Posted by
AuVox on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 1:42:11 PM
This from Jason in the Comments section, and my response:
I just spent some time with the Rush-bashers over at David Frum's "The New Majority." This week he has written two very disconcerting columns about Rush... ...anyone who read his column where he mentioned some of Rush's imperfections could clearly see those insults were gratuitous and did not add any real "educated" reasons to the argument why conservatism "that can win again" should abandon Limbaugh. I have my opinions on what's going on here, but I wondered what your thoughts were.
Jason:
Others have said it far better than I could, but the problem lies with Frum far more than with Rush.
Frum's website is irrelevant and I think, coming from his role at the White house, that bothers him tremendously. Partially his attacks are merely to drum up well-needed (at least in his mind) publicity for himself; much the same way the Olbermann spends so much of MSNBC's airtime drawing attention O'Reilly, the man who at least doubles his audience daily.
When I was a kid, I remember young people saying that long hair, beads, tie-dyed shirts and bellbottoms were the uniform of the future, and that navy blue blazers, wing-tip shoes, and other "establishment antiques"--y'know, like 'bathing'--were ancient history.
And we know where all of those "farsighted fashionistas" are now, right? Look for the gray ponytails on balding college professors...
Conservatism is the American standard. We don't need to change in order to "win again"; quite the contrary: we have to stand our ground on Conservative standards, and convince others to join us through our strong values, logic, and common sense.
To continue the metaphor above, Liberals are the party of fashion, Conservatives are the party of style. Liberal policies change as often as fashion designers change looks. No good reason; they're just bored, or looking for "change". But just like midi-skirts (Google it), ponytails on guys in their 40's, wearing baseball caps backward, or wearing your pants below your butt crack, it may make you look hip for five minutes, but pretty soon you just look ridiculous. And History looks back at you in even more intense mockery.
Rush Limbaugh wants inspire people to embrace the logic and ideals of Conservatism, not Republicanism per se. He doesn't do his show out of some desire to be a political leader. He's often said he's just a spokesman for Conservative ideas. David Frum may have worked under President Bush, but his actions since have proven that he doesn't understand that, as a party, we aren't interested in being Democrat-Lite. We want to be better--far better--stronger, and more permanent than that. And have a country to match.
Conservatism is strongly grounded in core principles, values, and ideals, Liberalism is based on whims and emotions.
On which foundation would you rather build a nation?