Newsweek Story Hits the Nail on the Head

I just finished reading David Frum's story in Newsweek today and I couldn't agree more with him. The man is a conservative and he supported the Iraq War but in this case he shows remarkable sense. His argument is that if the conservative movement doesn't make some changes in it's philosophy it is going to become irrelevant.

More importantly he takes on Rush Limbaugh. He makes an excellent analogy when he says that Rush Limbaugh is to the Republican Party today what Jesse Jackson was to to the Democratic Party in the 1980's. Although Jesse never held sway over such a large and adoring constituency that Rush does he still was the only real voice for African Americans in politics at the time and he needed to be respected. The problems begin for a party when respect turns to fawning and the individual begins holding their own party hostage.

This has clearly become the case for Rush Limbaugh and the Republicans. If anybody says anything that might be offensive to him they 'rush' to apologize and the result is that it confirms his 'leadership' of the Republican party. Even though Rush has the undying loyalty of 20 million Americans the rest of us mostly find him offensive and repulsive. We showed that in a very specific way during the last election. So if the Republicans continue to allow Rush to make their argument for them then they can expect to receive about 20 million dittohead votes in the next election and watch their butts get kicked again.

Believe me when I tell you that is fine and dandy with me. Nobody deserves it more. If any party deserves to serve long term political purgatory then the Republicans are it. They played along while GWB rode this country to ruin and they deserve what they get. But if they decide to let their more intellectual members play a role they might live to fight another day. It was difficult listening to Meghan McCain yesterday on Rachel Maddow's show but I did appreciate her message. She has been writing against another Hate Monger - Ann Coulter. I just wish, like, she had, like, expressed that opinion, like, without so many likes.

In any event it should be fun to watch. At this point it doesn't look like the Republicans are getting the message. They still say outrageous things on the radio and on Fox Noise. These thing are said with the specific purpose of making people think that there might be more than one truth about a subject out there. It's called muddying the waters. As long as they believe that they can trick the American people into believing things that arent' true they will continue to attempt it. Perhaps a few more election cycles will deliver the message more effectively.