elfs | Brains: Rush To Judgement! (Reply)

You must have been living under a rock to have missed the Rush Limbaugh kerfluffle. It's still going on. Rush went to the Conservative Political Action Convention last weekend, where he had a big speech and was more or less lifted up by the attendees as the fatted calf idol of the Republican Party, worthy of worship.

Since then, several prominent Republicans and conservatives have been criticizing Rush for his divisive, inflammatory rhetoric. Party chairman Michael Steele called Rush's speech "ugly" and stated that Rush is "an entertainer, not a leader."

So far, every one of his critics, at least within the party itself, have since issued apologies to Rush and called him "an important voice," "a prominent conservative," "an intellectual powerhouse." And others have rushed in from all sides to defend Limbaugh:

Powerline: Apparently, like Rush's liberal critics, Steele has never actually listened to Rush. Otherwise, it would never occur to him to call Rush's program "ugly."

Malkin: Played right into the Left's hands. Congratulations. This will do wonders for party fund-raising efforts... on the other side

Riehl: It's not easy watching a black guy stumble around in the dark, but really, I'm trying... The Republicans finally get an RNC Chairman of color and all they got was another dumb, potentially too moderate, gutless wonder of a Republican in the end. If nothing else, there is equality in that.

And my favorite, Andrew Breitbart: Anonymous liberal commentators, the rabid pests of the new media, sought out the most popular conservative blogs to flood the zone with familiar Rush Limbaugh slanders. Their goal: To demoralize the right with layer upon layer of media domination. Only talk radio with its emphasis on Socratic debate over raw emotionalism and with Mr. Limbaugh in the driver's seat has escaped the left's clutches of pure media dominance.

(Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan, who says Breitbart "seems to have lost his mind," for a lot of this. I mean, really, talk radio is "Socratic debate over raw emotionalism?" Has he ever even heard talk radio?)

Meanwhile, deep inside the echo chamber, Republicans are decrying the fact that news programs have discussed at length the factual errors in Limbaugh's speech. Limbaugh at one point misquoted the opening of the Declaration of Independence and then stated it was "the Preamble to the Constitution." Pointing out factual errors is, according to Newsbusters, "nasty conservative bashing."

David Frum has gone out on a limb and criticized Rush, and states the obvious. While describing Obama as cool, soft-spoken, and well-versed in the language of responsibility and self-restraint, he says of Rush:

A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as "losers." With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence – exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy.

Rush has become the Jesse Jackson of the Republican Party: something liberals can use for years to shame more seriously minded conservatives.

Rush, on the other hand, is having a laugh. Frum is right: the worse the party does, the better it is for Limbaugh. It's easier to be the angry voice of the disempowered than it is the responsible voice of leadership. Rush wouldn't know how to lead. As a radio personality, however, he does know how to market himself:

The administration is enabling me. They are expanding my profile, expanding my audience and expanding my influence. An ever larger number of people are now being exposed to the antidote to Obamaism: conservatism, as articulated by me. An ever larger number of people are now exposed to substantive warnings, analysis and criticism of Obama's policies and intentions, a 'story' I own.

And then Matt Yglesias documents the condemnation of Frum from the right.

And if you need a giggle: The Rush Limbaugh Apology Generator.

Personally, I'm enjoying the Rush meltdown. I hope they figure out how to throw him under a bus, and soon, because his lowbrow, nasty variety of autocratic "conservatism" doesn't deserve political power. We need a balanced voice trying to create a vision of America that includes individual sovereignty, a notion paid only lip service (but for the past eight years, curiously better served) by Democratic institutions.