I subscribed to Media Matter's mailing list several years ago, and receive frequent email alerts from them. During the past couple of years, I typically throw their alerts away unread. One vexing reason for the sheer frequency is that Media Matters often issues alerts that seem like little more than tattle-telling. These alerts are issued with the same "stop the presses" urgency as those of real import.
Media Matters lost me after I'd received an alert about so-and-so calling Hillary Clinton names. I don't care about these alerts of a "Johnny pulled Suzy's hair" nature, and I'm certain that former Secretary of State Clinton cares even less that some blowhard called her a witch or whatever it was. However, several days ago, I received an alert with a subject so tantalizing, I just couldn't not read it. The alert concerned Rush Limbaugh's latest on-air stunt. The subject was: "Inevitable: Limbaugh Finally Says N-Word On Air." I waited a while before throwing out this alert.
I knew, alert unread, that this was going to be good; yes, it was good. What I didn't know was just how good it was going to be. I found out soon enough. The following is worth watching, excepting commentary from one of Media Matters' wishy-washy talking heads (I'm still not all that crazy about Media Matters): http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/07/16/limbaugh-after-jenteals-interview-i-can-now-say/194904 And no, the footage is not taken out of context, nor is it doctored.
Rush argued that he should be able to use the term in question with impunity. Newly liberated, he can sashay around, say, Houston's Fifth Ward and mouth the epithet to his black heart's content and emerge on the other side without having gotten his fat ass rendered into a blob of greasy white lard.
Yes, some black people refer to one another using the term. I dare say that most black people think the practice a denigration of their race. Regardless, and here, I'm defending neither the term nor the practice, for some black people, it's a term of endearment (some might argue that it's "a way of gaining ownership of the term." I don't buy that.) Out of Rush's maw, the term in question is not one he uses in the name of brotherly love.
For all of his bluster, Mr. Limbaugh is prone to whining like Media Matters does himself. He whines that he can't walk around and act like a thug, too. But he can; as Mr. Limbaugh might be fond of saying, "It's a free country," so he can act like a thug. He already does, in fact. He does it five days a week on his show. But Rush also wants to act like a thug without getting his fat ass kicked. Alas, free speech has consequences, dear friends, something that Rush Limbaugh doesn't talk much about, with regards to himself, anyway. At the Limbaugh Ranch, Rush eats what he wants and as much of it as he wants, smokes as many fine cigars as he wants, used to take enough Oxycontin to knock off a horse plus a man twice his size, and says whatever he wants without consequence. Rush Limbaugh might characterize all that as enjoying the fruits of his labor or living the American Dream, but the Limbaugh Ranch does not represent America.
At the Limbaugh Ranch, Mr. Limbaugh enjoys immunity and isolation. His isolation is such that he just doesn't understand that there's a disconnect between him and most Americans. His boasts of a large listenership* notwithstanding, most folks strongly prefer a healthy berth between themselves and Rush Limbaugh and his kind.
Rush Ventures Forth
I'm genuinely surprised that Mr. Limbaugh visited the final frontier. Although he's flirted with all manner of derogatory language throughout the course of his career, I still couldn't bring myself to believe that he is a racist. After all, and to his credit, he is typically well-spoken, if you'll excuse all the Beavis and Butthead-like "uh-uh-uh's" between bouts of thought. Not only is Limbaugh articulate, he's also a master of his black art. You don't have to believe me, but maybe David Foster Wallace will convince you. To consider: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/04/host/303812/
Without question, Rush Limbaugh is an intelligent man - that his is a native intelligence refined through his autodidactic pursuits is immaterial. My mistake occurred due to my faulty thinking. I thought intelligent men, even a man such as Rush Limbaugh, simply incapable of feelings so heinous. What's worse, Limbaugh still possesses uncanny powers of persuasion and exerts tremendous influence. Worse still, he still has loyal listeners who will rise to his defense, his outrages excused for a variety of dubious reasons. That's an awfully bitter pill to swallow.
Before You Accuse Me...
One cannot accuse me of having never listened to Rush Limbaugh's program. Twenty years ago, I lived in a small town a couple of hours south of Houston, where I managed a warehouse that stocked parts for transmissions. Since I was the only employee I managed, I had full run of the warehouse radio. I listened to not only Mr. Limbaugh's program, but other programs of its hue as well. I listened to them partly to amuse myself, and partly because I couldn't listen to any good music unless the wind blew right.
