Rush Limbaugh
After many months of observation, I thought I had learned something new about Rush Limbaugh. His jingoism appeared to be rooted more in anti-liberalism than in pure racial prejudice. I had almost imagined — if there were more "illegal immigrants" like this fellow — that Limbaugh would immediately rush to occupy the nation's border crossings with a bi-lingual welcome sign. This surreal fantasy lasted through much of the conversation. But then the truth became apparent.
RUSH: Carlos in San Francisco, sanctuary city, great to have you on the EIB Network, Carlos. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Mr. Limbaugh. Thank you for taking my call. It's an honor to speak with you.
RUSH: You bet. You bet. Great to have you here.
CALLER: I am an illegal immigrant, and I'm not offended if you call me an illegal immigrant. You know, remember that story about not calling "illegal" illegal?
RUSH: Wait. Wait just a second, Carlos. I want to make sure I get the you. You are calling here and acknowledging that you are an illegal immigrant and you don't have any problem with that term?
CALLER: I do not.
RUSH: Well, you're in a sanctuary city anyway.
CALLER: Oh, it doesn't scare me. It's just a fact.
RUSH: Okay. All right.
—Rush Limbaugh: Illegal Immigrant Dittohead Does the Thinking Americans Won't Do
After hearing of this, I consulted the transcript, and am offering excerpts. I didn't hear the actual conversation, much as I would have liked. But it is a most fascinating conversation, even from the transcript. More after the fold.
CALLER: ... I speak for myself. I am not in the tank for Obama. Ever since he ran the first time, I knew he was an empty suit. He didn't have the record to run. He didn't have anything -- anything -- to qualify him as the commander-in-chief. This liberal journalist, the liberal media thinks we are so stupid that we are gonna go like drones toward the Democratic Party.
RUSH: I'm sitting here and I'm not believing this. We have an illegal immigrant on the phone -- an admitted illegal immigrant -- making more sense than the Democrats in this country who are legal! Carlos, how long have you been here?
CALLER: I've been here for 23 years, Rush. I started listening to you about 20 years ago, and lately I've been listening to Mark Levin and Sean Hannity, and it's just...
RUSH: (chuckling)
RUSH: I don't know... I don't know what those liberals think.
RUSH: Now, Carlos, you I have to tell you that kind of surprised me, because we've been told that illegal immigrants hate conservatives; that they're all liberals who come here for the safety net. And you don't sound like that at all.
CALLER: No, no, no! No, no! The traditional Latino-Hispanic family is very family oriented. It has a lot of conservative values. We come here for an economic opportunity. We come here for jobs.
RUSH: Well, why haven't you sought citizenship in all these years?
CALLER: I haven't been able to. The immigration laws are so confusing and so complicated that, as of today, I haven't been able to become a legal resident. I've been tempted to leave the country but I have a daughter here and she was born here and I cannot leave her with her mom.
RUSH: A-ha!
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: A-ha. That... That...
CALLER: But, see, we come here, as I said, for an economic opportunity, for jobs, for a better life. And I do not know what happened to this beautiful country in the last four years. It's just so disappointing seeing this great nation going south.
RUSH: You know, I'm sitting here, folks, and I'm a little stunned. We need conservative immigrants to do the thinking that native Americans used to and don't anymore! You sound like you think more about things than half the Americans in this country do.
—Rush Limbaugh: Illegal Immigrant Dittohead Does the Thinking Americans Won't Do
Did you ever imagine hearing Rush say, "We need conservative immigrants"? After the call, Rush would add perspective:
RUSH: We need all the conservatives we can get, and he's in a sanctuary city. I know a number of you are thinking I ought to call the authorities, but, folks, I'm gonna look the other way here...
every election cycle we're treated to Republicans wringing their hands over the Hispanic vote and coming up with cockamamie policies designed to secure the Hispanic vote.
And what has been the go-to position for most of the Republican establishment?
Amnesty!
They think, in order to get the Hispanic vote, that we have to liberalize immigration policy, open the borders and say, "Come on in," and find a way to make them citizens even if it's amnesty. This is what the Republican establishment thinks. And throughout this period, I and others have gotten blue in the face, saying, "No! If you want the Hispanic vote, just go tell them about conservatism. Just go tell them about the American founding. Tell them what this country stands for."
