Brooks: "Loons" Beck, Limbaugh, Levin "don't control" GOP
October 04, 2009 12:46 pm ET
From the October 4 edition of NBC's Meet the Press:
Previously:
- Graham on Fox News Sunday: "Beck doesn't represent" GOP; "I choose not to" watch Beck
- Media conservatives denounce Glenn Beck's "hatred"
- Brooks: "Every single elected leader of the Republican Party is afraid to take on Rush and Glenn Beck"
- Beck mocks NYT's Brooks: "We are whipping people up into a frenzy, and you will kill people because we tell you to"
Media Matters: The Palin chronicles
The Friday Rush: A series of conflicts
Contrary to media hype, Sarah Palin is very unpopular
Except for he meant to say "center-left."
Palin and Limbaugh, 2012 !
Too bad he/they can't really disguise the obvious crazy fringe element that's discredited the party. The party's over, Brookesy. I'm putting a fork in you and your ilk until you start calling the poisonous portions of your party out in ernest.
And while you're at it, raise the level of discourse, listen and contribute to solving problems. Until and unless you do that the "conservatives: are toast.
Years ago when one thought of the GOP, people like Goldwater, Reagan, Eisenhower, Nixon, or simply the prominant politicians of the day in that particular party came to mind. Now, it seems that when you think of the GOP, you don't think of the past figures or even John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and John McCain. Instead the voice and leadership of the party is Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, O'Reilly, and their ilk. Brooks' analysis is spot on when he wrote this: ""The party is losing because it has adopted a radio entertainer's niche-building strategy, while abandoning the politician's coalition-building strategy."
To tell you how bad it is.....Richard Nixon would be labeled a marxist/socialist by these people today. Many of Nixon's domestic policies would be completely unacceptable to these fringe wacko's. I have to say though, its amusing to watch millions be led by narcissistic money grubbers. Led right into the ground, that is.
Further, to be honest, there are no real "conservaives" or "liberals." The overwhelming majority of people are a little bit of both.
Then, read about President James Monroe's administration in the "era of good feeling". The Republicans at that time had squashed the Federalists... and the Federalists no longer existed as a party.
What President Monroe ended up with was a different kind of gridlock and grandstanding by various... for lack of a better word.. juntas within Congress. With no party structure in place, myriad individuals began to run with their own agendas carrying people with them. Monroe had a very difficult managing the country because he was not sure what initiatives he could count on to pass.
Often, he'd have a base of support, then someone would turn against an initiative in an effort to differiate himself from the administration and others.
Resultantly, by the time JQA was elected, parties developed among the Jackson supporters and essentially those who weren't. Finally, throughout history... when one party dies, another evolves into opposition of the current party in power.
reporting from murderland ranch,
i'm mookie von zipper
massmurdermedia
I don't think the loons really trust the rank and file GOP to properly support their positions. So one of the loons will have to run.
The funny thing is, Beck, Quinn, Rush, Hannity readily admit they DON'T speak for the GOP. But they do speak for Americans that describe themselves as conservatives, trying to change the GOP back to a party of strength.
So we are grateful for the sage advice but I would rather you tell the the democrat party that their future lies with the the lefty loonies in their own party and encourage that lunacy.
In the meantime, speaking truth to/about progressives
But you go ahead and ride that train to hell with them as they continue to marginalize conservatives out to the wilderness. And be proud while you doing it, by all means.
Thanks for vacating the playing field with the help of your hate heros.
"Hillary has a fat ass." ---Rush Limbaugh
Proud ones, too.
I disagree with Brooks: conservative talk radio hosts do, of course, have real influence of some sort, but it's not the kind that equates to votes directly. What they are good at is amping up dissatisfaction and anger at politicians, judges, and government in general. The tea party crowds are a perfect example of the shape and limits of talk radio's political influence: an incoherent wave of posters and shouts about taxes, the U.N., abortion, health care, the Federal Reserve, socialism, communism, fascism, Nazism, slavery reparations, and atheism... and what was the result? Nothing. Absolutely nothing beyond attention. Now, that kind of agitated and energized public can certainly be harnessed for political ends, but they're not all that effective without careful direction. In fact, if hosts aren't careful, they end up with a crowd that does nothing but mail tea bags to congress.
As for "speaking the truth to/about progressives", you're kidding, yes? What truth? That ACORN is a criminal enterprise? That Obama still hasn't shown us his birth certificate and that he's a racist? That Hillary Clinton is a shrill lady with fat ankles? That black people can't swim? That the Democratic Party should be called the Democrat Party?
As for your childish use of the incorrect name of the legally named Democratic Party, all I can say is that you need to read Paul Krugman's column today. He described you to a "T."