“Thanks for all you’re doing to promote Republican and conservative principles… you have become the Number One voice for conservatism in our Country,” wrote Ronald Reagan in a letter to Rush Limbaugh after Clinton defeated Bush in 1992. This is why the conservative movement is dying, this is why the GOP is in shambles, and this is why the GOP was utterly humiliated just a few weeks ago; the man once dubbed the “Number One voice” of conservatives is now just a blabbering, closed-minded fool. This is growing trend among many hard-line conservatives. They have forgotten the need to use rhetoric to attract people to their viewpoints. A political statistics website that I frequently visit, fivethirtyeight.com, is run by a young man named Nate Silver. Silver posted an interview he had with someone who was trying to prove that Obama voters are misinformed and unaware regarding politics. The man, John Ziegler, became very frustrated, saying that he could not understand why Silver just didn’t see things his way. Ziegler’s last words to Silver were “go f*** yourself.” Again, this is why the GOP is in shambles. Silver posted an article about how talk radio is killing the conservative movement, and I feel as though Silver’s insights should be looked into more deeply. Talk radio used to have a real influence on politics. There were real ideas. But now, there is just hate. I listened to Limbaugh after Obama was elected just to hear accusatory shouts of “radical extremist.” During the campaign, Limbaugh went on racial tirades about how Powell’s endorsement of Obama was only because Powell is black. And this is the man who was told that he is leading the movement. One can turn on FOX News, a news channel famous for conservative bias, to hear much of the same. The conservative movement has forgotten that this isn’t the mid-eighties anymore. They think they can get by with spewing hate from people like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity. This hate does little to convince anyone. Obama won traditional red states like Virginia, Indiana, and North Carolina by campaigning about hope, change, and bipartisanship. These conservative commentators only scream about hyper-partisanship. Obama’s large victory shows that voters want to hear about bipartisanship. Very few people are attracted to movements based on intolerance and hate, which is what American conservatism is turning into. As long as the voice of the movement and other voices in the movement forget they need to use rhetoric to convince people, the conservatives and the GOP will continue to lose influence. It is not my place to do so, but it is possible to logically argue from a conservative viewpoint. It is unnecessary to resort to hate, racism, and hyper-partisanship. No one wants to hear that crap, at least no undecided or half-intelligent voter. Democrats should not hate people like Hannity and Limbaugh. These men are the greatest allies of liberals. They put a hateful and mean-spirited face on the oppostion. Liberals should be thankful for such people tainting the conservative movement. As long as the voices of the conservative party like Hannity and Limbaugh continue to be extremely negative, the GOP will not see a resurgence. These men need to realize that moderates want to hear straight talk. It is very unappealing to associate such nasty men with political candidates. Until people like Limbaugh change their ways, Al Franken’s book title will continue to be proven correct: Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot. That he is.