Periodically I read redstate.com which is a big forum for a form of conservatism as well as a big supporter of most things Reagan Republican. Today I got a kick out of billboards they are financing and putting up around the country in support of Rush Limbaugh.
The billboards read,
“Dissent Is The Highest Form Of Patriotism.”
Now, this made me chuckle because for 8 years I have been dissenting against the absolute bone-headedness of all things Republican during the Bush administration. I dissented against the extension of Empire in the Iraq war. I dissented against the Bush policy on immigration. I dissented on the Bush “no child left behind” legislation crafted with Teddy Kennedy’s approval. I dissented in the Bush “prescription drug entitlement for senior citizens.” I dissented when Bush campaigned against Pat Toomey in the Republican Pennsylvania primary in favor of that foul liberal Arlen Spectre. I spent 8 years dissenting from the Bush administration and I can’t tell you how many times people from my own tribe (Christians) accused me of being unpatriotic.
Now, that a Democrat is in the White House dissent is fashionable again.
Part of the reason that Republicans are in the mess that they are in is that instead of being patriots and dissenting during the Bush years they wilted under pressure. As such it’s hard to take them seriously now in their dissent of all things Obama.
Still, we patriotic dissenters are glad for the company and after having dwelt in the waters of dissent for a very long time now we can say … “Come on in boys, the water is fine.”
Oh, and while we are on the whole Rush Limbaugh vs. the White House matter let me make just a few points.
1.) There is a proverb that says, “one shouldn’t get in an argument with someone who buys ink by the barrel.” As such, I’m not sure how wise the White House war room was in trying to intimidate a guy who has 13,000,000 listeners for three hours every day.
2.) Limbaugh is good at what he does. If he were not such a war-hawk, Lincoln lover, and knee jerk Republican I might be able to actually appreciate him even more. Still, for all his mistaken convictions I think people need to realize that in this Limbaugh vs. White House war Limbaugh needs to win. Remember the end game in all this for the White House is the destruction of talk radio. Now, “Talk Radio” has its problems but without “Talk Radio” there will not be even a mildly alternative opinion out there accessible to the average American in competition with what the major media lies about.
Now, again, I realize that “Talk Radio” is hardly ideologically ideal but again if the White House succeeds in shutting town “Talk Radio” they and their major media market lap dogs will own the American mind. Yes, it is a crying shame that we have gotten to the point in this country where we must depend upon the simple bromides that are tossed to the citizenry by those on “Talk Radio” in order to build resistance but the situation is what it is and right now “Talk Radio” is the only game in town when it comes to large scale popular dissent and resistance.
3.) I am old enough to remember when Nixon went after the journalist Jack Anderson. The media was outraged by the idea that the Nixon White House had a journalist “enemies list.” Now Obama is doing the same thing and the lying dog major media doesn’t care? The White House is going after the first amendment and (through back door methodologies that will bring about the results of “fairness doctrine” legislation) very few people care?
