Muscular Liberalism

When Rush Limbaugh began his political talk show in 1984, the United States was working to emerge from the effects of the uproarious battles over civil rights, women’s rights, the Vietnam War and the Nixon fiasco we all know as Watergate. As John Lennon said,  “Wasn't the 70s a drag? Here we are. Well, let's try and make the 80s good…”  

What Lennon never saw due to his tragic death was the whiplash reaction to 20 years of Americans ripping apart legal racism and sexism while ending a horrific war fought on the most dishonest of terms, while also ridding ourselves of a President who grossly violated his constitutional authority. 

As Liberalism was winning these huge battles of for the rights of individual Americans and the limits of authority in the White House, Conservatives were busy creating well funded think tanks that were about to explode on the scene and transform the discussion. 

I remember reading articles in the beginning of the 80s describing the Angry White Man; a typical white American male who was made to be apologetic for centuries of racism and sexism in America. These angry white men were growing tired of being given second rate status to Affirmative Action efforts designed to create equality after 250 years of slavery and 100 years of Jim Crow laws. 

When Limbaugh’s show was syndicated in 1988 he became the salve to all those men who were tired of being told they should feel guilty about the horrors the United States inflicted on African Americans, the atrocities of the Vietnam War and the inequality suffered by women in the workplace.

Then Rush came along. 

Make no mistake; Rush Limbaugh is one of the most talented broadcasters in American history. His voice, his inflection and his ability to coin phrases in the most simplistic manner, grabbed millions of these angry white men and locked them in for life.  They grew to see him as a satisfying authority on all issues. He let them know their anger was most certainly justified. 

Lazy people taking tax dollars to live large. 

Qualified white workers losing jobs to unqualified blacks. 

Women and their phony glass ceiling. 

Sexual deviance run amuck, a product of the dirty, lazy, unpatriotic 60s. 

Limbaugh’s success in channeling this collective angst has included a recipe of three hours of anger fueled by a litany of shameless lies. Like Howard Stern with sexual innuendo, Limbaugh joined the shock jock revolution that removed all manner of etiquette and use of facts to make a point. He pushed the envelope so wide open that hundreds of copy cats began to feel free to distort the truth, use vicious insults and demand that any sort of areas of agreement or compromise are akin to treason. 

Monikers like “feminazis” were used to describe women who demanded equal pay in the workplace. Public employees were compared to Hitler. Limbaugh even claimed that there was more forest land in America in the mid-90s than at the time the Constitution was written.  

Here’s a small list from the blog by Josh Wilson, called “The Most Dangerous Man in America” describing just one week in a 30 year marathon of Limbaugh lies and racism: 

·         Limbaugh claimed falsely that 95% of all Union dues go to Democrats.

·         Rush: “The Obama Stimulus led to no roads, no bridges, no private sector jobs”

·         Limbaugh: “Public Workers in Wisconsin are the wealthiest workers in Wisconsin.”

The net result of this three decade effort has been to create what has amounted to a second Civil War in America. Not since 1865 have Americans turned against each other like they have as Limbaugh has gained more and more power; leading to an 8 year $400 million contract in 2008. 

Family members drifted away from each other when political discussion turned to angry insults. Co-workers and colleagues sizing each other up in an ‘us or them’ evaluation. And on social networks like Facebook, where the barrier to constructive political debate is created by keyboard and screen often times ends with childish insults. 

Limbaugh’s power is derived from his listeners, who at one point began to call themselves ‘Dittoheads’. Their anger at whatever was getting under their skin at the time was conveniently leveled at Liberals and liberalism; Limbaugh’s favorite targets. He successfully turned the word Liberal, which used to be thought of as the standard for fairness and working class honor, into something dirty. To be labeled Liberal in Rush’s world was akin to being a drug addict or sexual deviant or worse; someone who would take tax dollars from working people and give them to the laziest of the lazy living in slums. 

His true success equaled the success of the rising GOP. He was able to get working class Americans; construction workers, teachers, farmers, car mechanics to vote against their own interests; giving even more power and wealth to the top 5% of the wealthiest people, while wages and benefits stayed flat. He used cultural issues to disguise the fact that the people Rush wanted in office were going to make life much tougher for those working stiffs and much easier for the wealthy class. 

The religious construction worker may not get Medicare when he retires with painful arthritis before he’s 60 but at least the Liberals can’t destroy Christianity thanks to Rush and the Republicans. 

