Every Once In A While

Every once in a while I listen to Rush Limbaugh. The first time I ever heard of him was when my wife arranged for us to hear him speak at the Masonic Temple in Detroit, back about fifteen or so years ago. He sold out and the audience was comprised primarily of young men in their twenties. I learned that night that these young men were called dittoheads because they agreed with everything this guy said. I also thought at the time and for quite a few months after that Rush was a comedian. That night by request he repeated his hamster (or was it a guineau pig?) story about a gay guy who had to seek treatment because of a little furry animal stuck in his rectum. The audience howled with every sentence. Truth is, the guy was funny that night if gay bashing is your thing. It took me about three or four years after that to realize that the guy was serious, that he actually believed the crap he put out on the air each day and that the ditto heads were soaking up every word. People that like to think about things were tagged with names such as bleeding heart liberal, tree hugger, feminazi and worse. Somewhere along the way the phrase 'dittohead' was dropped because it was apparently important to convey the impression that people who agreed with him had reached their opinions by themselves without his influence. And I'm the tooth fairy. Rush and his dittoheads created a fervor across America starting in the late 1990s and extending through today. A favorite whipping boy was the 'liberal media'. Another was Hollywood. His definition of who is a conservative narrowed based on his apparent need to always be angry about something. That talent, or rather lack of it, is what amazes me about the guy. I thought when Bush and the pseudo-conservatives took over Washington, Rush would have nothing left to vent his spleen over. I was wrong.. It became necessary to pass certain purity tests — on immigration, abortion, taxes and Terri Schiavo. Recently Rush took on McCain and Huckabee. “I’m here to tell you, if either of these two guys get the nomination, it’s going to destroy the Republican Party,” he said recently on his radio show. “It’s going to change it forever, be the end of it.”

I am going to wonder aloud. Instead of principled people like John McCain and Mike Huckabee who refuse to walk lockstep contributing to the downfall of the Republican party, I would suggest that Rush is the poster child of the downfall. By his personal example, he demonstrates with accuracy and clarity the hypocrisy of the pseudo-conservative movement. Consider this; one of his favorite targets is the trial lawyer, but guess who he relied on to evade prison for his felonious conduct in altering and forging narcotics prescriptions to feed his personal addiction? You guessed it. A trial lawyer. I think the American public has had it with the group of people, typefied by Limbaugh, who like to tell people how to think. Although these people apparently don't believe in evolution, it is an example of evolution at its best; the neo-cons have evolved into pseudo-cons. The con game is over.