Will Rush Limbaugh vote for Obama in 2012?
by Don Lacey on Jun. 05, 2012, under Abortion, Conservatism vs. Liberalism, Critical Thinking, Economics, Education, Environment, Ethics, Gay Marriage, Government, Guns, History, Islam, Logic, Reason, Responsible Government, Sanity, Terrorism
Jim Wilson tries his hand at prognosticating as he shares his opinions on Rush Limbaugh:
“So I always believed that if we’re going to have a recession, just don’t participate.”-Rush Limbaugh
Will Rush Limbaugh vote for Obama in 2012?
Of course he will! Just like he voted for Obama in 2008. Do you really think he wanted to spend the last four years defending a McCain/Palin Administration or the next four years defending a Romney administration? I don’t think so.
By the end of George W. Bush’s second term Rush found himself defending a party that presided over the biggest deficit spending since the sixties two unpopular wars a failed response to hurricane Katrina an unpopular bank bailout and the biggest economic downturn and loss of jobs in decades. This had to be a royal chore and from his point of view if a liberal president were ever get elected there couldn’t have been a better time. So much for Karl Rove’s permanent Republican majority…why not let some seemingly liberal newcomer like Obama deal with the growing unemployment and the increasing unpopular wars in the middle east not to mention the enormous debt GW’s administration left behind? The immediate forecast was not looking good so why not let the other team dirty their hands with stimulus packages and high unemployment? Frankly, I cannot for the life of me see why any sane person would want to be president during such circumstances.
In addition, there was not much hope that a Republican administration like McCain-Palin could reverse the downward economic spiral so why not let the libs get themselves all muddy? In 2008, McCain was falling all over himself in the debates and Palin was looking like caricature of shallow opportunism and backwardness. Had they won in 08 convincingly presenting the Republican brand of conservatism as the wave the future despite continued stimulus packages (which McCain almost certainly would have pushed) would have been an uphill battle.
Conservative talk radio is so much more interesting when the liberals are in charge anyway.
It is such a yawn to turn on the radio and hear how strong the president is and what a good job he is doing. Honestly, if I am going to turn on some political talk radio I want to hear some outrage about big government. It is so much harder to convincingly muster up the needed outrage when your team controls the government prove themselves even more interventionist than the Democrats. It is so much easier to make the case of that conservatives are being marginalized by liberal elites when said elites actually control a few levers of state power. Guys like Rush are only truly able to perfect their art while in attack mode and he is smart enough to know it.
Conservative talk radio runs entirely on fear and loathing and to generate this you need the occasional presumed Black Muslim socialist to take power once in a while. Listeners are far more likely to tune in if they think the liberal elite are just a vote away from seizing their guns, outlawing their marriages, destroying capitalism, and sending all conservatives to death panels. Is it a coincidence that we saw huge growth in militia membership and the rise of the tea party after Obama was elected when fears were drummed up by the conservative talk radio business? Remember how the gun and ammunition business made a killing encouraging everyone to stock up?
A cynical right wing radio host would have every reason to be happy about a dark horse Democrat taking power and the deal has only been sweetened by how little Obama and company have done to change the status quo. After all, it is hard to change much when you are saddled with trillions of dollars in debt from the bush administrations and wars in the middle east. Obama bailed-out the US. Banking system rather than break it up, expanded oil exploration in the US, and cracked down on illegal immigrants. He did not enact immediate withdrawal from Iraq, single payer health insurance, or stronger gun control and has been weak on keeping church and state separate. Rush once said he hoped Obama failed as a president because he did not want to see the “absorption of as much of the private sector by the US government as possible from the banking business to the mortgage industry the automobile business to health care.” We have not seen any of these taken over by the government and conservatives really have lost little ground during Obama’s presidency.
Rush a self-interest driven cynic. He doesn’t care about abortion, war on drugs, Christianity, the sanctity of marriage, or birth control as evidence by his personal history in regard to these issues. These are simply tools to him. His chief allegiance is to the wealthy Republican establishment and the military industrial complex. I have yet to hear him criticize a war or international intervention backed by Republicans or huge deficits run up by Republicans or expansions of government by Republicans. In spite of his claim to be a conservative first and a Republican second, he is clearly a party tool filled with double standards.
Other conservative pundits are probably not voting for Obama. Only Rush strikes me as a cynical self-interested mercenary. His best successes occur when he is in attack mode and does not want to return to apologizing for a non-charismatic B-teamer like Romney. Ironically, Romney’s company, Bain Capital, acquired Rush’s employer, Clear Channel, in 2008.
