I realize that many here and everywhere else think that we should keep pushing hard till we shut down Limbaugh but there is a fairly serious Unintended negative consequence of doing that. In fact, that's why I think it was not very good when Fox got rid of Beck. Here's my point..
..With Beck and Limbaugh and the rest of the crew, there is a political anchor that keeps the Republican Party further to the right than they want to be, which is phenomenal for us. It opens up more room on the political spectrum for our messages to get through. While the Limbaugh's of the world may be very effective at churning up their base, they are even more effective as foils. We may be doing the Republican Party the biggest favor of their life by shutting down or even toning down Limbaugh. It frees up their Party to move further to the middle. And of course, it doesn't hurt to fire up our base also. All you have to do is to look at this community? I'm sure it hasn't hurt in collecting political funds either. Which is all good for us.
I know it sounds strange but not having Beck and his craziness around is a major problem. That was tons and tons of material EVERY day to use around the coffee pot or with a glass of wine in the evening trying to influence the zeitgeist. That stuff made sure that the color stayed as PURPLY BLUISH or BLUISHLY PURPLE as possible collectively. And that's good! Without this latest blow up from Limbaugh, President Obama doesn't get to call Sandra Flucke and speak at Barnard. When the other side is self destructing, leave them alone. I'm sure Sun Tzu must have said that somewhere. If not, he should have. Or maybe he said, when they are jumping off a cliff, get the hell out of their way. After all, there is a reason that Obama is doing so well with women. There is a reason he is doing better with Independents. There is a reason why the Republican primary is in the state that it is in. It's the right wing of the party that is pulling Romney et al further and further to the right
And I would like to posit that part of the reason is the anchor on the political spectrum that people like Beck and Limbaugh represent that keeps the Republicans wayyyyyy to the right. How many of us would like NOT to have the Tea Party around as a clear contrast in the 2012 election cycle? And by the way, FOX is also been slowly but steadily moving towards the center.
This is in no way condoning what Limbaugh did. All I'm suggesting is that we think strategerically about this. We may have wrung what short term gains we can and it may be time to start thinking long term about this? We are in the 2012 election cycle after all.