Send In the Clown:
How Rush Limbaugh Took Over the Republican Party.
Watching this year’s CPAC, I couldn’t help but conclude how much the mighty have fallen. What was once a political juggernaut set to lay waste to the entire landscape of the nation has now been reduced to a mere shell of its once impregnable stature. It’s hard to believe it but the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan has now become the party of Limbaugh, Hannity and Coulter. Collectively they make Sarah Palin look like a Girl Scout selling cookies. Few examples in political folklore have documented such a historic decline in fortunes and in such a short span of time. As Jon Stewart of The Daily Show succinctly put it, “Three years ago the Republicans controlled the White House and both houses of Congress; now they control one fifth of The View.” And Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report jokingly remarked, “Rush Limbaugh doesn’t care what the Constitution says, which is proof that he is the true leader of the Republican Party.”
All comedic references aside, the demise of the Republican Party to the status of a minor league baseball team only goes to prove the classic axiom that nature abhors a vacuum. The Reagan revolution of the 1980s galvanized the conservative wing of the Republican Party like nothing it had ever known before. Not even Goldwater in 1964 could come close. Reagan brought together all the elements of the party from evangelicals to fiscal conservatives to the neo-cons. More importantly, he managed to do something no politician had ever done before or since; he controlled them. His brilliance often went unnoticed by the media who seemed more impressed with his great communicator persona over the American public. Few knew about or appreciated the talents he displayed behind the scenes among party leaders. It was no small feat keeping the likes of Jerry Falwell, William F. Buckley and Oliver North happy and in line. But as adept as Reagan was in playing Romper Room with the troops, he was not perfect. One of the mistakes he made occurred in 1985, when FCC Chairman Mark Fowler, under his direction, began the systematic repeal of the Fairness Doctrine. Despite Congressional efforts to preempt the repeal, and over the concerns expressed by some in his staff, the Doctrine was abolished altogether in August 1987.
Initially the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine was seen by Reagan as a triumph of First Amendment rights. However, it had the unforeseen effect of acting as a springboard for ultra rightwing talk radio, and later TV, formats. Almost immediately a plethora of conservative ideologues began showing up all over the airwaves, spreading their poisonous viewpoints. The first of these gurus to appear on the scene was Rush Limbaugh, whose show debuted in August 1988. Limbaugh was tacky, obnoxious, racist, myopic and sexist, but he was also very successful. His ratings continued to soar despite the negative reviews he was receiving in the mainstream press. In fact a familiar theme with Limbaugh was how biased the mainstream press was towards what he called “conservatism.” His continual incitement of his supporters against anything that smacked of the mainstream became a core element of his show. In deed it became his whole raison d'être. Between 1990 and 2002, more conservative talk show hosts such as the likes of Michael Savage, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Bill Kristol, Sean Hannity and our personal favorite Ann Coulter began their journeys through fantasyland. With no Fairness Doctrine to serve as arbiter of checks and balances they were free to say anything they wished no matter how outlandish. They became in essence the standard bearers of the conservative movement in the United States. A political party that once championed intellectuals such as William F. Buckley, now kowtowed to the lowest common denominator of the likes of Fox News. With no Reagan to real them in and with an incompetent and scandal-ridden Bush Administration the only thing standing in their way, the inmates took over the asylum.
And that is where things currently stand in the GOP. A party so bereft of leadership that its knees quake at the mere thought of saying or doing anything that might offend the true boss of the conservative movement. And who is the true boss, you ask? Not Ronald Reagan or William F. Buckley – both men are dead and buried. Not even George Will, though some have suggested he might as well be dead and buried, metaphorically speaking of course. No, the reigning king of the faithful flock is none other than Rush Limbaugh. That’s right, you heard me correctly, Rush Limbaugh. A man who doesn’t know the difference between the Preamble of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, a man who once said that feminism was established so as to allow ugly women access to the mainstream of society, now sits atop the throne - self anointed - ruling with iron fist and closed mind a kingdom of clueless subjects completely devoid of any backbone or integrity, and equally unaware of how perilous a fate their capitulation has made for them.
Really, it’s been quite a sight watching the Republican Party bend over backwards and genuflect at the mere mention of Rush’s name. S.S. men were more informal around Hitler than Republicans were around Rush. Of course there were those rare occasions when one of their own slipped and actually spoke his mind. For instance when Georgia representative Phil Gingrey publicly criticized Limbaugh in January for going after Republican leadership for their seeming appeasement of President Obama, his office was flooded with complaints from Rush’s minions. The result? Gingrey did an immediate about face and issued a mea culpa, even going so far as to appear on Limbaugh’s show to personally repent. Prior to the Gingrey/Limbaugh incident House Republicans had vowed to cooperate with Democrats on drafting the economic stimulus package. One day after Gingrey was forced to apologize to Limbaugh a vote was taken on the stimulus package, with all 177 House Republicans voting against it. Hmmm.