In fact those tax dollars weren’t going to lazy blacks they were going to Oil Companies and CEOs and Wall Street Hedge Fund managers. But with the cultural issues settled, those facts were conveniently obscured.

These Dittoheads ignored many obvious contradictions. In his book, The Way Things Ought to Be, he said, “I believe that strong, wholesome family values are at the very core of a productive, prosperous, and peaceful society.” This while in the midst of four different marriages. 

Limbaugh loves to lambast gays and gay rights despite the fact that the man who ushered him into his first talk radio job in Sacramento was Norm Woodruff, a gay man who eventually died of AIDS. 

"If people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up," Limbaugh said before he was busted for doctor shopping for the pain medication OxyContin. 

But these lies and contradictions are only part of the story. The real story is Limbaugh’s effect on the United States of America. Every issue that affects the American people is now being debated, for the most part on Limbaugh’s terms. 

In the wake of the collapse of the economy in 2008-2009 as the new President was trying to find a way out of this debacle and the bleeding of more than 800,000 jobs a month, Georgia Congressman Phil Gingrey lambasted right wing talk show hosts for going after the new president so early while everyone was trying to fix this dire economic circumstance. Gingrey said, “I mean it’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of that thing. But when it comes to true leadership… they’re not in that position of John Boehner or Mitch McConnell."

That was enough for the Dittohead Nation. Gingrey received thousands of angry emails and phone calls and within a day was on Limbaugh’s show; a member of the United States Congress, groveling to a hate-filled talk show host. 

“Rush, thank you so much. I thank you for the opportunity, of course this is not exactly the way to I wanted to come on. ... Mainly, I want to express to you and all your listeners my very sincere regret for those comments I made yesterday to Politico. ... I clearly ended up putting my foot in my mouth on some of those comments. ... I regret those stupid comments.”

The Gingrey episode was a Canary in a coalmine for all Republicans who dared to work with the new President to try and solve the nation’s problems. From that point on the Republican Party, joined by the nascent Tea Part—an organization funded by large corporate interests and peopled by middle class right wing conservatives who regularly vote to help the rich and powerful while they are left in the dust—decided that no compromise would ever come forward. 

Nearly every effort President Obama has made to compromise with Republicans and work with them to achieve some sort of economic uptick, has been blocked, filibustered and denied by all Republicans. It wasn’t long ago that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said his number one goal was to make President Obama a one term President; not to heal the nation’s economy. 

It is clear that Rush Limbaugh is running the conservative movement and the Republican Party. And he has taken them down a most dangerous road. Already we’ve seen 9-11 Responders, the good faith and credit of the United States and Hurricane victims held hostage to tax cuts for the rich and draconian cuts in everything from education to roads and highway to health care. 

This is not the Republican Party of Bob Dole and Jack Kemp; principled conservatives who understood that compromise and a willingness to listen could pave a path to long term success. Rush Limbaugh has convinced, or should I say, frightened the Republican leadership into considering Democrats and especially President Obama, to be the enemies of the people. There should be no compromising. And most certainly not dinner and drinks with the spouses after a session of Congress.

President Obama, unfortunately has not followed the teachings of Sun Wu, the mastermind of “the Art of War”. He has allowed Limbaugh’s demagoguery to control the debate. In turn Conservatives have been able to corner him into very bad compromises that have stalled the recovery created by the Stimulus (which created/saved several million jobs) and the auto bailout (more than 1 million jobs saved). 

And so not only is Rush Limbaugh the most powerful political figure in America but he’s also the worst thing to happen to our nation in our generation. He has led a 30 year effort to turn Americans against each other by stoking fears of racial equality, religious hatred, sexual openness and any other cultural fire that can be fueled by his brilliant broadcasting skills. 

He has inspired hundreds and hundreds of copycats and the former producer of his ill-fated TV show, Roger Ailes created Fox “News” which helps create an enormous echo chamber for Rush’s rhetoric. 

When Rush says the phrase, “failed stimulus” then you can bet Fox, the litany of copy cat right wing talk show hosts and all Republican politicians will repeat the phrase “failed stimulus” throughout the week, so the low paid construction worker who has no health insurance, can’t pay the bills and still pays a higher tax rate than the Hedge Fund Manager who helped to wipe away any of his retirement savings, will believe the Stimulus failed. That same angry man also believes that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim terrorist who wasn’t even born in the United States and his wife is an ‘angry black woman”. 

The perfect salve for the angry white male who is happy to help Rush turn the United States unto a country that is far from united.