# NOW will the Republican Party finally deal with Rush Limbaugh? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 21, 2012, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736 "2012-11-21T17:24:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/81 "2012-11-24T12:39:34Z")
> [@Muffy\_Simba](#): > > … I don’t think Politicians care or should care about a goddamn RADIO HOST. The point of the thread is that politicians in the main _do_ “care about a goddamn RADIO HOST.” No, no politicians care about what Howard Stern says about them, or what a host of liberal leaning (but not politically focused) shock jocks say. But they do care about what Rush says and are often deferential to his expressed POVs. Most here agree with you that they _should_ not. Now are they deferential to Rush or to him as the barometer of the hard Right base? Probably it does not matter. Meanwhile Saxby Chambliss is [at least](http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/23/politics/fiscal-cliff/index.html?hpt=hp_t1) willing to go first of those who have pandered to the likes of Rush and the Tea Party and state outright that that Norquist no tax pledge will need to be broken. If he can weather the backlash maybe he’ll decide that he likes how a spine feels. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/82 "2012-11-24T12:57:45Z")
> [@Muffy\_Simba](#): > > You know what it means. Not really. I was hoping you would explain because when I tried to Google it, it wound up in hijack hell. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/83 "2012-11-24T13:13:38Z")
Oops. Edited out post because I thought we were in the pit. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/84 "2012-11-24T13:21:36Z")
> [@Muffy\_Simba](#): > > I’m not a dude and I don’t even listen to radio too much anymore. You would have to look them up yourself. There are many. Your unwillingness to defend an assertion you yourself made seriously undermines your credibility and lends the whiff of equine excrement to your vicinity. ---
**Author:** ![Myrnalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/85 "2012-11-24T14:11:13Z")
> [@Muffy\_Simba](#): > > I never said Flynt was a radio host. When did I say that? Howard and Stern are very un PC like Rush. Howard is a very popular radio host like Rush. I’ve been using the phrases “blue” and “red” for a little while now. Are you even participating in the same conversation as the rest of the people in this thread? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/86 "2012-11-24T17:47:16Z")
> [@Muffy\_Simba](#): > > Last time I checked, I didn’t live on an island like Tom Hanks, Oliver Queen and Brooke Shields. I don’t really listen to radio anymore, but I do know there are many popular shock jocks out there. NAME. _ **ONE** _. That’s all anyone is asking. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/87 "2012-11-24T18:21:48Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > I’d just as soon dream of the GOP sticking around but as a permanent minority opposition. I think it’s fairly clear the intent behind “I wish for the Republican party to disappear, followed by the Democratic party”. The desire isn’t for a one party state, but either for secondary parties to perform the role the Democrats and Republicans currently have (Green/Libertarian, perhaps), for politicians to be disinterested arbiters of the citizens’ best interests (no party state) or for politics to be administered on a local level (mutual aid societies, quorum, individual initiatives, syndicalism and other forms of direct democracy - no state). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/88 "2012-11-24T19:16:00Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Because I believe that a single party system would be a bad thing even if that party is “my” party. If the Dems take the House in 2014, we still don’t have a single-party system, like Mexico when the PRI ruled. We have a system where [there’s a “sun party” and a “moon party.”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=531379) As Sam Tanenhaus [said in 2009:](http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/08/28/requiem-for-the-right.html) > [@](#): > > **Meacham: So how bad is it, really? Your title doesn’t quite declare conservatism dead. > Tanenhaus:** Quite bad if you prize a mature, responsible conservatism that honors America’s institutions, both governmental and societal. The first great 20th-century Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, supported a strong central government that emphasized the shared values and ideals of the nation’s millions of citizens. He denounced the harm done by “the trusts”—big corporations. He made it his mission to conserve vast tracts of wilderness and forest. The last successful one, Ronald Reagan, liked to remind people (especially the press) he was a lifelong New Dealer who voted four times for Franklin D. Roosevelt. The consensus forged by Buckley in the 1960s gained strength through two decisive acts: first, Buckley denounced right-wing extremists, such as the members of the John Birch