Posted on 01/26/2009 1:20:45 PM PST by lewisglad
“I hope he fails.” — Rush Limbaugh
It is, of course, a calculated outrage.
Meaning, it was spewed by a clown in the media circus to kick a familiar sequence into motion: angry denunciation by bloggers, pundits and supporters of President Obama (the “he” whose failure is hoped), followed by Rush Limbaugh refusing to retract a word, a courageous truth teller who will not be moved. And, trailing behind, like the folks with brooms trail the elephants in the circus parade, Limbaugh’s devotees, complaining that their hero has been misquoted, misunderstood or otherwise mistreated. “What Rush meant was ... yadda yadda yadda.”
A calculated outrage.
And knowing this, knowing how adroitly media are manipulated by self-promoting media clowns who defame conservatism by calling themselves conservative, one is tempted to let the statement pass, to make its way unimpeded to the dustbin like so many other manufactured controversies. But occasionally, it’s necessary to intercept one of them and hold it up to the light.
This is one of those times. Not because what Limbaugh said on his radio program a few days before the inauguration was an outrage — outrage is the point, remember? — but rather, because of what the thing he said says about him and his fellow clowns.
“I hope he fails.”
Do you ever say that about your president if you are an American who loves your country? Would you say it about George W. Bush, who was disastrous, about Bill Clinton, who was slimy, about Jimmy Carter, who was inept, about Richard Nixon, who was crooked? You may think he’s going to fail, yes. You may warn he’s going to fail, yes.
But do you ever “hope” he fails? Knowing his failure is the country’s failure? Isn’t that, well ... disloyal?
The irony is that Limbaugh and the other clowns would have you believe they are bedrock defenders of this country, that they love it more than the rest of us, more than anything.
That’s a lie. Limbaugh just told us so, emphatically.
It’s not the country they love. It’s the attention. The ideology, their perversion of conservatism, is but a means toward that end.
Yes, an observer might point out that it’s counterproductive to give them attention while decrying their love of attention. But, as already noted, occasionally the clowns spew something that cannot, and ought not, be ignored.
Ideological division is nothing new to politics. But has ideology ever taken quite the seat of prominence it now enjoys? Have people ever been quite so prone to regard their ideological identity as more important than their national identity? The last 30 years are rare in that regard, if not unique.
“I hope he fails?!”
So that, what? The defamation of conservatism Limbaugh represents will stand vindicated? The Republicans will pick up a few seats in the midterm election? Limbaugh’s “side” — his word — will score points?
Is this only a game, then? No lives at stake, no future on the line, no planet in the balance? Just a game?
I hope he bricks this free throw.
I hope he fumbles that pass.
I hope he fails.
And to hell with the country.
The country doesn’t matter. The “side” does. And Limbaugh’s side seems angry in power and angry out. It’s as if anger is all they really have.
Barack Obama was elected in large part on a promise to carry the nation past anger, past the notion that either party has a monopoly on wisdom, past the belief that ideology is identity. He was elected because people want a sense of mission that makes them feel like Americans again.
If he is successful, Limbaugh and the other clowns will face tough sledding in a radically different world. Small wonder he is so eager to strangle this presidency in its infancy. And need it even be said?
I hope he fails.
Leonard Who?
Where is the Barf Alert?
Who let the troll in here?
Because “white will embrace what’s right” and stimulus jobs not being for white construction workers is really getting past hate...give me a break.
I support the 0ne, just not anything he says or wants to do.
If Obama fails, America wins.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
Controversy = revenue.
And that’s all Limbaugh is in it for.
Sure he does. But Zero is an ‘attention whore’. ;)
WHO LET THE TROLL IN?!? (HOO! H00! HOO! HOO!)
I should have put the barf alert up, my bad.
Nice cherry-picking of quotes, Pitt. If the author cared to put Rush in context, he would have reported that Rush actually said that if Obama supported tax cuts and other things that would REALLY stimulate the economy, Rush would support him. But if Obama continues down the road he’s on with socialist policies, Rush hopes the POLICIES fail. In fact, Rush says that they have never worked in the past, and he doesn’t expect them to work this time, either.
I hope Obama does succeed (and so said Rush) and by succeed, we mean succeed in keeping America the bastion of freedom it was created to be.
Unfortunately the Obama agenda is geared at some Marxist paradigm to let the country take care of us all. Pure Unadulterated crap, that we can't let succeed.
If you wanna make a bambi supporter’s blood boil,
point out what a dumbass and what a racist zero is.
He didn't listen; did he!
"I hope his POLICIES fail."
Leonard; YOU may want MASSIVE government intrusion into more of YOUR life; but MILLIONS of us DON'T!
Lenny who and do these people really understand who they are dealing with?
Rush didn't sound outraged at all.
This asshat on the other hand who expresses outrage after outrage in his column is probably lost in the irony.
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