Posted on 03/06/2009 12:29:26 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
"The devil knew not what he did when he made man politic: he crossed himself by 't: and I cannot think but, in the end, the villainies of man will set him clear." Shakespeare, Timon of Athens
The porcine blowhard Rush Limbaugh, dressed and acting like a deranged gangster, gave the keynote address at the Conservative Political Action Conference (C-PAC) on February 28. Rush looked like a latter-day Mussolini, and talked like a man preparing to run for high political office.
At once easily mockable and disturbingly powerful, Limbaugh has become, with the help of White House focus, the 'intellectual' force of the Republican Party. In mid-January, this very influential right-wing talk show host infamously expressed what the rump of the Republicans think, saying he "wants Obama to fail."
Most recently, the new Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman, Michael Steele, joined the long line of Repub politicians groveling before the grotesque Limbaugh. Steele is the guy who said right after being elected to head the RNC that he was planning an "off the hook" public relations campaign to apply "conservative principles...to urban-surburban hip-hop settings."
Rush is a former Oxycontin lush who, after railing for years against drug abusers, destroyed his hearing abusing the drug and had to have a cochlear implant. Less than a week ago Steele, responding truthfully to one of Limbaugh's tirades that included him, called Rush an "entertainer" with an "incendiary" talk radio program.
Within a few days, Steele got down on his knees: "My intent was not to go after Rush - I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh...I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. ... There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership."
Why is all this worthy of comment, much less an investigation of the philosophy and political portents behind it? Because people who still have something left of their hearts almost always underestimate what disembodied heads are capable of doing.
Too many Democrats just don't get Rush. They believe that "no Independent with a single brain cell is going to let Rush Limbaugh lead anything." But as much as it stinks, we have to grapple with those who follow the Limbaugh mold.
Limbaugh loonies are dividing my own family. A brother-in-law, who has done well in the insurance business, has been a rabid Rush fan for years. Though mine is a conservative family in a conservative state (Michigan), he has been viewed as beyond the pale.
Until recently that is, when his gifted son, set to graduate from college in New York, began openly proclaiming his Limbaugh bona fides. No one in Michigan can quite figure out why, and in good American fashion, family members have agreed not to talk about politics. Limbaugh-like jabs at his Obama-supporting grandparents from my nephew are poking through the veneer however, and my mother said in a recent phone call that the whole thing "has nearly caused a rift."
The plot to blow up the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City was hatched on the Nichol's farm in the 'Thumb' of Michigan, a stone's throw from where I grew up. I encountered some of the militia madmen a few months before McVeigh parked the Ryder truck just below the day care center in the building and walked away, detonating the 'worst act of domestic terrorism in American history.' Never underestimate what a committed core of crazies can do.
One of the most disturbing things Obama has said since taking office (and he has said it several times in several ways) is that "if I don't succeed, then someone else will be president in four years."
Such glibness indicates either lack of understanding or lack of honesty about the pit that American political culture has fallen into, which made eight years of Bush-Cheney possible. The idea that we have turned a corner with Obama simply isn't true. Despite the Obama Administration's flurry of superficial to substantial policy changes, we're still stuck in the pit.
America cannot go from an undeniably evil government to even a minimally decent government without much more of a reckoning than we've had.
There is a large school of thought among progressive people that with an even more extreme and dangerous Republican Party coalescing around the rotund Limbaugh, the Left has to suck it up and support Obama, or the Rotunda could collapse.
But speaking truth to power is as imperative when those in power are aligned with one's views as when they're not. Doing so does not, as many imagine, embolden enemies on the Right who wait in the wings.
All reactionary regimes depend on an apathetic, homogenized populace. Fascism cannot flourish when governments and politicians are held to account.
Barack Obama is a politician, and we can't forget it. Therefore we must neither dismiss Limbaugh, nor treat Obama with kid gloves.
******
Martin LeFevre is a contemplative, and non-academic religious and political philosopher. He welcomes dialogue. martinlefevre@sbcglobal.net
They are really reaching there too. But Rush will continue to be what he has always been, and that does not include political office.
In the first place, it's because of a leftist "committed core" that Rush is in the headlines.
Yup: Michigan is as conservative as Texas. /s
The lefties are afraid of Rush, I think because he tells the truth and they can’t stand the truth. Obama and his minions are like the Nazis. The Nazis used to demonize groups of people to acquire power!
Martin LeFevre is a nasty little blowhard who believes that thinking the same thoughts repeatedly is the same thing as reflecting.
Kindly apply the "Mega Barf Alert" tag to his infantile ramblings in the future.
Last time I looked it wasn't Rush looting our treasury and indenturing our children's future to generational debt.
But go ahead, call us names and make outrageous statements. It's not like the left has the truth or facts that they can argue with.
And Rush is "portly". Not porcine. Pigs are made of pork and have far more in common with democrats.
Why does that bother this guy, seeing how The One is an admitted drug user.
And please, anyone who mentions Mussolini needs to look at Obama's campaign appearances, art directed by Leni Riefenstahl.
This piece cracked me up. The tag line says:
Martin LeFevre is a contemplative, and non-academic religious and political philosopher.
But he starts off his piece indulging in childish namecalling!
He is no religious man and even less a “philosopher.”
“Martin LeFevre is a contemplative, and non-academic religious and political philosopher. He welcomes dialogue. martinlefevre@sbcglobal.net“
He is also a caring nurturer, a graduate of several twelve step programs...
When Italy in 1943 joined the Allies, Mussolini and his fascists set up with German help a state in Northern Italy named: Italian Social Republic!
Here is the email I just sent this liar....
Sir,
I’ve just finished your “work” on a site called “FountainofLight.net,” under a section titled “meditations.” I scrolled down and I saw you claim to be a “contemplative, and non-academic religious and political philosopher.” Obviously you have pretensions toward “religious” enlightenment and “philosophical” cogitation.
So, I settle myself in to enjoy what promises to be a high level of intellectual discourse.
And what are your first three words?
“The porcine blowhard...”
Right there I know several things of you but only one that assure me of where to place you on the veracity meter.
What did I learn?
You are a liar.
All your pretentious aspirations, self-reverential titles and pseudo religious website monikers blanch at your actual content. You make of yourself a clownish figure.
Thanks for your time and for wasting mine.
Despite outward appearances, I thing Rush is very introverted. He would not be able to run for office.
I agree completely. Rush will not run for office.
I would say that greatest misconception of Rush is that he is a blowhard who just rants, raves and yells.
Instead Rush is cogent, deliberate and measured and rarely loses his temper. Yes. he speaks passionately and for 99% of his time on the air he is in control and responsive, and he very rarely cuts callers off, contrary to popular legend.
This author actually referred to his home state Michigan as a “conservative state.”
Someone should study the phenomenon of angry and bitter liberal women who have Post-Abortion Rage Syndrome getting into the anti-Rush hysteria: Ellen Goodman weighs in. It would make an interesting list.
I hope the idiot that wrote that is in a padded room somewhere in a mental institution for the incurably deranged, he might harm himself and others. Unfortunately his buddies who suffer from a similar affliction are running the country right now.
Fountain of Light? More like fountain of goat feces.
"Vomir, sans prévenir" means, as I understand it, "barf without warning", which I did in honor of this moron's name.
Anyway, French is too delicate for the task.
How about this: Achtung -- Kotzenwarnung!
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