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Rush reflects on 2012 loss: ‘Conservatism did not lose’

Nov. 8, 2012 10:40am Meredith Jessup

“The usual suspects are out, and they’re saying, ‘Rush, we gotta reach out now to the Hispanics and reach out to the minorities, blacks.’ Okay, let me remind you of something. Let me take you back to the Republican convention,” he said. “We had Suzanne Martinez, female Hispanic governor, New Mexico. We had Condoleezza Rice, African-American, former secretary of state. Both of those people eminently qualified, terrifically achieved. They have reached the pinnacles of their profession. We had Marco Rubio. We had a parade of minorities who have become successful Americans. And they all had a common story: up from nothing, hard work, their parents sacrificed for them.”

“Now, why didn’t that work, folks? The answer to that is our future,” he continued. “Why didn’t it work? Some people say, ‘Well, Rush, we pandered.’ No, we didn’t pander. Everybody says that we need to reach out to minorities. We have plenty of highly achieved minorities in our party, and they are in prominent positions, and they all have a common story. They all came from nothing. Their parents came from nothing. They worked hard. They told those stories with great pride. Those stories evoked tears. It didn’t work.”

If it didn’t work, Limbaugh argued, it was because Obama “successfully painted Romney’s policies as caring primarily about the rich… successfully convinced roughly half the country that his policies will favor the middle class.”

I somewhat agree with Rush here. I think it would be a mistake to, say, adopt the libertarian “solutions” of embracing amnesty, legalized drugs and gay marriage. On the contrary, I think Republicans need to stop apologizing for their views on social issues — i.e. if you are pro-life, don’t try and avoid the issue by claiming that a woman’s body can “shut down” a pregnancy resulting from rape. Instead of someone standing firmly on sound principles, you look like a moron with no principles (I’m lookin’ at you, Mourdock).

Why should we apologize for being pro-life? Opposition to abortion is an issue where we aren’t even in the minority, yet conservatives have yielded the high ground to liberals time and time again.

Why should we apologize for expecting immigrants to respect our nation’s laws? Forget this “self-deportation” nonsense which equates to fence-sitting on law enforcement. Abide by the law or face the consequences.

Why should we apologize for our religious beliefs? Forget party identification or ideology — a faith in God and his Divine Providence is the most important idea that unites Americans of all different races, classes and political beliefs.

If conservatives and/or Republicans want to stop the bleeding following Tuesday’s election, I recommend the Republican establishment stop apologizing for who we are. Placating doesn’t win over votes or hearts — leading does.

P.S. — If I hear another Republican float the idea of running Marco Rubio because he can attract Latino voters, I’m going to scream. We don’t believe in affirmative action because merit is more important than skin color — so why on earth would we ever use it to elect our leaders?

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

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Comments (5)

Chrono_Sleuth
Posted on November 9, 2012 at 1:11pm
Meredith, your position on libertarians isn’t quite so, as you seem to forget libertarians are NOT progressives (only a small fringe of progressives call themselves libertarians). Otherwise I agree with you.

When it comes to amnesty there are hardcore liberal libertarians who would prefer work visas and easier access, along with less stringent laws for acquiring citizenship. Those liblibs who are fully on amnesty are typically progressive and run in the Chomsky circles: pro-government, just not capitalist government, and freedom through a real democracy split into various sub-states to simplify democracy to local politics only. Then there is the conservative side. Libcons vary between those who agree with the visas, but are more law oriented and prefer sticking strickly to the constitution, and those who want anarcho capitalism and no borders or central government anywhere. Majority share of libertarians are constitutional libertarians who are anywhere from Ayn Rand to Austrian (non-anarcho capitolist austrian) to John Locke whether liberal or conservative who are not for amnesty.

As for gay marriage. All libertarians agree on one thing: Government should not define marriage. Whether you agree with gay marriage or not depends on the individual. This goes for the breadth of libertarianism save the small “progressive” wing who thinks government should mandate it.

As for legalized drugs, you have this one right. ALL data says less drug use, cartels shrink; y

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KidCharlemagne
Posted on November 8, 2012 at 1:36pm
“Rush reflects on 2012 loss: ‘Conservatism did not lose’”
========================

How do we really know that though? The GOP didn’t nominate a conservative for president this time…

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wildcatmo
Posted on November 8, 2012 at 12:57pm
Rush doesn’t get it, It’s not who’s on stage giving speeches it’s the people in the audience.

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- AnonymousCommander1982
  Posted on November 8, 2012 at 11:09pm
  Watching the aftermath of the election, it’s imperative that we play equally as dirty as the dems. The election results essentially boiled down to the fact that Liberals have a better propaganda apparatus to reach uninformed voters, and we don’t. I’m a young guy, and have plenty of uninformed / ill-advised friends whom when you ask them about their feelings toward Conservatives they cannot name a single specific bad thing… but somehow have been lead to believe that Conservatives are somehow monsteresque… an opinion shaped by years of misinformation. We need to develop our own way of reaching these ill-informed folks. We need commercials of Liberals pushing old Medicare ladies off cliffs…. A welfare queen stealing food out of a child’s mouth…. a good honest African American family being lured by the “liberal plantation owners”… we need to make liberalism taboo… we need to demonize our opposition… Winning occurs when Liberals holler and complain about these tactics… because looking in the mirror threatens them… scares them.. and slowly makes them irrelevant…
  
  Report this comment
- Chrono_Sleuth
  Posted on November 9, 2012 at 12:46pm
  No, he’s right. We can look back to Barry Goldwater. Brilliant man, very conservative, very much a right-wing libertarian constitutionalist. Yet he couldn’t articulate the meaning and value of personal sacrifice. He came off as overly aggressive and whiny.
  
  We look at Bush Sr., one of the biggest government, big tax, big corporation, in support of massive regulation on small business and corporate buyouts to keep cronies in power, tried to sell himself off without the coattail’s of the Reagan era and failed. He, like Romney, wasn’t able to articulate a position he doesn’t agree with, though he did a better job his first time running, without Reagan’s success and the repetition of “no new taxes” he would not have won.
  
  Then we look at John F. Kennedy, who relayed several messages that could go either way. His most famous quote stolen from his teacher, who stole it from a bygone era, but can be used to say either the people work for the government, or the people are the government and work for themselves. Based on his understanding and articulation of the power of individual sacrifice for your own good to help build America, it sold the concept to anyone. So entrepreneurs were more than happy to jump to the cause and feel inspired.
  
  Then we hit Reagan, who was partly libertarian, or who at least understood the principles and values of the movement. He was able to articulate the concept of individualism and sold it to hardline democrats.
  
  So Rush was rig
  
  Report this comment

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