On March 1st, RNC Chairman Michael Steele got into hot water when he claimed on a CNN interview that HE and not Rush was “the de facto leader of the Republican Party,” and that “Limbaugh’s whole thing is entertainment. Yes it’s incendiary; yes it’s ugly.” It took little more than 24 hours for Steele to come to his senses and apologize for his faux pas, even going so far as to lie about what he actually said and meant in the interview. Over the last week it seems the entire Republican Party has gone out of its way to not only praise Limbaugh, but to call out anyone who hasn’t drank the Kool Aid as it were.
Pundits on both sides of the political aisle have been shaking their heads in amazement at the lunacy that is the Republican Party. U.S. News & World Report, hardly a paragon of liberal ideas, called Limbaugh “the bull in the GOP’s china shop,” and said that “Republicans must lose the titans of glib and greed: Limbaugh, Drudge and Coulter.” Media Matters, a non-profit, progressive and liberal publication, chimed in by saying that “Barack Obama didn't elevate Rush Limbaugh to a position of leadership of the GOP and the conservative movement. Limbaugh has held that position for nearly two decades - and he has done so because his fellow conservative leaders share his far-right views and his rabid distaste for fact and reason. Their embrace of Limbaugh and his failed ideology has had disastrous consequences first for the nation and then for the conservative movement.” What Media Matters and other publications have failed to see is that with the exception of its early days when Lincoln was its leader the GOP has never been able to embrace any other ideology. It is the consummate case of the chain smoker who has lung cancer, and even though his life depends on it, cannot bring himself to stop. A "moderate" Republican is a misnomer within its ranks and is often considered a traitor to many in the Party.
Despite the calamity that awaits them politically, the Republican Party seems unable or unwilling to break free of its adoration of what it earnestly believes is the only legitimate icon within its ranks. Like Oliver, they grovel in front of the head clown pleading, “Please, sir, I want some more.” And when they do occasionally cross him, they eagerly line up to take their punishment, like the frat house kid in Animal House who bends over, assumes the position and, while he’s getting his bottom paddled, repeats over and over, “Thank you, sir, may I have another.” If it weren’t so pitiful, it would be comical.
And while a nation watches in astonishment at the spectacle, the prospect of one party rule for the foreseeable future is a very real possibility, for the ones who are hurting the most are not the Rush Limbaughs, the Sean Hannitys or the Ann Coulters; they’re doing just fine. In fact, Limbaugh is among the highest paid talkshow gurus in the country. No, it’s the Republican Party as a whole that’s taking the hit. As a brand, the party isn’t just hurting, it’s hemorrhaging, and if it doesn’t snap out of this soon, it may go the way of the Whig Party, a Party that was formed in 1833 primarily to oppose the policies of Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party. Sound familiar? David Brooks, a respected conservative in The New York Times and The Weekly Standard, has been adamant that the Republicans are missing a golden opportunity to help shape fiscal policy by being so intransigent in their “just say no” opposition to the Obama Administration, calling it a form of nihilism. “It's just not where the country is, it's not where the future of the country is. It’s insane.”
Insanity, nihilism, intransigence are all words that are synonymous with the Republican Party. At the rate it’s going, they could well end up being its epitaph. Rarely has a political party arrived at such a station in its existence where the cubbard is bare. The last such time a similar situation arose was the demise of that very same Whig Party in 1856. The irony is that the Republican Party was born mainly out of that demise. 150 years later, it seems hell bent on returning the favor.
Millard Fillmore anyone?
How Rush Limbaugh Took Over the Republican Party.
Watching this year’s CPAC, I couldn’t help but conclude how much the mighty have fallen. What was once a political juggernaut set to lay waste to the entire landscape of the nation has now been reduced to a mere shell of its once impregnable stature. It’s hard to believe it but the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan has now become the party of Limbaugh, Hannity and Coulter. Collectively they make Sarah Palin look like a Girl Scout selling cookies. Few examples in political folklore have documented such a historic decline in fortunes and in such a short span of time. As Jon Stewart of The Daily Show succinctly put it, “Three years ago the Republicans controlled the White House and both houses of Congress; now they control one fifth of The View.” And Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report jokingly remarked, “Rush Limbaugh doesn’t care what the Constitution says, which is proof that he is the true leader of the Republican Party.”
