Thursday, March 05, 2009

Rush Limbaugh: GOP Court Jester

The Washington Post has a great op-ed that looks at the sorry state of the GOP led now for all practical purposes by its court jester, Rush Limbaugh. True, El Rushbo as he calls himself at times, still has a loyal, bigoted, anti-gay, anti-black, anti-woman, anti-immigrant following and continues to rake in the money. But that is something very different from leading a collapsing political party back from the wilderness. In politics, the goal should be to assembly a working majority of voters not drinking a lace Kool-Aid potion to appeal to a delusional minority. Yet that seems to be where the GOP is headed and at an ever increasing pace as moderates and those able to engage in critical thinking skills flee the GOP ship as if it were the Titanic or Lusitania. As I have comment before, historically, most of my family were Republicans - before the party became the party of religious extremists and the intolerant and the brain dead. Here are some column highlights:
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As someone who spends a lot of time on the road, I used to find Limbaugh to be an obnoxious but entertaining companion, his eruptions more reliable than Old Faithful. But now that Limbaugh has become something else — the face of the Republican Party, by a White House that has played him brilliantly — he has been transformed into car-wreck-quality spectacle, at once scary and sad.
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Behold: The sweaty, swollen man in the black, half-buttoned shirt who ranted for nearly 90 minutes Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference. He reiterated his desire to see the president of his country fail. He misstated the Constitution’s intent while accusing President Obama of “bastardizing” the document. He made fun of one man’s service in Vietnam, to laughter.
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Smarter Republicans know he is not good for them. As the conservative writer David Frum said recently, “If you’re a talk radio host and you have five million who listen and there are 50 million who hate you, you make a nice living. If you’re a Republican party, you’re marginalized.”
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Race is an obsession with Limbaugh, one of the threads I noticed on those long drives on country roads. When Colin Powell endorsed Obama during the campaign, Limbaugh said it was entirely because of race. After the election, Powell said the way for the party, which has been his home, to regain its footing was to say the Republican Party must stop “shouting at the world.”
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It’s little wonder that the thrice-married Limbaugh, who uses “femi-Nazi,” “info-babe” and “PMSNBC” (Get it? The network is full of women suffering pre-menstrual cramps, ha-ha), among his monikers for women, can’t get a date with that demographic. For Democrats, this is all going to plan.
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Limbaugh played his role, ever the fool. A brave Republican could have challenged him, could have had a “have you no shame” moment with him, giving the party some other identity, some spine. Instead, they caved — from Steele, to the leaders in the House, Eric Cantor and Mike Pence, to Gov. Bobby Jindal, who would be ridiculed by Limbaugh for his real first name, Piyush, were he a Democrat.
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But Limbaugh has a fear of his own. If people see him purely as an “entertainer,” as Steele suggested, he will be exposed for what he is: a clown with a very large audience.

4 comments:

Nomad said...

What a mess the Republicans have made of a perfectly good opposition party. This Rush, both unelected and unelectable spokesperson for a party in decline, has stolen the very last shred of dignity remaining. Other than that, obstructionism is about all the Republicans are capable of doing. Just when I didn't think they could get any worse than Palin, along comes this ranting rodeo clown.

Anonymous said...

The Republican party is in a state of anarchy. They have no real "official" leader. Rush Limbaugh who has about 20 million followers, has more power and influence over the republican party than Michael Steele, the de facto leader of the GOP. I mean Steele actually apologized to Limbaugh.

Unknown said...

Moderate Republicans better get their mojo back and figure out what they stand for. Even Democrats want them to get their game face on.

The country needs good ideas from everyone, but they are not going to come from politicians who are beholden to the stone-age mentality perputated by Limbaugh.

Great opportunity for a young Republican Rep to get out there against the Rushies and not apologize! Someone can really be a hero......

ZIRGAR said...

As much as I personally detest Limbaugh and his brand of "conservatism", it is a fact that for the current political process to work at least two viable parties are needed. And while my baser intincts welcome this GOP implosion, my higher faculties cause me to wish the GOP would get its act together and go back to being the party of low taxes, small gov't and strong defense, leave all the moralizing and piety at home and out of policy making and out of poeple's personal lives. If it would go back to being that kind of GOP I think I'd actually have some respect for the party, but until then, as long as they keep listening to Limbaugh and letting him dictate the terms I hope they eat themselves, and I'll enjoy watching it.

PS--you have a great blog here. I hope you'll stop by mine, it's a hate free zone (but not in my posts--lol) and gay people are especially welcome!