Democrats can derail Republican House debt default brinkmanship by attacking their radio advantage
The current debt default ‘fight’ is a repeat from 2011. Rush Limbaugh spent much of the month of July 2011 pushing for default, repeating that default wasn’t possible, and if we did default it would be Obama’s fault for not making the cuts Republicans wanted.
In the 2013 diary Limbaugh played a big part in sequestration I quoted excerpts from 10 shows July 2011 and one from August before the Aug 2 deadline (see below).
Urge your congresscritters to use the Limbaugh quotes to point out the stupidity and hypocrisy of the current crop of GOP radicals. Democrats can point out that Republicans are still taking economics lessons and political strategy from a zombie lung cancer victim who told millions for the better part of 3 decades that smoking doesn’t cause cancer. And global warming and COVID are hoaxes. And the 2020 election was stolen.
Dan Bongino, who inherited half of Limbaugh’s 600 radio stations, was saying the same thing a few days ago on his show (see below), urging Debt Default Part 2 and threatening Republicans who didn’t toe the line. Bongino is a bitter motormouth with much less power than Limbaugh but still supposedly reaches 8 million listeners. (How nice to hear that his Fox TV show was just cancelled.)
There’s a good chance a lot of local Republican talk radio hosts are doing the same thing, or at the very least letting their callers push it on their shows after hearing national talk show hosts like Bongino, channeling Limbaugh.
Blame Limbaugh for debt default
The first rule of Republican political power is don’t talk about Limbaugh or talk radio.
Democrats should read from those shows (egs. below) on the floor of congress and point out that it is the same playbook McCarthy and the GOP clowns are following now.
Pre-blame Limbaugh with the hypocrisy and stupidity of whatever’s going to happen. Wave Limbaugh under their noses. That will help defang Limbaugh successors like Bongino who are and will be threatening Republican Reps (see below) until the debt ceiling deadline. It will also reduce McCarthy and the teabag/trumper clowns’ leverage and improve chances for Republican defection.
These radical Republicans did not learn their politics from social media or the internet. They learned it from two or more decades of Limbaugh and sons on the conjoined radio/Fox megaphone. That’s where they learned ‘corporations are people’, ‘money is free speech’, ‘unions have more political power than corporations’, ‘trickle down economics’, ‘illegal immigrants are voting’, “Trump is a genius”, and so on.
Limbaugh was the moral and intellectual guru of the teabag/trumper wing of the GOP and they will be outraged. Some will feel compelled to defend Limbaugh. Make them answer media questions about Limbaugh’s influence. That won’t go well.
Along with blaming Limbaugh, point out that Putin would also love the US to default, that artificial intelligence now allows large scale analysis of political talk radio, and that Republican talk radio depends on hundreds of university and professional sports teams continuing to broadcast games on those stations.
Limbaugh was a Putin tool
In this 2013 diary there are a few possible examples of Putin using Limbaugh, and through him 1200 -1500 radio stations and the GOP, and Fox. That includes helping Putin stooge Manafort push Palin onto McCain in 2008, using a Russian hack to create ‘Climategate’, and pushing the 2011 debt ceiling fight.
Limbaugh was a long time admirer of Putin and Russian oligarchs living the Ayn Randian ‘free market’ wet dream and bears a lot of responsibility for Republicans trusting Putin more than Democrats. A retroactive analysis (with AI) of Limbaugh shows relative to Ukraine and related events might be informative.
While any Dem suggesting Limbaugh was a Putin tool on the floor of congress might cause Boebert, Greene, and Gosar to shoot someone, Democrats might want to at least point out there probably aren’t many Republican millionaires and billionaires who relish the thought of default.
Hint that artificial intelligence will be used to analyze talk radio
In any conversation that mentions Limbaugh and talk radio Democrats should be bringing up the inevitable use of AI to digitize and analyze political talk radio, as was prototyped by MIT in 2019. Republicans will freak out at the possibility that their invisible advantage could become exposed and will imagine devastating boycotts of a messaging monopoly that has been FREE, paid for by advertisers.
Mention Republican talk radio dependence on universities and black athletes
The Republican backlash caused by blaming Limbaugh for debt default on the floor of congress will also provide Democrats the opportunity to expose one of the most grotesque ironies in politics — the dependence of hundreds of racist, anti-woman, anti-LGBTQ, anti-education, anti-science Republican radio stations on hundreds of universities (including these 87) and professional sports teams and tens of thousands of athletes.
Nearly every Democratic politician is opposed personally and on issues by Republican radio blowhards who are endorsed by universities in their states (such as in these 39 states). Those schools have no excuse not to reread their mission statements and begin looking for apolitical alternatives.
Examples of Limbaugh and Bongino pushing debt default
Here’s from the Dan Bongino Show (Episode 1993) titled “They’re Targeting Your Kids”. The YouTube was dated in hours-ago terms so I think it was Tues April 18, 2023. He may be repeating some version of that every day until the deadline.
DAN BONGINO, who might as well be working for Putin:
Do not capitulate. McCarthy's been standing strong. Do not dare vote in the House and the Republican-controlled house to raise that debt ceiling without significant concessions from the Biden administration. Don't do it.
If Biden wants to shut down the government McCarthy will get him a budget. The house has the power of the purse. They will get him a budget. If Biden doesn't sign it and wants to shut the government down that's on Biden. I don't care what the media writes. Stand up show some nuts and do the right thing. (From the little I’ve heard of Bongino, he’s big on ‘nuts’)
Do not cave on the debt ceiling. Listen to me. Do not cave on the debt ceiling. I don't know if you care about this show in the Republican swamp or not but I'm telling you right now anybody who caves on this thing we will be exposed. I will make it my life's mission to expose you guys.
