Posted on 11/08/2006 4:50:12 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
Republicans lost control of the House, and perhaps the Senate, because they abandoned their conservative principles and in the end stood for nothing, Rush Limbaugh said today.
In his Wednesday broadcast, America’s top talker said that until Republicans begin asking themselves what’s wrong with themselves they are never going to fix their problems.
When things go wrong, Rush said, "you must look inward and ask first, ‘What did we do wrong? What could we have done better? What mistakes did we make?”
Commenting that although Republicans lost, "Conservatism did not lose, Republicanism lost last night. Republicanism, being a political party first, rather than an ideological movement, is what lost last night.”
The Democrats, he said "beat something last night with nothing. They advanced no agenda other than their usual anti-war position. They had no contract — they really never did get specific. Their message was one of ‘vote for us; the other guys have been in power too long.’”
Rush further admonished, "There was no dominating conservative message that came from the [Republican] top and filtered down throughout in this campaign.”
He added that if there was conservatism in the campaign, it was on the Democratic side: "There were conservative Democrats running for office in the House of Representatives and in a couple of Senate races won by Democrats yesterday.” He cited James Webb as an example.
He also said it was conservatism that won fairly big when it was tried yesterday, but it was Democrats who ran as conservatives and not their GOP rivals. He added that the Democratic leadership had gone out and recruited conservative candidates because they knew liberals could not win running against Republicans in red states.
Rush quoted Thomas Sowell as explaining that the latest example of election fraud is actually what the Democrats did — they nominated a bunch of moderate and conservative candidates for the express purpose of electing a far-left Democratic leadership.
"The Democrats could not have won the House, being liberals,” Rush said. "Liberalism didn’t win anything yesterday; Republicanism lost. Conservatism was nowhere to be found except on the Democratic side.”
The root of the problem, Rush said, is that "our side hungers for ideological leadership and we’re not getting it from the top. Conservatism was nowhere to be found in this campaign from the top. The Democrats beat something with nothing. They didn’t have to take a stand on anything other than their usual anti-war positions. They had no clear agenda and they didn’t dare offer one. Liberalism will still lose every time it’s offered.”
Republicans, Rush said, allowed themselves to be defined. "Without elected conservative leadership from the top Republicans in the House and Senate republicans are free to freelance and say the hell with party unity.”
That leads, Rush said, to the emergence of RINOs — Republicans in name only.
Republicans in Congress, Rush explained, were held captive by the party’s leadership in the White House. They were put into a position of having to endorse policies with which as conservatives they disagreed.
"The Democratic Party,” Rush went on to say, "is the party of entitlements; but the Republicans come up with this Medicare prescription drug plan that the polls said that the public didn’t want and was not interested in. That is not conservatism. Conservatives do not grow the government and offer entitlements as a means of buying votes. But that’s what the Republicans in Congress had to support in order to stay in line with the Party from the top.
"It is silly to blame the media; it is silly to blame the Democrats; it is silly to go out and try to find all these excuses,” Rush said. "We have proved that we can beat them … we have proved that we can withstand whatever we get from the drive-by media. Conservatism does that — conservatism properly applied, proudly, eagerly, with vigor and honesty will triumph over that nine times out of 10 in this current political and social environment. It just wasn’t utilized in this campaign.”
Rush also blamed the failure to embrace conservatism on Republican’s fear of being criticized from those in the so-called establishment. Republicans, he charged, go out of their way to avoid being criticized, fearing they will be characterized as extremists and kooks.
As a result conservatism gets watered down, and the GOP loses the support of the nation’s conservative majority Rush stated.
Anything can beat nothing, Rush concluded, "and it happened yesterday.”
That's how anybody wins. A "true conservative" can't win by just winning the base. They'll end up with 35-40%. Likewise a "true liberal" can't win by just getting the base. They'll end up with 35-40%. It's always the candidate who wins the majority of the "mushy middle" who wins. That's not to say a "true conservative" or a "true liberal" can't win, they just have to be appealing enough to get the majority of the non-aligned voters.
Look at the past Republican winners to see how they did it. Reagan won his two terms exactly in this manner. He carried his base and won a sound majority of Indies and those not allied with a party affiliation, plus a good number of Dems who were okay with what he was saying and didn't feel threatened. George HW Bush also did it in '88, albeit to a lesser extent on the Dem vote than Reagan. Nixon was able to do it, barely, in '68, because of the overhang of another unpopular war, and handily in '72, because his opponent only appealed to his base.
Self hatred in the GOP, the baby killers have a guilt complex/death wish.
A blustering empty suit prone to buffoonery and a daily demonstration epitomizing ignorance and arrogance.
Well, we really weren't doing anything all that spectacular with it lately.
I agree. Almost all Republicans ran away from George Bush. They believed the stupid msm/dem spin about how everyone hates Bush. Instead of being standup and standby men, they showed that they will cut and run when the going gets tough. They sold out.
"Look it up. It wasn't immigration. It wasn't the economy. AND IT WASN'T IRAQ."
What about the folks who "sat it out?"
You think Talent or Santorum deserved to lose?
Bush lost conservatives when it became apparent that he wasn't going to do ANYTHING about the border. I voted, but it was like, "What's the friggin point?"
The sucker was right !
The great unwashed decide elections. They get their news from the MSM, not alternate media. The MSM is against Republicans, we know that. This means that we have to fight all the harder, and I don't think Bush and the Republicans ever made a strong, concerted effort to counter the 'Rat and MSM message of "disaster" in Iraq. If we don't learn that lesson from this defeat, we're just going to lose again. An unpopular war cost us this election. The polls told us that. We chose to fool ourselves and tried to convince each other that "the polls are wrong". Well, they weren't, and now we'll all pay the price.
You are leaving out one crucial factor.
A "conservative" country will INDEED tolerate corruption,
as long as the democrat media, by omission, keeps them ignorant of it.
Rush sure helped by making fun of Michael J. Fox! At least thats what that Missouri woman says.
Frist lost all credibility and ability to lead with his stupid doctor charade in the Terry Schiavo fiasco across the state in St. Pete/Clearwater area. He devined a diagnosis of her brain activity from newspaper reports and an ideological crystal ball on the Senate floor as he pandered to the madding crowd down on the street shouting about something about which they knew nothing.
Vindictive to the point of self-destruction? That is very stupid.
You said it.
Where I'm from, we had a huge turnout for an off-year election. They just voted against us. The dems now have complete control of Colorado--R's are irrelevant spectators.
Very long-term and lasting damage coming in Colorado--the voters don't understand that they voted for a long-awaited payoff to the teacher's union by the dems. It's going to cost us huge buckets of money and set our education system back decades. And, homeschooling and charter schools are pretty much history here.
Libertarian 7 NOV 06: "Here dude, hold my dubbie and watch this."
Libertarian 8 NOV 06: "We sure taught the GOP they can't take us for granted any more."
Libertarian 15 May 08: "What do you mean my taxes have gone up that much?"
Libertarians before the next election: "Don't blame me...it was the bot's fault."
From what I can see, Rush ain't wrong!
I would not say Rush was wrong, but how do they get people to believe them when they say they are conservative Rats.
I think the GOP is to honest to compete with a bunch of liars. They have dead people vote and hire Acorn to make false voter registrations and when they get caught breaking the law they never resign. Look at all the Reps. that have resigned and I can't think of one Rat.The Rats are born cheaters and always get away with it.
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