How liberals, progressives and Democrats prop up Rush

[MadHound]

Another day, another dozen threads running around about Rush. Sure, sure, they condemn him, mock him, heap scorn and ridicule on him. But the key thing is that they are another dozen threads about Rush getting kicked around about Rush.

The scorn and ridicule of Rush is all justified, but by as old saying goes, any publicity, even bad publicity, is a good thing. Let's look at what's happening here.

Rush is a radio commentator, his job is bloviate in a manner that makes the most money for his corporate advertisers. He knows as well as the rest of us that controversy sells, so for the past few months he has been push the controversy button for all he's worth. In fact he got started about a year ago with his Operation Chaos bit, pushing for Hillary to win the Democratic primary. Democrats were outraged, and in their outrage some tuned in to Rush every day for awhile, racking up his Arbitron numbers and Rush could show his advertisers that he could still rope 'em in.

Now that Obama is in office, he's done the same thing, stirred the shit pot, stating that he wants Obama to fail. Oh the predictable outrage, the horror that ensued. Well, not only did this get him a national platform at CPAC, but it put him on the lips, if not the shows, of every TV pundit out there, who spread the mantra that Rush is the new leader of the Republican party, increasing this man's reach and influence, oh, and driving up his listenership and advertising revenue.

I agree, Rush is a drug addled, self hating, unintelligent asshole, but really, all we're doing with all this outrage is pumping up his reputation and inflating his bottom line. It has been estimated that one third of his listening audience is, at times, made up of liberals, progressives and Democrats, all tuning in to see what the outrage du jour is with the Pigboy.

Stop it, stop it now. The worst thing that you can do to Rush is ignore him. He thrives on controversy, he thrives on public outrage, because for him, any publicity is good publicity. The more you try to tear him down, the more you are building him up. He can turn around and say to the conservative base "Hey, see how hard they're trying to drag me under? I must be doing something right if they hate me so much." This sort of shit keeps his names in the headlines, pumps up his faux image as some sort of conservative leader, and ultimately pumps up the numbers on his show, increasing his bottom line and his prestige.

Trust me, he knows this, he's playing on it, he's banking on it. The more we howl and gnash our teeth, the sweeter the sound is to his ears because it's all good for him. The worse thing that you can do to this man is simply fucking ignore him. You wouldn't pay the least bit attention to the drug-addled ranter and raver on the street corner downtown, why are you paying so much attention to a drug addled ranter and raver on the radio. Ignore him and he will go away.

[tavalon]

1. I think short term, it's not good, but longterm, I think it hurts

the Republicans more than it helps Rush and BTW, you're contributing just as much as if you were doing another bashing thread.

Welcome to the Flush Rush 2009 campaign!

[MadHound]

2. Yeah, I knew some smartass would point out that I'm contributing the problem

:evilgrin:

However I thought that the point needed to be made. After all, Rush's radio numbers were in a steep slide, down from 20 million listeners six years ago to 13 million last year at this time. However I imagine that with all this outrage he's kicked up over the past year, he's pumped up the numbers a bit.

Just ignore the man. . . or not and continue to give him power that he doesn't deserve.

[elocs]

3. That's the Catch 22 since there's no way to bring up the problem without contributing to it. n/t

[Kalyke]

4. Any gains he experiences in listenership will be short-lived, trust me.

His numbers may go back up to 14 or 15 million - maybe even 16 million - but they'll slide back down once good and decent people hear his shtick. Most people don't want to sit around and dwell on constant criticism with no hope for solutions.

[MadHound]

6. Maybe, maybe not

Like I said earlier, for whatever reason it's estimated that up to one third of his listeners are progressives, liberals, etc. If he keeps up with all the faux outrages, and liberals keep buying into it(like many are around here) then his numbers stay up.

He's got an interesting path to power going. He cranks up the faux outrage, and gets outraged listeners to tune in. He uses these overhyped numbers to say that he's the leader of the conservative/Republican movement:shrug:

I just hate seeing people giving him more credit and more power than he deserves. Just ignore him, that's the best thing we can do.

[tavalon]

7. The only way this Rush Limbaugh thing would come to light with Ma and Pa

middle America was through this grandstanding on our part, which as I mentioned helps Rush in the short term but hurts him and his fellow Repubs in the long term.

I'm pretty much done with this now as the heavy lifting is done. Now we can sit back and enjoy schadenfruede as they finish the job for us.

[tavalon]

8. Glad to be the first smartass

Rotten thing is, I even recommended your thread. We're gonna make you famous!!!!!}(

[MadHound]

12. Hey, I mean smartass in the kindest way

Thanks for the rec, but I really don't want to be famous.

[tavalon]

14. Actually, I'm also funning with you, though I didn't lie about the rec.

I'm a mischievous imp that way.

[elocs]

5. DU needs something to obsess about. This week Rush, last week Jindal,

before that octo-mom, yada, yada, yada. All kinds of original posts saying the same thing over and over without an original thought. Sometimes these posts even dwarf those about Obama. I'm sure that Rushbo loves the attention that puffs up and strokes his ego, making more of him than the little there is and attention is attention either negative or good. But DU will do what DU does.

