Over the past few weeks, there's been a slow-growing movement to label the Republican party as the party of Rush Limbaugh. It's been rather organic, not organized by anyone in particular, but you could tell it was bubbling out there. I think it now just exploded into a full-fledged problem for the Republican party.
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel charged Sunday that conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is “the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party.”I'd disagree with Rahm on this one. Limbaugh is not an intellectual force, he's an anti-intellectual force. He's popular fascism with a multi-syllabic touch. And that is exactly why he's so popular with the GOP. From Sarah Palin, to Bobby Jindal, to Joe-the-Tax-Cheat, the GOP loves its intellectual lightweights. Look at Ann Coulter. Not a stupid woman, by any means, but not very bright either. Her trick is that speaks well. She's the intellectual equivalent of a British accent: Doesn't matter what they say, but with that highfalutin Oxford accent, they could read the phone book and it would sound like Shakespeare.
Emanuel, speaking in deliberately soothing tones, told anchor Bob Schieffer on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Limbaugh has been up front about “praying for failure” by President Obama.
“I think that’s the wrong philosophy for America,” Emanuel said. “What Americans want us to do, and what President Obama has been very clear about, is work together setting our goals …
“Our goal, Bob, is to continue to reach out and it’s our desire that the Republicans would work with us and try to be constructive, rather than adopt the philosophy of somebody like Rush Limbaugh.”
Emanuel’s comments were in line with a new strategy by White House allies in the private sector to make Limbaugh synonymous with the GOP.
The union AFSCME and Americans United for Change began airing an ad late last week showing a clip of Limbaugh saying “I want him to fail,” along with quick cuts of top Republican congressional leaders saying, “No … No. … No … No … No … No.”
Asked by Schieffer if the GOP really pays that much attention to Limbaugh, Emanuel replied: “I do think he’s an intellectual force, which is why the Republicans pay such attention to him.”
Rush, Palin, Coulter, Joe-the-Tax-Cheat, and the other most public faces of the GOP offer little more than bread and circus. Which isn't just a criticism of them, it's a criticism of the Republican masses who demand nothing more from their leaders than a pretty face and a touch of fascism.
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