Rush Almighty
So, is Rush Limbaugh the defacto leader of the Republican Party? Personally, I don’t know if I care or not. Since their choices seem reduced to either completely sack-less leadership or batshit-crazy leadership, either way it’s a win for me. I am enjoying the sight of the party in a desperate scramble for meaning and significance. It’s almost as if they don’t know they’re completely and utterly in the minority now. A crippling election has come and gone, and they still seem to think that the majority of Americans trust them to fix the financial crisis. They still believe that “bipartisan” means the Democrats caving in to their every demand. They still trot out that tired, never-ran cliche of socialism as if the American public hasn’t failed to be terrified by it the last few thousand times. And they still blame the Democratic party for all that is wrong in the world, from the failing economy to the cost of health care – the GOP even seems to think the Democrats are responsible for the clusterfuck their own party has become.
The right can push these absurd meme that it’s some kind of Obama / Reid / Pelosi/ Carville conspiracy that elevated Rush to his faux leadership role within the GOP, but it’s just not true. There were a few factors that allowed Rush to gain so much clout within the party’s base. The biggest one is that the party doesn’t really have any leadership. They ran a weak Presidential candidate, chosen from an entire field of bullshit-weak candidates. Their supposed diamond in the rough is back up in Alaska, blissfully being forgotten by the majority of America. The minority leaders in Congress are both laughably unable to deliver leadership, and are selling a bill of goods that the country just isn’t buying.
Oh, and there’s the fact that Rush appeals to the absolute wing-nuttiest of the wingnuts. He’s certainly got that going for him.
But this idea that it’s an orchestrated effort between the Democrats and the media to cause tension between Rush and the supposed Republican leadership is absurd. It wasn’t the Democrats that put him on the air, or cowtowed to his lunatic rantings. Barack Obama didn’t enlist Rush to be a key speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference this past week (where he received an award, I believe, for outstanding achievement in the field of excellence). And unless I missed some very creating video editing, James Carville wasn’t responsible for Michael Steele’s on-air fellating of Limbaugh after he dared to assert that Rush is an entertainer, and a crude one at that.
No no, boys. The Republicans own this one. They have only themselves to blame both for their inability to inspire their constituents and for their willingness to use Limbaugh as such a useful tool. A reliable attack dog who could say the sorts of hideous things that elected politicians never could. No one on the right minded when Rush defended eight years of the Worst President Ever, because it was convenient to let someone else do that dirty job. Hell, even Rush admitted afterwards that he was “carrying water” for Bush. Live on his show, no less. They invited a selfish, beligerent junkie into their homes, and now they’re surprised that he’s shitting all over the living room carpet.
Must be more of that “politics of personal responsibility” we’ve seen so much of over the past decade.
I watched a little CNN a few nights ago (which is very rare for me) and they happened to be discussing this very issue. Anderson Cooper was saying something about Rush being the new leader of the Republican party. I was like, “Oh really? When did that happen? Weird.” Then I went back to my life because, in the end, it really doesn’t matter who the leader of the Republican party is – the Repubs aren’t fighting the good fight this time around. If they want to dig their own grave and use Rush as a backhoe then that’s their choice.
What’s funny is that only about 1 in 10 Republicans see him as the leader of their party. Hell, about 1 in 3 Republicans actively don’t like him. So apparently that’s the sort of support you need to have clout in the GOP right now. Shit, my numbers probably aren’t much lower than that!
While I think that each has some value, I generally don’t ascribe to the philosophies of either party. I am disgusted by the actions of their respective members and the general mindset of their adherents (which is why I vote for myself in the general elections). In far too many cases, personal political affiliation seems to be chosen on the basis of opposing the other party more than the virtues of one’s own.
Of course, even if you roll like I do, just the same, you have to root for one. As described above, I fall ass-backwards into supporting Democratic victory so as not to suffer oligarchy. While I get a quiet chuckle from the state of the GOP, seeing it isn’t worth what had to happen (a hijacked party, the WPE and a scuttled economy) to bring us here. Because I’d prefer that they’d be misguided rather than mad, than I’d much rather that a bonafide conservative rise to leadership.
Because they don’t have an Obama, I believe that starts from the bottom up. Before they can do that, they’ll have to wean themselves off of Limbaugh. Don’t hold your breath.
Rush Limbaugh has always really disgusted me. I think he really sank his lowest when he went after Michael Fox for “faking” his disease. What concerns me most about “Spongerush Fatpants” (thanks, David Letterman!) is the constant spewing of race hatred that does nothing but encourage all the batshit-crazy hate groups to seriously take on the challenge of assassination.
I pray every day for our President of the United States that he is kept safe. I think the Democratic party would do well to espouse that Fatpants is, indeed the new face of the Hip Hop GOP.
Hee-hee, love the “carpet” thing. But re: socialism. You say, “They still trot out that tired, never-ran cliche of socialism as if the American public hasn’t failed to be terrified by it the last few thousand times.”
I have to disagree somewhat. In what I read and hear on TV and radio, and among people I talk to, there are plenty who are scared of what they see as an actual threat of socialism, which they equate with communism. Some even equate it with atheism. And even more folks who, while not terrified per se, do believe matter-of-factly that the current admin and those who support it are borderline socialists.
And who in any mainstream media is going to educate them otherwise?