( - promoted by Fong)
Rush Limbaugh's a skillful entertainer who sounds like a barker at a county fair, peppering listeners with political commentary. He uses parody, mixing lyrics that bash Liberals with familiar Top 40 tunes. Rush's patter goes on for three hours, Monday through Friday, with repeats on the weekends. He uses call-ins as a trampoline from which he leaps into action, certain that God rubberstamps his edicts. Rush doesn't have to listen to opposing views. He brags how he's mastered the Liberal-Pinko-Socialist mentality.
Rush flips on its head what Henry Luce, co-founder of Time Magazine, accomplished in print. Luce, a communicator rather than an entertainer, exposed readers to topics that expanded opinion, rather than narrowed it. He published in Time news-making opinions that challenged biases, rather than reinforcing them. |
| Rush limits what's "true" to his narrow political prejudices. He brushes off talking with the Left as outright capitulation. He instructed ditto-heads-those who give thumbs up to whatever Rush claims-that they should avoid partisan cooperation on health care. Cutting deals with Liberals is investing in their lies. Rush's script never needs editing because he's always right.
When his sycophants beg Rush to run for political office, he wisely demurs. A politician needs to use negotiating skills to move legislation through Congress. Rush doesn't have such patience for politicking. He can't make as much money at it as he does ranting against Liberals. He realizes that directing his own show lets him say whatever he desires. Winning political candidates bridge divides in the electorate. Not Rush. They work to find common ground. Rush disses it as sinking sand.
Some conservative pundits are fed up with Rush's shtick. David Frum, former Bush II speechwriter, wrote on his blog why President Obama won the health care debate. This commentary cost Frum his job with a premier conservative think tank.
"I've been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us," wrote a frustrated Frum. "Yes, it mobilizes supporters-but by mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead. The real leaders are on TV and radio, and they have very different imperatives from people in government. Talk radio thrives on confrontation and recrimination. When Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was intelligently explaining his own interests. What he omitted to say-but what is equally true-is that he also wants Republicans to fail. If Republicans succeed-if they govern successfully in office and negotiate attractive compromises out of office-Rush's listeners get less angry. And if they are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer adds for Sleepnumber beds." This company advertises on Rush's show.
Former Republican senator Alan Simpson (1979-1997), a conservative from Wyoming, tells why Rush's comic showmanship doesn't translate into good politics. When asked why Limbaugh attacks him for allegedly cozying up to Democrats, Simpson fired back, "Well, that's how they make their money. I never considered Rush-babe to be anything more than an entertainer. He gets people all riled up all day long, gets them filled up with gas, ulcers, heartburn, B.O., and fear. Hell, that's pretty good. You're really are an entertainer if you can get that done." Simpson recognizes how Rush's barbs are "careless words that stab like a sword" at his enemies, rather than soothing "words of wise people that bring healing" (Proverbs 12:18).
"And fear..." says Simpson. Could Rush be a fear-monger because under his bravado rages insecurity brought by political change that threatens him? If you wait for Ronald Reagan to arise from the dead, but President Obama takes his place, doesn't this produce chilling fear that prompts Rush to lash out?
David Remnick, who wrote The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, relates how the president recognizes change gets people upset, brittle and fearful, like Rush. "And there are going to be folks," Obama describes, "who don't want to promote that understanding because they're afraid of the future. They don't like that evolution. They think, in some fashion, that it will disadvantage them or, in some sense, diminishes the past. I tend to be fairly forgiving about the anxiety that people feel about change because I think, if you're human, you recognize that in yourself."
Talk radio's showboating works because opposing opinion isn't treated with respect. But our Republic is honored when reasoned discourse replaces entertaining with a chip on its shoulder. |
