the limbaugh-obama alliance

At last week's CPAC meeting, an annual gathering of conservative activists, Rush Limbaugh was the star speaker (well, apart from this guy).

Watching him, you can see why. He addresses the faithful with the kind of blunt force and thrilling candour that only a non-politician can muster. To adapt a famous description of Michael Heseltine, Limbaugh knows how to find the clitoris of the Republican Party (I apologise for any unfortunate imagery that may have just conjured up in your cerebral cortex).

Mr Limbaugh declares proudly that he wants President Obama to fail, and suggests that anyone in the GOP who says otherwise is being weak-minded or disingenuous. There is something refreshing about this, after hearing so many Republican politicians declare with sticky sincerity their desire to see the new president succeed, whilst doing everything they can to stop him.

Limbaugh also lays out the Republican Party's choice about how to respond to its defeats with stark clarity. In the clip above, he dismisses those who are urging the party to extend its base beyond its shrinking core constituencies - to work harder at appealing to Hispanic and female voters. He derides those who argue that it's time to move on from a fixation with conservative father-figure Ronald Reagan and the ideology of small government. Adaptation to the times be damned (you can see why he doesn't like the theory of evolution). Limbaugh states, quite baldly (well, he has to say everything baldly) that coming up with new policies, as people like Newt Gingrich argue, is a waste of time. It's all about purity of ideology.

It's a common instinct of parties who have just suffered large defeats to take refuge in ideological fervour, and to move further away from the political centre: the Labour Party did it here after 1979, the Tories after 1997. But it rarely works (has it ever worked?). Democratic strategists are hoping that the Republicans will succumb to this temptation. They want Limbaugh to win the party's internal argument, and for him to become the face of the GOP. Rahm Emanuel made this pretty much explicit on Sunday, confirming what Obama's earlier skirmish with Limbaugh had suggested.

Limbaugh is aware of this, of course. But from his point of view, it's all good: being the White House's target man makes him a hero to his audience and boosts his ratings. Thus, there is a strange coincidence of interests between the president and the talk show host. To say, as Michael Wolff did, that Limbaugh is being played isn't quite right. It's the Republican Party which is being played, right out of the political mainstream.

Comments

[Lyle]

Ewwww! Where are we, Penthouse Forum?! Next time, perhaps try 'g-spot'. Much less graphic, but still gets the point across (no pun intended).

*Ahem*

Yes, that was spot-on analysis about the unholy/unwitting/mutually beneficial alliance between the Chief Dittohead and the President. May it work to the detriment of the former and the re-election of the latter.

[Tom]

I have to disagree with Lyle here. "Clitoris" is most definitely 'le mot juste,' as Limbaugh's analysis of politics -- while stimulating -- is not very penetrating.