Rush Limbaugh, The Democrat's Talk-Radio Straw Man

By: Mr. Curmudgeon
mrcurmudgeon@inthepublicsquare.com

Now that George W. Bush, John McCain and other compassionate conservative reachers-across-the-aisle have relegated the Republican Party to pitiful irrelevance, the political Left and it media allies need someone against whom they can juxtapose the righteous ideals of their cause. Enter Rush Limbaugh.

Both CNN, Fox News and C-SPAN aired his speech before the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) commercial-free and without interruption. Brad Woodhouse, who currently heads Americans United for Change and is the soon-to-be communications director of the Democratic National Committee, is releasing a political attack-add linking the Republican Party’s shell-shocked and dwindling congressional delegation with the combative talk-radio powerhouse. “Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the Republican party,” said Woodhouse. “He says jump and they say how high.” Of course, this is nothing more than a ham-fisted effort to resuscitate the tired myth that most, if not all, Republicans are extreme, fire breathing right-wingers – and Limbaugh is basking in all the free publicity.

Compassionate conservatives, however, are not amused. “With his private plane and his cigars,” wrote David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter. “...Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence – exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party.”

That, of course, begs the question: “what philosophy, what party?” Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee crafted this inspirational answer:

“We’re going to say to friend and foe alike: We want you to be part of us, we want you to be with us.” The party of Lincoln is now the party of Barney the huggable dinosaur.

At a White House meeting, President Barack Obama chided Republican lawmakers wary of supporting his stimulus budget. “You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.”

With no credible political opposition, the Democratic Party and her media allies needed to manufacture a fictitious danger standing between them and the all-but-curtain enactment of Obama’s transformative political and economic agenda for America. The decision, therefore, was to name Rush Limbaugh the leader of a dead party and its ineffectual conservative base. As the CPAC audience listened approvingly, Limbaugh delivered his rambling acceptance speech to thunderous applause. Rush is now the official scapegoat of the American Left and the de facto leader of a shell-shocked Republican Right.

I understand that… there's a sense of liberation here among all of you that are attending CPAC. I understand what the sense of liberation is about. But don't make the mistake at the same time of feeling liberated as thinking…we can do better as a minority. Because we're not a minority. And if you start thinking of yourselves as a minority, you're going to be defensive. The American people may not all vote the way we wish them to, but more Americans than you know live their lives as conservatives in one degree or another. And they are waiting for leadership. We need conservative leadership. We can take this country back. All we need is to nominate the right candidate. It's no more complicated than that.

If conservatives, including Limbaugh, find themselves imbued with a new sense of “liberation,” why wasn’t CPAC’s nationally televised forum used to announce the formation of a new conservative third party? If Rush wants to command anything, why choose a rusting Edsel propped on crumbling cinder blocks? The Left was wise to choose Rush to lead the Republican Party precisely because, like most conservatives, he is incapable of breaking his drug-like addiction to the Republican Party. As long as they remain Republicans, conservatives are bound to the dead weight of the reachers-across-the-asile, who continually drag their ideals down into the dark, cold depths of irrelevance. By staying Republicans, conservatives lend credence to the fiction that America has a functioning two-party system. Forming a third party is the only legitimate means for unmasking that pernicious lie.

Abraham Lincoln said it best: “The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.” Conservatives of America unite! You have nothing to loose but your brittle and rusting chains.

--Mr. Curmudgeon