The Bartender tells me (soberly and, I might add, accurately) that I am a day late and a dollar short in posting this now that the brew-ha-ha over the Evil Overlord has settled a bit. I remind the Bartender that lots of folks are a dollar short these days and one of them isn't the Prolific Pontificator of Prodigious Posterior.
The Bartender wisely pretends not to hear this bit of wisdom by going down the rail to mix some St. Patty's Day specials for a couple of full to the eyes with Bud-Lite fraternity boys wearing their finest Ralph Lauren Green™ who obviously migrated north from the South Side Irish Parade.
Never being one to trust some one who doesn't drink (while on shift anyway), I choose to ignore the Bartender's sage advice and my own better judgement (which which stormed off in a fit of racial heritage after the last shot of evil Irish brew) and post anyway.
When the DCCC created the site to apologize to the Overlord of Obfuscation, the de facto leader of what used to be the Republican Party, I sent thelink to the Ragged Company and others in my email list thinking it would be good, clean, making fun of assats fun.
Much to my chagrin, I discovered the next day that I had mistakenly and without malice aforethought included in the email bomb my good friend and constant thorn in the side: who I will, in the interest of protecting his fragile identity, refer to here as the Libertarian Menace (when I inevitably soothe the feelings of those he invariably offends I refer to him as Just a Little Right of Crazy). Leaving these seeming invectives (we are dear friends - not Frodo and Sam - but excellent sounding boards for our various world views) aside, I reproduce in full his response below. Needless to say, he did not get the joke.
As far as I know, Rush Limbaugh isn’t running for anything. And he isn’t trying to be the face of the Republican party. He has a radio talk show. And, taking advantage of free speech in America, he says what he thinks. People are free to agree or disagree. That’s democracy. (Forgive the banality.) If you have a better argument, spell it out. One thing Rush has always been happy to do is engage with ideas.
Are his critics willing to engage with him? Or just sneer and resent?
Rush has been widely criticized for saying he hopes Obama fails. Well, I hope Obama fails, too — that is, in his efforts to achieve what I think would be bad for the country. What’s so mysterious and wrong about that?
For eight years, we heard nothing but “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” Those who did the most to block or undermine President Bush were exalted as the Great Americans, and People. But dare oppose The One (i.e., our 44th president) — and you’re one of the lowest life forms.
Well, nuts to that.
There are many things wrong with the Republican party today, and Rush Limbaugh, in my opinion, is not one of them. Donald Rumsfeld (another pet bogey) used to say, “America is not what’s wrong with the world.” That is true. And Rush Limbaugh is not what is wrong with the Republican party.
And even if you think Limbaugh is harmful, what’s he supposed to do? Give up his show? Kill himself? Can he help it if people are drawn to him? What’s he supposed to do, be less appealing so as to depress his ratings?
My somewhat edited response with commentary (the Bartender tells me I have diarrhea of the mouth - or in this case keyboard - please forgive in advance my steps away from the path) follows:
Wow, just a joke man.
If you feel the need to congratulate the sanctimonious biotch, feel free.
Understanding that being squeezed might affect his sense of humor, I made the jokey nature obvious.
I agree, he isn't running for anything (except maybe head asshole in charge). Nor is he trying to be anything other than what he is: an entertainer. An entertainer, mind you, who (in my opinion) is nothing more than a pompous, self-indulgent, ego-driven, asshat spewing hate, racism, close-mindedness and the whole holy host of vitriolic virtues attributed to those who have a penchant for bloviating rather than listening to what others have to say.
In that sense, Boss Limbaugh fully exercises his right to free speech (though he can't seem to get the document granting that right straight). For my part, I would not deny him the motive, the opportunity or the means to do so. Rush is free to spout his dumbfucktitude to any and all of those who wish to remain grossly misinformed and hopelessly atavistic.
We are free to agree to disagree - that's ole' banal democracy for you. I guess this is entertainment...
Okay, maybe the Michael J. Fox thing was a bit harsh, but I think the clip reveals Rush's essential character.
That said, doesn't it strike you as, if not ironic, at least fooking hilarious that, every time one of those individuals who is running for something or purports to be the voice, face or leader of the rudderless ship that used to be the Republican party deigns to cross the Fat Controller (shameless plug for one of my favorite books) they fall to their knees within 24 hours pleading fealty while kissing the Overlord's prodigious ass?
Just pointing out the facts to one of those with selective memory.
As far as engaging ideas, well, not so much. Fact is, Boss Limbaugh has never, not once, agreed to an exchange of ideas in any forum. Fact is he is a coward. Boss Limbaugh is great at as you say "saying what he thinks" (an oxymoron if there ever was one as I am not certain the man has reached the evolutionary stage where thought is possible). He sits in his sound stage, his fortress of volcanic vitriol, proselytizing, taking calls and spanking down anyone who doesn't share his drug-addled, arrogant, I am rich, you're not, myopic point of view.
