OT Rush Limbaugh, conservative media icon, dead at 70 following battle with cancer

trump is okay with fox again?

 

Fuck Rush Limbaugh

 

Good.

 

I remember watching the history channel and other channels that documented history and in particular stuff on WWII. I was obsessed and would watch as much as I could, I found it fascinating. At the time I would always find it hard to understand how folks could believe some of the ridiculous stuff that the Nazis did as it was just so outright ridiculous.

Fast forward to today’s modern day Republican Party and now we’re living through similar absurdities in reasoning and beliefs. And yet with the benefit of living through it, I still don’t get it.

I agree with @calvin natt, people like rush have normalized absurdity, bigotry, and irrational behavior. These things used to be looked at for what they were, absurd and grotesque. Now they are so normalized that nothing seems shocking or upsetting anymore, and quite frankly that’s not good for our country.

 

He and Newt are responsible for starting the great divide in this country back in the '90s.

 

Ronald Reagan in the 80s.

 

Why would that matter though? A brain dead Biden would be 100% better than the alternative...

He could have been a vegetable in the ICU and he would have still gotten my vote. And I hadn't voted for a Democrat since Gore...

 

I will disagree with that. I didn't vote for Reagan, but he was not the slash-and-burn - 'we're great and you are evil' - type that Newt and Rush were.

Reagan, while obviously conservative, was more in the mold of the good 'ol Rockefeller Republicans. He and Tip O'Neil for example, famously got along great and had drinks after hours together. You could never imagine that with this crew or with the type of politics that Rush and Newt ushered in.

 

Wow, ha. If Reagan were alive to hear you say that, he'd be horrified. I think I understand what you mean in terms of genteel manner, but he detested that wing of the party--he wasn't just "conservative," he was among the most extreme conservatives in the party. He was the one attacking Nixon from the right. He thought Nixon was far too liberal. George Bush the elder was disturbed by Reagan's extremism (before, of course, accepting the vice presidential offer from him).

It's true that he practiced the type of bipartisanship that Joe Biden recently lauded--being able to have a drink with people of the other party. That's quite separate from whether he was bipartisan in his politics--Reagan is where the Republican party pivoted into "slashing all public entitlements, lower taxes at every turn for the upper class and deregulate everywhere possible no matter the cost to safety or the environment." While this seems like standard boiler plate for the party now (and for the past couple of generations), it wasn't scripture before Reagan.

 

Reagan innovated that the 1st Republican Commandment was, Thou shalt not criticize another Republican. From then until Trump, they acted like a fascist voting block, while Democrats spoke their minds individually. Unanimity vs. diversity. In 2016, Trump constantly criticized other Republicans, which got my respect, but of course made him enemies with Republican leadership. Trump has finally ended the party's Reagan era.

Also, calling another country an Evil Empire when diplomacy had been more polite till then, getting rid of TV's Fairness Doctrine, and more.

Yes, while the actor lied to O'Neil about El Salvador death squads. It required the Contra-gate hearings to get to the bottom of his secret funding method, the CIA slush fund plus a few private contributions from rich collaborators.

 

I once worked in a CPA office in which they kept Rush on all day. Since it was in the next room, all I heard was a smothered, blurry, incomprehensible version of his blathering and hollering. When, after they had hovered over ever detail of the O.J. Simpson trial for a year (I saved a thousand hours by ignoring it), it was time for Rush to make the big announcement. So I stepped into the room to hear the verdict. Not guilty. Shocking. I made a neutral comment of surprise to the conservatives, and quickly returned to my office to work.*

*The moral of the story is: Time is of the essence when you are billed out at $80/hour but are paid $10/hour. (Aesop said that.)

 

Im not sure how hatred solves anything. Hatred begets hatred.

This thread and some of the posts are as sickening as racists are.

if you want someone to die, does it really matter why?

sooo progressive......

 

I was super happy when Osama Bin Laden was murdered. Were you?

 

I don't understand this perspective at all. No one is out murdering people or raiding capitol buildings or saying anyone is subhuman or anything like that. They are simply saying: a total jerk of a human died today and I care not; or the world is a better place; or whathaveyou.

And how is that not true? Rush was divisive and bigoted and racist and pusher of conspiracies. His legacy will haunt us for the foreseeable future...

And so, when it comes down to it, this notion that hatred begets hatred is what's being recognized (if not celebrated) in the posts you so revile: a hate megaphone has gone quiet...

 

sorry i could have made myself a bit clearer.
i was referring to some of the posts showing rush’s obvious bigoted slant. Not just what members here were saying.

however to answer the question i still believe hatred begats hatred. Someones hatred led to rush’s stance which leads others hatred of rush and so on and so on. Much like violence.
Someone at some point has to stop the hate rhetoric whether valid or not if we ever want to see this pendulum stop swinging back and forth.
Hatred blackens hearts and hardens souls.

was i happy when osama was killed, no. Was i sad? No.
Was i indifferent? Yes
Do i believe it helped? Not really. Hate on America has not relinquished. Terrorist attempts have not diminished across the globe.

do i think we needed to take him out? Yes.
Sometimes we need to do the lesser of two evils.
It doesn't mean we should gloat about it. I dont gloat about anyones death however deserving it may be.

Recognizing someone should be removed from society should not provide happiness in my opinion.

 

When someone runs a regular feature ridiculing gay men who died from AIDS, some my close friends, don't tell me saying good riddance is equivalent.