This is a blog and exchange with another blogger I wrote in response to an editorial by Morton Kondracke, the conservative columnist who wrote a piece about discarding the likes of Rush Limbaugh and reforming the Republican party. I wrote:

Knowing Kondracke is a conservative, I was surprised by his editorial. I thought Limbaugh and those like he were the Holy Grail of conservative politics not to be touched. It shows there are SOME conservatives with a brain who truly want their party to return. I thought twice about writing this because far be it from me to give tips to conservatives. Knowing the extent of my influence and importance, however, which is nil, I think I can write a couple of thoughts about the conservative dilemma as IF I were one. Yes, I can put myself in the other guy's shoes. If I were conservative I would believe that the essence of true conservatism is limited government. I would be fiscally restrained, militarily very prudent and libertarian in my cultural opinions. What REALLY matters to the conservative agenda, in my opinion, should be what is important. Whether a man spends his life with another man in wedded bliss or a woman with a woman has absolutely NO, NONE, NIL relevance to anyone's life except the people involved in the relationship. Ditto for abortion. If you do not like any of the aforementioned cultural realities do NOT participate in them. The people who account for those phenomina are a minute percentage of the American populous. The so called base of the Republican party is infinitely small. It, as Kondracke suggests, represents mostly the solid religious south and perhaps a few other states. Elections will not be won with just that. What IS important is whether we have a fiscally healthy, educationally advanced and militarily safe country. If I were conservative I would run on those issues and nothing else. The party's tent needs to be broadened and one does not do that by voting people out but by bringing people in. I hope I did not give away the keys to the 2012 electoral kingdom!

Response from blogger

Limbaugh is one of the biggest phonies in the US. A faux-hawk. Student deferments in the 60's during Vietnam. Anti drug in the 80's, busted for drugs and addicted to opiates in the 90's. Compassionate conservative who makes fun of Michael J Fox and those with Parkinson's.

Any party that bys his neocon hypocracy deserves what they get. Do the research into his personal life. How could you take him seriously?

Hannaty? another faux hawk. A phony, macho, Beaver Cleaver. At least with left wing loons like Al Franken what you see is what you get.

My response to him

js,323, points extremely well taken. You are absolutely correct. They are hypocrites of the worst order and we do know how much combat our inebriated drug addled spoiled brat presidential 'Decider' really saw. Without daddy that man would probably have ended up in a drunk tank instead of the White House enacting his murderous destructive politics.

I think, though, one cannot deny the realities of what 'conservative' politics became nor can one deny who the effective mouthpieces were and still are no matter who they truly are in practice. From the Republican takeover of the Congress in 1996 through the Bush onslaught and debacle their Rovian/Limbaugh/Hannity brand attained power and lots of it. It took decades and many presidencies to do this beginning with the so called 'moral majority' of Nixon, through government-is-not-the-solution-it-is-the-problem Reagan, to the insipid Bush II to work their hypocritical magic walking away, while they did this, with billions. They did it by co-opting the extremely religious mainly in the south and the mid-west into thinking Republican politics was about them. It wasn't. The poor of the south, Appalachia and some mid-western states voted AGAINST their own interests just so their perceived Christian social agenda and dogma had a voice even if they had to starve in the process. The southern strategy of 51% worked even though it divided the country right down the middle. Bush II would not have been elected without all of it. It took years to finally show their underbelly, hypocrisy and how that party is NOT about Joe Six Pack. It is, as we know, about huge corporate white collar power and tremendous Wall Street wealth which cares nothing about anyone but hoarding the wealth for themselves no matter who or what they have to hurt in the process.

Finally, the Democratic party learned how to organize, hit the airways and play their own game too and play it better. We now have legions of journalists, writers, IMPORTANT online liberal bloggers, radio talk show hosts and television programming such as Keith Olbermann's Countdown, the Rachel Maddow Show and Chris Matthews's Hardball to give voice to progressives and to those who would question power. All of these things hold the opposition's feet to the fire. Let's hope that defeated so called 'conservative' snake does not recoil to strike again with their hypocritical mouthpieces of lies, fear and hate. The miraculous election of Barack Obama is not the end. It is the beginning. We must always be vigilant, always be organized and never let up while showing the American public what truth REALLY is.