The Buckley Rule: Vote for the Most Conservative, Viable Candidate

rushlimbaugh.com ^ | Rush Limbaugh

[ObamahatesPACoal]

RUSH: Mark in Richmond, Virginia, you're next. Great to have you, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. I'm a longtime listener, and I've listened to you over the years, and one time you said something about trying to elect the most conservative candidate that was electable. Now, correct me on some of the details, but in light of the Tea Party candidates that are trying to get elected running against the establishment machine, I thought this would be relevant to go over what you exactly said and the details of that.

RUSH: I quoted William F. Buckley Jr., who said that you want to support and elect the most conservative candidate who is viable, not electable, 'cause who knows, I mean, who gets to say who's electable and who isn't? You don't know that 'til after it happens.

[ObamahatesPACoal]

The district is R+10. Limbaugh doesn't want to get involved in primaries.

[Paladin2]

Ditch Mitch, in the General, if necessary.

[Neidermeyer]

This thinking is what gives us Rino’s ....

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[RedStateRocker]

“Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line”.
I think that line is a couple of generations old, but still sometimes germane. When the Democrats fall in love enough to fall in line, they win, but with a much higher percentage of pissy little children who don’t understand that all governance in a Republic *is* compromise and bargaining to represent EVERYONE they don’t fall in line as often as Republicans, thank God.

In a way, the Tea Party wins, even if they don’t elect a single endorsed candidate, because they are forcing everyone to run, and sometimes even govern, to the right.

Just a .02

[Tennessee Nana]

yeah well Buckley didn’t have to put up with liberal phonies like Willard ...

If he had he would have been more pacific and explained just what he considered a Conservative really is...

[cripplecreek]

I know one thing. I won’t be voting for any of the chamber maidens.

I can vote for a flawed candidate but I won’t vote for a milquetoast put up by the chamber of commies to defeat a tea partier.

[Jemian]

If we all voted for the most viable candidate, then, perforce, wouldn’t that make him the most electable? /rhetorical

[Dr. Sivana]

yeah well Buckley didn’t have to put up with liberal phonies like Willard ...

Actually it was worse.



For starters, there Romney's ol' man George.

Let's not forget Nelson Rockefeller, who was actually heartbeat behind that great conservative stalwart, Gerald R. Ford for president.

But Gerald made up for it. He dumped Rockefeller and put in a REAL conservative ... Bob Dole.

In 1980, Dole thought he could beat Reagan, but he had some REAL Republicans to run against: Howard Baker, George H. W. Bush, John B. Anderson and John Connolly. Of course, John Connolly had been a Democrat.

Let's not forget the great businessmen in the party of the era. Certainly a great Captain of Industry would push the conservative position over, like Senator Heinz of Pennsylvania.

Then there's Lowell Weicker, who was so conservative Republican that the Buckleys formed a PAC to support Joe Lieberman as a more conservative alternative.

In 1980, Richard Lugar was thought of as a conservative.

The job is not finished, and the Empire is still striking back, but these things are measured in generations, not election cycles.

[demshateGod]

Absolutely right. I’ll vote for the talking horse before I’ll vote for another hackneyed Republican.

[DoughtyOne]

IMO, winning isn't everything.  Politics goes in cycles.  The pendulum swings one way, and it comes back the other way.  Why does it come back?

It comes back, because gravitational pull swings it back.

Folks, I liken a well versed (Conservative) candidate to this gravitational effect.  The pendulum will swing to the Democrats, and when they've been revealed for the evil failures they are, it will move the other direction.

How does the public recognize the evil failures?  Do they suddenly have a come to Jesus moment by themselves?  Do they suddenly understand the Conservative approach without input?

No folks, they grasp Conservative principles, when someone pounds that into them, and then after the Democrats do what the Conservatives predicted they would, people think, "Oh yeah, that (Conservative) guy was right!"  We better go the other direction.

Here's the message our side continually misses, election after election after election after election...

Moving left defeats this whole process.  If you don't predict honestly what the Leftist policy will do, and you in fact adopt a good portion of it, who alerts the public that there is a better way?

The answer is NOBODY!

We must lose some elections to win them.  We must not be afraid to put our principles first.

If we fail to put our principles first, we will defeat ourselves constantly.

Bush, McCain, Romney... how has that worked out for us?  Has the Left had their eyes opened even under Obama?  No.  Why?

Because the GOPe, the RNC, and the Leftist Republican talking heads don't clearly define the alternative to Leftist ideology.

There is is folks.  The sure path to victory travels right through the garden of Principled Conservative wisdom.

Run little circles avoiding the garden, and reap nothing but weeds.

Haven't we had enough of the weeds?  Support the Conservative.  Tell everyone who says otherwise to STFU.  Just be sure you have studied the policies of the cadidate before you convince yourself they are Conservative.

Populist sound-bites do not a policy make.  The may sound good, they may cheer all of us on, but unless they touch on the specific issue, dismiss them for what they are, practitioners of moke and mirrors.

Yes, some folks professing to be on our side do this too..

[Starstruck]

Pick the religion most likely to be true.

[campaignPete R-CT]

The Buckley rule gave us Mooney last nite ... and Sasse. There are 20 more House conservatives who are facing tough primaries.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3155596/posts

[Personal Responsibility]

Saying we should nominate the most viable conservative who can win is ridiculous,. You can never know who is “viable” or “electable” until after the election. That’s like saying you shouldn’t place a bet on a football game until after it’s over.

[ObamahatesPACoal]

I think Rush was avoiding the question of Dave Brat vs Eric Cantor. He doesn’t want to get involved and lose ads.

I was happy that the names were being brought up.

[Forgotten Amendments]

Limbaugh doesn't want is afraid to get involved in primaries.

I lost all respect for him when he chickened out on the Specter / Toomey primary in 2004. He even brought Specter onto the show the day of the primary, so he did dirty work for the guy who cast the deciding Obamacare vote. One word from Rush and Toomey probably would've won.

This wasn't long after his comeback and I'm sure he was on a short leash from someone. But it sickened me.

[campaignPete R-CT]

you shouldn’t place a bet if it is the 3rd period and you are down 42 to 3

[GeronL]

I will support the real conservative, no matter the score

[campaignPete R-CT]

“I will support the real conservative, no matter the score”

Well, fortunately not too many followed that philosophy last night ... the “real conservatives” got few votes, which allowed Sasse of NEB and Mooney of WV to win.

It is the GOPe that tries to run “real conservatives” to score in the single digits and split the grassroots conservative vote.

[mulligan]

We have been doing that for years and where are we? In trouble so deep we may never recover. It makes no difference today, most politicians (either Party) are corrupt, greedy, incompetent and care only about being elected or re-elected and to hell with the voters and/or the nation.