Posted on 04/03/2008 7:55:15 AM PDT by jdm
Cobb is saying Rush Limbaugh has crossed a line with Operation Chaos, and he even has a cartoon up about it.
My take on “Operation Chaos” is that Rush is doing several things, here - he’s demonstrating his sway, he’s enjoying making mischief (and hoping that when the press talks about “Hillary winning and demonstrating momentum” they’ll mention his “Operation,”) and he’s getting a feel for just how strong may be the desire of conservatives to — not now, but in coming years — jump the GOP ship and form a more demonstrably “conservative” party.
Rush is justifying “Operation Chaos” by suggesting that since Democrats routinely play around with some Republican primaries (I believe the Kos folks did something similar) this is an acceptable thing for conservatives to do. Rush seems to blame the Democrats rather than the conservatives for the GOP nominating John McCain over some never-specified “perfect conservative” candidate, and his line is “since the Democrats selected our nominee, we’ll select theirs.”
I reject the premise that the Democrats “selected” John McCain. Had conservatives managed to find that “Ronald Reagan II” they were demanding, he/she would have been immune to stray Dem hijinks; if the conservatives couldn’t find/groom a preferred candidate when they’ve known they needed one for the past 4 years, they shouldn’t whine about it or blame others. (Please don’t tell me “Mitt was perfect” - you only loved him when you had no other choice but McCain, and you got McCain because no one else was “good enough” and Thompson was never serious. And remember, I’m the girl who still thinks — because things turn on a dime — that McCain may still not be the GOP candidate; health and age are real issues.)
Cobb writes:
This is quite obviously subversive which is bad enough, but when Limbaugh much to the consternation of party bosses on both sides claims to be influencing elections and manipulating democracy with his plotting it demonstrates what I consider unconscionable hubris. He’s gone too far and he needs to be stopped.
Well, it is subversive, and it is hard to justify the subversion on the basis “fighting fire with fire.” One cannot compare the influence of — at most — a couple million KosKidz to Rush’s enormous audience. I keep thinking that if a liberal with Rush’s audience was advocating “Operation Chaos,” lots of conservatives would be decrying the game-playing and mischief-making misuse of our votes, which I believe most conservatives consider “sacred” things.
But I don’t think Rush should be stopped. That would involved trampling on something equally sacred, our right to speak freely and organize and assemble, even if we’re making cakes of ourselves doing it.
This 2008 election - and much of our electoral process - is already a two-ring circus; Rush is simply adding a third ring, and he’s perhaps also demonstrating how absurdly dishonest and vapid has it all become - the endless campaigning, maneuvering, manipulating and lying. And like a good capitalist he is turning a profit on the thing, besides. (If the “Operation Chaos” tee shirts, hats, etc are meant to support a charity, please let me know.)
So, I don’t think Limbaugh should “be stopped.” But I also don’t know that people should be giggling and guffawing over “Operation Chaos” without considering that — if the “operation” is rooted in a spirit of spiteful payback — it is bound to reap negative fruit. Moreover, I am old-fashioned enough to think of our vote is “a sacred trust” even if that is unsophisticated of me, even if others think vote manipulation is timely sport.
I keep thinking about the Russian Immigrant who looked forward to his first chance to vote in America, and told Gerard Vanderleun, “I will vote always for best, always”…and about the people in Iraq who braved so much to hold their purple fingers in the air…and about the Iraqi and American dead who fought to give them that right.
And in thinking about them, I’m a bit ashamed of our three-ring circus and the casual menace which we are bringing to our own sacred process. They all deserve better than we’re giving them, right now.
What is your opinion? Is Limbaugh subverting a sacred trust, or is he - somehow - “saving” it?
Until Obama became a god and was running behind in the polls, I thought about voting against Hillary in the Democrat Primary in Texas. But Obama got hyped and Rush announced his own crossover strategy, so I voted in the Republican Primary. I did vote for the black candidate for President, Alan Keyes, who was among the last conservatives still in the race.
I wouldn’t have felt good about doing ANYTHING to empower either of those Marxists vying for the DemocRat nomination by way of voting FOR either of them.
Why not create chaos for Clinton now by voting Obama? If the cross overs keep her margins lower her fund raising will dry up?
Message to Rush from the LSM: Stop trying to influence the outcome of the democratic process, that’s our job, and we have a twenty plus year record of blatent voter manipulation to prove it!
Subverting justice to "get back at whitey" is intrinsically different than tactically using your legal voting rights to optimum, rarefied effect in support of your political preferences.
HF
I hope so!.....Crossover voting in itself is chaos.
He may reject the premise that the DNC has played games with our primaries over the last several elections, but I don’t.
The idea of the “open” primary is a bad one, but the Dems aren’t going to get the message until they’ve had the same games run against them that they’ve run against the GOP.
I hope the outcome of this is an end to the open primary. Do you want to vote in the Dem primary? Then join the DNC 90 days or 180 days before the primary. That will eliminate the specter of having non-members choosing your party’s candidate.
Same with the GOP. No one should vote in a GOP primary who hasn’t been a member at least 6 months. Any legal voter should be able to vote in the general election but only bona fide long-term party members should be allowed to choose the party nominee. If Rush is successful in achieving this, it will have been worth it to me.
Oh, and watching Clinton and Obama being forced to use the dirt they have on one another, and a divided press actually running it, thats just icing on the cake.
That's 90% of what Operation Chaos is about -- Rush getting some paypack for the media's "Rush is irrelevent" claim a few months back when McCain became the de facto nominee. Rush is throwing it back in the media's faces, punishing them and messing with their heads. I think his effect on primary voters is much smaller than what people are making of it. But that doesn't matter -- all he needs is the perception. He has now written himself into the history of the 2008 Democrat primaries as a significant player.
I think you have a better chance of Hillary running as a third party candidate than her sitting on the bottom part of the presidential ticket.
Besides, interesting factoid, the last sitting VP to be elected president was George H.W. Bush. The last one before that, Martin Van Buren. History is not on her side. (and no I didn't know that it was a Final Jeopardy question).
“Rush seems to blame the Democrats rather than the conservatives for the GOP nominating John McCain” ~ Anchoress
WRONG!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1995505/posts?page=37#37
The conservatives are not happy with their man McCain so why not screw with the liberals and force a fight in the Democrat election. We just don’t have anything else better to do so why not.
Who is Cobb and why should I care what his opinion is. Opinions are like ________. Everyone has one.
In a word, no.
Something that should be remembered is that the primaries are a taxpayer funded boondoggle for the convenience of the political parties. If they don’t like the results, they’re free to select their nominees at convention as was done many years ago, and how the third parties still do it today. I personally wish they would stop running primaries as I don’t like being taxed to determine which politicians are going to represent the Democratic and/or Republican parties.
As for this tripe about the “sacredness” of the whole thing; these are primaries, not the general election. Most people don’t even bother to show up.
I don't have a philosophical problem with it. I just don't think the math works. If it makes people feel better though they should go for it.
here is no "best" to vote for this year. It's just that simple. They're all a disaster, some are just more so than others.
The only trust I see violated in the 2008 primary... is the Dem’s Super-Surrogates being able to override the choice of the ordinary voter.
Good analysis.
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