Take a look at the mean spirited racial hostility in what he said today about the thousands of people moved to pay their respects along the route of the Kennedy funeral procession.
They couldn't even get the caravan going -- and, by the way, do you know that they lined the caravan route with union thugs? They did. They had to go out and stack people standing on the streets with union thugs, and I played a game yesterday afternoon. I watched a replay of this whole thing and I said, "You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take a drink -- in honor of Ted Kennedy, of the caravan going to the library there to lie in repose, I'm going to take a drink -- for every black person I see on the parade route," and I was sober at the end of the parade. They forgot to stack the deck with any black people but there were a lot of union thugs out there. I mean, there's no better way to honor Ted Kennedy than to take a drink for every black person you see on the caravan route.
Limbaugh is a skilled charismatic communicator. If he had a bone of personal decency or an ounce of genuine patriotism, in that "body by Hindenburg", he could have chosen to make a significant contribution to a thoughtful national dialog - like a right wing Bill Moyers. The only problem Limbaugh would have in such a dialog would be learning to deal with those pesky little things called "facts".
Instead like the sleeziest, cigar smoking, blowhard trial lawyer that ever bamboozled a jury he has opted to get on the air every day and spit out a stream of wildly dishonest and racially inflammatory vitriol to an ever expanding mob. The historic parallels to the demagogues of modern history could not be more clear.
The Civil War may have ended but this country never got over it. When you scratch the surface of most issues in American politics race jumps right out at you. When Limbaugh is not being blatantly racial the core of this belief system is - not a dime of my tax money for "those people". This is what they mean when they rail against "big government" and call Obama a "socialist". Limbaugh's angry listeners are terrified by the changing world in which white people no longer run the show. Technology and the global economy have wiped out the old order that sustained the post WWII generations. The "tea baggers" that are riding around in busses this summer with right wing radio personalities speak repeatedly about feeling not listened to. It's the same theme.
What else is the whole Republican gun fetish about but protection from "those people" that the liberals want to give their tax dollars to? A guy shows up outside an Arizona Obama rally with an assault rifle over his shoulder and Phoenix's finest respond with all the law enforcement zeal of the overdue library book squad. I understand that the picture is complicated by the fact that this particular gun toting bizarro was black but where the hell was the Secret Service? If you have a minute compare this http://www.nowpublic.com/world/man-gun-obama-health-care-rally-phoenix-arizona
with this
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1015-06.htm
One more question - what liberal commie gun law restriction was this wingnut - with an assault rifle on his shoulder and an automatic handgun strapped to his waist - feeling oppressed by? Was he pissed off that he had to leave his Stinger surface to air duck hunting missile in his trunk? I agree with Bill Maher that you can call it a sport when the rabbits also have AK47s.
There is still a line that Limbaugh and his fellow travelers can't cross in public so they speak to their base in code. When the nation mourned and Kennedy lay in state Limbaugh said this;
I think we need to look at Sen. Kennedy in a number of ways,” Limbaugh said Wednesday. “I think Sen. Kennedy . . . It would serve us well to remember that Sen. Kennedy is a perfect example of the redeeming aspect of liberalism. If a politician is liberal, and if the politician uses the government to take money from people who work and gives it to people who don't work, they are redeemed for every bad act on earth they commit."
Its not enough for us to shake our heads in disgust. Somehow the opposition has to force an open discussion about this very simple Limbaugh/Republican philosophy of government-
if you're rich - "how can I help you"
if you're poor - "screw you"
As a skilled snake oil salesman Limbaugh is able to keep his working class and poor white fans from from realizing that they are the ones being screwed by the Republican concept of what government should do and for whom. If the democrats can't counter the Limbaugh/Fox News party line with an equally simple appeal to basic fairness and justice then we're cooked. Im not talking about social and economic fairness as kumbaya political correctness I'm talking about appealing to raw self interest about not leaving our kids a society of haves and have nothings where the middle class has to scuttle home at night to barbed wired gated enclaves, If we dont take the right wing on Obama may be a one term gift produced by a once in a generation perfect storm of the economic collapse and the disastrous Bush presidency.
Like "Hate Watch" run by Morris Dees and the Southern Povery Law Center tracking hate groups - resources need to be applied to exposing the Limbaugh worldview to the light of day. Republicans should be forced to pass a litmus test of whether they are either pro or con Limbaugh's socially toxic venom. Here is the link to the Morris Dees group http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intpro.jsp
The only way to force these violent fundamentalists, who have no respect for life after birth, to slither back under their rocks is to break the code of their message and expose it. Talking in terms of "American values" is not in my normal liberal lexicon - but it should be. We need to prevent them from undermining America's basic values that enabled us to elect President Obama and caused the rest of the world to jealously salute us as a nation. We need to make it unacceptable for the right wing fringe that ran the government for 8 years to come back into power
If Father Coughlin, the anti-semitic radio demagogue of the 30s was back we would all be focused on it as a crisis and doing something on a national scale to stop him. He is back. It is a crisis and we need to be something big and loud.
foot note -
If we can't do big and loud, even small and quiet is better than nothing. I just cancelled my account with GoToMyPC.com, one of his big advertisers. LogMeIn.Com seems to provide the same service and hopefully spends their advertising budget appropriately.
