What Rush Limbaugh truly means to the Republican party is a question that is becoming more and more impossible to answer.
Former Presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently joked in a CNN interview that his Republican colleagues, and in specific — Sarah Palin ”aren’t that cute.” This was a quote Mr. Limbaugh didn’t seem to take in as much of a playful stride as Romney, instead attacking the week old GOP council. ”They despise Sarah Palin. They fear Sarah Palin. They don’t like her either. According to them, she’s embarrassing.”
Without playing into the overall political message of Mitt Romney’s quote at all, the main significance of this situation is what should be last straw of the GOP’s political patience. Why? As the GOP continues their monumental grassroots conservative movement, Mr. Limbaugh simply isn’t a positive addition.
In what has been known in the political world as a media distraction to the many aspirations of the new Republican party, Limbaugh has set a trend of, although indirectly, punctuating his points as a radio pundit squarely at the GOP. This is hardly healthy, especially since Mr. Limbaugh has in fact built a political base himself closely linked and connected with the respective Republican base.
As MNSBC’s Rachel Maddow puts it, “Disagree with Rush Limbaugh, and you risk alienating your base — but agree with Limbaugh and risk alienating everyone else.”
And this is precisely the problem. A think progress video recently showed key conservative Tom DeLay agreeing directly with Limbaugh’s notion of the fact that he wants President Obama to “fail.” Essentially, the addition of powerful GOP members on the political boat of Limbaugh opens the party up to a very rocky road ahead. President Obama recently played out this point by telling the media that the conservative movement could not succeed by listening to Limbaugh, but proceeding his CPAC engagement, a presenter condemned this notion, quoting that “the only way we will succeed is to listen to Rush Limbaugh.”
But no forward thinking political movement can significantly provide a controversial figure such as Limbaugh with such an amount of control to tactically succeed — the 2008 Presidential Elections being the world’s proof.
The GOP cannot win elections, or popularity for that matter, by squarely addressing their far right base. We saw this with the collapse of the Republican party following Sarah Palin’s entrance into the spotlight. The true conservative, liberal conservative, and centrist voters of America do not want to hear that the goals of the new Republican movement are to aspire a Presidency that does not succeed.
A fundamental change must be made to the governing body of conservatism, and Limbaugh is not, at any moment in time, a figure to capitalize on now or in the future.