Limbaugh letter brings $2.1 mil; twice that goes to soldiers' fund

Write-brained, it's a radio program. People turn on the radio to be entertained. Informed, perhaps, but information is boring after a point. There has to the entertainment element. Which is where Limbaugh separates himself from just a political commentator. He says what he knows his audience wants to hear, and does so in a manner that makes his audience chortle (and others vomit).

And jgmacg, Limbaugh's audience is vast, and arguably vastly stupid. It is not, however, vast enough to have power over anything, especially an election. Many, many others were involved there.

 

We have this discussion every couple of months. I pay attention to what he says because the Republican party in its ascendancy pays attention to what he says. He has been the de facto public mouthpiece for movement conservatism. In that he is a significant figure in the political culture who wields a more than significant influence. He's no more an "entertainer" than Father Coughlin was. I would be interested to know, from people who agree with BB, what opinions that he's mouthed over the years that you think he doesn't believe.

 

I don't think Rush believes what comes out of his mouth - only a fool would. Unfortunately, there are way too many dittoheads who get their news from this guy. He's pushing the Republican agenda. There's nothing entertaining about it. It is simply hate-mongering propoganda.

 

I'm not talking about the election, BBJ, I'm talking about the nature of our national political discourse in general.

Given the size of his soapbox, and the general dumbening of the electorate, Mr. Limbaugh's influence on the American discussion is disproportionate.

 

Fenian, I don't believe it any more than I believed when Howard Stern wished somebody got cancer. It's just a caricature of a guy at a microphone. He could be a closet democrat, for all we know. With the other things in his life, guy's obviously got problems, like many "normal" people have.

And jgmacg, our political discourse has little to do with Rush Limbaugh. Does he fuel the right's flames? Yes. But those flames were there before he was. The two sides despise each other, and that won't change if the talkshow hosts all go away.

 

I think there's as much chance of Limbaugh being a Democrat as there is of him dancing with the Bolshoi next weekend.
Demagoguery has consequences. Most of them are not good.

 

BBJ, do you honestly believe that the core values of the Republican Party or its platform are no different now than they were 20 years ago? Or 30?

Or that the tenor of our national debate hasn't coarsened and hardened since 1980? Or 1970?

Or that Mr. Limbaugh is in any way analagous to his predecessor as the voice of mainstream conservatism in this country, William F. Buckley?

Or that positions which were once on the extreme, John Birch-right of conservatism have somehow become our new middle ground?

Do you honestly believe that Mr. Limbaugh doesn't exert a profound influence over older, white conservative voters? A group that turns out on election day at rate of something like 4-to-1 over younger voters?

 

Yes, that would be funny if anyone anywhere in America had ever heard of Ms. Rhodes.

And I think MTV and the hippity-hop are cultural influences, not necessarily political ones. Mr. Limbaugh neither sings nor dances. His only reason for being is politics.

 

You mean, "think for yourself?" That's the only message I ever got from MTV - that and all girls love to dance around in bikinis and make out with each other in hot tubs.

 

You don't think culture influences politics? Because we right now have a huge culture of dependence in this country.

 

jgmacg and Fenian_Bastard, let me preface by saying I am not nearly well equipped enough to participate in these types of discussions.

That said, jgmacg, yes, the political tenor and core values have shifted wildly -- but I believe that is on both sides, which have become quite contrarian at best. One says "up," the other automatically says "down," in completely Pavlovian manner. Political parties, plural, are our downfall, not one or the other.

Your point about Limbaugh's effect on the voters might be well taken, if the more glaring aspect of your point weren't the fact that the young people don't get out and vote. They're the ones with something to vote for: a future. Yet they don't, which to me says they aren't all the overwhelmingly concerned about the future, or that offended by the present.

Fenian, my closet-dem statement was hyperbole. I apologize for not making that more clear. My point that he does what he does as schtick, however, stands. Whether he believes it or not is moot. He says what he does to make money, and makes tons of it. It's a shame nobody from the other side can get such a powerful voice, but going back to jgmacg's point, those who might be interested in the other side's voice, aren't.