Society, and made sure when he did it to secure the support of conservative Republicans like Reagan, Barry Goldwater, and Sen. John Tower. This pulled the movement toward the center. Second: Buckley saw that the civil disturbances of the late 1960s (in particular urban riots and increasingly militant anti-Vietnam protests) posed a challenge to social harmonies preferred by genuine conservatives and genuine liberals alike. When the Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan called on liberals to join with conservatives in upholding “the politics of stability,” Buckley replied that he was ready to help. He placed the values of “civil society” (in Burke’s term) above those of his own movement or the GOP. > > Today we see very little evidence of this. In his classic The Future of American Politics (1952), the political journalist Samuel Lubell said that our two-party system in fact consists of periods of alternating one-party rule—there is a majority “sun” party and a minority “moon” party. “It is within the majority party that the issues of any particular period are fought out,” Lubell wrote. Thus, in the 1980s, Republicans grasped (and Democrats did not) that new entrepreneurial energies had been unleashed, and also that the Cold War could be brought to a conclusion through strong foreign policy. This was the Republicans’ “sun” period. The reverse is happening today. The Democrats now dominate our heliocentric system—first on the economic stimulus, which is already proving to be at least a limited success, and now on the issue of health-care reform. These are both entirely Democratic initiatives. The Republicans, so intent on thwarting Obama, have vacated the field, and left it up to the sun party to accept the full burden of legislating us into the future. If the Democrats succeed, Republicans will be tagged as the party that declined even to help repair a broken system and extend fundamental protections—logical extensions of Social Security and Medicare—to some 46 million people who now don’t have them. This could marginalize the right for a generation, if not longer. Rush Limbaugh’s stated hope that Obama will fail seems to have become GOP doctrine. This is the attitude not of conservatives, but of radicals, who deplore the very possibility of a virtuous government. > > **Is there an analogous historical moment? Conservatives argue that this is 1965 and that a renaissance is at hand.** > I disagree. Today, conservatives seem in a position closer to the one they occupied during the New Deal. The epithets so many on the right now hurl at Obama—“socialist,” “fascist”—precisely echo the accusations Herbert Hoover and “Old Right” made against FDR in 1936. And the spectacle of citizens appearing at town-hall meetings with guns recalls nothing so much as the vigilante Minutemen whom Buckley evicted from the conservative movement in the 1960s. A serious conservative like David Frum knows this, and has spoken up. It is remarkable how few others have. The moon party is being yanked ever farther onto its marginal orbit. There seemed reason to doubt this judgment in 2010, but this election reaffirms it: After the hardest-fought, most expensive election ever, Obama remains president, the Democrats still control the Senate, the Republicans still control the House – nothing changed. Apparently the people want the Dems as the sun party and the Pubs as the moon party. That does not make the Pubs irrelevant – they were relevant throughout the Roosevelt and Truman years, weren’t they? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/89 "2012-11-24T20:16:07Z")
> [@gamerunknown](#): > > I think it’s fairly clear the intent behind “I wish for the Republican party to disappear, followed by the Democratic party”. … > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > If the Dems take the House in 2014, we still don’t have a single-party system, like Mexico when the PRI ruled. We have a system where [there’s a “sun party” and a “moon party.”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=531379)… The context was this comment: > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > … I admit that this is wishful thinking because I view Limbaugh as the most direct route to the eventual extinction of the Republican Party. No, not a wish for the Democratic Party to disappear as well and either have a Monroe inspired no-party ideal or to have other currently minor parties grow to be the same as the current big parties. No, not a wish to have the GOP be a “moon party” for many years to come. As to Sam Tanenhaus’ take - I think he gives the electorate a longer memory than they have. Or less forgiveness. Or both. The GOP can re-invent themselves in a very short time frame if the voting marketplace demands it. They did in fact after that Tanenhaus bit: they swept the House on that reinvention, tacking hard Right. Works for winning House seats, not so much so for Senate seats or the Presidency. The issue is not that they will sully their long term reputation with their obstructionism but a structural one. The nature of their base makes the primary process a filter made of razor blades. Getting past that issue is a tough one. Four years is a long time however. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/90 "2012-11-24T20:40:01Z")
