Is Rush Limbaugh Betraying Conservatism with Donald Trump?

[TBBT]

Is Rush Limbaugh Betraying Conservatism with Donald Trump?
By Tyler O'Neil January 28, 2016
 
Last week, the conservative magazine National Review published a long and scathing attack on Donald J. Trump. Notable names included Glenn Beck, Erick Erickson, Michael Medved, and Thomas Sowell. Absent was the radio champion of conservatism, Rush Limbaugh.

Limbaugh said National Review’s attack came “too late now,” and would not convince Trump’s supporters. This may be true, but it could also be Limbaugh’s way of explaining why he won’t attack Trump himself. Could Limbaugh be “cheating on conservatism” with The Donald? Does he identify with Trump, or does Limbaugh’s hatred of the “establishment” run so deep that he is willing to tacitly support a questionably conservative candidate just to revel in the establishment’s defeat?

Limbaugh did not respond to PJ Media’s request for comment, but he may have hinted recently at the reason why he refrains from attacking The Donald -- as questionably conservative as Trump is, he is still better than Hillary Clinton. But is this understanding correct, or just another dodge?

Limbaugh on Trump: Is He Really Talking About Himself?

The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf writes that Limbaugh is “cheating on conservatism” by subtly supporting The Donald. Friedersdorf’s argument hinges on using pop psychology to analyze Limbaugh. The radio personality’s flirtation doesn’t lead him to call Trump conservative, but to identify with his fellow media star. Trump is excluded from the Republican “establishment” for the same reason Limbaugh himself is -- not on merit, but due to caprice. As Limbaugh put it, “you can’t succeed your way into [the GOP establishment elite].”

Friedersdorf quotes Limbaugh:

    When we’re talking the establishment, they don’t like Trump not because he’s not conservative. That doesn’t matter. The fact that he’s not conservative in their minds would actually be a plus….[In] addition to opposing conservatism or the Republican base, there’s also this cliquish, elitist club characteristic here that, if you’re not in it -- and the only way you can get in it is to be accepted, to be invited. You can’t succeed your way into it. This is important to understand.

    You cannot be an overwhelming success in whatever you do and have that be the reason you get into the establishment elite political club. You have to be a certain type. You have to come from a certain place. You have to be invited. Trump does not qualify on a whole lot of grounds, in a lot of ways. So even though Trump has the largest bloc of voters made up of exactly the kind of outreach the Republican claims it needs to win, they’re rejecting it and don’t want it….They are content to lose if winning means conservatives dominate the party.

As Friedersdorf explains, “it’s a strange way to describe Trump.” The man who got a $1 million loan from his father and uses his connections with government to try to seize old ladies’ houses for a limousine parking lot seems an odd candidate for the “overwhelming success in whatever you do” category.


Read more here:
https://pjmedia.com/election/2016/01/28/is-rush-limbaugh-betraying-conservatism-with-donald-trump/

[TBBT]

Simple answer: Yes.

[GAJohnnie]

Read more here:
https://pjmedia.com/election/2016/01/28/is-rush-limbaugh-betraying-conservatism-with-donald-trump/
[/quote]

Wow being fair and honest rather then mindlessly echoing the campaing bot baying of the GOPE media  is  now "betrayal.

[GAJohnnie]

Simple answer: Yes.

That Limbaugh is not sharing in the usual campaign bots feverish worship of Ted Cruz is not a betrayal of anything but your emotion based whims.

[EC]

As always when the headline is posed as a question - no.

I don't like Limbaugh. Won't listen to the sod at all.

But he NEVER endorses in primaries. Never has, never will.

[mystery-ak]

Well I must admit I am tired of him constantly talking about Trump..I wish he would spend more time on Cruz.

[NavyCanDo]

Well I must admit I am tired of him constantly talking about Trump..I wish he would spend more time on Cruz.

I have been listening to Rush since the day he first came on the air here in the Pacific Northwest. I give him a lot of credit for my own father's conversion from a Roosevelt conservative democrat to a solid Republican. But this year I stopped listening to him. I can't stomach him anymore.  He may not have publically endorsed Trump, but  he has become Trump's best known apologist, and will justify every wild-ass thing Trump says or does.   We should be critical of and hold every one of our candidates feet to the fire, to make sure the last one standing is not only the one to best support our conservative causes, but also the most likely to beat Hillary or Sanders. Cruz, Rubio, Trump, Carson, Bush, Christie, and the rest all need to be held accountable to their record, and to what they may say in an interview. To this, Rush has failed us.   

[alicewonders]

Well I must admit I am tired of him constantly talking about Trump..I wish he would spend more time on Cruz.

