Posted on 03/17/2009 6:25:02 AM PDT by kindred
As if it is not enough that they have been decimated by the Democrats in the past couple of elections, the Republican survivors are now turning their guns on each other.
At the heart of these internal battles have been attacks on Rush Limbaugh by Republicans who imagine themselves to be so much more sophisticated because they are so much more in step with the political fashions of the time.
New Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele's cheap shot at Rush's program as "ugly" set off the latest round of in-fighting. That is the kind of thing that is usually said by liberals who have never listened to the program.
Regular listeners to the Rush Limbaugh program or subscribers to the Limbaugh newsletter know that both contain far more factual information and in-depth analysis than in the programs or writings of pundits with more of a ponderous tone or intellectual airs.
Why Michael Steele found it necessary to say such a thing-- except as a sop to the liberal intelligentsia-- is one of the many mysteries of the Republican Party. Steele has since apologized to Rush but you cannot unring the bell.
More important, the mindset it betrays is at the heart of many of the problems of the Republican Party, going back for years, long before Michael Steele appeared on the scene.
There has long been an element of the Republican Party that has felt a need to distance themselves from people who stand up for conservative principles, whether those with principles have been Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh or whomever.
The latest example is John McCain's daughter, who has said how embarrassed she is by having to explain Ann Coulter to her friends. If it wasn't for articulate conservatives like Ann Coulter, both the Republican Party and the country would be in even worse shape than they are now, for there are extremely few articulate Republican politicians who can make the case for any principle. Certainly Ms. McCain's father is not one of them.
The only time John McCain led Barack Obama in the polls last year was after Governor Sarah Palin joined the ticket. The economic collapse doomed their candidacies but McCain would have had no chance at all with another inconsistent and inarticulate Republican like himself on the ticket.
Yet many in the Republican Party seem to have felt as embarrassed by Governor Palin as they have been by others who articulated principles, instead of trying to be in step with the fashions of the time-- fashions set by liberals.
Maybe those Republicans who put a high value on being accepted in elite circles should be embarrassed by the narrowness of their elite friends, who disdain or demonize people whose principles they disagree with, instead of answering their arguments.
There has even been an undercurrent among some Republicans of a sense that it is time to move away from the image of Ronald Reagan, to update the party and court newer and less embarrassing segments of the voters than their current base.
There is certainly a lot to be said for inviting wider segments of the population to join you, by explaining how your principles benefit the country in general, and those segments in particular. But that is fundamentally different from abandoning your principles in hopes of attracting new votes with opportunism.
No segment of the population has lost more by the agendas of the liberal constituencies of the Democratic Party than the black population.
The teachers' unions, environmental fanatics and the ACLU are just some of the groups to whose interests blacks have been sacrificed wholesale. Lousy education and high crime rates in the ghettos, and unaffordable housing elsewhere with building restrictions, are devastating prices to pay for liberalism.
Yet the Republicans have never articulated that argument, and their opportunism in trying to get black votes by becoming imitation Democrats has failed miserably for decades on end.
There seemed, for an all too brief moment, that Michael Steele might have been the one to provide such much overdue articulation-- and possibly he still might, but only if he stays out of the Republican trap of trying to appease opponents by throwing supporters to the wolves.
The bloodletting will serve a beneficial end. It will remove the idiots from the GOP (hopefully), or drive the conservative base to find a new political home.
I support conservatives period. Whether they have a R before their name is of no consequence to me.
I agree. Now comes the “third parties are for losers” chorus.
It’s not like the Conservative 3rd party has to win an election to be successful. If the republicans, or even the democrats, happen to run a good candidate, we could throw our weight to them. A party doesn’t have to have a candidate in EVERY election.
Run a conservative candidate against every RINO and support the conservatives. The RINOs will get the message very quickly and go where they belong.
Third parties aren't for losers. Third parties are for spineless, lazy losers too scared to even try to take back the GOP for conservatism.
Third parties are for DOA quitters.
Funny, considering the fact that the RNC doesn't even support THEIR OWN candidates if they're conservative, or if it seems too hard.
Thomas Sowell is certainly not afraid to say what he thinks.
The republicans love being in Washington D.C. The Conservatives love the United States of America. I expect the republicans to lay low and start putting their masks back on in order to return to Washington D.C. We would be wise to remember to judge them at the ballot box by their deeds, not just their words. There are many who have a track record of loving Washington more than their country. Those are the ones who need to go.
Agree. And the rino right will continue to move left because they hate conservative principles, therefore they should be abandoned for their treachery against conservative principles and for their moral collapse. The principle of the barrel of rotten apples applies here and time is short.
[third parties are for losers. We must fight for a candidate in the GOP and be smarter about it than in 2008.]
Disagree. Third parties are for those conservatives who know that rino right is totally corrupt and will not ever be conservative again. Steele’s own words is a perfect example of the fact that they will maintain their new course to the left!
[Whether they have a R before their name is of no consequence to me.]
The RNC and GOP is the new liberal left dominion. It is later than we think and conservatives must unite and run only conservative politicians.
The GOP committed suicide by continuing left and running liberals like Bush and McCain. They will not repent.
And how are you going to bring all of the Republicans who are conservative to the new "conservative party" without splitting the vote?
Come on, be real. The idea that a new party can emerge and gain a majority in 4 years is laughable at best, and considering the power it'll hand Obama, it's very dangerous at worst.
It is a strategy to do that. You make it impossible for a RINO to win, and help conservatives win.
Whatever winning, bespined, go getters have tried in the past isn’t working.
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