How to Beat Rush

It seems there has been a ton of attention payed to an angry, aging, drug-addicted radio personality lately. While I can understand some of the hub-bub around Mr. Limbaugh, I am puzzled by how the left continues to struggle with how to marginalize this ill-educated loudmouth. As some of you may know, I have listened to Rush for many years. While I decry his ideas and politics, I do find him to be a bit amusing, and up until recently his show was a wonderful illustration of how our country is supposed to work. We are all allowed to voice our opinions, preach and teach intolerance, and generally make asses out of ourselves on a daily basis. As someone who disagrees with the overall platform of the far right, listening to Rush has given me an insight into how many people think, their motives, and their decision making paradigm. Unfortunately, over the past year the rhetoric has turned beyond sour grapes to a far more racially-based hated mongering. All the while Mr. Limbaugh's profile has exploded beyond the right-wing wacko listeners of his program, and has been given a seat at the table of the mainstream media.

No I have not seen Rush on Face the Nation or Meet the Press, but he has been successful (through a variety of tactics) in keeping his name in the national discussion. By doing so he continues to build credibility amongst those who are too ignorant, or just too lazy to come to a greater understanding of the world around us. This is where Rush is best, in inciting anger, hatred, and intolerance amongst those who lack either the intellect or the drive to delve deeper into an issue and explore for themselves. This was seen clearly at the "Tea Party" rally's and the town hall meetings this summer. Time and again, you had people who were genuinely furious at their local representatives. Yelling expletives and shouting that they "Wanted their country back!". But what did it all mean? I never talked to a single person who could tell me how their lives had been effected in an negative way during the first few months of the Obama Administration. The answer is simple, these were folks who were stirred up by the conservative mouthpieces (Rush is not alone, you know the rest, Savage, Hannity, and most recently the genius Glenn Beck). While their anger was real, they lacked any ability to articulate why it was they were so angry, or how any policy passed or proposed had a direct impact on them as an individual.

At first this trend shocked and surprised me, but as I continued to analyze what was happening it began to make more sense. One of the most powerful of human emotions is that of fear. Fear, when coupled with jealousy and seasoned with entitlement is a perfect recipe for creating irrational and uncontrollable anger. In essence, Rush has learned how to utilize his soap box to scare the hell out of those who listen to him. Your country is going down the tubes, Obama the Magic Negro is a socialist who wants to kill your grandma, health care reform will spell the end of democracy as we know it. The amazing thing about this all-out propaganda blitz is that because of the speed and reach of technology today, Rush need only infect a few mindless drones with this nonsense for it to begin a pandemic of ignorance. Soon the email chains begin, the websites devoted to proving that the President is an illegal immigrant, a communist, a Muslim, a robot, or a secret spy sent by Iran. These viral stories and images spread so quickly and with such a following that soon the actual media begins to lend them credence. All of it created in a radio or television studio by men who's true aim had little to do with ideology and far more to do with making money.

So, for those of us sickened by the hyperbolic hysteria that is gripping our nation, the question becomes how do we fight back? How do we discredit a man who despite dropping out of college has managed to build a coalition of millions of Americans who are mad as hell (we are not completely sure what they are mad about, but they are mad as hell!)? The answer lies not in putting more well known left wing voices out there, as it does nothing to solve our the problem. If I am an ardent follower of Fox News, Rush, and Savage, there is not a snowball's chance in hell that I will tune into NPR or MSNBC. No, we must look for a different approach, one that not only marginalizes the hate throwers of the right, but gives people an opportunity to have lively debate, to understand the true complexities of the issues, to share experiences and draw rational conclusions. In short we need a new form of media, one that treats people as adults! It is time to challenge Americans to think independently instead of consuming others' ideas whole. It is time to challenge the talking heads on television, to bring forward new media programs that center around intelligent people sharing all sides of an issue and encouraging their audiences to do the same.

We cannot fight right-wing fanaticism with left-wing fanaticism. To do so would bring about no change to the status quo. We are more divided as a country now than ever before, and there are those who have a tremendous amount of power and a vested interest in keeping it that way (how do you think Rush and his buddy's make their money). It is time to take back the power from these fringe groups. The words may sound trite, but surely there is more that unites us than divides us. We have let the inmates run the asylum for far too long, we can beat Rush and his cronies, but we will never do it by following their example.