I have not listened to Rush Limbaugh on the radio in about 15+ years.
During this time I assumed his audience was dwindling. He was getting older. That addiction to pain killers thing. Where was the fellow anyways?
But since the inauguration (not election) of President Obama… I have indeed visited his website a few times. Read his speech to CPAC and thought it was spot on. Somebody who has the guts to say what is wrong with liberalism. Wrong with Obamaism. But more importantly what is good and right about the American people and America as a democratic republic under the United States Constitution.
So why is the “left” (using a rather broad label here for convenience) so obsessed with Rush Limbaugh?
President Obama was one of the first. “You can’t listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done”. Tsk tsk. Nasty Republicans who would not cooperate with the president’s agenda were taking their marching orders from a talk radio personality.
Absolute rubbish of course.
Since then nearly everyone and their brother in the Democratic party and/or who supports Obamaism has been taking swipes. Even David Letterman felt compelled to call him a “bonehead”. And when Republicans like RNC chairperson Michael Steele seemed to distance themselves as well!
The purpose behind this fixation is transparent. Silence the opposition. How? Very simple.
- Let us see. You are opposed to President Obama’s agenda.
- Rush Limbaugh wants the president’s agenda to fail.
- And everybody knows what an odious bonehead Rush Limbaugh is.
- So you don’t agree with him do you? You need to stop listening to him taking your marching orders from him and start cooperating with President Obama in a spirit of true centrist bi-partisanship.
David Limbaugh understands:
What would be amusing, were matters not so gravely serious today, is the utter juvenile transparency in the liberals’ efforts to vilify Rush Limbaugh.
They’ve been doing it for 20 years, but this time, they’re better-organized and have a broader purpose. So those who haven’t had the courage to stand by him should understand that Rush is not the ultimate target here. We all are — those, that is, who oppose their Marxist agenda and Stalinist tactics.
Read the whole thing here. You do not have to register.
I am disappointed with some of my more liberal friends. Many of whom either celebrate or express a kind of touching concern at how the new prominence of Rush Limbaugh imperils the future of the Republican party. One even had the chutzpah to suggest that President Obama is “trying to free what’s left of the middle of the Republican party from its loud right wing”. Others kvetch that they are so terribly deeply concerned that if Republicans let the right wing of the party have so much say they will never again win an election.
Your concern for the future of the Republican Party – or more broadly for centrist conservatism – is touching. But I find it difficult to believe its sincerity. If the Republicans got rid of the social conservatism – and I am open to that kid you not – would you then vote for them? Just what about the Democratic party do you not like such that you are concerned about the Republicans not becoming powerless/irrelevant?
Jonah Goldberg hints that he is not a huge fan of Rush Limbaugh or conservative talk radio in general.
Limbaugh and other right-wing talkers are popular with a third of the country. Fairly or not, they turn off moderates and self-described independents.
And yet Goldberg recognizes this drive to associate conservatism with Rush Limbaugh for the faux concern that it is. It comes down to this:
Does anyone really think that Republicans, absent fear of Limbaugh’s lash, would be throwing flower petals at Obama’s feet as he sells the Great Society II? If that’s true, I say thank goodness for Limbaugh’s lash.
Read the whole thing here. You do not have to register.
You hate Rush Limbaugh? Fine. Whatever. Then take him out of the picture for a minute.
It would make no difference. None. Zero. Nada. Zilch.
Rush Limbaugh is neither less nor more than a particularly prominent and passionate voice on the political landscape. He expresses well what many of us think and feel. If there were no Rush Limbaugh we would think and feel and hopefully act no differently.
The goal of liberal/leftist fixation on Rush Limbaugh is obvious. To shame the opposition into silence and submission. “My G*d you don’t agree with Limbaugh do you?”
Perhaps we should say “Actually Rush Limbaugh agrees with me“.
