Word: limbaugh
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Some conservatives have always winced at Limbaugh's in-your-face style. But the debate today has a special charge because, like the similar debate over Alaska Governor Sarah Palin a few months ago, it is tied up with questions about the future of the Republican Party...
...Limbaugh, needless to say, is a traditionalist, and some reformers have become fierce critics. The debate has gotten pretty hot over the past two weeks, with those critics going after Limbaugh's girth and his outraged fans accusing them of being closet liberals...
...smart battle for the reformers to fight. Most of their differences of opinion with Limbaugh do not really rise to the level of principle. (Whether global warming is happening and what risks it poses are empirical questions, not ideological ones.) Moreover, the vast majority of conservative voters agree with Limbaugh, not the reformers, on most of these questions. If Limbaugh were to disappear tomorrow - which, by the way, he is not going to do - most conservatives would still put upper-income tax cuts at the top of their agenda. It's not as if they believe what they believe because...
...would be destructive for the traditionalists to attempt to purge the reformers, who have some good ideas. But for the reformers to attempt to purge the traditionalists, who outnumber them, is just plain batty. If the reformers succeed, it will be by persuading traditionalists like Limbaugh, not bulldozing over them. (See the screwups of Campaign...
...Besides, Limbaugh plays a valuable role within conservatism. His show, like Fox News, is not as high-flown as conservative intellectual journals such as the New Criterion and First Things. But those publications have small circulations. Their influence is long-term and indirect. Conservatism needs mass media too, to affect day-to-day politics: jam phone lines and pull the national conversation rightward. It needs Limbaugh and the many like-minded talkers elsewhere on the airwaves. Doubtless they could do their jobs better, as could the conservative writers who scorn them. But if Limbaugh did not exist, conservatives would have...