[MadHound]

11. Yeah, I hear you

But it's not just DU that's going on about Rush, it's the liberal commentators, it's the MSM, etc. etc. Rush has managed to use this outrage to get himself to the point where he's being openly tagged as some sort of political leader, and in his case illusion is reality. He can now point to his over-inflated numbers, to all these talk fests in the MSM and say hey, they say I'm the leader, I've got people backing me up as leader, I should be leader. Hell, he's even got the head of the RNC kissing his ass, all because of this grand illusion he's created.

Let's hope that when people get enough sense to stop going on about him, when he drops out of the current news cycle, people will simply ignore him and he'll go away. The trouble is he will probably gin up another faux controversy and around and around we'll go again. I'm just asking for some common sense and simply ignore this man, both here at DU and out in the real world.

[LiberalPersona]

9. What makes you think

that isn't our goal? If Rush is the repub's leader, the country outside his listeners isn't going to take the party seriously.

[MadHound]

13. Please, this is a country that took Caribou Barbie seriously

What do you think would happen if a known quantity like Rush got elevated.

As the saying goes, there's a sucker born every minute.

[KharmaTrain]

10. Welcome To The DU Feeding Frenzy

If it wasn't Rushbo, it'd be about Olive Garden or Octomom or Pelosi hate or another flavor of the moment.

Trust me, the last thing Rushbo will get from DU is any positive publicity. If he were some pissant local dude, like a Rick Santelli, trying to make a name for himself, that'd be another story. I agree...suck the air out of his balloon. But Rushbo's a known commodity and one that is now providing a valuable service...compromising and destroying the repugnican party.

Ignorning Rushbo is what gave him so much influence in the first place. Clinton's biggest mistake was to not confront these liars and spewers and even encouraged the growth of the hate radio industry. President Obama's not backing down and it's beautiful to see how making Rushbo the face of the GOOP is driving that party to distraction at a critical time, not just for the country, but for its own survivial. The longer Rushbo fills their power vaccum...the further right and off the political abyss they go. Now I won't push 'em, but if I can provide some grease...it's my pleasure.

[MadHound]

15. I realize about the DU feeding frenzy, I've been around long enough to see it in action many times

However this is a bit different than that, because the MSM and the blogosphere seem to be feeding each other on it, a nice little echo chamber who's sole beneficiary is Rush.

Ignoring Rush was actually quite effective over the past few years, his listenership numbers had dropped by almost one third, he was, once more, kicked off TV, he was starting to go away. Then he cranked up his mighty controversy Wurlitzer last year, and liberals and progressives and Democrats responded like the good Pavlov dogs they are and started getting outraged. They started listening to his show in order to be outraged, they started writing about how they were outraged, and now they have elevated him to the point that he's actually considered to be some sort of leader.

This is a man who loves the spotlight, who craves the spotlight, who needs the spotlight in order to survive. And that's just what we've given him. Ignore him, don't take his bait, keep him in the dark, and he'll go away.

[KharmaTrain]

16. Right Now He's Golden...

He's creating a diversion within the repugnican party that is helping both Democrats and President Obama. It gives a face...and an ugly one...to everything we've fought hard to defeat over the past 4 years. He's rallying Democrats and forcing the GOOP to either be with him and admit being a puppet for the right wing or deny him and face his wrath that echoes in not only the right wing media chamber, but also in the purse strings. Eventually, I agree, this game will play out and time to move on, but at the moment, it's creating a rift within the opposition and rallying support to President Obama as he moves to push through the most progressive political agenda of our lifetimes.

Rushbo wasn't ignored as much as he went under the radar. Yes his teevee ventures in the early 90's failed but he also avoided any of the talking head shows that were so intoxicating to other talking heads and always directed his diatribes at a tightly controlled audience. He wasn't for mass consumption and with the GOOP in power, he served a different purpose. Rushbo was part of the Mighty Wurlitzer where a rumor would break on a Drudge at night, get whipped up by Rushbo during the day and onto the cables at night. He and others got their daily blast faxes from the RNC and Rove and the message was tuned throughout the day. Rushbo's select audience was the one that was sure to echo the rumors and lies as virtually every other hate radio mongrel took their cues from Rushbo. Many of us dismissed this noise and then found ourselves totally outshouted and without any voice.

We don't see the damage he's doing to his own corrupt party...but it's happening. There's too many egos for one to rise to the top too long and eventually someone will stand up to him. Expect a DU orgasm when that happens.

Cheers...

[cali]

17. riddled with errors, this couldn't be more wrong.

First of all, anyone who thinks that Rush got his place at CPAC because he said he wanted Obama to fail, is pretty clueless about CPAC. Rush is welcome there anytime with open arms.

Secondly, Rush being seen as the head of the repub party is an unmitigated disaster for republicans. And every poll out there reflects that.

[blueclown]

18. I think you are missing the point.

This Democratic attack on Rush is never going to make Rush bleed listeners on his radio show. He may even gain viewers from this.

However, that is not the point. The point is to weaken the Republican Party politically. It is to tell the American people that Rush is the leader of that party. It is to weaken Rush and the GOP in the political arena. Rush will always dominate in the entertainment arena, the point is to keep him there.