All Lit Up

I seldom (if ever) listen to Rush Limbaugh, but happened to dial him up Monday.

I've not been a fan of Limbaugh for the past number of years because he seemed to be nothing but an apologist for President Bush, no matter what he did. I've never taken that path and always reserved the right to disagree with any action taken by the GOP or any Republican. When I perceived Rush going that direction, real or not, I shut him off. Period.

Monday, however, I noted: he got completely fired up, making some rather salient and insistent points; in a nutshell:

• The GOP is moving progressively to the Left;
• Conservatives are told they must consistently compromise;
• Yet, there's no compromise on the Left; why is that?
• Conservatives are being left behind;
• The GOP believes everyone will simply follow;
• The GOP is wrong, and will suffer the consequences because:
• Rush Limbaugh is stepping away.
  

I don't think I've heard Limbaugh that strident ever before. He completely excoriated John McCain on any number of issues. He indicated the Democrats know that either of their candidates, Clinton or Obama, can "take it" to McCain.

He also said there are portions of the media indicating "Rush is on his way out," evidently because he's suddenly leveraging himself against McCain and, by extension, the GOP.

Rush Limbaugh stated that Conservatives are being asked to put aside their principles, and that there are people who will shelf their Conservatism so that McCain can bring in Liberals and Independents simply in order to win, and that McCain has made it clear that he, essentially, urinates on Conservatives.

And Rush made another point: those "independents" and "clear thinkers" who are advocating John McCain in the Mainstream Media are those who will not vote for him; their goal is to have McCain lose and a Demorat take the White House.

But make no mistake; McCain is a powerful factor. My very own father, for example, a dutifully-registered Republican, is voting for McCain on the comfort factor. My father served in WWII and Vietnam, retiring a Colonel in the USAF. He's voting for McCain not necessarily because he knows about McCain's voting record or what he's been doing or saying the past few years or because he knows about any number of McCain-sponsored bills. He's voting for John McCain because McCain was in the military, was a POW, and knows about military issues. It's a matter of comfort and, with that, there you have McCain's probable popularity with a bulk of Republicans.

Publicly, there are disagreements between myself and other Conservative factions.

I've been of the opinion that simply staying home in November does nothing but guarantee a Demorat win.

Those who disagree with me believe I'm something of a sell-out, and say the GOP needs to have a message sent to it in "clear text." They believe, if I am correctly interpreting the message, that a true Conservative would make a stand squarely on Conservative Principles and, by not doing so, compromises Conservatism and enables the GOP to go further astray. With the necessary caveat that the price of this message, if properly sent, would be up to and including the loss of the White House.

So, considering Limbaugh's major stance and with those other aspects in mind:

1. Is it I that am drinking the Kool-Aid?

2. If so, then what's The Plan?

BZ

One final note: there's a very handy spot on the internet, called the Campaign Calendar 2008, where one may locate the current status of GOP and Demorat caucuses, and keep track of what's coming up and when.