Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Rush Limbaugh: Unitard



I listen to Rush Limbaugh sometimes.

I don't like Rush Limbaugh, but I'm kind of fascinated by him.

In a lot of ways, he shouldn't be a legitimate voice in political discourse.

But, somehow, he is. Which means it's hard to ignore him or pass him off as shock jock.

The dude has a huge following, and his fans are passionate about his ideas.

All of these things are terrifying to me.


The most bizarre thing is that he's vitriolic and hateful, but still manages to have a huge Christian following. I actually know several hardcore Christians, people I like, who love him.

Yesterday I was feeling like shit and driving from Huntsville to Scottsboro to the doctor. I slept late and didn't download a new podcast, so I listened to the radio.

Scanning through the stations I found Rush's show. Like everyone else, he was talking about the bombings at the Boston Marathon the day before.

It's still a sensitive subject which Rush handled with the same grace as he would performing a complex ballet in a unitard.

His biggest complaint about the bombings is that the Obama administration wants to find out why someone would want to attack us.

He said to ask why concedes that we (America) are in the wrong and deserve to be punished, and that it implies the attacker had a motive. Rush took umbrage with the notion that there would be any motive to  attack the U.S.

I have a couple of problems with this assertion.

1.) No, it fucking doesn't.

2.) Rush is the very person who constantly bitches about the moral decline of the United States.

Ok, on the first point, what he's asserting is a major a bastardization of what was actually meant. You have to attempt to understand why someone would attack you. You have to somewhat make sense of the enemy.

I agree that terrorist attacks are senseless. They're the work of radicals or mentally unstable people.

But...those people have reasons behind what they do. Whether it be religious or moral, no matter how misguided or wrong, they justify what they do.

This is all just part of a bigger issue I have with Rush Limbaugh...a refusal to compromise.

"You're saying we're wrong! How dare you!"

It's always, "I'm right. You're wrong (and a nincompoop,)" with him. There's no middle ground.

Which leads to the second point: Rush's crusade against the moral decline of America.

He thinks America is the greatest country on Earth, but he also thinks we're going straight to Hell.

Again, no matter how misguided or wrong, a lot of attacks were motivated by religious or moral reasons. Which is the exact shit Rush complains about. He always talks about how America has lost sight about what it was founded on.

He always complains about the lack of morals in the county and how we'd be in much better shape if we'd focus on fixing that.

It just seems so damn hypocritical.

And it wouldn't be that big of a deal if people wouldn't buy it, but they do, and it makes me sad and frustrated.

From what little I've listened to his show, Limbaugh and I agree on one thing at least: despite some problems, the United States is still a great place to live.

We just have a disagreement on what the problem is: Rush Limbaugh.

Thank you.

2 comments:

  1. You accuse Limbaugh of failing to try and understand his enemies, but what effort to that effect are you putting forward with regards to Mr. Limbaugh? You demonize him from nearly the start and merely present him as a shallow-thinking idiot. He may be one, but like you said about terrorist attacks, we won't help anything just by ignoring something so important as their motives just so we can decry their evil.

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  2. Oh, I definitely don't think he's an idiot. I think he's very clever.

    I think his motive is money. What he says sells. He makes a ton of money doing what he does.

    I think he somewhat believes what he says, but he amplifies it by telling half-truths and self-serving arguments.

    I don't think he's the only one who does it either. There are pundits on the other side of the political discussion that do the exact same thing.

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