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Rush Limbaugh and the GOP Nervous Breakdown
It seems that the Republicans are suffering from a nervous breakdown.
It's cause is deep insecurity, which manifests itself in denial, as exhibited for example, by the attempt to obstruct the American Rescue and Recovery Act, and congratulating themselves for being irrelevant regarding it's passage.
A symptom is confusion, loss of self identity. What direction do they go in? Who is the leader? Do they go in a direction that puts them more in touch with the majority of people? Or do they retreat inward and hold on for dear life to the one core constituency they have left, and risk consigning themselves to a doctrinaire niche? Do they follow the lead of a chairman who wants to reorganize the party, and show some backbone, or do they turn into little lemmings and follow a pompous overinflated blowhard "with talent on loan from God," over the narrow cliff of their doctrines?
Well, the Republicans chose the latter of each set of choices.
Instead of choosing to at least not commit to a policy, they have no choice but to shore up their base of their ultraconservative hard right core.
And the hard right core is now one twitching ball of nerves!
Anyway you poke them they give a galvanic response.
Obama's election, let alone the union of a Democratic Presidency with a Democratic Congress at a time of dire economic crisis is the Republican 9/11.
And now they are given to all sorts wild imaginings when we are finally addressing all of the wrongs of a flawed system that still works, but needs to be made responsive to the people.
And so, the Right is drawing up all kinds of paranoid barricades, pulling wagons in a circle, waiting for some imaginary version of the Left to impose it's dark ideology on these United States.
So scared are they that they aren't just on full vigil for any large movements in general, but they perceive the "real" treachery, and "true liberal agenda" in the smallest most insignificant anecdotes ever.
On March 3, on Larry King, radio talk show host Stephanie Miller was simply stating that when Rush Limbaugh said about the President: "I hope he fails," he was behaving with incendiary irresponsibility, and all to get himself more attention. Miller then gave this analogy:
If I could say something tonight that gets me that kind of attention, like maybe Rush Limbaugh should be executed for treason. How about that?
But the Right Wing blogoshere, eager to pounce on anything that proves their point, misread the quote, and then missed the point.
CNlN, the Right Wing blogsite came out with this on March 6:
This is the real face of the left and it is one that they rarely expose in public. This is the LIBERAL FASCISM that I always speak about Rush Limbaugh should be executed? Because he does not want socialism in America? NOW you know why Socialism always leads to revolution. Communism has killed 120 million people and NOW you know why. Just imagine if Rush Limbaugh said that Keith Olbermann or Christiane Amanpour should be executed for their treasonous reporting of the Iraq War.
On March 6, World Net Daily said this about Miller:
"To me that seems treasonous," Miller said. "If I could say something tonight that ge
ts me that kind of attention, like maybe Rush Limbaugh should be executed for treason. How about that?" She made the call, not on her rather obscure radio program but on CNN's "Larry King Live" show Tuesday. King seemed unfazed by the suggestion, neither following it up with a challenge or a question.
Red State perpetuates the self-delusion:
It never surprises me when an angry Liberal spews hate and hostility. They call us haters, racists, and a variety other harsh adjectives, when they are the hostile, angry ones. They are so misguided and uninformed and confused by an unsatisfying ideology. It is so sad.
What is sad is that the hideous truth that the author of this last diatribe is unwilling to concede is that it was his own party's "unsatisfying ideology" that lead us to this dire situation, and that people are now open to the new and untried.
In their highly fragile state, the Republicans have manifested their self-delusion in choosing an extremist for a leader.
Which leads us to the de facto chairman - Rush Limbaugh and the entailing embarrassment for the party and Michael Steele.
Nothing could make me happier than to crown El Rushbo king of the Republicans!
When Limbaugh said twice on the air and once in a speech for CPAC that he hopes that the President fails, and the Republican leadership apologized to Limbaugh for attempting to admonish him, that made me see that if we can keep King Rush on his absolute throne, the Democrats can effectively neuter the opposition by tying this odious, unpopular can to their tails.
And the beauty is, El Rushbo doesn't care. In fact, he's more than happy to take the job!
In this case, the egg definitely preceded the chicken.
The Right was definitely cultivating the Bible Belt, but could not control the one man on secular radio who made himself the spokesman for all ultra-conservatives.
And what perfect fit for angry hate-filled Right Wingers Rush is!
He's bombastic, narcissistic, arrogant with an inflated sense of importance and delusions of both godhood and martyrdom!
On March 9, Limbaugh himself said on his show:
I must present an obstacle. if I had no impact, if I had no influence, if, if, I was such an extremist appealing to such a small number of people, why then what they'd be doing is laughing. And what they'd be do ... or ignoring. But they are running TV ads against me! Newt Gingrich wishes they'd be running TV ads against him! But they're running TV ads against me! So, I love it. I'm up for it. I raise my hand. I'm the last man standing. I'm not going to back down. I'm not going to stop saying what I say, or what I believe, 'cause I'm a American, I'm a citizen, and I happen to have the good fortune of having a microphone to blare what I believe, and I'm ... I happen to have the opportunity to be able to do it very well, with talent on loan from God. And I know that if we just keep plugging away hard enough, we're going to break through.
