"What's so strange about being honest?" was Rush Limbaugh’s defense regarding his statements wishing for President Obama’s failure. “Honesty” would be strange indeed coming from this career hypocrite, who amongst many other things, frequently accused Democrats of being unpatriotic when they criticized George W. Bush over the last eight years.
First of all, hoping someone fails is not criticism. I don’t recall one elected Democratic Party politician or appointed official ever wishing failure, of any kind, on George W. Bush. I’m being very generous when I say “I don’t recall,” because I’m pretty sure no one said it during his two terms in office… And if someone did say it?
They were wrong to say it.
I disagreed with George W. Bush’s philosophy, and was increasingly convinced of his inability to lead and manage government with every successive month that he was in office… but I always hoped he’d somehow turn it all around and surprise me for the good of the nation and the world.
Why?
Because I’m not a fat idiot who crawls under the covers when my chosen party isn’t in power. I know that regardless of party affiliations we’re all of us, every man woman and child, citizens of the same country, and that means our fortunes are thrown together, each and every one of us...
-unless you’re Rich, which Rush Limbaugh certainly is.
But I’ll tell you this: I am willing to believe Rush Limbaugh meant he hoped only President Obama fails.
I’m willing to believe it because it is just as bad as saying he hopes the country fails at this apocalyptic juncture that Reaganomics, the Republican controlled House of the 90s and the last eight years have brought the country to. I’m willing to believe that’s only what Rush Limbaugh meant because while President Obama may not think of himself, or may not be “Louis the XIV” as the GOP is trying so desperately hard to maintain that he thinks he is; Barack Obama is still the President of the United States. That means he’s still Rush Limbaugh’s President too and he’s still every single American’s President, be they Conservatives (btw -Rush Limbaugh is not a “Conservative” he’s a pro-Establishment, status quo-promoting shill) or otherwise. The imaginary Obama administration failure that Rush Limbaugh hopes, and probably prays for, would have direct consequences for the country and its future. Working people, the underemployed, the uninsured, the unemployed, the poor, students, unionized labor, everyone at the gates of ruin would suffer in America…
-unless you’re Rich, which Rush Limbaugh certainly is.
Let’s face it. What Rush Limbaugh probably means is that he hopes the Democrats in power bollix the economy up worse than their predecessors did. In that way, maybe the GOP will stand a chance of making a Palin/Jindal ticket something other than an Onion headline in 2012.
This is all just a bunch of sour grapes from an angry little man who may have woken up from an Oxycontin haze to realize that a Democrat was sitting in the White House and his earlier hallucinations of a Democratic majority in the Senate was no mirage.
And Michael Steele, the RNC party chairman rushed to apologize to this man?
Rush Limbaugh is now pretending that his stated hope for President Obama or his administration’s failures is just part of “criticism.”
Hoping someone fails is not criticism.
I’ll illustrate my point in case Anne Coulter’s reading this blog:
a) “I hope Rush Limbaugh’s radio show goes off the air. I hope he’s someday prosecuted for his attempts at drug trafficking. I hope the GOP stops kowtowing to this blowhard and starts representing small business people again.”
b) “I think Rush Limbaugh’s radio show is a propaganda vehicle for the moneyed Rich elite of this country to promote legislation, policies and deregulation favorable to them and their investments. Rush Limbaugh frequently broadcasts errors in statistics and misleads his listeners when it is beneficial to his pro Establishment agenda. He often presents his opinions as facts. His show can be qualified as entertainment, but it’s not journalism.”
Item “a)” is not criticism. No matter how strongly I feel it or how right I may think I am.
How long will we waste time figuring out what Rush Limbaugh really means? How much time will we waste trying to figure out whether or not he’s a bigot when he’s moonlighting as sports announcer; or whether he's making fun of Michael J Fox or Parkinson's Disease; or whether he wants the country to fully implode on a Democrat’s watch so the same Republicans who made this all possible can step in again and keep giving the top 1% of a percent in the country tax breaks you and I could only dream of?
20 million listeners take what Rush Limbaugh says on the air at face value every day and curiously, -so do I.
I won’t waste my time trying to figure out what he really means. Rush Limbaugh is in the talking business, so I suppose the real question is:
Why does he end up having to explain himself so often?
-SJ
First of all, hoping someone fails is not criticism. I don’t recall one elected Democratic Party politician or appointed official ever wishing failure, of any kind, on George W. Bush. I’m being very generous when I say “I don’t recall,” because I’m pretty sure no one said it during his two terms in office… And if someone did say it?
