There has been a lot of talk in the past few weeks about the turmoil in the Republican Party. Hopefully it came to a head this week with the attacks on Rush Limbaugh from both the left and unfortunately the right as well. I say hopefully because the Republican Party needs to move forward in a hurry.
President Obama appears to have a team in place to silence Limbaugh who is describe by the White House as the de facto Republican leader. There is no doubt that Limbaugh is the conservative voice of about 20 million Americans. This team to discredit Limbaugh is reportedly led by none other than White House Chief of Staff Rahn Emanuel.
FOXNews.com points out that the war on conservatism doesn’t stop with Limbaugh. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is constantly “singling out” other conservative economic voices like Jim Cramer and Rick Santelli.
Politics is a nasty business, and the current Democratic team is using words and actions to silence as many opposition voices as possible. This current regime is starting to look a lot like the republic of Venezuela. Some of this was surely expected.
What I didn’t expect but I have observed is that the conservative voice has been just as hurt by none other than the conservative leaders opening their mouths before they had a coherent thought. I mean really, what idiot would want a country to fail. That clearly is not what Limbaugh was thinking but unfortunately that is what it sort of sounded like when he blurted it out. The poor guy has spent the better part of a month trying to defend his erroneous thought that was better left unsaid.
Then to boot, Michael Steele, the RNC head honcho, jumped into the conversation and tried his worst to put down the guy that speaks to 20 million conservatives everyday. Naturally that backfired, and now the appointed leader of the party looks like an idiot for saying something stupid.
At the end of the day what is really happening with the conservative movement is that a very private policy conversation is being held in the open. “Leaders” who should know better are using their various bully pulpits to promote their own voice and advance their own agenda without regard to how it affects other “leaders.”
The overall effect on the party using this form of communication is that conservatives really do look like right-wing kooks. If you don’t agree with any one of them then you must be a dreaded MODERATE, certainly not a true conservative.
The problem with that message is that the “leaders” haven’t defined what the party’s conservative policies will be over the next 4 years. With the next national election less than 2 years away these “leaders” need to step up and start LEADING.
If I was to send a letter to each “leader” it would probably start like this:
Dear Mr. Steele,
It is your job to pull the conservatives together, not to fragment the members into individual fiefdoms so you can divide and conquer. If you can’t do that then please step aside. And above all, please think before you speak.
Dear Mr. Limbaugh,
Just like during the Clinton era your popularity will probably rise as the liberals do the things that silly liberals do. However, what you need to do is to decide what your role in this journey will be? Currently you are allowing yourself to be used like a puppet by the liberal left. You would never have allowed that to happen in 1996. In 2009 you have become the message instead of the messenger.
Dear Conservative Team Leaders,
We only have a few months left to get the message straight. If we fail in 2010 then the liberals will have a mandate to bankrupt the country. Let’s face it, we know what the liberals want to do, we just don’t know what we want to do. This looks fairly simple to me - we just need a true leader. Will one of you please step up and lead?
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