As for being pompous and arrogant, well, this year at CPAC he could merely manage some false modesty as illustrated by this joke.
One of the things that is totally erroneous about me -- and I just want to get this up front -- is that I'm pompous. [Laughter]
And that I am arrogant. Neither of these things are remotely true. I can tell you a joke to illustrate this. Larry King passed away, goes to heaven. He's greeted by Saint Peter at the gates. Saint Peter says, 'Welcome, Mr. King, it's great to have you here. I want to show you around, give you an idea of what's here, maybe you can pick a place that you'd like to reside.' King says, 'I just have one question: Is Rush Limbaugh here?'
'No, he's got a lot of time yet, Mr. King.' So Saint Peter begins the tour. Larry King sees the various places and it's beyond anything we can imagine in terms of beauty. Finally, he gets to the biggest room of all, with this giant throne. And over the throne is a flashing beautiful angelic neon sign that says 'Rush Limbaugh.' [Laughter] And Larry King looks at Saint Peter and says: 'I thought you said he wasn't here.' He said, 'He's not, he's not. This is
God's room. He just thinks he's Rush Limbaugh
Well, if this is the person a desperate GOP wants to cling to as flotsam, with Steele, Gingrey et al. kowtowing to him, then maybe Pelosi and Reid should negotiate new legislation with him and forget all the bit player
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gwojtowy. You're taking up six slots on the current board with the same post. Perhaps you should 'unpublish' five of them, so you don't push others posts off the board unnecessarily early.
March 16, 2009 10:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
TPMCAFE is not user friendly these days!
March 17, 2009 1:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
I would appreciate larger type for my myopic vision.
March 17, 2009 3:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Type is as large as I could make it. Sorry!
March 17, 2009 9:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
I suspect that the GOP is and will continue to fracture along three fault lines which have always been present, but which have been patched over by the electoral success of the party since 1980.
The GOP seems to be comprised by three primary factions. Economic trickle down supply-siders, imperialist foreign policy neocons, and Christian-right social authoritarians. Those factions attained mutual political power underneath the common GOP tent, having first been drawn together by a charismatic leader, Ronald Reagan. The only beliefs they seem to share is the belief in zealous righteousness. Republicanism has essentially become a cult, complete with Grand Poo-bah high priests, as is Limbaugh.
Without either a charismatic leader or much mutual elected power, the fault lines are cracking apart. I believe, that the only force that could stop the disintegration along those fault lines would be if a new charismatic Republican leader emerged. Republicans have been desperately searching for such a leader since Reagan, with Bush Jr. and Palin being the most visible examples of that desperate search.
The fundamental problem with the GOP, and the reason it NEEDS to die in it's current form, is that it is filled with the cancer of zealotry. Supply siders, neocons, and the Christian right are all zealots. If the GOP could be reborn in to the old school form of conservatism instead of the radically zealous form ushered in with Reagan and accelerated with Newt Gingrich, they would serve a useful function for the nation. That of moderating (not stopping or reversing) the rate of progress.
March 17, 2009 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, but what if all the "old school" Republicans are now "blue dog" Democrats?
March 20, 2009 1:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, conservatives (real Americans) are rediscovering their roots in self-reliance, individual worth, fiscal responsibility, patriotism,....the right to be free...limited government etc.
Now that you Marxists have gathered up so much confidence, we Americans have to weed out the weak conservatives and move on to voting you out.
All of what is happening is good for political debate. It helps to bring around more explanations of what America was meant to be. Hopefully more of the brainwashed youth will hear the good news. After all, this isn't Europe. If you like living like a heard of stupid animals ruled by a powerful shephard...why don't you cross the pond?
March 17, 2009 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks,
For demonstrating my point that Republicans have become zealots. You provide good evidence for how diseased the party has become and why, for the good of the nation, it needs to die. I'm sure the next comment you submit will serve to further demonstrate that truth. I can't wait to read it.
March 17, 2009 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tell a Frenchman that he or she is a sheep, and they'll remind of how many times their people power changed the mind of the government.
Who was swinging the hammers and pickaxes that brought down the Berlin Wall? Not Bush Sr. It was West and East Berliners my friend!
You seem to forget that Europeans learned the hard way that doing for one another doesn't make them cyphers. They had to survive and rebuild their societies after a brutal World War, and you didn't do so without helping the neighbors or them helping you.
Heaven forbid if you should be seen at an old-fashioned barn raising! Today they'd call that "socialism!"
March 20, 2009 1:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
I assume that your response is directed at 'kenneth'.
March 23, 2009 10:11 AM | Reply | Permalink