Rush Limbaugh is a fantastic personality. There's absolutely no denying that, he's loud, authoritative and speaks his mind freely on more issues than most people give him credit for. Yet there is something inherently wrong about labeling Rush Limbaugh the "leader" (as 13% of Republican voted in a recent Gallup poll) of our party. A man of ideas is nothing more than a blogger like myself, or the millions of us, he just has a venue to express them that reaches millions of people daily. He being branded as a leader of the Republican Party is foolhardy and dangerous- politicians are leaders, not talk show jockeys. I appreciate Rush, but the line must be drawn and the Republican party needs to distinct that line as well.
Rush is also much too static to ever garner recognition of any sort as a leader, or voice, of a political party. What Rush practices is a technique that I call "ERDIC"- Everything Republicans Do Is Correct." The main reason why our party failed in the first place is because we failed to adhere to our values and instead went to bat for every Republican issue- or issues that Rush and others thought were Republican issues.
The first and most recent example of Rush's blatant ERDIC is his handling of the David Letterman/Sarah Palin fiasco. What David Letterman said was distasteful and I'm not defending what he said. But as Republicans- as defenders of the Constitution of the United States of America- we must uphold (however tough at times) the right to freedom of speech, except in extreme cases of libel and slander. The moment that Republicans crack on the issue of freedom- the fundamental building block our party champions- is the moment that the crumbling begins. Letterman is a comedian- a drowning one at that, with ratings plummeting- and it is this kinda of pseudo-comedic speech that Republicans should back off from bashing. Republicans need to fight the freedom of speech when it comes to NATIONAL SECURITY such as the Pentagon Papers or recent "torture memos." Republicans need to fight laws against the freedom of speech and press, such as the Equal Time and Fairness Doctrine which illegally seeks to cripple conservative talk show hosts like Rush. THAT IS where our energy on the freedom of speech should be directed- in cases where the freedom ENDANGERS our national security, or turly infringes on the right of an invididual to speak his mind - the Fairness Doctrine and CAMPAIGN FINANCE are two fallacies that immediately come to mind. But going completely insane over a couple sleezy jokes from the already worn down David Letterman? That's both a waste and wrong, we should uphold freedom of speech except in the places mentioned above, when our national interests are at stake or liberals are trying to wrestle freedom of speech into their own Big Brother like paws.
Such is my first of many ERDIC example. Just because this happened to Sarah Palin doesn't mean that we have to come after Letterman like Kennedy went after Bork. Palin has a right to be offended as a mother, but if the name "Hillary Clinton" were to be instead of Sarah Palin, I assume the conservative backlash against Letterman would be nonexistant.
Our party needs to show consistency. Letterman told an off color joke, and Sarah Palin responded like a mom should. But just because Sarah Palin went after Letterman doesn't mean we all have to follow suit and throw our freedom of speech mantras to the side. Consistency is the key to breeding a winning political philosophy.
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