Certainly, I was amused, but also outraged, freaked out, and downright puzzled. As it turns out, I received a pretty good education in the warehouse. I heard the voice of America's Underbelly, a population which most mainstream Americans would rather just go away, mainly by refusing to acknowledge its existence, its members so gauche you dare not invite them to your child's birthday party for fear that they'll spoil it with all their Fear of the Wrath of God gibberish, thus facilitating the children's subsequent nightmares about burning in Hell. The representatives of this population (chiefly radio and television talk show hosts) fulminate breathlessly against women's health issues using the familiar enough "pro-life" canard, homosexuality, the Civil Rights Act, and labor unions, along with hobgoblins such as Hollywood and Halloween. Amusing stuff all right, and scary.
Equally amusing, for the right reasons, was Roger Gray's broadcast, which, at that time, ran hot on the heels of Rush Limbaugh's. Mr. Gray was a talk radio anomaly: he claimed no ideological affiliation. Indeed, Mr. Gray analyzed a given issue using, as he put it (to the best of my recollection), "pure, cold reason," a more rigorous method than first filtering the issue through an ideological lens. His methodology ruffled many listeners' panties, but Mr. Gray took on all comers (as well as I could ascertain, he did not screen his calls), and he did so fearlessly. I didn't nearly agree with him issue for issue, but still, twenty years later, he remains one among a handful of great thinkers who have exerted profound influence on my own political thinking.
Sadly, there just wasn't any room on the dial in Houston for someone who thinks like Mr. Gray. Dan Patrick, former KHOU TV sports buffoon and current Texas Senator and born-again Christian, owned the station, and eventually helped to run Gray out on a rail. People talk often about "a voice that will be missed," or the voice we could sure use right now. Roger Gray's voice ranks among them.**
Many, by no means all by a long shot, conservatives remind me of a hapless high school senior, the victim of countless taunts and wedgies at the hands of assorted jocks, stoners, the garden variety of mean creeps, and the garden variety of cruel teachers, who will go to the prom with the first girl who accepts his invitation. The conservative who perceives that he's similarly disenfranchised and despised, whether his perceptions have basis in reality, will often, quite gladly and readily, let someone else do his talking. Someone Like Rush Limbaugh. And Ann Coulter. And maybe even Ted Nugent, a truer paragon of red meat killing and eating virtue you couldn't hope to meet.
My Thinking, Reconsidered
I've heard Rush called a contemporary Mark Twain, a true satirist of the first order. The satirist has a tall task before him. It is incumbent upon him to maintain ironic distance from the subject at hand in order to point up its folly. Let's say that Rush Limbaugh is a satirist, one in league with Mark Twain, or even Jonathan Swift. Mr. Limbaugh is no blowhard or even bigot at all; rather, he portrays the part of a blowhard and bigot, and has done so throughout the course of his long career. In doing so, he has pulled off the greatest media con since Andy Kaufman wrestled women. *** Mr. Limbaugh's hoax might be even better than Kaufman's: he never breaks character.
Rush Limbaugh's commitment to maintaining the persona he has so scrupulously cultivated is unrivaled. Such is his commitment that he chose to let it all hang out during the initial fallout from the Trayvon Martin trial. A lesser talent would be accused of racism and stooping to vile new lows. Now that I know better, I see Limbaugh's latest "stunt" for what it is: his boldest statement yet. Yes indeed, Rush Limbaugh has ventured forth into new territory, territory that even Archie Bunker didn't have balls big enough to enter.
Some twenty-five odd years into his career, Rush Limbaugh still has some fresh tricks up his sleeve. My thinking adjusted, I look back now in awe. We all thought he couldn't top even himself after the Sandra Fluke affair, a high water mark in its own right. I see now that that dust-up was the Huckleberry Finn to his current achievement's Tom Sawyer. I can't wait to see Rush' A Modest Proposal.
Until then, a word of advice to Rush: don't apologize this time. While I understand that that apology was a token, you came too close to comfort to breaking character. Then again, it really pissed some people off even more. Like those crybabies from Media Matters. I'm sorry, Rush. I'm still getting acquainted with my new thinking, and I hope you'll forgive the lapse.
Still, courage Rush. Never allow your courage to falter. So what if a few advertisers bail out? You'll never make some people understand.
Yeah, I said that Rush Limbaugh is a fat ass. It's a free country, right? Besides, what's he gonna do about it? Kick my ass?
Ha ha ha - suckers...
* Rush Limbaugh's audience is said to number15-20 Million listeners weekly. That's 16% of the total population using the most generous numbers and math available. But still, maybe not: http://www.businessinsider.com/rush-limbaughs-audience-may-be-so-much-smaller-than-you-think-2012-3
** Mr. Gray's impressive dossier follows: http://www.dbandassociates.net/RogerGray
*** Admittedly, this piece finds an antecedent in this: http://www.citizenschwartz.com/nation-still-reeling-after-rush-limbaugh-revealed-to-be-30-year-long-andy-kaufman-prank/ I so wanted this brilliant bit of Internet hooliganism to be true. To tell you the truth, I did entertain the notion. Sucker...
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