Posted on 01/21/2013 5:44:58 AM PST by servo1969
During the past week, whenever I found myself alone in the car during good drive-time talk radio (i.e., Rush), I did something unusual: I didn’t listen. Instead, I turned to mindless pop music. I was thinking about this peculiar behavior on my part, because I truly love Rush. I think he’s a radio genius, someone who understands perfectly the lines between entertainment, news, and analysis. He’s also one of the sharpest political thinkers out there. No wonder the Left hates him.
But still…. I didn’t want to listen.
Analyzing my bizarre retreat from Rush, I realized that my problem is that the things that used to energize me during Obama’s first term — conservatives reporting on the faults and foibles of the administration, even as the MSM ignored them — no longer stir me up. I’ve had four years to learn that Obama is not the “hope” promised, unless your hope was for a jobless stock market recovery, endless welfare rolls, increased racial tension, a simmering Middle East that constantly threatens to explode, negative pressure on core Constitutional rights, and all the other practical and ideological changes Obama’s presidency has brought to America. The problem is that, while you and I were riled by these stories, none of this data penetrated the minds of less engaged American voters, all of whom who listened to the media’s siren song and reelected Obama.
Having accomplished its job, the media is suddenly discovering that there are some problems with Obama’s first term, everything from violently antisemitic and anti-American “friends” in Egypt, to the coming economic and medical disaster that is ObamaCare, to the corruption that’s always swirled around his administration. As I told my mother when she pointed to such stories, this isn’t just a case of too little, too late. It’s nastier than that. The media is doing these stories as cover: when the second Obama term brings badness to America (although Obama may still escape unscathed), the media has provided itself with some plausible deniability. It can point to these articles and say “We told you so” — the big con being that they only told the American people so after they’d ensured that Obama locked up a second term in office.
The fact is that four years of conservative media pointing out what Obama and the Dem Progressives are doing made no difference to the ultimate outcome in 2012. To be sure, there was a ton of criticism from the Right, but it wasn’t constructive, because those who needed it (Obama and the Dem Progs) weren’t listening and wouldn’t have changed anyway. It was criticism in a vacuum. It made the minority party feel better, but ultimately had no effect.
I want marching orders, not whining mourners. I want to hear ideas about how to change the body politic, not another story about what weasels Obama and his buddies are. I already know that stuff — and the media, for reasons of its own, is finally doing a little heavy lifting and is starting to report on a few foibles in the Obama administration. The fact is that Obama will not run again. He’s already old news. What conservatives need know is to disengage from the war with Obama and begin, instead to plot a strategy for 2014 and beyond, one that ignores this little man and, instead, focuses on shaping ideological issues in ways that excite the man on the street. Talk radio, with its vast reach, should be a source of inspiration, rather than relentless, mis-focused anger.
Bring back Steve Malzberg!
Sharpest?? No wonder Dems won the election
“The enthusiasm that got people out in 2010, I'm seeing at every Mitt Romney rally. Romney's drawing crowds of 20,000, 25,000, 30,000, 15,000. “The enthusiasm that we all saw in 2010 is there. The same issues that existed in 2010 exist today. There hasn't been anything that's gotten better.”
Rush: Everything But Polls Say Romney Landslide (Newmax Monday, 05 Nov 2012)
Talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh says that Sen. John McCain will score a stunning upset over Sen. Barack Obama and win the presidency on Nov. 4
[Rush] Limbaugh Predicts McCain Victory (NewsMax ^ | October 31, 2008 | David A. Patten, FR thread link )
I almost forgot this one :
We Could See a McCain Landslide (Rushlimbaugh.com, August 12, 2008)
I totally agree. My sentiments, concerns and thoughts exactly.
“The fact is that Obama will not run again.”
Don’t be too sure...
(Or, to be super cynical...”Obama won’t have to run after the US Presidency is converted to a Monarchy.”)
Head of the DPW in a small town? Anything to suggest about small town poltiics?
City Councilor in a mid-size city? How have you accomplished something?
State rep? State senator? What do you think about the local scene?
US Rep? US Senator? Advice for building a better future?
