Posted on 11/25/2015 11:34:24 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
In the summer of 1992, Rush Limbaugh saved me from myself. I was an 18-year-old high school graduate about to begin college, too impatient to wait for adulthood to come to me. So instead, I went in search of it the only way I knew how: by engulfing myself in presidential politics and the fascinating campaigns that summer between Bill Clinton, George Bush and Ross Perot.
Like many idealistic teens, I was at first drawn to the youthful Clinton campaign and Fleetwood Mac's cheerful command to "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow." But then I started listening to Limbaugh and it changed everything. I was working as a delivery driver, so I'd plan my trips at six minutes after the hour so as to not miss a minute of his show — a habit I keep even today. The way he described his belief in conservatism reached out and grabbed me and I've been a loyal listener ever since.
So it is not from a place of hatred or misunderstanding that I write this. I'm not a plant from Media Matters. But when it comes to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Limbaugh is a mind-numbing, frustrating hypocrite (with all due respect, of course).
His tacit endorsement of Trump, now occurring daily during his show, is almost impossible to understand. Listening to him gleefully discussing Trump is painful for those of us who have followed his advice for decades. Why? Let's break it down.
Look at the polls
For years, Limbaugh has lambasted the "drive-by media" for their insistence on using polling data to make headlines and drive the story of the day. Trump's appearances and speeches, for the most part, are Trump droning on about how well he's doing in the polls. It's often the only story.
Words mean something
One of Limbaugh's biggest criticisms of President Obama has always been the vagueness in Obama's message; in his way of speaking until he can think of something to say; in the blank canvas that he offers us to project our hopes and dreams upon. And that, when he goes off-message, he often misspeaks. Explaining what Obama meant to say has become a cottage industry for websites like Vox and full-time gigs for a variety of nationally known journalists.
When has Trump ever offered anything of substance? His speeches are meandering streams of consciousness, and although he claims each to be unique, they are often the same litanies of vague promises. Trump will negotiate hard with China and Mexico. Trump will make the military so strong it will make your head spin. You'll get bored with winning so much. Chinese bankers live in his building, which proves he can bring jobs back from China. Trump thinks reporters are sleazy. Trump will hit you so hard. And, oh, by the way, have you seen the polls?
Big government
Limbaugh has been the voice for those who believe in smaller government for as long as he's been on the air. So it would stand to reason that challenging Trump on even his vague promises to vastly enlarge an already bloated government should give Limbaugh pause. Apparently, it doesn't. How many new government agencies will be necessary to round up 11 million illegal immigrants, send them back to Mexico and then let them back in? How many billions of dollars will it cost to make the military so great your head will spin? How many government workers will be required to build the Trump wall, complete with a beautiful Trump door?
The Kardashianification of American politics
Limbaugh has long lamented "low-information voters," who, he claims, are responsible for the rise of Obama. It's not his policies that win the day; it's the fact that he's cool and hip. His celebrity overcomes all other weaknesses.
Trump took the money that his father left him and built a series of failed casinos. What else does he have to offer, other than gaudy celebrity?
The Limbaugh Theorem
Simply put, the Limbaugh Theorem is Limbaugh's explanation as to why Obama remains popular when so many of his policies lack public support. It posits that Obama is always campaigning against the bad guys or bad situations, even when those situations are of his own making. It's a disassociation in the public perception of him between cause and effect.
Just peruse Trump's Twitter feed to see the Limbaugh Theorem on full display. He's always campaigning; always ready to right to wrongs in the world. The problem, though, is that many of those wrongs will be borne from a Trump presidency. He'll be there on Twitter or on another stop in his perpetual campaign, making obscenely vague promises that only he can fix what is wrong.
I'm still listening, Rush. But I hope you are, too. We don't need another blank canvas in the Oval Office, gilded or otherwise.
Hale is a freelance writer who lives in San Antonio with his wife and three children.
Simple, succinct, and to the point. ;-D
BINGO
//I’m sure Trump won’t miss my support, apparently there are enough liberals to pump up his numbers.//
You need help. If you have been paying attention it is the CONSERVATIVES that are supporting Trump. The liberals like you are the ones doing everything they can to bad mouth him and lie about him.
Is this backwards day in your brain?
You are not a business owner are you? Dusty is correct, sometimes taking the loss is better business practices. Furthermore, corporate restructuring is not the same as personal bankruptcy so your argument is based on a faulty premise.
You trust Cruz? Good. I trust God. That’s what makes it possible to see things about where Cruz and Trump are heading.
My biggest reservation about Cruz is that I’m missing signs of his growing. That’s a not-good position for someone born again to be in. You can’t attain to alabaster sainthood on earth and then just sit on it with satisfaction. This will decay into ego.
Trump is a markedly flawed man, moving in the right general direction. This is a picture of someone more authentic about where he is.
Good job getting that in print. Kudos.
Today, this day of Thanksgiving, we are blessed that our country has formed two categories of persons. The Trump category and the Cruz category.
If you fall into either category, congratulations, you are a winner and you are wise and smart.
All others do not exist, except in the universe of losers.
I’ll take her #230 as gospel. Her goal is single-minded: Defeat the most outspoken proponent of finally dealing with the millions of criminal invaders and deporting them. It is an issue that obviously doesn’t matter to her. She supports squishes (Walker, alas, whom I supported to draft in 2012) or definitive open-borders panderers (”Heartless” La Raza Rick). That a family member was grievously harmed does not matter to her in her political choices. If it did, she would be supporting Trump (or at least not opposing him). It’s that simple.
Well, this conservative isn't and I'm not alone.
Maybe just a little thing called the law? If you have a problem with the law, get it changed! Is this whole election boiling down to nothing more about either enforcing the existing laws or getting rid of the bad ones?
Its as simple as that. Get someone in who will upset the apple cart or live with the status quot. Other than Cruz or Trump, name anyone else running who has the balls to go into the belly of the beast and take on the status quot.
Well don’t let anyone tell you there is no difference between how the menfolk and the womenfolk think.
“Scientific vivisection of a nerve until it’s raw.”
Kipling knew. If logic won’t do what she wants, she goes into the forte of women, which is to emote with the greatest cunning.
You are not alone and you are not conservative. If you were, you wouldn’t be so obsessed and lying about Trump. Go play on DU
FYI, I am a woman who deals in logic. Don’t lump us all in with psycho there.
However notice that Trump is attracting far fewer liberals than the other kind of thinker.
Conservatives are supposed to be able to think. You are not excused.
She’ll deny she said that, of course. I did explicitly ask her about supporting Trump in the general repeatedly (not the primary, since that answer is clear), so she knows exactly what I was talking about. He won’t miss her vote. To paraphrase the old line from the RINOs here about not voting for their Socialist ringer fraud Willard, but applying it for next year, “Hillary thanks you for your support, CW !”
Which brings this thread full circle back to my problem with Rush and his Trump-love - my post #6.
So, for those of us who enthusiastically support both are double winners and double smart? :)
Now, now. Nobody is accusing you of being a Conservative.
That’s why I caveated “When logic doesn’t work.” You’re wise, however, and know that if reason (or at least, true love) won’t go there, you shouldn’t go there either.
Rush is like Trump in the respect that he is his own man and not intimidated by others.
He also has some Trump swagger.
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