Cruz apparently doesn't know how to manipulate the media like Trump does.  You can't blame that on Limbaugh.  Every time he talks about Cruz, which is nearly every day, he talks favorably about him.  The fact that Cruz doesn't seem to be able to use that to get traction is more of a reflection on Cruz than it is on Rush.  More of a reflection on which of the two candidates is able to engineer the greatest mass appeal to voters. 

You've got to have some legendary people skills to be able to accomplish what Trump has been able to do in this election.

As far as betraying "Conservatism" - Rush always says he lives in Realville, as do I.  I used to think conservatism always wins when it is applied, but in the reality of the times and culture that we live in now - thanks to generations of dumbed-down reality tv fans and Hollywood's constant churning out of morally deficit productions and flashy special effects - people that think true conservatism as we know it to be, will be a winning meme are just out of touch with our new reality. 

Let that sink in........it's almost past time for us to wake up and realize this.  Riding a high horse of idealogical purity into the sunset adds nothing to the fight.  Many of us will outfit our pragmatic horses for battle and stay here to live to fight another day.  We could sure use some help.

[TBBT]

I have been listening to Rush since the day he first came on the air here in the Pacific Northwest. I give him a lot of credit for my own father's conversion from a Roosevelt conservative democrat to a solid Republican. But this year I stopped listening to him. I can't stomach him anymore.  He may not have publically endorsed Trump, but  he has become Trump's best known apologist, and will justify every wild-ass thing Trump says or does.   We should be critical of and hold every one of our candidates feet to the fire, to make sure the last one standing is not only the one to best support our conservative causes, but also the most likely to beat Hillary or Sanders. Cruz, Rubio, Trump, Carson, Bush, Christie, and the rest all need to be held accountable to their record, and to what they may say in an interview. To this, Rush has failed us.   

 

[flowers]

Well I must admit I am tired of him constantly talking about Trump..I wish he would spend more time on Cruz.

I don't listen to Rush much anymore and am ready to stop getting his podcasts. He has changed, or i have.

[GAJohnnie]

Rush actually did a pretty good job of explaining this to people who can pry open their welded shut minds long enough to listen.


Rush has stated he know all the players in the various campaigns such as Bush, Cruz, Trump, Megyn Kelly et ect so he finds hard to be critical of any of them. What he has done is been painstakingly fair to all.

Interesting to note. He pretty much ignores Rubio, has criticized Trumps tactics at times and never said anything but the highest praise for Cruz.

So perhaps the little bots all wound up because Rush is not their puppet might want to try listening to him for a change
 

[Sanguine]

I have been listening to Rush since the day he first came on the air here in the Pacific Northwest. I give him a lot of credit for my own father's conversion from a Roosevelt conservative democrat to a solid Republican. But this year I stopped listening to him. I can't stomach him anymore.  He may not have publically endorsed Trump, but  he has become Trump's best known apologist, and will justify every wild-ass thing Trump says or does.   We should be critical of and hold every one of our candidates feet to the fire, to make sure the last one standing is not only the one to best support our conservative causes, but also the most likely to beat Hillary or Sanders. Cruz, Rubio, Trump, Carson, Bush, Christie, and the rest all need to be held accountable to their record, and to what they may say in an interview. To this, Rush has failed us.   

That's how I see it too.  But, this might explain his weakness for Trump.  Conservatism doesn't matter to the GOP Elite, and the E has not only rejected DT, but the very conservative Limbaugh.  (I don't know that they have, but Rush apparently feels they have.)

[TBBT]

Rush Limbaugh Is Cheating on Conservatism With Donald Trump

A case study in the civil war raging through Republican Party politics

Jeb Bush now portrays his struggling campaign for the Republican nomination as a vehicle for defending conservatism. “I do think it's important that the conservative party nominate a conservative, and someone that understands the role of America in the world,” he said. “What I want to do is make sure that the conservative cause is advanced. Not just in talk shows and think-tanks and wherever conservatism is talked about in all sorts of different ways, but in governing.”

He took aim at one of his rivals in particular: “The pursuit of that, of protecting the conservative cause, it's being hijacked by Donald Trump, who's not a conservative.”

The same day, talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, who has spent years insisting that Republicans can only win with conservative candidates, said this to his many listeners:

Read more here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/01/why-rush-limbaugh-is-cheating-on-conservatism-with-donald-trump/424083/

[TBBT]

If you were wondering why Rush is turning a blind eye to conservatism and supporting Trump.... Here is one theory.

[mountaineer]

That has not been my perception of Rush. He is not "supporting" anyone.