What now, Republican?
David Frum in the Mar 7 Newsweek sums up Rush Limbaugh pretty well:
And for the leader of the Republicans? A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as "losers." With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence—exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party. And we're cooperating! Those images of crowds of CPACers cheering Rush's every rancorous word—we'll be seeing them rebroadcast for a long time.
Why is that important for a pharmacy blog? Because if you are a Republican, as I am, your party may well be responsible for either sidelining universal health care or watering it down to where the insurance mafia wins what it needs to win for its survival.
As Rush becomes the arbiter of Republicanism, congress increasingly becomes the stop sign on the road to legislation. Of course we might want to wait until 2010 when Obama could go around to the various districts and wave the flag for the Dems (I expect--who doesn't--a landslide Democratic majority in 2010). Then bills will be able to slide along the path to fruition more smoothly.
I personally think the Republican party is doomed to extinction or a long hibernation akin to the post-Depression politics of Roosevelt.
There is a third way: treat Republicanism as a trait, an idea that can be afixed to a certain topic, but not necessarily to the whole shootin' match. For instance, those opposed to abortion such as myself, can be conservative on that topic, but on health care we can be free to oppose the Limbaugh-ites and exercise our minds again to oppose the insurance mafias for the betterment of mankind. We can be the superheroes of the real world. We will not be limited to the dogmas of some blowhard, driven to a slouchfest of behemoth proportions, smoking cigars in back rooms and making nasty comments about our president. No, we will be more in keeping with the way that McCain has transformed himself, advising the president where they both agree, but loyaling opposing him when his conservative principles dictate that he should do so. We will be the real independent party, whereas the Independent party is really just the Democratic party.
We will be the Watchmen for the new world!
Comments