the Republican party.

    I just don't see the benefit to pushing this issue too hard. I understand that this is a case of giving him and the Republican Party just enough rope to hang themselves with. From my point of view, they already have this much rope. It's time to sit back and watch the show.
  • Michael S Black · 9 months ago
    Carl, I gotta disagree with you that only "some people" can be convinced, the party itself is fracturing along support lines for him. The GOP claim's to be the party of conservatives, Rush headlined CPAC (Live, and managed to confuse the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence) to massive adulation, then the head of the party retracts some of his statements and APOLOGIZES! to Rush...Looks like the man is in the driver seat to me....

    Whatever the back-door conversations may mean, to the public (those not privy to private meetings between GOP power brokers), Rush appears to be the face of the party and the conservative movement.

    Want to bet the 2012 post-election analysis will point to his (i.e Limbaugh's) rise in prominence and increased vitriol as part of the continuing slide of the GOP?
  • dylan · 9 months ago
    facepalm.
  • Daniel Miessler · 9 months ago
    Can you explain?
  • icepyro · 9 months ago
    I think that he's going for:
    http://kevinchiu.org/emote/facepalm.jpg
    =D
  • dylan · 9 months ago
    Thanks ice.
  • Daniel Miessler · 9 months ago
    LOL

    I'm asking for an explanation of why he USED facepalm, not what it is.

    http://dmiessler.com/blog/sarah-palin-thinks-je...
  • dylan · 9 months ago
    I used facepalm to express my inner disgust of Rush Limbaugh, not your predictions of moderates - such as me - turning against the republican party. It's just that when I hear Rush Limbaugh these days I can only laugh. I remember my dad in the early 90s saying " Rush Limbaugh really knows his sh*t". Shortly after, he was full of it.
    I don't neglect the fact that he is a TV/radio personality either...I understand his method of attraction - which is narcissistic banter - devised to shock people into listening and watching his programs. Basically, facepalm is funny. The republican party is becoming more and more unbearable to digest. The two fit together perfectly in my head. :)
  • cooperati · 9 months ago
    Rush won't abandon his full time job as a celebrity to have to manage the party. He's the face of an ideological sect, which is centered in the Republican party, but not exclusive to it. Nor would he exclude listeners of other political faiths, which includes Libertarians and others, because he won't leave the limelight.

    (The unspoken truth is that there are even Democrats that listen to, and agree with, some of what come from the conservative corner.)

    I'm speaking as a Republican that has seen Limbaugh migrate through media for many years. He's had much better chances of taking on political positions and leaving the rhetoric to others, and has passed them all up purely for the sake of not letting others take his place.

    Also, he's past his prime in that he has blemishes that would just not do well in the arena of politics. It's the same reason why Powell never pursued a career in the party; he has skeletons in his closet. Similarly, Rice has retired because of a longstanding relationship with the Bush White House that the media enjoyed writing negative things about, no matter what she did. They are all damaged goods, to one extent or another.

    Instead, he provides the same medicine that he accuses the left wingers in the media of doing, and has developed a crowd in the process. (For some, it's religiously followed, and for others, like myself, it's like listening to an old man talk, and every now and then you'll hear something new, and maybe it can be useful.) In at least one respect, though, he's like Howard Stern, a shock jock that won't apologize for anything his ego shoves out his mouth.

    He has been, and will remain, a poster child for a cause, because he has an audience. That just might be all he needs.

    As a strategy for liberals, it's a sound one, and will produce an image that he's THE party official, to liberals. However, it will have little bleed over to Republicans, since they also rely on him to be LOUD, OBNOXIOUS, and much less political in nature than the current party leader is and has to be.

    People who are less intelligent, of any party, will be the most likely to fall for the strategy.

    -=T=-
  • Pat · 6 months ago
    He sure looks like a leader to me. All who go against him have to say sorry the next day. Looks like a mafia don to me.