They were wrong to say it.
I disagreed with George W. Bush’s philosophy, and was increasingly convinced of his inability to lead and manage government with every successive month that he was in office… but I always hoped he’d somehow turn it all around and surprise me for the good of the nation and the world.
Why?
Because I’m not a fat idiot who crawls under the covers when my chosen party isn’t in power. I know that regardless of party affiliations we’re all of us, every man woman and child, citizens of the same country, and that means our fortunes are thrown together, each and every one of us...
-unless you’re Rich, which Rush Limbaugh certainly is.
But I’ll tell you this: I am willing to believe Rush Limbaugh meant he hoped only President Obama fails.
I’m willing to believe it because it is just as bad as saying he hopes the country fails at this apocalyptic juncture that Reaganomics, the Republican controlled House of the 90s and the last eight years have brought the country to. I’m willing to believe that’s only what Rush Limbaugh meant because while President Obama may not think of himself, or may not be “Louis the XIV” as the GOP is trying so desperately hard to maintain that he thinks he is; Barack Obama is still the President of the United States. That means he’s still Rush Limbaugh’s President too and he’s still every single American’s President, be they Conservatives (btw -Rush Limbaugh is not a “Conservative” he’s a pro-Establishment, status quo-promoting shill) or otherwise. The imaginary Obama administration failure that Rush Limbaugh hopes, and probably prays for, would have direct consequences for the country and its future. Working people, the underemployed, the uninsured, the unemployed, the poor, students, unionized labor, everyone at the gates of ruin would suffer in America…
-unless you’re Rich, which Rush Limbaugh certainly is.
Let’s face it. What Rush Limbaugh probably means is that he hopes the Democrats in power bollix the economy up worse than their predecessors did. In that way, maybe the GOP will stand a chance of making a Palin/Jindal ticket something other than an Onion headline in 2012.
This is all just a bunch of sour grapes from an angry little man who may have woken up from an Oxycontin haze to realize that a Democrat was sitting in the White House and his earlier hallucinations of a Democratic majority in the Senate was no mirage.
And Michael Steele, the RNC party chairman rushed to apologize to this man?
Rush Limbaugh is now pretending that his stated hope for President Obama or his administration’s failures is just part of “criticism.”
Hoping someone fails is not criticism.
I’ll illustrate my point in case Anne Coulter’s reading this blog:
a) “I hope Rush Limbaugh’s radio show goes off the air. I hope he’s someday prosecuted for his attempts at drug trafficking. I hope the GOP stops kowtowing to this blowhard and starts representing small business people again.”
b) “I think Rush Limbaugh’s radio show is a propaganda vehicle for the moneyed Rich elite of this country to promote legislation, policies and deregulation favorable to them and their investments. Rush Limbaugh frequently broadcasts errors in statistics and misleads his listeners when it is beneficial to his pro Establishment agenda. He often presents his opinions as facts. His show can be qualified as entertainment, but it’s not journalism.”
Item “a)” is not criticism. No matter how strongly I feel it or how right I may think I am.
How long will we waste time figuring out what Rush Limbaugh really means? How much time will we waste trying to figure out whether or not he’s a bigot when he’s moonlighting as sports announcer; or whether he's making fun of Michael J Fox or Parkinson's Disease; or whether he wants the country to fully implode on a Democrat’s watch so the same Republicans who made this all possible can step in again and keep giving the top 1% of a percent in the country tax breaks you and I could only dream of?
20 million listeners take what Rush Limbaugh says on the air at face value every day and curiously, -so do I.
I won’t waste my time trying to figure out what he really means. Rush Limbaugh is in the talking business, so I suppose the real question is:
Why does he end up having to explain himself so often?
-SJ
1 comment:
Rush Limbaugh "means" what we flush down the toilet at regular intervals. His PNLY redeeming value is that he repels moderates and independents and will therefore keep them away from the GOP, which means the GOP will remain a weakened regional party composed of hateful white extremists. As for what should be done with Limbaugh, I have an idea. "Legal expert" John Yoo has already "established" that, in time of war (which this is), the President has the power to arrest and detain anyone, even American citizens, on grounds of protecting national security. Solution: President Obama should arrest Limbaugh for being a truth saboteur, and Yoo, too, for being an assassisin of the Constitution, and rendition them both to an undisclosed location for an indefinite time. They can both play with each other then in a fantasy perfect world they helped create.
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