Rush Limbaugh: Today's GOP 'Is Filled With Moderates'

[mystery-ak]

http://www.newsmax.com/PrintTemplate.aspx/?nodeid=612403


Newsmax
Rush Limbaugh: Today's GOP 'Is Filled With Moderates'
Thursday, December 11, 2014 08:47 AM

By: Melissa Clyne

The Republican Party and its leaders have undergone a transformation over the last several years, according to conservative radio  talk host Rush Limbaugh, and the GOP now eschews Limbaugh and others like him because "I no longer espouse what they believe," he said Tuesday on his show.

Limbaugh’s remarks were in response to a caller, John in Winter Haven, Florida, who wanted to know Limbaugh’s opinion on a theory John had, namely that the GOP establishment sits back and waits for Limbaugh and others in the conservative media to communicate their message.

"Our GOP establishment just sits mute as issue after issue is handed them on a silver platter," John said. "You never hear them take it up and run with it or articulate a point.

"Do you suppose that they sit back knowing full well that you are going to articulate the point they should be making to your audience?"

Limbaugh acknowledged that there once was a time when Republican leaders would rely on him and others "to take the arrows for them. We would be the ones to explaining. We would be the ones to inspire. We would be the ones to fire up. We would be the ones to basically take the hit when there was reaction to it.

"In other words, they relied on us to inform their voters who they were. They relied on us to tell their voters what they were gonna do."

But no more, he said. Not every Republican voter is a conservative.

Today’s GOP, including the leadership, is filled with moderate Republicans, according to Limbaugh, who noted that there are a lot of "voting Republicans who are perfectly fine with Obamacare. There are a lot of Republicans, mainstream Republicans who say,
'Look, let's not do too much here on immigration.'

"There are a lot of mainstream Republican voters who embody the same fear that Republican leaders do. 'Oh, we can't make the Hispanics mad at us!'

"I'll give you an example. There are a lot of mainstream Republican voters who are embarrassed by Sarah Palin."

Many Republicans don’t care much about reducing the size of government and the elected Republican establishment is OK with that mindset because they want to run it, he said.

"You can identify those people very easily if you read what they write. They will say things like, 'We believe in a strong executive and a big government managed smartly. We believe in smart management, smart government, and we'll reduce parts of the government that are wasteful and extraneous and unnecessary.'

"But as an overall operating principle, the idea that government must be reduced? That's not a Republican Party view."

[evadR]

"moderates"
Another name for sit on the fencers, put your finger in the air, do nothing scaredy cats.
Might as well be dims.

[Bigun]

"moderates"
Another name for sit on the fencers, put your finger in the air, do nothing scaredy cats.
Might as well be dims.

 

   and 

[massadvj]

"moderates"
Another name for sit on the fencers, put your finger in the air, do nothing scaredy cats.
Might as well be dims.

In one respect the moderate GOP is worse than the Democrats: at least the Democrats aren't doing what they do with my blessing.

[andy58-in-nh]

I find myself truly conflicted over what the GOP ought to do, at this moment.

On one hand, it would be truly irresponsible of their leadership - most specifically John Boehner and Mitch McConnell - to allow Barack Obama to get away with his blatantly unconstitutional executive action on immigration.

It would also be disrespectful of the voters who have now placed them both within the Congressional majority, in the reasonable expectation that Republican, and not Democrat priorities should be pursued, at least for the next two years.

The vexing problem however is: what can they reasonably be expected to accomplish during the next four weeks, before the new 114th Congress is seated?

Senate Democrats and the President can and will block whatever Republicans attempt to do, short of largely funding the Federal government through the end of next year.  Further, because the Democrat government/news media alliance still utterly dominates the national narrative, most Americans will only hear one side of the story - the Democrat side.

Fox News and internet alternative news sites cannot yet be counted on to overcome concerted Progressive efforts to shape the story, and for their part, the GOP leadership shows little effectiveness at either countering the Democrat narrative or explaining their own.

Obama has set a trap for them, relying as he always has on the media to provide cover and support.

Then, there is the matter of what the GOP leadership truly wants to do, and what they actually believe. Are they at all committed to the reduction of the size, scope, and reach of the Federal government? Or, as Rush Limbaugh has reasonably suggested, are they possessed of a more "moderate" mindset, by which he means a belief in Big Government, but one run by Republicans rather than Democrats, and thus one presumably conducted with more restraint, for whatever that is worth?

Either way, I am tempted to think the wiser course would be for Republicans to lay as low as possible, and to give away as little as possible until January 2nd.

Then, come out blasting. Send Obama a new bill every day, until his veto stamp runs out of ink. Let the public see, even through the news media's smog filter, just who is trying to fix things, and who is trying to protect the status quo.

My chief concern then would be: what does the GOP leadership truly stand for, and does any of it reflect the conservative values and principles that Republican voters have entrusted them to advance? Do they share those principles at all, or are they guilty of manipulating their conservative base, while secretly intending to offer them nothing more than the back of their hands when the time for action comes?

Sadly, the answer to those questions is not at all clear to me.