Thus, I feel it seems you have it bass-akwards: His critics are willing to engage. Rush is willing to sneer and resent.
The Libertarian Menace prolly didn't get the countryfication of ass backwards, but then Redneck (which I am proud to be) is a language he'll never speak.
As far as what Blimpbaugh should do: Well I heard a rumor that he wants to debate ourPresident. Ain't that a jawbone of an ass?
Seems Da Boss forgot a couple things (must be the drugs): 1) Elections have consequences. His team lost (resoundingly so). Thus, he (and the Rethugs as a whole) doesn't get to set terms. To the victors go the spoils. Rush and his babbling board of enablers best recall that little nugget and; 2) If the Overlord of Obfuscation wants to debate the President he can get his fat, cigar smoking, private jet riding ever expanding ass out of his comfy little seat in the bleachers and get his name on the ballot.
After all, he says he has all the answers, he says he knows the way out of this mess (but like John McLame - who claims to know full well where Osama Bin Laden is holed-up - he isn't telling). Well, your Overlordship, I am here, John Q. Public and I am willing to listen: even though I know I'll disagree with 90% of what you say and the remaining 10% will just put me off my drink. In short Your Boss-Ship: Grow a pair.
Why is it that the wing-nuts never seem to remember this stuff?
You know me, I have no problem with honest disagreement. You and I see the world in very different ways and I not only respect your particular (and to my way of thinking peculiar) point of view, but enjoy discussing our differences of opinion (knowing that neither one of us is going to budge the other an inch). And, certainly there is nothing wrong with thinking that the current administration is taking this great nation in the wrong direction. Hell, I spent the past eight years that way.
Ok. That's a blatant lie. I spent the first four of the last eight years in law school, taking on debt that will die with me and hoping to ride out in school the shit-storm that I knew (having read my Molly) George the Inept would make of this once thriving nation. Spent the latter four avoiding the bar exam (as the only thing law school taught me was that I didn't want to be a lawyer) and sampling bourbon at various seedy pubs/restaurants/bars/poorly constructed decks, whiling away the hours hoping for change. But that doesn't mean I thought everything was hunky-dory.
But, like I said, we are, despite our widely divergent world views, friends. I don't want to see him run over by a bus or anything. But I am waiting for science to come through with perspective transplants.
The only difference now is no one is trying to tell those who dissent that they can't; no one is calling dissenters traitors; nobody is questioning the love of country possessed by those who see the President's vision as dangerous or wrong. Sickened as I am by stench of the bile Rush and his ilk spew from their collective orifices, I would never attempt to prevent them from spewing away. Angered as I am by the mendacious nature with which the exploding heads paint their version of the what is "true", I would never label them as traitors. Disappointed as I am over the intransigence of those on the right who seem to be unable to accept responsibility that it was their failed policies that got us into this mess or come terms with the conclusive defeat of their "permanent majority", I would never aver that they are not patriots, that they do not love their country
.
Where I think the Boss is totally off the reservation is in is failure to recognize that the particular philosophy he espouses has resulted in a lot of human suffering. There is nothing wrong per se with Reagan principles, but where the Boss fails is in his clinging to those principles when all empirical data demonstrates that these ideas failed.
That's the rub. These ideas didn't fail Rush and his elite, stogie smokin mates. They failed me. They failed you. They failed millions and millions of people like me. They failed millions and millions of people like you. And, the simple truth is Boss Limbaugh don't give a fuck. He and his coterie of frothing at the mouth, inter-bred, automatons (even those who call themselves - laughingly - public servants) will go on spouting their Ayn Randisms, their dire warnings of the redistribution of wealth(gee, what did Gee Dumya do - other than come up with homesy nicknames fer everybody - but redistribute wealth) and their misguided, yet, vociferous, cries of imminent socialism (completely forgetting that Gee Dumya started us down the path to nationalization - seems you guys on the right got some short-term memory problems. But then y'all adhere to the twisted revisionist perspective put forth by Bush's Brain where history, is rewritten to make the losers blameless), while people, people like you, people like me, lose their jobs, their homes, their families, their hope simply because the Boss and his cadre don't give a fuck about anyone who doesn't walk, talk, look, fuck, think, eat, shit, etc... just like them. They strive to preserve their hegemony out of ignoble, base and hate-filled fear of anything and everything that isn't them. You are different, ergo you don't matter.
I know I am a liberal freak and the kind of thinking and believing shared by Rush and the right may not be wrong in any absolute sense, but man it is sad, really sad.
The Libertarian Menace has yet to respond.