All comedic references aside, the demise of the Republican Party to the status of a minor league baseball team only goes to prove the classic axiom that nature abhors a vacuum. The Reagan revolution of the 1980s galvanized the conservative wing of the Republican Party like nothing it had ever known before. Not even Goldwater in 1964 could come close. Reagan brought together all the elements of the party from evangelicals to fiscal conservatives to the neo-cons. More importantly, he managed to do something no politician had ever done before or since; he controlled them. His brilliance often went unnoticed by the media who seemed more impressed with his great communicator persona over the American public. Few knew about or appreciated the talents he displayed behind the scenes among party leaders. It was no small feat keeping the likes of Jerry Falwell, William F. Buckley and Oliver North happy and in line. But as adept as Reagan was in playing Romper Room with the troops, he was not perfect. One of the mistakes he made occurred in 1985, when FCC Chairman Mark Fowler, under his direction, began the systematic repeal of the Fairness Doctrine. Despite Congressional efforts to preempt the repeal, and over the concerns expressed by some in his staff, the Doctrine was abolished altogether in August 1987.
Initially the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine was seen by Reagan as a triumph of First Amendment rights. However, it had the unforeseen effect of acting as a springboard for ultra rightwing talk radio, and later TV, formats. Almost immediately a plethora of conservative ideologues began showing up all over the airwaves, spreading their poisonous viewpoints. The first of these gurus to appear on the scene was Rush Limbaugh, whose show debuted in August 1988. Limbaugh was tacky, obnoxious, racist, myopic and sexist, but he was also very successful. His ratings continued to soar despite the negative reviews he was receiving in the mainstream press. In fact a familiar theme with Limbaugh was how biased the mainstream press was towards what he called “conservatism.” His continual incitement of his supporters against anything that smacked of the mainstream became a core element of his show. In deed it became his whole raison d'être. Between 1990 and 2002, more conservative talk show hosts such as the likes of Michael Savage, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Bill Kristol, Sean Hannity and our personal favorite Ann Coulter began their journeys through fantasyland. With no Fairness Doctrine to serve as arbiter of checks and balances they were free to say anything they wished no matter how outlandish. They became in essence the standard bearers of the conservative movement in the United States. A political party that once championed intellectuals such as William F. Buckley, now kowtowed to the lowest common denominator of the likes of Fox News. With no Reagan to real them in and with an incompetent and scandal-ridden Bush Administration the only thing standing in their way, the inmates took over the asylum.
And that is where things currently stand in the GOP. A party so bereft of leadership that its knees quake at the mere thought of saying or doing anything that might offend the true boss of the conservative movement. And who is the true boss, you ask? Not Ronald Reagan or William F. Buckley – both men are dead and buried. Not even George Will, though some have suggested he might as well be dead and buried, metaphorically speaking of course. No, the reigning king of the faithful flock is none other than Rush Limbaugh. That’s right, you heard me correctly, Rush Limbaugh. A man who doesn’t know the difference between the Preamble of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, a man who once said that feminism was established so as to allow ugly women access to the mainstream of society, now sits atop the throne - self anointed - ruling with iron fist and closed mind a kingdom of clueless subjects completely devoid of any backbone or integrity, and equally unaware of how perilous a fate their capitulation has made for them.
Really, it’s been quite a sight watching the Republican Party bend over backwards and genuflect at the mere mention of Rush’s name. S.S. men were more informal around Hitler than Republicans were around Rush. Of course there were those rare occasions when one of their own slipped and actually spoke his mind. For instance when Georgia representative Phil Gingrey publicly criticized Limbaugh in January for going after Republican leadership for their seeming appeasement of President Obama, his office was flooded with complaints from Rush’s minions. The result? Gingrey did an immediate about face and issued a mea culpa, even going so far as to appear on Limbaugh’s show to personally repent. Prior to the Gingrey/Limbaugh incident House Republicans had vowed to cooperate with Democrats on drafting the economic stimulus package. One day after Gingrey was forced to apologize to Limbaugh a vote was taken on the stimulus package, with all 177 House Republicans voting against it. Hmmm.
On March 1st, RNC Chairman Michael Steele got into hot water when he claimed on a CNN interview that HE and not Rush was “the de facto leader of the Republican Party,” and that “Limbaugh’s whole thing is entertainment. Yes it’s incendiary; yes it’s ugly.” It took little more than 24 hours for Steele to come to his senses and apologize for his faux pas, even going so far as to lie about what he actually said and meant in the interview. Over the last week it seems the entire Republican Party has gone out of its way to not only praise Limbaugh, but to call out anyone who hasn’t drank the Kool Aid as it were.