Find people with plans, who have successfully executed those plans, and provide daily encouragement and object lessons on how regular people can get involved and make a difference. Because complaining about either Hillary or John Boehner is getting a little old.
I gave up on all of the conservative talking bobbleheads when they failed to address the BC issue in any manner other then saying nothing or belittling those who believe there is an issue.
I have experienced the same epiphany as the author. I like Rush, but Obama’s radicalism and his hatred of this country and its institutions have been the subject of endless hours of talk radio and other conservative media. But beyond its cathartic effect, what has it done to move the debate? Ultimately, it is the low information voters that decide the direction of the country in a bitterly divided electorate. As much as it might hurt to engage the painfully stupid out there, we have to find a way to do so.
Rush has a long history of being wrong.
Back in late 2010 early 2011 he was saying Obama wasnt interested in re-election, that may not even run, and he certainly wont fight for it.(I recognized crap at the time.)
And his nonsense is repeated here in comments regularly.
What amazes me is those who still believe him. The only explanation is that they cant leave the imaginary world he creates.
With a few exceptions excluded, the forth estate is a fifth column.
Otherwise the article isnt bad.
I respectfully disagree. In 2012, the Republican Party, taking its base for granted, nominated and ran a moderate-liberal candidate. The overt hostility from the GOP-e toward the Conservative wing ("Hey, where are they going to go!") further compounded this error. As numerous analyses have demonstrated, Romney was successful with Independents, but the principled Conservatives he needed stayed at home.
The GOP has completely misread the election results. We are not (yet) a county of moochers, but the Republicans are quickly throwing away their defining principles in an effort to make the media and the moderates like them. My guess is they will lose the House in 2014 as a result.
Concering Rush, he has devolved from a leader to a complainer. Those of us who pay attention (and taxes) know what the problems are; we don't need him to remind us on a daily basis (plus, his "Low-information Voter" segments became tedious rather quickly). I no longer listen to his show.
Rush wins the argument everyday. It doesn’t matter. The question is: what do we DO?
People expect too much from talk radio. People tune in as one of the only ways to listen to somewhat like minded thinking they might share. The is so because the MSM, coupled with the White House as a giant propaganda machine, still rules the roost.
Problem with us is that we have not been able to reach people the way we need to because the MSM just locks us out and refuses to report news.
The left controls the movies, schools, and almost every walk of life now. You will not counter them by playing by their rules.
Truth is we are going to have to be much tougher and start using words the way they do.
Then again, maybe it is just too late, the Titanic is sinking and talk radio is the band still playing as we sink. The other side has perfected fraud, so don’t get the hopes up for 2014.
It wouldn’t be so bad losing to nice people, but losing to this pack of rabid mongrels is pathetic.
He wont have to, I think we voted in our LAST election.
That is Rush.
I think he decides what his theme will be then makes this stuff up to support it.
Before the 2012 election as far back as 2010 he wanted listeners to believe that Obama was toast, that he didn't care about it, that his base voters wouldnt turn out.
That allowed him to give advise (that wouldn't work) but sounded risk free because of the picture he painted.
So what about after the election?? its 180 degrees
His theme is :’We are screwed, the media is against us, the voters are moochers, the GOP can never win again.", the exact opposite.
So once again the GOP has nothing to lose.
When he said those things he was supporting some theme he wanted listeners to believe.
Rush has always tended to be a bit too optimistic. Erring on the side of optimism, though, is probably preferable to the opposite. It energizes people. If he were as pessimistic as I am, his audience couldn’t stand to listen to him for three hours a day. :-)
Three hours a day, five days a week, is a lot of commenting — on the record. How many of us could do that without accumulating a long string of errors? He’s been right about many things too (as he reminds us). He hits the left hard, and provides some amusement with his humor. Without him politics in the last couple of decades would have been hard to endure.
>”So what about after the election?? its 180 degrees”<
It’s true that Rush was taken aback by Obama’s second victory, and has been more negative lately (and justifiably so, in my opinion). His natural temperament will come to the fore, though, and I expect him to become optimistic again.
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