Yesterday will be a day that will live in infamy for the 20 million or so people who have tuned in to hear the reassuring “dulcitones” of Rush Limbaugh for the past 27 years. Without using the worn out analogy of “jumping the shark“, it’s fairly clear that Rush not only jumped, but hopped and skipped and flew as well.
Limbaugh has been teetering on the edge for weeks. The reason of course is the red blooded American candidacy of Donald Trump. Back in 1992, Rush told his audience that Ross Perot was a trap. And to stick with the program, which meant voting for someone who was shocked at the site of a supermarket scanner and who gave us the warm and fuzzy phrase, “new world order“. Like Trump, Perot had money and he made sense.
At the time Rush was riding a wave of popularity both on radio and TV. His voice mattered to millions of conservatives. And largely thanks to Rush, enthusiasm for Perot diminished and his campaign eventually imploded because Perot thought the CIA was going to sabotage his daughter’s wedding. With what we know now about the establishment, this sounds less like a tin foil hat moment and more like standard protocol. Perot was a threat to the two party duopoly and he had charts and graphs to show us how the government was screwing us.
At that moment, Limbaugh’s allegiance was with the establishment. George H.W. Bush was a true conservative according to El Rushbo. The confusion ended up electing Bill Clinton which was a huge boon to Rush’s media empire. And in hindsight, I’m sure many so-called conservatives wished they could have had their votes back. Perot would have “cleaned out the barn” as he used to like to say.
What happened yesterday on the EIB Network was likely the beginning of the end for the man who has spent nearly three decades behind the golden EIB microphone. Rush Limbaugh, with a straight face, told his audience that Marco Rubio is a “full throated conservative”. Notice how he has never said this prior to Rubio’s “stunning” 3rd place finish in Iowa. Coincidentally, Microsoft makes these nifty new Obamacare-efficient voting machines. And they are a huge sponsor of the Marco for president campaign!
No, I’m serious, they are.
Rush isn’t stupid. He knows that Ted Cruz can’t do his Iowa evangelical praise and worship road show in places like New Hampshire and Florida. But he’s hitched his rather tired and mundane radio persona to Marco because he wants to back a winner and he has always been the right leg of the radio media establishment. Rush is mainstream now. When he and Chris Wallace do interviews, it’s a love fest. When Marco negotiates deals with democrats, that is fine with Rush. But when Trump suggests doing it, (and winning at it) that’s a red flag. Double standard much?
Rubio has been a distant third in almost every poll taken. But now the establishment has decided to put all of their eggs in his basket. Meaning…money is flowing in and Rubio, like Romney and Bush before him can buy his way to the presidency. And you can look for more candidates to drop after New Hampshire. Christie, Kasich and Bush should all be done very soon.
So I’ve got one question for Rush. How is it that establishment money is being funneled to Rubio, if he is a full throated conservative? This full throated, full of something, political hack, supports amnesty. He also has no desire to round up even the criminal element that’s a day to day threat all over the country. And don’t forget, Rubio rubber stamped Obama’s fast track trade authority, and did so without a fight. Marco misses a lot of votes, but he made it to the floor for that one.
Donald Trump’s presence in this race has exposed media titans both big and small. Trump is the kick ass and take names candidate and would be more at home in Ross Perot’s old Reform Party.
And I’m thinking more and more that if the entire media industrial complex turns against Trump and exalts a puppet like Rubio, that we desperately need a third option on the ballot. And if anyone has the money and the resources to do that, it’s Donald J. Trump.
Conservative media, especially talk radio, is dying. The list of personalities who’ve succumbed to Trump’s American version of politicking is getting longer by the hour.
Many of us feel we were living with someone who was cheating on us all along. We lapped up their talking points. We bought their books. We went to their events. We tuned in and hung on their every word. But it was all an act.
I used to listen to talk radio from sun-up until bedtime. Not anymore. At least Michael Savage is still out there bucking the establishment. And Alex Jones is no longer a conspiracy nut because everything he talks about eventually comes to pass. But the rest of them can all go to hell. My mind will not be poisoned by corporate radio hacks who are just a propaganda arm for amnesty and bigger government.
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