The Rush to failure

In January, when I wrote about the bizarre and preposterous idea that Rush Limbaugh had come to define conservatism, "Do We Want Rush Limbaugh to Fail?" I did not realize I was surfing ahead of the wave. This has become a big story - and the more Republicans defend radio's most infamous gasbag the more Democrats and the White House are delighted.

Why not? When you have a fat, intolerant, truculent former prescription drug addict as the face of your party, one moreover whom other leaders of the party are deathly afraid of, you have a huge problem. All the Democrats have to do now is stick a fork in the GOP because it's done. Not to boast, but all this I pointed out in that column in a more merry tone, although some conservative readers were left in no mood to share the joke.

(By the way, if you are Dittohead and you think I'm name calling, spare us your hypocrisy. Name calling is Rush's bread and butter. You guys like to see it handed out but you can't take it).

Rush, of course, is loving the attention and even if he doesn't quite own up to being the party fuhrer, he is obviously flattered by the idea. Look how he turned on RNC Chairman Michael Steele for daring to criticize him - and look how Steele subsequently groveled.

The truth is that many conservatives think there's absolutely nothing wrong with Rush defining conservatism for them, as I heard from dozens of them after that column. They haven't got a clue how toxic he is to the voters beyond the base whom they need to win future presidential elections.

If they are not going to take it from a liberal like me, who among conservative has the guts to point out the obvious folly of Rush adulation? David Frum for one. His cover piece in Newsweek this week - Why Rush Is Wrong -- a Conservative Case Against Limbaugh - says it all brilliantly. The section subheads scream the truth: "Rush is to the GOP now what Jesse Jackson was to the Democrats in the 1980s" and "Limbaugh's language is not that of politics. It's the language of a cult."

Don't want to believe it? Fine with me. For once, the road to hell is paved with bad intentions.

 

Posted Mar 13 2009, 05:04 PM by Reg Henry
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Comments

kevin morris wrote re: The Rush to failure
on Mon, Mar 16 2009 10:15 AM

The comparison of Rush to Jesse is going to bother some, but it is dead on in that Jesse's excesses of rhetoric were as offensive to those "to the right of far left" as Rushes are to anyone anywhere near the middle. Both men are also major  league attention seekers.  

One difference-while I frequently found Jesse off the wall, I never saw him as malicious.

Black Sheep wrote re: The Rush to failure
on Mon, Mar 16 2009 10:33 AM

Hey Reg

Love your columns.  Today's is so timely given the lively exchange some of us are having with real live dittoheads over on the letters blog.

Somehow, I'm finding that watching the Rebooblican Party implode and drift leaderless into the arms of that "Hindenburg blimp dressed like Johnny Cash" is just the kind of reality spectacle I find amusing.  

I agree with Kevin: Jesse was not malicious.  Rush and the Republicans stock in trade is maliciousness disgused as sanctimonius and hypocrtical "concern."  They've had a good run for their money with that neat trick.  

But thankfully, a majority of Americans appear to have woken up and realized that despite all the songs and dances and dog and pony shows, at the end of the day there's only two kinds of republicans: rich ones and stupid ones.