Pundits on both sides of the political aisle have been shaking their heads in amazement at the lunacy that is the Republican Party. U.S. News & World Report, hardly a paragon of liberal ideas, called Limbaugh “the bull in the GOP’s china shop,” and said that “Republicans must lose the titans of glib and greed: Limbaugh, Drudge and Coulter.” Media Matters, a non-profit, progressive and liberal publication, chimed in by saying that “Barack Obama didn't elevate Rush Limbaugh to a position of leadership of the GOP and the conservative movement. Limbaugh has held that position for nearly two decades - and he has done so because his fellow conservative leaders share his far-right views and his rabid distaste for fact and reason. Their embrace of Limbaugh and his failed ideology has had disastrous consequences first for the nation and then for the conservative movement.” What Media Matters and other publications have failed to see is that with the exception of its early days when Lincoln was its leader the GOP has never been able to embrace any other ideology. It is the consummate case of the chain smoker who has lung cancer, and even though his life depends on it, cannot bring himself to stop. A "moderate" Republican is a misnomer within its ranks and is often considered a traitor to many in the Party.
Despite the calamity that awaits them politically, the Republican Party seems unable or unwilling to break free of its adoration of what it earnestly believes is the only legitimate icon within its ranks. Like Oliver, they grovel in front of the head clown pleading, “Please, sir, I want some more.” And when they do occasionally cross him, they eagerly line up to take their punishment, like the frat house kid in Animal House who bends over, assumes the position and, while he’s getting his bottom paddled, repeats over and over, “Thank you, sir, may I have another.” If it weren’t so pitiful, it would be comical.
And while a nation watches in astonishment at the spectacle, the prospect of one party rule for the foreseeable future is a very real possibility, for the ones who are hurting the most are not the Rush Limbaughs, the Sean Hannitys or the Ann Coulters; they’re doing just fine. In fact, Limbaugh is among the highest paid talkshow gurus in the country. No, it’s the Republican Party as a whole that’s taking the hit. As a brand, the party isn’t just hurting, it’s hemorrhaging, and if it doesn’t snap out of this soon, it may go the way of the Whig Party, a Party that was formed in 1833 primarily to oppose the policies of Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party. Sound familiar? David Brooks, a respected conservative in The New York Times and The Weekly Standard, has been adamant that the Republicans are missing a golden opportunity to help shape fiscal policy by being so intransigent in their “just say no” opposition to the Obama Administration, calling it a form of nihilism. “It's just not where the country is, it's not where the future of the country is. It’s insane.”
Insanity, nihilism, intransigence are all words that are synonymous with the Republican Party. At the rate it’s going, they could well end up being its epitaph. Rarely has a political party arrived at such a station in its existence where the cubbard is bare. The last such time a similar situation arose was the demise of that very same Whig Party in 1856. The irony is that the Republican Party was born mainly out of that demise. 150 years later, it seems hell bent on returning the favor.
Millard Fillmore anyone?
7 comments:
A good and thorough examination of the GOP, Pete. Thanks. Political parties do die (or commit suicide, as in this case). It's too bad McCain is too old and weak to assume its leadership. The future of American politics, at least for now, is in the middle. Of course, the GOP might manage, like the pre-war Churchill, to hang on as a quaint relic and wait for their moment. But in this case let's hope that moment never comes.
I was going to mention McCain, oddly enough. A while back I wrote about the 2000 primaries. Bill Bradley and John McCain were each running for their respective party's nomination. It finally looked like we were going to get two candidates who we could like instead of having to choose the candidate we hated less. We all know what happened.
After Obama's election I wrote about how McCain lost the election. The prevailing sentiment is that the economy did him in. Certainly, it didn't help that we were in the middle of a recession, but what I still believe was the ultimate nail in his coffin was when he bowed to the far-right of his party by nominating Sarah Palin for VP. Whatever hope he had of pulling in moderates flew out the window with that pick.
So long as Republicans insist on preaching to their own choir and not reaching out past their base, they are continually going to get creamed in general elections. Pure and simple.
I completly disagree with your acesment of the GOP. If anything the party needs to be more determind to get our message out to the public. Low taxes and less goverment is the answer. As for McCain, if he had listened to Sara Palin, instead of fighting her, he'd be president. Down with socialist terrorists!
- Joe the Plumer
sic demonstratum est
watch your language!
Children could be reading this.
Joe the Plumer? What kind of plumes does he emit? Just curious?
the conservative, patriotic kind
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