> [@Muffy\_Simba](#): > > Last time I checked, I didn’t live on an island like Tom Hanks, Oliver Queen and Brooke Shields. And how long have you had this fantasy about living on an island with Tom Hanks, Oliver Queen and Brooke Shields? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/91 "2012-11-24T21:50:04Z")
> [@Muffy\_Simba](#): > > Last time I checked, I didn’t live on an island like Tom Hanks, Oliver Queen and Brooke Shields. I don’t really listen to radio anymore, but I do know there are many popular shock jocks out there. If you make an assertion, it is up to you to prove it. It is not up to us to believe you because “you know it is true”. When you make an assertion and you are asked for an example to prove it, it really, really does not look good on you if you say that you don’t even listen to the radio. Example: You: There are lots of TV shows that feature leprechauns. Us: Really? Give us one example please. You: Well, I don’t really watch TV much anymore. Anyway, there are lots of shows like that. Why don’t you do and find them. Us: ??? That makes no sense. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/92 "2012-11-24T23:38:43Z")
How would the GOP “deal with” Rush Limbaugh anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/93 "2012-11-24T23:42:05Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > How would the GOP “deal with” Rush Limbaugh anyway? GOP politicians could: - not appear on his show in any form. - condemn any asinine statements he makes, which are quite obviously designed to inflame or troll. - do not then rush onto his show to beg forgiveness. - or basically even ignore him (DNFTT) would be an OK strategy ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/94 "2012-11-24T23:42:44Z")
Special ops or drone, you pick. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/95 "2012-11-24T23:44:03Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > How would the GOP “deal with” Rush Limbaugh anyway? Several prominent GOP office-holders – I’m thinking Boehner, McConnell, Christie, Scott, Perry – would need to rebuke him when next he makes an outrageous and stupid statement, preferably in concert, and say that attitudes such as those he espouses are a large part of the reason for the party’s defeat in the last election. When he protested, they’d need to remind everyone of Limbaugh’s repeated claims that he is but an entertainer. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/96 "2012-11-24T23:46:11Z")
The real way to deal with Limbaugh if that’s what they want to do is to stop dealing with him. Stop going on his show. Stop deferring to his opinions. Stop apologizing to him after criticizing him. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/97 "2012-11-24T23:49:19Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > - condemn any asinine statements he makes, which are quite obviously designed to inflame or troll. OK, now I want someone to make a photoshop of Limbaugh as a [troll](http://www.itsasickness.com/files/imagecache/ob_content_photo/52c1c3a46119a96c69b55ebffc7de87e.jpeg.crop_display.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2012, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/98 "2012-11-25T02:01:06Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > The real way to deal with Limbaugh if that’s what they want to do is to stop dealing with him. Stop going on his show. Stop deferring to his opinions. Stop apologizing to him after criticizing him. That would take some sort of concerted effort, though. You stop returning Rush’s calls, and soon you might find him giving your wingnut primary challenger a soapbox to shout from. You might be able to weather that, unless the rest of the “establishment” beats you in the Republican version of the [Walk to Canossa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_to_Canossa). By himself, Rush is not that powerful, but if it’s between Rush and a bunch of Republican politicians that want of need his support making a concerted effort to pick off those who stray too far from the party line, they’ve got the upper hand. Maybe the sane Republicans could form a union to strengthen their position. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/99 "2012-11-25T02:42:15Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > OK, now I want someone to make a photoshop of Limbaugh as a [troll](http://www.itsasickness.com/files/imagecache/ob_content_photo/52c1c3a46119a96c69b55ebffc7de87e.jpeg.crop_display.jpg). [Here you go](http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn66/squeegee64/TrollBaughSlut.jpg). Dressed as a slut, even. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2012, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-will-the-republican-party-finally-deal-with-rush-limbaugh/641736/100 "2012-11-25T05:26:22Z")
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