Barack Obama is a goddamned genius.
Every day this tiff with Limbaugh continues is a win for Rush, true. His fanbase may be growing in size. It is absolutely growing in ardor and intensity. Limbaugh is amped up, as if on steroids. There is a power vacuum in the Republican party and in the conservative movement. Limbaugh has been singled out the President and good old Rush has risen to the occasion. He will tell truth to power!
And it’s goddamned hilarious. For every foot soldier he collects he’s probably scaring off two moderates, maybe three. And this is far more devious than anyone realizes.
Many on the Right, even those who hold little love for Mr. Limbaugh, decry the politicking by the White House, and rightly so! This is no time for political sideshows, they say. We have grave problems with dire consequences if not handled with the greatest of skill. Why on Earth would President Obama spend some of his political capital on a silly talk radio show host? He is moving the center leftward by showing the center what the right is all about. This will allow him to actually attack these problems all the more effectively because the American people will support bold action. He’s showing the American people that the Republicans have nothing to offer other than anger and denial. This will spur ever more support to the President, and I suspect it will make the result more progressive than otherwise possible.
President Obama has forced prominent and elected Republicans to either affirm or repudiate Limbaugh’s words. Most have affirmed them, and the few that failed to do so have mostly crawled over broken glass to atone for their impiety. It’s actually sad, really. Michael Steele basically handed Rush Limbaugh his nuts. Forget the politics for a second, guys. That had to suck for Steele, somebody I’ve never had any reason to hate (more than a few reasons to dislike or disagree, but he never struck me as actually malicious like Rush).
It’s even worse for the Republicans than this, though. Every damned time Rush Limbaugh says something completely fucking retarded like quipping about Senator Kennedy’s mortality, well, the Right is going to have to go to great lengths to distance themselves from those remarks or many in the center will ascribe Rush’s remarks to the rest.
I hope Rush’s faithful break the 30 million mark, frankly. He’s a far, far better asset to the Democratic Party now than Barry Goldwater was in 1964. Please, Rush, continue to scare the hell out of the “squishes” as the folks at RedState call moderate Republicans.
No, this all comes back to shame, to its power. Barack Obama has basically shamed the Republicans into affirming or repudiating Rush Limbaugh’s central thesis –
I hope he fails!
They’ll never be the same! The whole place is coming down on our heads. This is an all hands on deck kind of moment. President Obama has gone to great lengths to include the Republicans (the sane ones, anyway, a rare breed) in his administration. The American people consistently show (in polling) that they believe President Obama has done enough to reach out, whereas the Republicans have not.
The Republicans own Rush now, every bit as much as he owns them. For a time, at least, President Obama has handed Rush a much louder megaphone. Everybody is listening to this dumbass bloviate so. I really do think that most Americans are ashamed of Rush’s central thrust. Frankly, though, if Rush’s goal is to spread his message as far and as wide as he can, well, I hope he succeeds! He’s drowning out any sort of sane Republican leadership.
I am convinced that the Republican party will have to completely collapse in order to reorganize into something worthwhile. Our democracy cannot survive with another Whig party. The Republicans need to find an intellectual center of gravity. A jarring loss didn’t do it for ’em.
Maybe shame will.
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