Much has been made of conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh’s statements concerning President Obama and his desire to “see him fail.” I was asked to comment on this during a recent interview. My short answer: Rush is right.
Armey’s Axiom: There’s no right way to do the wrong thing. Since he took office, President Obama, prodded by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, has been doing one wrong thing after another in his clumsy attempts to “stimulate” the economy. The result: only government has been stimulated, and at the expense of entrepreneurs, our individual liberties, and economic recovery. Regardless of our hopes for the President, higher spending and punitive taxes will fail the American people.
Rush, like so many limited government conservatives, doesn’t want to see Obama’s socialist vision for this country come to fruition at the expense of freedom and individual liberty. We, unlike our counterparts on the Left, see these principles as central to our philosophy of governance. Indeed, we believe they are necessary to live free, happy and productive lives, so why wouldn’t we want to see an obvious affront to them like President Obama’s borrow-tax-spend-and-inflate agenda fail?
Of course many in the media, and thanks in no small part to the White House political shop under the leadership of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, have twisted a simple statement intended to differentiate political philosophies into an attack on America. Further, the high profile nature of Rush’s comments has given rise to a debate concerning who is leading the conservative movement. Is it Rush? Is it newly installed GOP Chairman Michael Steele? House Republican Leader John Boehner? What about the rising stars in the states, such as South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford? The obvious answer is that there is not one leader for conservatives, the limited government movement, or the Republican Party.
Small government conservatives should be cheering the fact that so many bold leaders are emerging to offer up good ideas and lead our movement back from the brink. After all, at our core we are a “big tent” movement with economic and social conservatives working towards a common goal: freedom. Engrained in our philosophy is the spirit of entrepreneurship that recognizes and rewards good ideas and good work no matter where they come from. The last thing we should be doing is bickering about who is in charge, as the Democrats and their friends in the media hope we will.