Rush Limbaugh: Bloggers Who Disagree With Their Audience Are Cowardly, Whereas Those Who Pander Incessantly To Their Audiences are Brave

Yeah, I'm tired of Rush Limbaugh's schtick. He doesn't avoid endorsements in a primary for any high-fallutin' reason; he avoids it because it's controversial and causes a great deal of discord, and generates anger at the host.

That's prudent. That's good business sense. But it's not gutsy or whatever else he wants to call himself for it.

Meanwhile, his other schtick is insisting that no matter how out-of-sync with political reality a candidate may be, that's just awesome, because that's how we beat the left or something.

Conservatism -- works every time it's tried! He used to mean this as policy, but lately the concept has morphed into campaigning.

So it works, every time, except in the cases it doesn't (Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell). He offers no caveats to his absolute rule on this point to include these exceptional cases.

This just happens to be exactly what his audience wants to hear. Because if I, a doctor, come in to tell you you're either going to have to lose your leg or lose your life, you of course do not want to hear that, and will immediately ask "Is there a way I can both keep my leg and my life?"

Which is a perfectly human response, of course.

But if the doctor knew of a way to get that outcome, he'd be telling you about that, not about deciding between your leg and your life.

So most conservatives do not want to concede that the only good option they have for beating Obama is to vote for a guy they don't like very much, Mitt Romney. It's the "life or leg" quandry. And it's unattractive, but it is what it is.

It's reality. Reality is often unpleasant.

But Limbaugh's audience doesn't want to hear that, and Limbaugh is too cowardly to confess that maybe, sometimes, realistic choices are kind of awful.

So he continues "bravely" telling his patients they can have it all.

And anyone who disagrees with this prognosis -- and thinks that maybe the life is in danger if we continue on this particular course of treatment -- is in "CYA" mode, because, see, we're the cowards for taking a minority position, the Conservatively Incorrect position, whereas Limbaugh is the Brave Warrior for taking the popular side of the issue. As usual.

See? I catch hell every day for not cocooning my readership, and disagreeing with them -- often sharply -- but I'm the coward, and Doctor Let Me Tell You Exactly Want You Want To Hear is the courageous one.

Oh, right, I know how he squares this circle: See, I'm pandering too, but chiefly to people who don't even constitute my readership. I'm pandering to the Beltway Cocktail Circuit or something, currying favor with liberals who hate my guts and would never, in a thousand years, offer me some kind of paying gig.

But I'm pandering to them because I'm weak and cowardly, even though it would make far more sense to pander to the majority of my actual readership.

Like Limbaugh does.

But at no point has it ever occurred to me that Gee, I'm really pissing people off here and it's never crossed my mind that Say, maybe I should do what Limbaugh does and just tell the audience it's right.

I really want Obama out of office. Unlike some who merely mouth the words -- I honestly do not know if America will survive a second term.

If that notion-- We absolutely cannot afford to lose this one and reassure ourselves that "At least we stood for Principle" -- puts me at odds with others, so be it.

They say Obama's good for conservative media.

I don't know if that's true or not. It's not really reflected in my own statistics. So perhaps I don't face the conflict others do.

All I know is that Obama's re-election will be the god-damned death knell for America, so excuse the hell out of me if I am not in the frame of mind to fuck about.

By the Way, Rush: You've learned well from the Left. If you disagree with someone, make sure you assign bad motives or bad character to that person. Don't just take his stated objections as his actual motives; assign to him the worst motives you can conceive of, like cowardice and CYA stuff.

But if that's the game, so be it.

How are your ratings, Rush?

Are they up?

Good for you. Good for fuckin' you.

posted by Ace at 05:46 PM

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