“When you strike at a king, you must kill him” Michael Steele Learns A Lesson!

[Vinnie From Indy]

Michael Steele has just given the world one more example of not understanding true power and the lengths those with power will go to defend it. Limbuagh, like any despot or gangster, knows his power must be ruthlessly applied to all dissenters or it will evaporate. Steele, knowingly or not, wandered onto the third rail of political power by crossing Rush Limbaugh publicly. While the above is merely an entertaining aside, the significant aspect of this affair is that Limbaugh has been crowned as the undisputed head of the GOP. They now have to deal with all of his baggage directly as if they own it.

I posted yesterday that it is my belief that it will the right wing that takes out Rush in some way or another. There is simply too much money at stake to let ANYONE endanger their access to the handles of power. I truly believe that Rush will be neutralized by the right wing within a year. In short, Rush's antic's have made him a threat to the real kings of the GOP. They cannot afford to have Limbaugh symbolize the GOP as a whole becuase his value is only that he is able to whip up the most extreme of the right wing base and as a propaganda platform par excellence. Moderate Republicans and Independents will and are turning awy in droves from the right wing message as defined by Limbaugh. In the end, the irony can be found in the fact that Rush will be taught the exact same lesson as he gave Steele. His value to the power barons is rapidly diminishing as he becomes the face of the entire Republican party.

[ananda]

1. So now the GOP is the party of..

.. the crazed limbaughtomized lunatics.

The cosmetic rightwing media keeps touting
Limbaugh as "entertaining."

My question: exactly what is "entertaining"
about hate?

[aquart]

3. And that is exactly the line we need to repeat:

"Exactly what is "entertaining" about hate?"

That should be on bumper stickers. And on the lips of every Democrat the media interviews.

[ThomWV]

2. I agree - most misunderstand what Rush is

The ultra-idiot right wing fringe is not the Republican Party, but the Republican Party needs their votes (and those of the religious right too) in order to hold power. All Rush represents is a magnet that draws them to the party and one that does it without obligation to govern - only to endlessly complain. When he gets too big for hit britches, as my grandmother would have said, then he will be eliminated like a moth to a bug zapper.

[Still Sensible]

4. Limbaugh is simply the personification of the strategy

and tactics of the republican party that pre-date even Karl Rove. The people calling the shots are greedy, supply side zealots whose goal in life is to make and keep as much money as possible--at the expense of any and everybody that might get in their way, including the poor, the middle class and the liberals.

To acquire and retain power, they've co-opted the fundamentalists, the racists and the simple minded. They spout enough fundamentalist dogma to maintain credibility with that group. They trumpet that anyone's thinking but theirs is a "threat to the American way of life." They attack minorities, liberals and gays with veiled (and sometimes not so veiled) racism, sexism and homophobia.

Rush Limbaugh doing this today is nothing new. Karl Rove saw how successful Rush was during the Clinton years and used the strategy to get Bush II elected. He further used it, in addition to the post-9/11 campaign of fear, to get Bush re-elected. It was no accident that anti-gay marriage initiatives were on the ballot in key states in the 2004 election. If those wedge issues did not outright win the day for the Bush campaign, they at least kept the margin close enough that they could steal it.

Enough of the persuadable independents and moderates rejected the tactic in last year's election that the race wasn't even close enough to steal. With the economy now front and center and the failures of their ideology in full view, one would think they would moderate their approach. But no, they are going all-in at least for now. They will no doubt continue railing against the "homosexual agenda," and they'll keep the abortion debate brewing. But it's a good bet their tactic in the next couple elections will be to blame immigrants, legal and otherwise, for their economic failures--it's the perfect wedge issue for the Limbaugh-style politics they are married to.

[BR_Parkway]

5. Run in 2012 Rush, Run!