[Bigun]

I find myself truly conflicted over what the GOP ought to do, at this moment.

On one hand, it would be truly irresponsible of their leadership - most specifically John Boehner and Mitch McConnell - to allow Barack Obama to get away with his blatantly unconstitutional executive action on immigration.

It would also be disrespectful of the voters who have now placed them both within the Congressional majority, in the reasonable expectation that Republican, and not Democrat priorities should be pursued, at least for the next two years.

The vexing problem however is: what can they reasonably be expected to accomplish during the next four weeks, before the new 114th Congress is seated?

Senate Democrats and the President can and will block whatever Republicans attempt to do, short of largely funding the Federal government through the end of next year.  Further, because the Democrat government/news media alliance still utterly dominates the national narrative, most Americans will only hear one side of the story - the Democrat side.

Fox News and internet alternative news sites cannot yet be counted on to overcome concerted Progressive efforts to shape the story, and for their part, the GOP leadership shows little effectiveness at either countering the Democrat narrative or explaining their own.

Obama has set a trap for them, relying as he always has on the media to provide cover and support.

Then, there is the matter of what the GOP leadership truly wants to do, and what they actually believe. Are they at all committed to the reduction of the size, scope, and reach of the Federal government? Or, as Rush Limbaugh has reasonably suggested, are they possessed of a more "moderate" mindset, by which he means a belief in Big Government, but one run by Republicans rather than Democrats, and thus one presumably conducted with more restraint, for whatever that is worth?

Either way, I am tempted to think the wiser course would be for Republicans to lay as low as possible, and to give away as little as possible until January 2nd.

Then, come out blasting. Send Obama a new bill every day, until his veto stamp runs out of ink. Let the public see, even through the news media's smog filter, just who is trying to fix things, and who is trying to protect the status quo.

My chief concern then would be: what does the GOP leadership truly stand for, and does any of it reflect the conservative values and principles that Republican voters have entrusted them to advance? Do they share those principles at all, or are they guilty of manipulating their conservative base, while secretly intending to offer them nothing more than the back of their hands when the time for action comes?

Sadly, the answer to those questions is not at all clear to me.

I'll tell you what they can reasonably expect to accomplish!

They can and should accomplish sending the message that we are through being cowed down by media! We are going to do what we were elected to do and DAMN the torpedoes!

That alone is worth the effort!

[andy58-in-nh]

I'll tell you what they can reasonably expect to accomplish!

They can and should accomplish sending the message that we are through being cowed down by media! We are going to do what we were elected to do and DAMN the torpedoes!

That alone is worth the effort!

If the biased media were our only problem, the answer would not be difficult: stand on our principles, and denounce those ink-stained, blow-dried wretches as being partly culpable for America's decline by fabricating tendentious narratives instead of pursuing Truth, while shamefully acting not as guardians of free speech, but rather as Democrat politicians in their second careers.

The larger problem we face is: do our own leaders share our principles?

[olde north church]

I'll tell you what they can reasonably expect to accomplish!

They can and should accomplish sending the message that we are through being cowed down by media! We are going to do what we were elected to do and DAMN the torpedoes!

That alone is worth the effort!

Yeah.  I'm personally overwhelmed by the amount of coverage the MSM has given to the "Gruber Affair".

[Dexter]

Pushing away the moderates is probably a bad idea if your mission is to win. You either have to accept things for what they are or say goodbye to the GOP. The GOP cannot continue to exist without cooperating with and relying on the support of moderates.

[Carling]

Ronald Reagan would be primaried by today's Tea Party.

[rangerrebew]

Does moderate mean a spineless, lying, hypocritical, power hungry piece of political feces?

[andy58-in-nh]

Ronald Reagan would be primaried by today's Tea Party.

Ronald Reagan had to wrest control of the GOP from the squishy, "moderate", Rockefeller-Ford-Dole wing of the party that was at the time virtually indistinguishable from Democrats in their policy preferences.  He was the Tea Party - ask anyone who was there during his 1976 RNC demonstration - it turned out to be the beginning of a coup. We lost the election, but won back the party for 1980 and beyond.

[evadR]

Does moderate mean a spineless, lying, hypocritical, power hungry piece of political feces?

"By gosh I think he's got it"

[Bigun]

Does moderate mean a spineless, lying, hypocritical, power hungry piece of political feces?

If you have no idea what you truly believe and can be moved any which way because the wind is currently blowing that way you might be a "moderate".

[ArneFufkin]

I've missed a lot of this the last couple days but why don't they just pass a CR until late January or mid February?     Let the recently elected Reps and Senators guide the Budget and Appropriations process.

Is Boehner this far gone?   How did he get re-elected Speaker in the House GOP caucus last month?

[Fishrrman]

andy wonders above:
[[ The larger problem we face is: do our own leaders share our principles? ]]

We'll know the answer to that question by this summer.

If the answer turns out to be what I think it is -- I sense the "new Republican majority" is destined to be a passing moment, and that the party will suffer an astounding reversal of fortune come November 2016...

[evadR]

How did he get re-elected Speaker in the House GOP caucus last month?

Moderates