NEWSWEEK Cover: Enough! A Conservative's Case Against Limbaugh
In the March 16 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, March 9): "Enough! A Conservative's Case Against Limbaugh" David Frum examines Rush Limbaugh's impact on the GOP and what conservatives need to do to assure people that Rush is not the voice of the party. Plus: female suicide bombers who denounced Al Qaeda but are ostracized in their town; how the recession is helping the environment and how the funeral business is not recession-proof and the Julia Roberts era: over?. (PRNewsFoto/Newsweek)
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David Frum on the GOP and Impact of Rush Limbaugh: 'From a political point of view, Limbaugh is kryptonite, weakening the GOP nationally'
'We are accepting the leadership of a man with an ego-driven agenda of his own, who looms largest when his causes fare worst'
On Newsweek.com: Gingrich, Cantor, Ryan and Sanford on Reinventing the GOP
NEW YORK, March 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Conservative David Frum writes in the current Newsweek that radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is a seriously unpopular figure among the voters that conservatives and Republicans need to reach. Forty-one percent of independents have an unfavorable opinion of him, according to the new Newsweek Poll. "Limbaugh is especially off-putting to women: his audience is 72 percent male, according to Pew Research. Limbaugh himself acknowledges his unpopularity among women. On his Feb. 24 broadcast, he said with a chuckle: 'Thirty-one-point gender gaps don't come along all that often ... Given this massive gender gap in my personal approval numbers ... it seems reasonable for me to convene a summit'."
"Limbaugh was kidding about the summit. But his quip acknowledged something that eludes many of those who would make him the arbiter of Republican authenticity: from a political point of view, Limbaugh is kryptonite, weakening the GOP nationally," Frum writes in the March 16 Newsweek cover, "Enough! A Conservative's Case Against Limbaugh" (on newsstands Monday, March 9). Frum, the editor of NewMajority.com and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, writes, "No Republican official will say that; Limbaugh demands absolute deference from the conservative world, and he generally gets it. When offended, he can extract apologies from Republican members of Congress, even the chairman of the Republican National Committee. And Rush is very easily offended."
Above all, Frum, writes, "We need to take governing seriously again. Voters have long associated Democrats with corrupt urban machines, Republicans with personal integrity and fiscal responsibility."
He continues, "Every day, Rush Limbaugh reassures millions of core Republican voters that no change is needed: if people don't appreciate what we are saying, then say it louder. Isn't that what happened in 1994? Certainly this is a good approach for Rush himself. He claims 20 million listeners per week, and that suffices to make him a very wealthy man. And if another 100 million people cannot stand him, what does he care? What can they do to him other than ... not listen? It's not as if they can vote against him. But they can vote against Republican candidates for Congress. They can vote against Republican nominees for president. And if we allow ourselves to be overidentified with somebody who earns his fortune by giving offense, they will vote against us. Two months into 2009, President Obama and the Democratic Congress have already enacted into law the most ambitious liberal program since the mid-1960s. More, much more is to come. Through this burst of activism, the Republican Party has been flat on its back."
Frum writes that decisions that will haunt American taxpayers for generations have been made with hardly a debate: paying more for Medicaid, expanding the SCHIP program for young children, borrowing trillions of dollars to expand the national debt to levels unseen since WWII. "To stem this onrush of disastrous improvisations, conservatives need every resource of mind and heart, every good argument, every creative alternative and every compassionate sympathy for the distress that is pushing Americans in the wrong direction. Instead we are accepting the leadership of a man with an ego-driven agenda of his own, who looms largest when his causes fare worst."
"In the days since I stumbled into this controversy, I've received a great deal of e-mail. (Most of it on days when (radio host Mark) Levin or (Sean) Hannity or Hugh Hewitt or Limbaugh have had something especially disobliging to say about me.) Most of these e-mails say some version of the same thing: if you don't agree with Rush, quit calling yourself a conservative and get out of the Republican Party. There's the perfect culmination of the outlook Rush Limbaugh has taught his fans and followers: we want to transform the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan into a party of unanimous dittoheads -- and we don't care how small the party has to shrink to do it. That's not the language of politics. It's the language of cult."
As part of the cover package, Newsweek spoke with four GOP leaders about how to reinvent the GOP: Newt Gingrich; Rep. Eric Cantor; Rep. Paul Ryan and Gov. Mark Sanford. Their interviews are on Newsweek.com.
(Read cover essay and interviews at Newsweek.com.)
