Leader of the Chumps

Right wing media has always been home to demagogues and ridiculous boobs. Hannity, O'Reilly, Beck, etc. are the opinionmakers for the dimwitted, the slow, the gullible, and the Kool-Aid drinkers. Faced with the presidency of Barack Obama, their tiny heads seem ready to explode with apoplectic nutbaggery. They tend to pretend that George W. Bush leaves office tremendously popular and those 73% of us who were glad to see him go are just the lunatic fringe -- a small group of gripers and "Bush haters." Luckily for the BS slingers, right wing media fans are bad at math -- if they weren't, they wouldn't support Bushian economics -- and don't realize that the numbers say that they're the kooks on the outer reaches of public opinion.

But seldom has the idiocy of right wing media been so well demonstrated as it was by Rush Limbaugh recently. In talking about "a major American print publication" that wanted a 400-word statement of his "hope for the Obama presidency," Limbaugh took a trip through the valley of sour grapes:

So I’m thinking of replying to the guy, “Okay, I’ll send you a response, but I don’t need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails.” (interruption) What are you laughing at? See, here’s the point. Everybody thinks it’s outrageous to say. Look, even my staff, “Oh, you can’t do that.” Why not? Why is it any different, what’s new, what is unfair about my saying I hope liberalism fails? Liberalism is our problem. Liberalism is what’s gotten us dangerously close to the precipice here. Why do I want more of it? I don’t care what the Drive-By story is. I would be honored if the Drive-By Media headlined me all day long: “Limbaugh: I Hope Obama Fails.” Somebody’s gotta say it.

The problem, Rush, is that this isn't extremely logical (big surprise there, huh?). If liberalism is the problem, you don't actually have to hope it fails -- it will. What Rush is doing -- besides putting ideology above the good of the nation -- is putting ideology above effectiveness. The sort of policies Rush espouses have most definitely failed -- 68% of us think so.

So, if modern Republicanism has failed, then Limbaugh is illogically defending those failed policies. In hoping that Obama fails, Rush not only ignores the smoking ruin left behind by Bush, but the possibility that he's been wrong for his entire career. The only reason he wishes disaster on an Obama administration is because it'll hurt what he calls "liberalism" -- but if this liberalism succeeds, then wouldn't that be evidence that it actually works better?

Of course it would be, which is why Rush hopes it fails. He's too invested in the ideology of right wing media to accept the possibility of success coming from the Democratic party. Limbaugh has to hope Obama will fail, because he has no confidence at all that Obama will fail. And, of course, if President Obama's a big success story, Limbaugh will spend most of his time trying to convince the easily convinced that it's not. It doesn't have anything to do with what's good for America, it has to do with what's good for the Republican party. Because that's what's good for Rush Limbaugh.

In an interview with Sean Hannity, Limbaugh expanded on this theme. He went on some insane rant that the recognition of the fact that Barack Obama is America's first black president is racism. Seriously. Just acknowledging a historical fact is racist.



LIMBAUGH: We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles, bend over forward, backward, whichever, because his father was black, because this is the first black president.

No, we should hope he succeeds because if he fails, we fail. It's pretty simple.

I suppose you could argue that, if the shoe were on the other foot, I might feel the same way. But I've seen what a failed presidency looks like. Among the consequences is a tremendous death toll, even if you ignore the economic craphole we're in. There's no way I want to go through that again, no matter who gets elected.

This is what we'll be going through for the next four years -- at least. Stupidity, whining, and BS from the right. No matter how badly their ideology fails, it'll always be right and the left will always be wrong. And not because they worry about what's best for America, but because they know which side their bread is buttered on.

And all those slow learners, all those chumps, will repeat everything the right wing media says, because they're too damned sheepish and afraid to try thinking for themselves.

--Wisco