Rush Limbaugh is a Big, Fat Idiot!
WHOOPS, I'm So Sorry
Since When Do Politicians Apologize or Kow-Tow to Radio "Personalities?"
March 4, 2009
By: Dave Rogers
You really can't even dignify Mr. Limbaugh with the title "talk show host" since he does all the talking.
A sure sign that the country has gone over the edge came when radio clown Rush Limbaugh challenged the President of the United States to a debate.
And, of course, when the head of the Republican National Committee, one Michael Steele, apologized to the Rushmeister for possibly offending him.
We Americans have, for certain, imbibed all the Kool Aid and are running around in circles prior to dementia.
You really can't even dignify Mr. Limbaugh with the title "talk show host" since he does all the talking.
Freedom of speech has run amok when most of the radio airwaves in the nation are dominated by one irrational voice. The supporters of the free enterprise system never counted on this, you can be sure.
For an opinion purveyor to wish that the President should fail is not only not helpful to a nation struggling with its psyche as well as its economy but is approaching anti-Americanism.
Jane Fonda was pilloried for much less.
The fact that journalists on national television are perplexed by this phenomenon is evidence enough that the system is out of whack. It's just a radio program, after all, isn't it? One pundit asked.
Another pundit commented, not entirely tongue in cheek, that Limbaugh should be executed for treason. Her comment drew absolutely no response that we could find.
Well, given the developments of the past few weeks Mr. Limbaugh has proven that he is more than just a pretty face. He has seized control of the Republican Party and, if he is not stopped, he will threaten one of the greatest political movements of all time.
Corrupting the process would be an understatement when considering what Mr. L is doing to the GOP. Now he brazenly attempts to short-circuit the entire nation's political process by intimidating the President.
The path from entertainment to extremism is not as widely separated as it may seem. History tells us so.
This kind of activity is not without precedent in our nation in times of crisis. Often, the desperate turn to demagogues and/or radical rabble-rousing bomb-throwers. Recall Father Charles Coughlin of the Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, Michigan, in the 1930s.
Fr. Coughlin had the power and clout of a Limbaugh, almost. He took his populist message to the nation struggling with Depression and nearly turned it upside down. Much like Mr. Limbaugh is doing today.
You probably don't recall the incendiary "Radio Priest" unless you are older than I am. My recollection goes back to my grandparents who were faithful listeners and picked up the anti-Roosevelt tirades of Fr. Coughlin, believing piously that a Roman collared cleric could hardly be wrong about anything.
We won't recount the entire history of the mad monk Coughlin here, but let's just deal with the end of his career as an object lesson relating to what will undoubtedly happen to Mr. Limbaugh.
In the late 1930s Fr. Coughlin accused President Franklin D. Roosevelt of "leaning toward international socialism or sovietism". He also praised Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in the fight against communism in Europe.
On 20th November 1938, Coughlin defended the activities of the Nazi Government as a necessary defense against the Soviet Union.
Like Joseph Goebbels, Coughlin claimed that Marxist atheism in Europe was a Jewish plot. Coughlin also attacked Jews in America, a charge that resulted in his being branded an anti-Semite as well as a fascist. In April 1941, Coughlin endorsed the anti-war America First Committee.
In January 1940 the FBI raided the New York branch of a Coughlin-supported organization known as the Christian Front and uncovered a cache of weapons. FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover claimed members of the organization planned to murder Jews, Communists and Congressmen. Although Coughlin was not directly involved, the publicity the plot generated severely damaged his reputation.
Coughlin's opinions became more extreme. In September 1940 he described President Franklin D. Roosevelt as "the world's chief war-monger". The following year he wrote: "Stalin's idea to create world revolution and Hitler's so-called threat to seek world domination are not half as dangerous combined as is the proposal of the current British and American administrations to seize all raw materials in the world. Many people are beginning to wonder who they should fear most - the Roosevelt-Churchill combination or the Hitler-Mussolini combination."
When the U.S. entered World War II the National Association of Broadcasters ended Coughlin radio broadcasts. The Post Office also banned his weekly newspaper, Social Justice, from the mail. On May 1,1942, Archbishop Francis Mooney ordered Coughlin to end to his political activities or be defrocked.
Charles Edward Coughlin retired from the Shrine of the Little Flower Church in 1966. He continued to denounce Communism until his death on October 27, 1979.
The lesson we need to relearn is that the national airwaves are not to be dominated by an irresponsible cabal; the public interest demands clear thinking, especially in a time of crisis. Democracy cannot be its own worst enemy if a system such as ours is to be prevented from self destructing.###