Why Rush Limbaugh Is Good for the Republicans

It is not a smart battle for the reformers to fight. Most of their differences of opinion with Limbaugh do not really rise to the level of principle. (Whether global warming is happening and what risks it poses are empirical questions, not ideological ones.) Moreover, the vast majority of conservative voters agree with Limbaugh, not the reformers, on most of these questions. If Limbaugh were to disappear tomorrow — which, by the way, he is not going to do — most conservatives would still put upper-income tax cuts at the top of their agenda. It's not as if they believe what they believe because Limbaugh told them to.

Yet it would be destructive for the traditionalists to attempt to purge the reformers, who have some good ideas. But for the reformers to attempt to purge the traditionalists, who outnumber them, is just plain batty. If the reformers succeed, it will be by persuading traditionalists like Limbaugh, not bulldozing over them. (See the screwups of Campaign '08.)

Besides, Limbaugh plays a valuable role within conservatism. His show, like Fox News, is not as high-flown as conservative intellectual journals such as the New Criterion and First Things. But those publications have small circulations. Their influence is long-term and indirect. Conservatism needs mass media too, to affect day-to-day politics: jam phone lines and pull the national conversation rightward. It needs Limbaugh and the many like-minded talkers elsewhere on the airwaves. Doubtless they could do their jobs better, as could the conservative writers who scorn them. But if Limbaugh did not exist, conservatives would have to invent him. And it would be hard to do — as liberals have found when they have tried and failed to come up with their own successful radio shows.

Talk radio is the only medium that conservatives dominate in the U.S. Is it really shrewd for conservatives to begin their political exile by attacking the leading figure in that world? To ask is to answer.

Limbaugh and his conservative critics have more in common than they think. The political import of the past two weeks of Limbaugh-mania is this: the Republicans' decline is now entering a phase in which its members are more emotionally invested in attacking one another than in attacking Obama. As long as that holds true, the White House can safely ignore the opposition, no matter how loud it gets.

See who's who in Obama's White House.

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