Rush, Tea, and the Republican Party

I suppose I'm not trying very hard by starting with a shot at Rush Limbaugh, but sometimes it's a little too tempting. After viewing his website's transcripts from the previous week's broadcasts, I noticed some painfully predictable similarities in them. As one can imagine, nearly every transcript is a criticism of every breath Obama has taken since January. Some factual, most not. The end all goal here is simple...convince enough people over the next 3 1/2 years not to reelect him. It is hard to be swade by someone who's primary objective has been to discredit a president since before he had come to office, and it unlikely that this trend in conservative commentators will effect undecided voters in the next election. What Limbaugh and many other commentators do not realize is that the American voters loves a victim. Obama was by far the most passive candidate throughout the entire presidential race, as was McCain during the Republican primaries, which changed immediately after. Even Bush's 2004 election can be attributed to being on the defensive from Kerry most of the time, despite a tarnished reputation and public approval ratings. The fact of the matter is, the American voter hates a bully, loves a victim, and gets annoyed very easily. The "tea parties" have done more for Obama in 2012 than anything else thus far I'm sure. Perhaps it's part of Vietnam's legacy that public demonstrations of any kind do nothing but counter their cause, especially in this case when its a lightly veiled way of saying "we want a reason to hate the president". Most simply do not want to associate themselves with such people, and will not side with a candidate who is backed by them. If the Republican Party wants to return to the fabled glory of Reaghan, they will need to rethink their party line and voter base entirely. For now it is nothing more than futile attempts at descrediting Obama at every corner, rather than finding counter philosophies different from Bush's failed trickle down approach. It is entirely understandable that Republicans are confused as to where to turn, as the party is now lacking a large enough support base for another presidential election, but another major realignment of voters the way it happened last time does not just happen without reason. The last realignment came as a result of the catastrophic failures of the Bush administration, which was based on a legitimate reality, not democratic propaganda.
Links Used: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_042909/content/01125108.guest.html