You are spot on. Rush is about Rush. He is a salesman & an entertainer. God help those who seek more in this blowhard.
Ayn Rand is his only light. Rush worships at the foot of Mammon. His only goal is self service.

And unlike the poor misguided, unlearned sheep that follow him, Rush knows exactly what he is doing.

Rush Limbaugh believes only in Rush Limbaugh. He is an entertainer, not a guru. His daily extended (OMG! boring) rants are contrived to play the same strings as the advertisers on his program. The entire show is a sales pitch for Rush Limbaugh. It sounds like the sea stories on long boring night shifts in the Navy. Someone said “Rush Limbaugh believes in personal limits.” LOL! Yeah, as long as they are YOUR personal limits, not his. There is no limit to how much money one can make when preaching to people who think they want to spend money on telling each other how ‘right’ they are.

The only true evil in the world is an action taken based on blind faith. Whether that faith is in gods, guns, government or gurus, if you do something without questioning your premises, you are taking steps toward evil things.

I’m so far right, I’m left. Follow the logic as you have done above, and Limbaugh Conservatism leads nowhere. Government is by the consent of the governed. When the group decides that the individual can’t consent to be governed, then the group is just as wrong as the individual who decides that everyone must consent to be governed. The relationship between the individual and society is an education issue. Usefulness is at stake: the usefulness of the human race and the individuals who choose (mostly) to be part of civil society. If we can’t put to rest the most basic concepts of governance, how are we supposed to get on with living usefully?

Talk radio is like junk mail: most people should just throw it out, and those who choose to embrace it need to understand the consequences of believing “They wouldn’t LIE to me!.”
Limbaugh is great at telling us the not-quite-complete information that is just enough to justify our not-quite-complete reasoning so that we feel good about ourselves and call the number for the Bose radio or vitamin pills that will make us feel even better (but not quite as good as Percocet)

He isn’t a Christian, as most of us realize. He isn’t even pretending to uphold a Judeo-Christian ethic (whatever that is). He’s said as much. He has some generic sense of morality that could fit in just about any works-righteous format under the sun. He, like all media (yes, even so-called Christian outlets), is willing to utilize whatever means necessary to keep the radio business afloat. Again, he’s said as much just a couple of weeks back.

I appreciate Rush being honest. Yet, I don’t appreciate when genuine, albeit well-meaning Christians want someone like Rush to carry the torch. Brothers, Christ has a chosen means for that…and it ain’t Rush or Conservatism.

Rush has a radio appeal. He knows his business.

Ultimately, all political theory/application is under the sun and wears out with using. All of it limited. All of it is apt to lack humility just as each of us.

Whenever we are found ascribing to our own works/wisdom some degree of inherent sacredness…we’ve begun to lose our way. Rush (like Hannity) have gone so far as to state explicitely or by implication that the Constitution is a Sacred Document. We know it isn’t, but too many of those who claim the name of Christ are willing to go along with this sort of thing in order to fend off those *terrible* liberals.

Funny thing is (actually it’s sad), that, both conservativism and liberalism are of this world but both go on and on as if they were heaven sent. Fact is, even at their best they are dependent upon one another to continue there relatively short existence here. Meaning, they keep one another in check as it were. In a Fallen world that’s essential!

Let us remember, the whole notion (of earthly government) operates on the principle of compromise, and rightly so. And, this distinguishes all earthly government from that everlasting government in which there is absolutely no compromise. To mingle the two realms is to diminish the ultimate value of both.

That was well summarized. An individual or a nation are both well served by gratitude. Somehow we’ve replaced gratitude with a sense of entitlement, both as individuals and as a nation.

“It accepts the grace of existence and responds with the return-gift of gratitude.”

Very well said, beautiful definition of humility/conservatism.

I also wouldn’t call David Frum a reformer or a moderate. He is a neoconservative and most if not all of his beliefs have little in common with the traditionalist conservatism of Russell Kirk, Richard Weaver, and Robert Nisbet and their Distributist, Southern Agrarian, and New Humanist predecessors who I assume influence Front Porch Republic. I’ll take order, tradition, faith, hierarchy, authority, the natural family, and organic society over spreading democracy, monopolistic capitalism, “big government” conservatism, and atomistic individualism any day.

Conservative office holders and intellectuals of stature should speak for Conservative ideas and ideals.

On another point, Limbaugh talks a lot about freedom from government because of listener feedback. Let’s not forget that it is overbearing government action that creates a conservative mentality in many. That, and the individualistic inclination in the American Character is a very real theme informing the rise of our movement in the Post War era.

You are right to place emphasis on community and spiritual traits such as humility and Civitas. But I think we are doomed in this country to balancing our competing impulses.

I look forward to visiting this site and partaking of what is written here.

Finally, I can’t resist mentioning something re what Ed O says aboute the need for a “Buckley-esque figure.” Let’s remember that Bill Buckley abandoned his classical music station in New York years ago. He was criticized for it at the time and defended himself on financial grounds. Here was an opportunity to start a middle brow conservative media entity, alas gone for good.

I guess Limbaugh does stand for mainstream GOP conservatism, which is more of a populist classical liberalism than anything else, but from a substantive standpoint, I think that’s a dead end. Classical liberalism is certainly a legitimate and valuable tradition that should be a part American conservatism, but it has tended to crowd out other aspects. Populism has its merits as well, and may be particular justified in the present moment, but it’s not constructive in the long run. It’s more fruitful to cultivate the right kind of elite than to tear down the established one.

It seems to me that what is needed is a new synthesis of ideas, a vision for rebuilding a cohesive society that provides an alternative to the liberal-progressive’s statist approach. That would require intellectual leadership, perhaps someone in a Buckley-esque role who can bring the right people together, facilitate debate and help popularized their ideas.

While a few @ the CPAC conference spoke of restraint and self-limiting, Rush Limbaugh was not one of them…

I didn’t think his joke about God was funny, either…

Check out Michael Dougherty’s article about Mark Sanford @ The American Conservative. It speaks about this subject.