7/4/2023 0 Comments Rush limbaugh funeralOne way he did this involved regularly insulting his supposedly dense listeners in “Rio Linda.” If a point he was making seemed too sophisticated, he would rephrase it in basic, simple terms “for those listening in Rio Linda.” It was never precisely clear if Rio Linda listeners were Democrats, Republicans, or something else entirely. He needed to position himself and his listeners in very specific ways so as to make them feel superior and enlightened compared with their “low-information” neighbors. This kind of subterfuge and calculation-offering the image of a freewheeling, courageous host ready to engage anybody (“with half my brain tied behind my back to make it fair,” he’d famously boast)-was essential to every facet of Limbaugh’s success. Yet all calls were carefully screened, and primarily served only to advance Limbaugh’s preplanned agenda. For example, he called his Friday phone interactions “Open Line Fridays.” To the unsuspecting, the program sounded as though it engaged random callers. Millions of Americans happily purchased a book filled with the same kind of ad hominem attacks and childish insults that Rush traded in, except this time the radio star was the target rather than the perpetrator.įocusing too narrowly on his political controversies can obscure the impressive stagecraft that structured Limbaugh’s radio program. 1 New York Times bestseller Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot. The clearest case of this was the enormous success of Al Franken’s 1996 No. In fact, there exists evidence that for all the brash energy Limbaugh provided Republicans, savvy Democrats could exploit him as a reliable foil to generate votes. The Democrats successfully increased their gender-gap advantage by using the Fluke controversy against Rush and the Republicans for the rest of that year. “My choice of words was not the best,” he explained, “and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. It resulted in one of the few instances where he felt compelled to issue a public apology, as several politicians publicly distanced themselves from him and his commentary. He insulted Fluke following her testimony in Congress about health insurance and birth control, and the backlash was severe. That same year, Limbaugh damaged any opportunity for Republicans to increase their vote share among women when he famously called Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and “prostitute” on his program. In 2012, Limbaugh once again pushed for more conservative candidates than the eventual Republican nominee, Mitt Romney. Shortly after Barack Obama’s victory that year, Republican strategist Mike Murphy told NBC’s Meet the Press that “the noisiest parts of the conservative media machine have far less influence than the mainstream media … thinks they do.” He added, “These radio guys can’t deliver a pizza let alone a nomination, and you can case study that out in the last election.” Murphy’s claim was validated in the next cycle. In 2008, he preferred more conservative alternatives to John McCain, yet the Arizona senator captured the GOP nomination. But accuracy compels an equal accounting of his failures. His obituaries will undoubtedly emphasize his political triumphs, such as his campaign against the Clinton administration’s health care proposal or his support for Tea Party activism that helped Republican candidates in 2010. Yet Limbaugh’s measurable political power never quite matched the mystique surrounding it.
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