Do not cave on the debt ceiling. We have an opportunity right now to get a lid on our impending national bankruptcy.
Compare with Limbaugh excerpts from July and Aug 2011, below. I can’t remember how much I left out.
LIMBAUGH, who might as well have been working for Putin:
7/7/2011
“we will not default by August 2nd. There are sufficient revenues flooding Washington each day that are sufficient to service our debt.”
“I've been making the point for how long, folks? I mean those of you who have been listening regularly will know, it has to be weeks, that there is no possibility of default. The United States cannot possibly default. There is revenue that comes in every day, tax revenue, it comes in every day."
"There is no default that's going to happen. All of this is trumped up. Please don't doubt me on this. There's no bluster here. It is the fact."
"Republicans need to stop talking about revenue and loopholes and all this. The focus must be on this out-of-control spending.”
“No possibility of default."
"What would happen is that debt service would be paid. Whatever's left, the net would be used to fund ongoing federal activities, which means Obama would prioritize what does or does not get funded, but we would not default.”
“We cannot default, and there's no reason to default. It's a scare tactic.”
“Ain't possible. Isn't going to happen.”
“To avoid default all we have to do is to keep making interest and maturity payments on the bonds as they come due. The rest ought to be Obama's political problem, not ours.”
“There is no default.”
“There's no possible default. We purely have a spending problem.”
7/8/2011
“It's all calculated to put pressure on them (Republicans), all because they won't go along with a tax increase, all because they won't give in to Obama, all because they're willing to have the government default, which will not happen!"
"Social Security checks will continue to go out."
"we're being lied to by the Ruling Class left and right about the debt ceiling and what happens if it's not raised.”
“We are not in danger of default. Anybody, either party who says we are is engaging in demagoguery”
"The Republicans own this opportunity. All they've gotta do is stop talking about tax increases and revenue."
"Pat Buchanan says, "They're bluffing. The GOP should stand its ground -- and fix bayonets." Lock and load, in other words.”
“ And we don't care what Richard Cohen says and we don't care what David Brooks says, and we don't care what the establishment says about this. It's gonna come down to who the congressional Republicans are gonna listen to. It's gonna come down to whoever they think they have the most to fear from.”
July 11, 2011
“Obama's Only Hope of Reelection is Forcing John Boehner to Cave”
“If Boehner caves, it's bye-bye GOP and nothing to do with the policy changes that might happen. If Boehner caves and takes a tax increase, folks, to the House and it loses, Obama still wins because the Republican base is so ticked off at that. Hello Tea Party, you know the drill.”
“That's all Obama is trying to do is to wear Boehner down between now and Ramadan so that Boehner eventually caves, Ramadan being August 1st, and they say we go into default on August 2nd.”
"When you boil it all down, here's the point: big cutting. It will occur automatically."
"The only way the country goes into default is if Obama does not prioritize the debt, and that would only happen if he let it happen, which would mean that he wants the country to go into default, 'cause it's very easily avoided."
"The number one thing, if you want to eliminate a majority of the debt that's accumulated and that's going to accumulate, get rid of Obamacare."
July 12, 2011
“If there is a collapse or a default, it's something that he wants and has planned.”
“And if -- if -- the Republicans go along at some point, they're contributing to the destruction of our economy.”
“There isn't gonna be a shutdown. You're gonna have plenty of gumbo. There isn't going to be a shutdown. A "default" is not a "shutdown," and there's not gonna be a default.”
7/13/2011
“They don't want to do anything that reeks of a government shutdown, and a default can be characterized by the Democrats and Obama as a government shutdown, and they think they (Republicans) lose in a government shutdown, so they don't want any part of it.”
7/14/2011
"Moody's Investors Service said late [yesterday] it had placed the US government's triple-A bond rating on review for possible downgrade due to rising risk of default.”
“Folks, we gave you the numbers on this yesterday. It's not possible to miss a payment unless somebody doesn't make it, which that falls to Obama.”
“We elect Barack Hussein Obama president, and in two-and-a-half years, we're on the verge of an unprecedented US default with worldwide -- first time ever -- humiliation, embarrassment, and whatever else would accompany default.”
“The current US debt is larger than the entire economy of China, in two-and-a-half years of Barack Hussein Obama”
7/21/2011
"If the regime will lie to us about something as important as going into default, what else are they lying about?"
"I cringe when I keep hearing Boehner and the Republicans talk about the moral obligation we have not to default. We're not going to."
7/27/2011
"It's July 27th. We're not gonna default."
"We won the election in November -- and as such, we don't compromise. Winners don't compromise. Losers compromise."
"There isn't gonna be any default and there probably won't be a downgrade. All of this is hocus-pocus."
7/29/2011
Segment headline:
You Can Be Proud, Conservatives: Tea Party Puts Country Over Party
“the country is not going to go into default. There have been secret contingency meetings, and we've got the story. I don't even need the story, though, to know the country's not going into default! We're also tired of being lied to. The country is not going into default.”
8/1/2011
"The Democrats are operating on the basis of fear, and the real fear that they're operating under is the default resulting in a downgrade of the full faith and credit of the US."
*****I apologize for any pain and discomfort those images may cause.
Two recent developments will force the ad industry to democratize RW radio.
The biggest political mistake in history. It's the radio, stupid.