Moderate Conservatives ARE Concerned About Leadership

[Pangloss]

Couple good articles worth reading. This first one is from today's Christian Science Monitor:

 

http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/10/03/palin-limbaugh-beck-%E2%80%A6-now-it%E2%80%99s-republicans-seeing-the-downside/

 

Mainstream Republicans are looking at the loudest of the conservative voices — Sarah Palin and the most prominent of the talk-show types (Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, et al) — and concluding that the GOP needs to do something different if it’s to succeed.

 

“The independent vote is going to be up for grabs in 2012,” he said. “That middle of the electorate is going to be determinative of the outcome of the elections. I just don’t see that if you look at the things she has done over the year … that she is going to expand that base in the middle.”

 

Graham dismissed Rush Limbaugh as someone who “makes hundreds of millions of dollars being able to talk on the radio.” And of today’s hottest conservative/libertarian phenomenon he said, “Glenn Beck is not aligned with any party as far as I can tell. He’s aligned with cynicism, and there’s always been a market for cynicism.”

 

The second one, which I found through a link in the CSM article, is from David Brooks at the New York Times, who points out that these demagogues don't actually represent most conservatives:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/opinion/02brooks.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

 

It is the winter of 2007. The presidential primaries are approaching. The talk jocks like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and the rest are over the moon about Fred Thompson. They’re weak at the knees at the thought of Mitt Romney. Meanwhile, they are hurling torrents of abuse at the unreliable deviationists: John McCain and Mike Huckabee.

 

Yet somehow, despite the fervor of the great microphone giants, the Thompson campaign flops like a fish. Despite the schoolgirl delight from the radio studios, the Romney campaign underperforms.

 

Over the years, I have asked many politicians what happens when Limbaugh and his colleagues attack. The story is always the same. Hundreds of calls come in. The receptionists are miserable. But the numbers back home do not move. There is no effect on the favorability rating or the re-election prospects. In the media world, he is a giant. In the real world, he’s not.

 

So the myth returns. Just months after the election and the humiliation, everyone is again convinced that Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity and the rest possess real power. And the saddest thing is that even Republican politicians come to believe it. They mistake media for reality. They pre-emptively surrender to armies that don’t exist.

 

Sane words in crazy times. What do you all think?

[iNow]

David Brooks at the New York Times, who points out that these demagogues don't actually represent most conservatives:

 

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What do you all think?

 

Well, there is certainly a lot of truth to this comment, but I must say... most of even the moderate conservatives I know tend to quietly snicker in support of most the stuff leaving Beck or Limbaugh's mouths. They just don't tend to voice their support openly.

 

So, I agree that a good deal of conservatives are tired of losing the battle due to these few loud voices, but I think it relates more to their frustrations with how these gas bags are being perceived among the populace... not so much that they really disagree with much of what they say.

[Mr Skeptic]

There really isn't much overlap between conservatives and Republicans anyhow.

[iNow]

David Brooks at the New York Times, who points out that these demagogues don't actually represent most conservatives:

He reinforced these points this morning on Meet the Press:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/ns/meet_the_press_online_at_msnbc#33163540

[Mokele]

So, the question is, if these demagogues truly are unrepresentative, how can "mainstream" conservatives cast them off?

[Pangloss]

Alas, the Julian line died out a good eight or ten centuries ago.

[bascule]

I don't know what to say about this, except that my gut feeling is the Republican party is so divorced from the political mainstream as to finally start alienating moderate conservatives, and all this can mean is that these are people without a party.