-By Warner Todd Huston
I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of Old Media people like columnist Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post and liberals like Pelosi and Obama who keep claiming that talk show host Rush Limbaugh is the only voice of the Republican Party. Imagine. A mere radio guy. Our voice!
I am through with Limbaugh’s supporting the long tradition of rugged American individualism, done with his harping on free trade, and up to here with his going on about the Founders and our American character. I am worn out with his bellicose talk of stopping terrorism, and so done with Limbaugh’s high profile as one of the most listened to conservative advocates in the country that I could just spit. I simply don’t want this Limbaugh character to be the sole voice of the GOP. Stop it now. Make it go away.
Instead, it would be nice if just ONE of our actual, purported Republican politicians would be the voice of the GOP espousing all the conservative ideals that Limbaugh so eloquently expounds upon day in and day out. Wouldn’t it be grand if just one guy with the guts to back up the rhetoric with a voting record would become the voice of the party of conservatism?
Liberals have their Ted Kennedys and Nancy Pelosis that do no compromising. They have their “Baghdad” Jim McDermotts that cavort across the globe advocating for murderers and tyrants the world over. They’ve had their presidential candidates “reporting for duty” that have in the past been key members of committees advocating for putting our own soldiers in jail and indicting Americans for faux war crimes. For that matter, the left even has an actual ex-president that runs to the support of every tin-pot dictator in the world pretending at being a diplomat.
The left is unapologetic for its support of Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, the biggest mass murderers in history. They are resolved to turn our foreign policy over to foreign bodies like the UN. The left is four square against freedom of religion and keen to remove uncounted numbers of our Constitutional rights from us. They hate capitalism, property rights and are against open debate in our schools… yet they say so proudly and their politicians cultivate voting records that reflect those beliefs.
There’s no “compromise” there. The left knows that politics ain’t beanball.
And here we are. With current Republican Senators voting to confirm a tax cheat for Sec. of Treasury. Here we stand with recent presidential candidates that seemed not to have had the first clue about what the Constitution stands for. We had politicians willing to give away some many advantages that the judges we wanted never got seated. We even found ourselves not long ago with a Senate Majority leader in Trent Lott that almost gave more power to the Democrats than he did to his own party (not surprising, I guess, since he started his political life as one of them). There are so many that claim the mantle of Reagan and conservatism that shrink at every opportunity from the principles upon which they campaign that it isn’t even surprising any more.
Worse we have so-called “aides” to prominent Republicans calling Limbaugh and Sarah Palin “the extreme right” and denigrating some of the only voices speaking for our side. Take what John Weaver, “former senior aide to Sen. John McCain,” told the Washington Post, for instance.
“The Democrats and the far left will do all they can to grab electoral turf,” said Weaver. “And one sure way to do it is take some of the most controversial voices on the extreme right — like Limbaugh and [Alaska Gov. Sarah] Palin — and try to insist they speak for all members of the center/right movement.”
Limbaugh and Palin are the “extreme right”? Does this Weaver dolt have the first clue what it is that Limbaugh and Palin have ever said? No, what this Weaver character is doing is accepting the far left’s view of what constitutes “the extreme right” and acting by their rules. Weaver, like his former boss, have turned over the arena of ideas to the enemy and allowed them to determine how things will be defined. The Weavers, McCains, Lotts, Specters and Frists of the GOP spend more time finding things they can agree upon with the left than in advancing the principles of our own side.
No wonder McCain lost.
Yes, count me as one that is sick of Rush Limbaugh being the only national voice of the GOP. Not because I hate Rush or disagree with him much, but because the people we’ve actually elected to enact things for which Limbaugh advocates have so miserably failed to stick with those same first principles Limbaugh has voiced to well.
Certainly, its easier for Rush to talk than it is for politicians to vote and govern. Absolutely our system is based on the act of compromise, the art of what is possible. But what we currently have is a lopsided process. Only our side does any of that vaunted compromising. The left bends not an inch. We need a politician that can force the left to give in some of the time, too. And we needn’t allow ourselves to be fooled by the media and the left about support, either. Remember, Obama did not win a lopsided mandate. Despite the candidacy of the Obammessiah, nearly half the electorate still voted Republican. We have support.
Bring on a voice of the GOP that can Reagan-like step forward and legitimately accept the mantle as the voice of the GOP. Let Rush talk, of course, but let’s have someone that has some actual power in government who will also become our voice. After all, as Rush will be the first person to admit, he is just a guy behind a microphone and has no concrete power to wield. But, it simply must be realized that the reason Rush Limbaugh seems to be the voice of the GOP is because no one else is bothering to speak up. The rest are too timid to raise a voice.
Lastly, we have another thing to take away from this whole business. If Rush Limbaugh really is the voice of the GOP at this time, isn’t it because he has the message that the voters of the GOP want to hear? Limbaugh could not be that “voice” if he wasn’t being listened to by millions. The sooner some savvy, principled Republican realizes that Rush is not some raving lunatic screaming in the night as the left keeps telling them he is, the sooner some Republican realizes that he is someone that has the ear of millions of Republican voters and the sooner some politician takes up the baton that Limbaugh is holding out for a runner to take, the sooner we will have a voice of the GOP that can put our principles into action.
So, yeah. Bring on that next voice of the GOP. If we had more GOP voices willing to stand on principle, and fewer looking to develop a new era of “peace in our times” with the radical left, Limbaugh wouldn’t seem so darn lonely.
Photo of Limbaugh via Lighthouse Patriot Journal.
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, Human Events Magazine, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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