—Rush Limbaugh: Illegal Immigrant Dittohead Does the Thinking Americans Won't Do
So Rush sees conservative immigration, and the Hispanic vote, as a way to build conservatism. No great surprise... (Media Matters has
some of this audio here and
here.) Then Rush (perhaps all too conveniently) turned the call into a pitch for Mitt:
RUSH: In the last two or four years, I have had elected Republicans say to me, "Look, here's our next immigration plan. If you call it amnesty, it doesn't have a chance."
I said, "But this is what it is."
"No, it's not really when you look at it."
And they try to persuade me that it isn't. But what it all adds up to is that they don't want the party to be seen the way it's described by the Democrats. So they're always on the defensive trying to prove to people that they are not mean, or that they're not racist, or they're not this and that. And that never works. Here you have Carlos. I'll tell you what: I would trade every conservative illegal for every liberal. We'll send the liberals to Mexico; we'll bring the conservative illegals here.
I'll make that trade any day...
We don't look at people and see inability and stupidity. We don't look at people with contempt. The Democrats do. [...]
Person to person, heart to heart, conservatism works. Carlos was just a small anecdotal -- admittedly anecdotal, but still -- bit of evidence for this.
I have no doubt about it.
It's one of the most frustrating things. If Romney, for example, would just go full-bore conservative -- ignore Obama and just go conservative in these debates -- he could wrap it up.
—Rush Limbaugh: Illegal Immigrant Dittohead Does the Thinking Americans Won't Do
Fine. But let us return to the call for a moment:
CALLER: That 40% or 43% that are still favoring and approving of Obama? Which world they living in? I'm totally shocked... Because in reality, the economy is in shambles. Our foreign policy is in disarray.
—Rush Limbaugh: Illegal Immigrant Dittohead Does the Thinking Americans Won't Do
"Our" foreign policy?
I don't doubt that an immigrant of 23 years may begin to identify to some extent with the host country. However, the long-time undocumented workers that I've known in my life (through activism, union organizing, and one neighboring family who were frequent guests in our home) never talked that way. They kept their own identity separate from other norteamericanos. It would be more common to hear them discuss "Estados Unidos" (or "United States") policy, rather than "'our' foreign policy".
So "'our' foreign policy" sets off an alarm — whose thoughts are these really? A caller, or the thoughts of a native U.S. script writer?
Now consider another statement by the caller: "And I do not know what happened to this beautiful country in the last four years. It's just so disappointing seeing this great nation going south."
Going south — going "bad" — as in going to Mexico? Really?
And it has been precisely four years that this "illegal immigrant" perceives the country going "south"? Let me see — what does that correspond to. Oh yeah! Rush Limbaugh's great national nightmare, the term of that socialist in the White House!
I'm not saying it is impossible. But I'm skeptical in the extreme, and for a very particular reason. In July I wrote:
The business model of radio is matching advertising dollars with ears via content. The model of right-wing talk radio, on the other hand, appears to be matching dollars with mostly phony listeners via fakery and hype.
If you've ever listened to a right-wing talk show and were impressed that a caller teed up a perfect swing for the talk show host, you may have been listening to a setup. For example, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and Glenn Beck are syndicated by a company called Premiere Networks. That very company has a secretive voice talent hiring service called Premiere On Call with an ironclad confidentiality agreement:
By joining this roster/agreeing to perform work for Premiere you are also agreeing to keep the type of work that you perform confidential. This applies to information acquired while working for Premiere or any of its affiliates.
Disclosure to any third party, sharing project information or publicizing(including via social media) may be considered grounds for dismissal or further action.
Premiere On Call isn't particularly concerned about how old you are. Much more important—how old do you sound?
Roughly, old [sic] do you SOUND? (Teens-20s? 20s-30s?)
Premiere On Call also inquires about characteristics that would be useful to any radio talk show:
Please describe your voice - include your local or native accent, adjectives might include: gruff, light, clean, crisp, high, deep, textured [...]
Please note any impressions or special skills. [emphasis added]
When "actors are hired to read scripts and pretend to be real people," it is all about creating an image. Such shenanigans were exposed months before Rush Limbaugh's Sandra Fluke tirade, but didn't get much notice. |
With
Mitt Romney struggling to gain Hispanic votes, and with
Rush losing clout and
possibly audience share, perhaps Premiere On Call is getting some new business?
Rush Limbaugh's talk radio career is in a slow downward spiral in part because of the activism of consumers, volunteers, and activists who seek to hold Rush accountable for his hate speech. One very active group in this cause is Flush Rush on Facebook. Flush Rush and other, similar groups use the StopRush Database to inform advertisers about where their ads are appearing.
Please consider joining. Small donations are also accepted to fund data storage; visit StopRush for more information.
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