For His Own Sake, Mark Levin Should Leave the GOP

Commentary Magazine ^ | 12-19-2014 | Peter Wehner - Commentary

[smoothsailing]

December 19, 2014

For His Own Sake, Mark Levin Should Leave the GOP

Peter Wehner

Anyone who listens to the radio talk-show host Mark Levin knows he’s become a harsh, nightly critic of the Republican Party. To understand just how harsh, you should listen to his monologue from the other day...

[b4its2late]

The GOP party, currently being run by RINOs, has left him and the rest of us. It’s up to us to get it back. That’s what he’s trying to do. Bring it back to conservative. If you lose the conservatives in the party, you might as well become part of the left. We need Cruz and those like him to right the ship.

[hondact200]

The republican Party left mark Levin. I listen to Mark Levin and the Republican Party is no longer Conservative - It has become an extension of the Obamass Administration.

[RedMDer]

BUMP!

[Jacquerie]

What the author left out was Levin's incredible cheerleading before the midterms. He probably convinced many conservatives to get out and vote.

<>Levin should go the extra inch and publicly declare he is no longer a Republican and that he no longer speaks for Republicans.

He never claimed to speak for the GOP.

He needs to find, or create, a party that represents his views, his philosophy, his style, his tone, his approach. <>

The author is stuck in the rut of thinking any party alone can undo a century of progressive rot. Levin is a patriot who puts his country above party, something very few in DC or the Commentariat class are willing to do.

[House Atreides]

Sorry, I want Mark Levin in the Republican Party continuing his battering of the GOP RINO elite. Perhaps a little jealousy is showing from Mr. Wehner’s direction? We need Mark as one of the BIG voices pointing out the GOPe’s hypocrisy and duplicitousness.

[lentulusgracchus]

Really? Commentary magazine is now taking a nurturing, solicitous interest in the welfare of Mark Levin ?

</massive sarc>>

[lentulusgracchus]

Exactamundo bump.

[lentulusgracchus]

Read the whole article, it’s a defi against Levin and amounts to an invitation to FOAD.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I’m with Mark!

[wtd]

What this commentary piece reveals is how thin the skin of the author, Peter Wehner, really is. Wehner literally writhes at Levin's valid, deservedly harsh criticisms of the Republican party's drift to the left.

Nowhere in the piece does Wehner attempt define what the Republican party stands for in order to dispute any of Levin's characterizations. I doubt Wehner stands alone in this obvious deficit. Can any GOPe/RINO define within any degree of precision what the current 'republican' party stands for?

Short of some sly semantics, any attempt to define the current 'republican' party platform would find it difficult, nay impossible to illustrate any distinction from the progressive left platform.

Current platforms from both political parties amount to advertisements for votes for government entitlements.

There was a time, not so long ago - at least within my lifetime - when taking responsibility and personal pride in one's abilities prevented one from accepting such entitlements. There was a degree of 'shame' and 'humiliation' associated with dependency.

Current political platforms devalue those common traits. Pride in accomplishments is equated with undeserved 'privilege' and shamed in Orwellian animal farm fashion.

It's apparent Wehner and his political ilk's comprehension of Orwell's work as an instruction manual. Is it any surprise Wehner and his GOPe/RINO brethren salivate as they follow their political recipe from the book "To Serve Man"?

[EternalVigilance]

Mr. Levin begins by declaring he is “one inch away” from leaving the GOP. He goes on to accuse the Republican Party not simply of being wrong or misguided on this or that matter, but of being composed of people who have told repeated lies—“damn liars.” He describes them as “losers” and a “bunch of children,” of being “munchkins, backbenchers, immature,” and of being “damn fools.” They are “pathetic, impotent, passive, childish, [and] self-defeating.” They are “dissembling, corrupt crony Republicans… who won’t even take a stand, who announce defeat, who announce surrender before the battle even ensues.” These “pathetic Republican sheep” do nothing more than “rubber stamp” what President Obama wants. And while he concedes the GOP won a huge midterm victory, he informs us that “this Republican Party had nothing to do with this landslide election.” (His listeners did.) In fact, the GOP is “in the throes of destroying itself.” “What kind of party is this?” he asks. “What does this party stand for? It stands for nothing!” In Levin’s telling, “The overwhelming majority of Republicans in the House and Senate voted for Obamacare, voted for amnesty, voted to violate the Constitution and violated their oaths of office and undermined the last election and undermined your franchise.”

The author offers not one word of refutation of any of it.

No hint of "yeah, you're right, we have to change."

Instead, he sullenly says, "hit the road, Mark."

Mark Levin would be better (and his blood pressure would certainly be lower) if he were free of the GOP. And a few people might argue that the GOP would be better if it were free of him.

Telling.

[iontheball]

Is this another instance of the Republican establishment instigating a hit piece, this time on Levin? Rush said the other day that he is convinced Politico has now become the mouthpiece for the McConnells of the Republican party who have actively and aggresively declared war on the Tea Party and true Conservatism. He said read Politico if you want to find out what Jeb Bush, Christie, Romney, etc., are up to.

[RS_Rider]

I mailed back my republican registration card when they re-elected boehner the last time.

[Mister Da]

Every conservative should leave the GOP.

[Shery]

I listened to Mark the other night and I’d have to say that I don’t know what took him so long. The RNC has become so predictable that they play us over and over every election. I praise God for Cruz, Mike Lee, Jeff Sessions and a few others, but the rest of them leave me feeling there is no hope. Not that there ever is any hope in a political solution, just that you want to see a greater number of these people who see the problem, understand the base wants a return to Constitutional government and work hard to do their job. What we see from so many is the LIES. Yes, they are “promises”, but lest we forget, they are bald-faced lies they never intended to keep.

[newfreep]

GOP ratings from https://www.conservativereview.com/

• Mike Lee A 100%

• Ted Cruz A 95%

---

• Mitch McConnell D 60%

• John Boehner F 43%

• Jeff Flake F 43%

• Thad Cochran F 39%

[smoothsailing]

I don’t post articles I haven’t read.

It’s just this type of article that brings out the best of FR. Defining conservatism and fighting for it.

Mark is doing exactly what he should be doing, embracing and defending conservatism and coming down hard on Republicans who do anything less.

“When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat” - Ronald Reagan

[lentulusgracchus]

No, Commentary is a journal of Jewish opinion and is not quite institutionally Democratic.

To find out where their druthers lie w/r/t Republicanism (if there is such a thing that doesn't boil down to plain arithmetic), check Commentary's January 2010 article on Sarah Palin (title it's "Do Jews Hate Sarah Palin?" or similar) ; they will let you know candidly what and whom they dislike, loathe, or hate in American sociopolitical culture (one gets the impression, it's just about everything west of the Blue Ridge).

Other comments in a cascade flowed from that article; see David Frum's blog, for a closely contemporary comment by him and many reader comments all of which are interesting, and then a Gawker article by "Pareena" on Blum's blog article and the original Commentary article, again closely contemporary and with numerous comments, and finally a short article and many comments by observant Jewish reader-commenters at www.jewschool.com.

[smoothsailing]

Damn right!