Why Republicans Lost

[KirtFalcon]

Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006 3:46 p.m. EST

Rush Limbaugh: Why Republicans Lost

 

Republicans took a beating on Election Day because they abandoned their conservative principles and in the end stood for nothing, Rush Limbaugh says.

 

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, 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.”

 

Rush also said that the elections liberated him.

 

"I feel liberated, and I'm going to tell you as plainly as I can why," Rush said. "I no longer am going to have to carry the water for people who I don't think deserve having their water carried. Now, you might say, 'Well, why have you been doing it?' Because the stakes are high. Even though the Republican Party let us down, to me they represent a far better future for my beliefs and therefore the country's than the Democrat Party and liberalism does."

 

Rush went on to explain that he believes his side is worthy of victory, and that he believes it's much easier "to reform things that are going wrong on my side from a position of strength. Now I'm liberated from having to constantly come in here every day and try to buck up a bunch of people who don't deserve it, to try to carry the water and make excuses for people who don't deserve it."

 

The nation's top talker confided "I did not want to sit here and participate, willingly, in the victory of the libs, in the victory of the Democrat Party by sabotaging my own. But now with what has happened yesterday and today, it is an entirely liberating thing. If those in our party who are going to carry the day in the future -- both in Congress and the administration -- are going to choose a different path than what most of us believe, then that's liberating. I don't say this with any animosity about anybody, and I don't mean to make this too personal."

 

Rush explained that it has not been easy for him to endorse some of the things backed by Republicans in Congress. "There have been a bunch of things going on in Congress, some of this legislation coming out of there that I have just cringed at, and it has been difficult coming in here, trying to make the case for it when the people who are supposedly in favor of it can't even make the case themselves -- and to have to come in here and try to do their jobs ...

[Middle]

Wow, Rush makes some good points in that article. Never thought I'd say that.

 

Now that I think about it, he is completely right that the Republican party had no message for this election. No direction, nothing. I wonder if the president's actions had anything to do with the loss?

[KirtFalcon]

Bush and the Republicans have done nothing the past 6 years to advance the conservative agenda they were overwhelmingly elected to put in motion. They ran on smaller government, less spending, tax cuts, strong military and other conservative ideals. Instead their out of control spending combined with the Iraq war, Katrina, etc. has ballooned the spending and expanded government to all time highs. Bush has turned out to be a "compassionate" big spender!!!

 

To regain power, Republicans will have to get back to their true conservative roots and core supporters and not only campaign on smaller government and less spending, but they will have to govern that way! :whistle:

[Middle]

I completely agree with you. If the Republican party would return to the days of small government, I'd be MUCH more apt to vote for them.

 

Neither party wants to reduce spending and federal government control. I wonder every day where states' rights went ...

[KirtFalcon]

The Democrats won the election opposing an unpopular war and an unpopular president because of the war and the out of control spending. Republicans lost a lot of conservative voters who supported the war effort, but couldn't stomach the out of control spending. I hope the Democrats don't think they were elected on economic and social issue reforms! It would be a big mistake to try and eliminate the tax cuts and increase social spending which would ruin the growing economy. They need to at least try and hold spending in check and leave the tax cuts alone!

 

It will be interesting to see how judicial nominations are handled. It will be a lot harder to seat conservative judges for Bush. In my mind, that's the saddest part of this election.

[DLeihman32878]

To summarize, Bush upset the Reagan Republicans and ran us out of the party.

[RETIREDFAN1]

Wow...If nothing else, the election brought Kirt and Middle together in agreement.....:saint:

[Aggie2008]

Bush better get his Veto pen ready for these next two years...holding such a small lead in the Senate, the Dems will have trouble passing liberal social reform bills anyway, especially with all the moderate Dems that were elected.

 

What will happen is that side deals will be made for Bush not to veto certain legislation in return for easy confirmations of judges and the like.

 

I would not be suprised in the least to have Joe Leiberman more on the side of the GOP than the Dems for a while. I hope he sticks it right back in the face of the party that absolutely abandoned him...heck, Harry Reid flat-out campaigned for the other guy!

[Guest bleedsbluengold24]

Originally posted by Aggie2008

Bush better get his Veto pen ready for these next two years...

 

I believe if the President had gotten his veto pen before now we wouldn't be talking about this right now. As has been stated quite well in other threads, the reason why republicans abandoned the party during this election is because the party abandoned them (us) a long time ago. As the result, the whole country will suffer through at least another two years of partisan bickering.

 

In my mind, it's a little late to be worrying over what we as republicans are going to do over the next two years.

 

I am sorely disappointed both in our party and our President for turning his back on core republican values. I though not a fan of Mr. Limbaugh, agree whole-heartedly with his opinion of the reasons for the democratic takeover of Congress.

[DeuceChunker03]

Why weren't you Republicans talking about this before the election? If I remember correctly, the Democratic take over of the House and Senate was a big farce to you guys. Now y'all claim your party left you?:shrug:

[KirtFalcon]

The party didn't leave us, the RINO Republicans in Washington left us. We are the party! :whistle:

[Guest bleedsbluengold24]

Originally posted by DeuceChunker03

Why weren't you Republicans talking about this before the election? If I remember correctly, the Democratic take over of the House and Senate was a big farce to you guys. Now y'all claim your party left you?:shrug:

 

Republican John Q. Public was talking about it. Our republican representatives weren't listening. I said months ago we would lose at least the house if not both houses because our elected officials (and the Pres. for that matter) forgot what a republican was. Looks like I was right.

[DLeihman32878]

Originally posted by DeuceChunker03

Why weren't you Republicans talking about this before the election? If I remember correctly, the Democratic take over of the House and Senate was a big farce to you guys. Now y'all claim your party left you?:shrug:

 

I've been talking about this since Bush won the Republican nod in 2000. I knew it was a bad idea then, but I voted for him in 2000. By 2002, I had enough and voted Democrat, same in 2004. Now, I think things will change and I can vote Republican again.