Conservatives on the Couch
Nov. 8, 2006 — -- Anyone who has ever participated or invested emotionally in a partisan political campaign knows the feeling of defeat, especially if it's a convincing one.
It is a shattering, depressing, numbing experience. And so it is today, that the legions of conservative talk-radio listeners around the nation are feeling the sting of Tuesday night's verdict by American voters in red and blue states alike.
In the venues of both local and national talk radio, they're undergoing a cathartic mass therapy session, with the hosts playing the role of psychologists.
Many are throwing their planned topics out the window and are allowing their listeners to simply vent their emotions.
Of course, there's been the occasional interruption of fast-breaking news developments, like the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Rush Limbaugh's response (spoken like a true political strategist): "Why didn't they do this LAST week?"
As for the big-picture new political landscape they awoke to this morning, there is much introspection.
Some conservative listeners are angry at President Bush for not articulating his stand on Iraq more clearly or with more force. Some offer their share of invective at the winning political side. But more often than not, the reactions have been subdued and stunned.
The granddaddy of the nationally syndicated talkers, Limbaugh is leading the way in striking a self-analytical tone. He says that until conservatives start examining what's wrong with themselves they're never going to fix their problems.
"When things go wrong, you must examine why. It would be foolish to assign blame to the voters and the media and the Democrats," he said.
Limbaugh maintains that Republicans lost on Nov. 7 -- but that conservatism won. He points to a moderate-right field of Democratic candidates recruited by their liberal party leaders and implies a kind of bait-and-switch occurred.
However, he credits the other side for understanding that "conservatism properly applied will triumph nine times out of 10. … It just wasn't utilized in this election [by Republicans]."
