Let me preface by saying I am *not* a fan of the late Rush Limbaugh. Nor am I a “former fan”. He was a blowhard who coddled the worst in us and the world is a better place without him. But there is one thing about him I learned about him that I think the left could emulate.
During the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, Limbaugh announced a call to arms for his listeners known as “Operation Chaos”. In short, he told them to register as Democrats and vote for Hillary Clinton in the primaries.
It remains unclear if he had an objective beyond sowing chaos just for the sake of it, an attempt to upend the rising star of the first black national party presidential nominee? An attempt to get a weaker candidate to the general election? Or simply to fracture the party and leave them unable to put up a united front against the McCain-Palin ticket in November?
Limbaugh’s plot ultimately failed - Obama won the nomination and the presidency twice - and has been largely cast aside as a forgotten episode of political lore. It’s so obscure it doesn’t even have its own Wikipedia page. However, variations of Operation Chaos spearheaded by Republicans have emerged in recent primary elections, most notably South Carolina in 2020.
I think it’s worth looking at as a legitimate campaign strategy. What if Democrats were to coalesce around a well funded conservative but sensibly not-fascist (e.g. Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Adam Kinzinger, Liz Cheney) Republican candidate for president and vote for them in the primaries - not to sow chaos as Limbaugh desires but out of a genuine attempt to help the party tame their angst?
We cannot tame fascism by beating it to a pulp in general elections. I held out hope that were the case in 2020 but it simply doesn’t seem to hold anymore weight. If it were, Trump should’ve been made a Republican persona-non-grata like Rommey the moment he lost to Biden by 7 million votes. But if we could work hand in hand with Republican moderates, as rare as they are, to elect a crop of better leaders for the Republican base to follow, isn’t it worth a shot?
What we’ve seen, rather, is the opposite. First, party leaders boosted the lunatics over the imperfect but doable “moderates”. And second of all, since 2016, a wave of Republicans from the bygone years of Reagan, Bush, and McCain, have been coming to the Democratic Party en masse to reshape it with leaders in the White House and 30 Rock - by effect also pushing the party to the right and further marginalizing the left. Figures such as Nicolle Wallace, who worked for the Bush White House and advised McCain’s presidential campaign, are now liberal media heroes akin to what Limbaugh and O’Reilly were to the right.
Can you imagine if James Carville were goofing around with Tucker Carlson on Fox News? Because that’s what MSNBC looks like every 4-5pm.
Initially it seemed like the Never-Trump “coalition” was a temporary alliance to oust the Cheeto from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. My assumption, initially, was that once he was gone these party elders would steer the ship of the GOP back to the center, away from the inevitable iceberg. But rather, now it seems they’ve gotten too comfortable mingling with West Wing-binge watching liberals that they’re turning them into the Bushies they voted against 20 years ago.
The left has to get them to go back where they belong (excuse the choice of words), but also lend a helping hand to tame their base gone berserk. Only then, could we possibly go back to the good old days when not joining a coup attempt makes you a liberal hero. We deserve a better crop of leaders on both sides.
We need to do what Limbaugh did - but better.
It doesn’t just help bridge our political divide, it also strengthens the left.