You are, my granddaddy used to say, judged by the company you keep.
Judged by the company the Republican Party is keeping these days, they are going to hell. They are going straight to hell. They are not passing go and they will not collect $200.
Case in point: Rush Limbaugh, the self-styled "leader" of the conservative movement, the drug-crazed blowhard who rants, raves and screams while saying nothing.
Limbaugh, a mountain of undulating mass and blubber, has somehow instilled so much fear and subservience in the GOP that none in their midst is willing to risk the wrath of Rush.
For a few seconds on CNN Sunday, embattled Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele seemed to grow a set of balls. He called Rush’s rantings "ugly," which they are. He called Limbaugh an "entertainer," which is debatable. Compared to Limbaugh, Atilla the Hun was a standup comic.
Then Limbaugh issued one of his trademark tirades against Steele and the RNC chairman folded like a virgin under the influence of a date-rape drug. Steele kowtowed, he groveled, he genuflected and practically begged for forgiveness.
Rush probably popped a couple more pills from his stash of illegally-obtained Oxycontins and smiled like a fat Cheshire cat. Mission accomplished. The buffoon has triumphed once again in the crazy world of Republican politics.
Over the weekend, Limbaugh appeared before the annual conservative klavern called CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference), dressed all in black like a Johnny Cash wannabe. With his hair slicked back in excessive oiliness, Limbaugh could have passed as a gangland boss as he recited his current mantra of "Obama must fail" if the nation is to be saved.
The room full of conservatives, whose collective IQ might have matched that of a two-minute egg, cheered and applauded in the kind of lemming-like manner that has come to characterize the conservative movement and Republican Party. To hell with independent thought: Let’s soak in every word from Mount Rush-more and abandon all sanity.
The Republican party has longed allowed itself to be defined by loons: Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage.
But Limbaugh is the poster child for conservative excess. As long as conservatives and the GOP listen to the likes of Limbaugh, they will continue their slide into political oblivion.
And they will deserve it.
17 thoughts on “Judged by the company you keep”
Thanks for a fine rant, Doug, and for reminding me of the word “klavern.” A very descriptive term, that one……!
SHERRY….TOOSHAY, TOOSHAY!
While you are all fretting about Rush’s latest rant, the house is burning down.
Focus people. Focus.
Oh, it’ll gain traction soon enough, when we’re forced into it. I wonder how much food you can get with a 50 inch TV. Stay tuned…
Good distinction, Griff… Republican v. republican… and rarely acknowledgred for what it represents. But as you know… that individual liberty and self determination bent doesn’t gain much traction around here. Rush’s most egregious quote is surely attuned only to that end… but ANY detraction from The Big O and his aurora is grounds for treason, beheading, circumcision, etc.
I recall a slap at the CHB masthead not too long ago for the obvious disconnect between the slogan and the actual politics… guess I’ll try to connect the dots.
Yeah, let’s all pretend that Rush is the posterboy for the Republicans. He’s pretty smooth and convincing, but otherwise just a tool for the establishment to perpetuate the two party fiasco that masquerades as political discourse and problem-solving.
As long as we continue to allow the media to herd us into these partisan pens with false rhetoric and grandstanding, all is lost. What doesn’t get covered from CPAC is all the other representatives of true conservatism and sound economic and foreign policy.
For instance, Ron Paul was applauded for his stance against military adeventurism and endless war. Something the (true) liberals thought they had in Obama, and what true conservatives sincerely believe in.
Rush tells just enough truth to draw the conservative sheeple in. He is a tool – someone to act as a political sounding board for the social engineers.
I say we drop the distractive bullshit and get back to saving this country, which, last I knew, Rush Limabaugh has absolutely no power to do.
This Republican implosion is quite synbolic of the abandonment of the republican system that we were blessed enough to inherit. That of individual liberty and self-determination.
We’ve been conditioned to rely on the government to solve every ill, ignoring the incontrovertible evidence against their effectiveness to actually do so.
So we accept more control and we accept more intrusion, we accept more taxes and more debt, not because we actually want to but because we’ve been beaten. We’ve been beaten by the glowing box and the classroom.
We’ve been beaten by the talking heads and the pundits, the incessant bludgeoning of the media. We live to hear what these pathetic actors in this grand charade are paid handsomely to tell you; to smile and turn the knife, whispering in your ear how good it is, how they just want to make everything alright.
This is classic. Not that what Bush did doesn’t warrant immediate arrest and incarceration, but we’re being distracted from what this administration is currently doing by dragging up things we’ve known for years already.
Nothing has changed, and nothing will. That’s the story.
What strikes me as hilarious is that no matter how hard a talk show goes after ANY Republican, no matter who they are, that Republican will go out of his or her way not to offend that big blowhard Limbaugh. They try to wiggle out of it by parsing words: when cornered, they simply either admit they’re scared or don’t answer. David Schuster has tried for the past week to nail a number of Republicans on his show and each of them has caved in to the almighty Rush. No wonder the Republican party is in so much trouble, if pandering to a drug crazed lunatic like Rush is necessary for their political survival.
What else could you expect from a group of people who still think George W. Bush did nothing wrong? You’d have to be a gutless, craven, turd-filled idiot for that.
Here’s what I’d like to see. How bout this?
The Repubs should fire Steele and then draft Rush to be the chairman of the RNC. Rush would be faced with either disappointing all his fans, or accepting a job where there is SOME level of accountability for what you say in public.
Rush would be out of there so fast, he would leave skid marks…
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