Since the election of President Obama, the GOP has done an amazing job towards ensuring that he will be a two term president. I guess I see this as the application of the old saw "Do SOMETHING, even if it's wrong."
The party has some serious problems that it needs to address before it can again become a viable national party again. And no, as I see it, the GOP is in no way a viable option right now.
Problems:
1. The party no longer seems to know who it is and what it stands for. Supposedly standing up for 'Rugged Individualism,' it seems that now it's rugged individualism as long as you are in lockstep with the ultra right wing of the party. The Powell/Limbaugh war is a great example of this.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009 10:25 PM
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell blasted Rush Limbaugh Monday during a speech in which he said the Republican Party is in a state of collapse.
The GOP is "getting smaller and smaller" and "that's not good for the nation," Powell said, according to the National Journal. He also said he hopes that emerging GOP leaders, such as House Minority Whip Cantor, will not keep repeating mantras of the far right.
Powell lashed out at Limbaugh and conservative icon Ann Coulter. Neither serves the party well, Powell said during a speech to corporate security executives at a conference in Washington sponsored by Fortify Software Inc.
"I think what Rush does as an entertainer diminishes the party and intrudes or inserts into our public life a kind of nastiness that we would be better to do without," Powell said.
And Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate last year, is "a very accomplished person" but became "a very polarizing figure," he said, adding that Palin's advisers created the polarization.
“The Republican Party is in deep trouble," he said, according to the Journal. “The party must realize that the country has changed. Americans do want to pay taxes for services. Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."
Powell stirred controversy last year when he came out for the Democratic presidential candidate, then-Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Powell said he told the GOP candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, that the party had developed a reputation for being mean-spirited and driven more by social conservatism than the economic problems that Americans faced, the Journal reported.
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
To which, Limbaugh said:
Why Colin Powell is Mad at Me
May 6, 2009
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I'm getting e-mail, people here at the studio, "When are you going to talk about Colin Powell?" Folks, I don't care, I don't care what Colin Powell says. This kind of stuff is said about me three times a day by all liberals under the sun, and Colin Powell is just another liberal. He did this back in December, and I responded to it then. Look, if you want to know what this is all about, Colin Powell is out there saying the American people want more taxes, they want bigger government. He's out there saying I am killing the Republican Party while he endorsed and voted for Obama. The Republican Party nominated the exact kind of candidate Colin Powell thinks the Republican Party should have and he still endorsed Obama. He's just mad at me because I'm the one person in the country that had the guts to explain his endorsement of Obama. It was purely and solely based on race. There can be no other explanation for it.
What Colin Powell needs to do is close the loop and become a Democrat, instead of claiming to be a Republican interested in reforming the Republican Party. He's not. He's a full-fledged Democrat. The only reason to endorse Obama is race. I don't think Powell thinks he could get away with not endorsing Obama because the Republicans nominated the exact candidate that had the exact campaign, other than Sarah Palin, that Colin Powell advocated. So I don't care. This kind of stuff is said about me ten times a day by liberals. He's just one of them doing it.
END TRANSCRIPT
Is this not simply pure idiocy? Powell says something, then Limbaugh immediately paints him with the liberal paintbrush. The truth of the matter is that both are kinda right, but both are also very wrong. But the point is, the GOP is shredding itself.
Nominating John McCain, a well known moderate, then trying to force him to be a conservative was a major step in the wrong direction. Bush starting the Bailout Gravytrain was an even bigger one. It confused the party base and opened the door for the monstrocity that Obama trundled out. The GOP wails about what Obama is doing, but they are the ones that provided opportunity.
Limbaugh is right about one thing. The GOP seems to have lost total touch with how America is really living and what Americans are really concerned about. In 2012, how are people going to believe they have any alternative but for 4 more years of Democratic rule?
Even a Rubuplican candidate that wants nothing more than but to reunite the GOP, is going to come off as just being one more yammering voice. Sarah Palin will not be a viable candidate, despite the early work she is doing. I very much doubt Mitt Romney will want to try it again. Newt Gingrich has said he is not adverse to consideration as a possible candidate, but I think his personal background will do him in.
A final quote.
R.N.C. Chairman Apologizes to Limbaugh in Flap Over His Role
By Adam Nagourney
The new chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, apologized to Rush Limbaugh on Monday after describing him in a television interview over the weekend as an “entertainer” who made incendiary and sometimes ugly remarks, party officials said.
Mr. Steele called Mr. Limbaugh after the radio host belittled Mr. Steele on his show, questioning his authority and saying the new Republican leader was off “to a shaky start.”
“It’s time, Mr. Steele, for you to go behind the scenes and start doing the work that you were elected to do instead of trying to be some talking head media star, which you’re having a tough time pulling off,” Mr. Limbaugh said, in a transcript of his remarks he posted on his Web site.
“Mr. Steele: You are head of the R.N.C.,” Mr. Limbaugh said. “You are not head of the Republican Party. Tens of millions of conservatives and Republicans have nothing to do with the R.N.C. and right now they want nothing to do with it.”
The fight broke out at a time when Democrats have sought to portray Mr. Limbaugh as the new face of the Republican Party, a line that has been pushed in television advertisements financed by labor, as well as by the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Mr. Steele bristled after a questioner on CNN referred to Mr. Limbaugh as the de facto leader of the Republican Party on Saturday.
“No he’s not – I’m the de facto leader of the Republican Party,” Mr. Steele responded.
“Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer,” he said. “Rush Limbaugh, the whole thing is entertainment. Yes, it’s incendiary, yes, it’s ugly.”
Mr. Steele told Politico on Monday that he had called Mr. Limbaugh to apologize.
“My intent was not to go after Rush – I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh,” Mr. Steele told The Politico. “I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.”
Democrats reacted with glee to the exchange. “Michael Steele has denounced himself for renouncing Rush,” said Paul Begala, an ally of Mr. Emanuel and one of the Democrats presenting Mr. Limbaugh as the face of the G.O.P. “Can anyone seriously argue now that Rush is not the unchallenged leader of the Republican Party?”
Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia, Mr. Steele’s counterpart at the Democratic National Committee, said: “Chairman Steele’s reversal this evening and his apology to Limbaugh proves the unfortunate point that Limbaugh is the leading force behind the Republican Party, its politics and its obstruction of President Obama’s agenda in Washington.”
This, more than anything, proves what's happening in the GOP. The head of the RNC, bowing to a radio talk show host. Limbaugh, on multiple occations, has stated, himself, that he is simply an entertainer. I don't think he believes that anymore. I think he really believes he is part of the GOP leadership. How is this different from the scores of Hollywood stars that toute their beliefs whenever given media time? It really isn't, and evidently America doesn't know any better.
I will agree with Rush on one point. He flailed at the Democrats for saying that trying to block the Obama agenda is unamerican. Of course the Republicans are going to try and be obstructionist. No different than the Democrats were during the Bush years, yet somehow, this is different.
The ultimate loser here, gentle reader, is you and I. It has been proven time and time again, that our elected leadership is more interested in their own power than in doing the job we elected them to do. They seem to have little to no interest in what our real needs are. They would rather tell us our needs and then sell us some bullshit solution that we will be required to pay for.
We need to find a better way.
No comments:
Post a Comment