You got it!!!
Here is my theory --- I sent this to a friend last night:
What Rush is doing now (that Bush has *safely* been elected) is shoring up his own credibility so that he can't be accused of being exactly what he accused the DemocRATS of being --- "Kool-aid drinkers" for Clinton. He ALWAYS railed against the DemocRATS for refusing to criticize Clinton no matter WHAT he did.
I would do exactly what Rush is doing --- continuing to stand for conservative principles and pointing it out when Bush is off the conservative reservation. [This is an effective way to continue to educate people on conservatism].
By doing that, he's denying his enemies an opportunity to accuse him of not being true to his conservative "principles", and merely being a Bush / Republican Kool-Aid drinker.
This is very important groundwork for Rush to lay down now. There are lots of hard-core "principled" conservatives who are IRATE that Bush is compromising with the DemocRATS, and don't understand his political strategy for doing it. Many of those people are in Rush's audience.
Those are the ones who are stupid and bull-headed enough to sit out an election rather than vote for him again. Rush has to keep his credibility up with _them_ so that when the time comes and he endorses Bush on the next election, a majority of them will (even if grudgingly) give Bush another chance and go out and vote for him.
Rush will be there for Bush at EVERY crucial juncture *when it matters.* There is method in is his *madness*.
I think it's hilarious how he puts people on the air (letting them be the "Kool-Aid drinkers") letting _THEM_ praise and defend Bush and chide _him_ at the same time.
He effectively kills two birds with one stone when he does that. Bush gets praised and defended in front of Rush's vast audience, and Rush proves he's not a Kool-Aid drinker, "mouth-piece" for the Republican party.
That's my own personal "take" on the matter. :D
That's my own personal "take" on the matter. :D
And a good one, I would say!
By and large, they didn't vote for him the first time around.
And that's what makes them so furious--they played the "slow-roll the GOP until we get every single thing we want" game, and lost.
But, yes, I do agree with your assessment--they are stupid and bull-headed.
This is very important groundwork for Rush to lay down now. There are lots of hard-core "principled" conservatives who are IRATE that Bush is compromising with the DemocRATS, and don't understand his political strategy for doing it. Many of those people are in Rush's audience.
Well, said, Marchett-PI. I agree whole heartedly with the entirety of you post. However, I would change one important word in the 2nd sentence in the above blockquote. For the phrase "hard-core 'principled' conservatives, I would substitute "hard-core Republican supporters" to make your statement even more accurate.
Though Rush articulates this difference much clearer than I am able to, it lies between a party affiliation and a core belief system permeating the structure of one's life, conservativism. Here in NJ, we *know* that it is quite possible and, indeed, happens with alarming regularity on a national scale, that one can be a Republican, but NOT a conservative I am not, however, implying this of Bush, merely making not that there are issues from which deviates from conservative principles.
Consistency is very important. I do have a problem with altering one's agenda to meet short-term political goals(or so it would appear, for I am not in a position to judge definitively Bush's end game plan ), some tow the party line regardless. When someone asks you your party affiliation, what's your response? Rush is a reflection of many of his listeners out there who would respond, "I am a conservative", me being one of them. There are those who I'm not sure truely understand the need for these ideological checks and balances that anchor our elected party officials to the principles upon which they were elected. This stance should not be considered dissentious and, more importantly, needs to be recognized for what it is by the conservative majority in the US:
A stand for conservativism and the constitution, withstanding the political pressures to move away from our conservative thinking.
One parting comment to RINOs nation-wide: GET RIGHT OR GET OUT!
I know, I know. Maha Rushie says it so well. But, still, I've taken my Truth Decay medication today and am felling much better.
God Bless America and President Bush