The influential radio host is too much of a utopian to understand that sweeping ideological victories will never solve America's problems
Rush Limbaugh says that mutually beneficial compromise among Republicans and Democrats is impossible. "One party is abject no doubt socialist," he argues. "The other party is constitutional conservative, small government, lower taxes, entrepreneurs, all that stuff, where is the middle ground there?" You're probably thinking, "Hey, wait a minute, the Democratic Party isn't actually composed of socialists," and you're absolutely right. But you've got to ignore the disingenuous propaganda if you're going to engage Limbaugh, which is worth doing here because there's a more subtle, unintentional error in what he is saying.
His mistake is presuming that political compromise in Washington, D.C., consists of splitting the difference between the Democratic and Republican positions on the nature of government. President Obama wants to nationalize the whole American health-care system (or so it goes in the fantasy land that Limbaugh constructs in exchange for millions of dollars each year and the adoration of powerful Republicans whose approval he craves). The GOP wants a completely free-market health-care system (this too is fantasy -- look at the polling numbers on Medicare). The parties compromise and socialize 50 percent of the health care industry. Voila! Were that the extent of it, Limbaugh and those who think like him would be right to eschew compromise. It would only result in the slow but steady advance of leftist policies and ideas, and in time the total defeat of the right.