Original_To:  BITNET%"POLITICS@OHSTVMA"
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics
Date:         Thu, 28 Jan 1993 03:53:00 EDT
From:         CLARK@EVMSVMS.BITNET
Subject:      Reply to Kerry S. on Rush

Kerry Stephenson says:

>No, you miss the point.  Rush doesn't have guests, because the
>show is about what RUSH thinks.  It's not about anything else,
>and it never claims to be.

Gee, Kerry, this could get awful sing-song pretty soon ("No, YOU
miss the point!"  "nooo......_YOU_ miss the point!!" "Nooo.......")

STAN said that Rush was just another of the commentators on TV -
just like the ones who spout their ideas, then have guests agree or
criticize.  Since Rush does _not_ have such guests, I felt it was
important to correct STAN on that.  Rush has no such guests - and
it isn't difficult to see why not.

>He's just a guy that likes to talk and has opinions--often
>informed, often acerbic, sometimes just shooting-the-breeze type
>opinions. And doing that has made him very, very popular.

If you want to call less than 4 percent of the population "very,
very popular", well, then, dream on.  On your scale, President
Clinton is WILDLY popular.  There are more exclusively gay males in
America than Rush listeners.

and then, Kerry plays "doc":
(Do I have to cancel my posts 24 hour in advance to avoid being
charged, doc?)   :)

>Look, you're just mad because you don't like him.

I am?  Whew!  Glad to have that diagnosed.  I thought that it was
because yet another money-grubbing, intellectually inferior, loser
tight-ass white bread pasty-faced self-righteous demagogue was
trying to defraud and harm my fellow human beings, and I was
justifiably upset...

You know, like when I see Falwell, Robertson, Tilton et al, robbing
people's pocketbooks, lowering the folks' actual standard of living
with their imposed dependence, creating hurt and hate and turning
jealousy - stirring all that bile - into cold cash.

You know...getting mad because Rush tells blatant, racist lies, and
plays to the worst in people: (thanks for the lesson should go to
Mr. Reagan) their fears, their angers, their regrets, their lost
hopes - and he doesn't do a stitch of good in all that venom and
rage and resentment.

He tears down people he personally doesn't like (or resents, or is
intimidated by, or is envious of) and invites us to feel good about
that.

He taunts, he baits, he throws racist and sexist and homophobic
epithets like they're going out of style.  Then he goads and spurs
us all into drowning our failures and lost opportunities and flaws
and bitterness and alienation by laughing at - enjoying - the
hatred he sells, by snickering at the misfortune of others.

He employs simple (simpleton) bully schoolyard tactics designed to
genuinely injure and harm others - and to entertain his loyal,
mouth breathing, intellectually vacant, embittered mostly-white
minions.

But I'm just angry because I don't like him?  Thanks - I love how
conservatives eschew intellectual introspection (otherwise, I'd
actually be in touch with my feelings):

'Simple answer to every question, most likely found in the bible,
and anything of a higher order of thought necessarily bad' (since
most conservatives seem to be unable to pilot those complex neural
pathways anyway, it's easier to call intellectualism evil than to
admit an inability as a group to keep up.)  :)

>Fine.  Don't you have friends that you don't agree with, but you
>like anyway?  Rush has a lot of fans like that.

It's odd....I have friends from most every corner of the world...
from most every major (and some minor) religions, belief systems,
cultures...really...quite a diverse group of people.

And not one of them who feels anything better than disgust for
Rush Limbaugh.

Does that correlate to the high level of intelligence among the
group of friends?  To the very diversity of experience?  To the
fact that absolutely none are religious absolutists?  To the high
level of academic, scientific, social, cultural, political,
literary, philanthropic and artistic achievement?

               Definitely. :)


>And you have friends that you agree with everything on, and you
>like being around them.  Rush has a lot more fans like that.

None of my friends are like that.  I have no need for personal
rubber stamps.  Remember: I'm not a member of any conservative
and/or organized religious group.  No ideology, created and
strictly guarded and maintained by others, blindly governs my
thoughts and deeds.  :)

(Hey - this is great...pulling a "Brett'"...say whatever I want, as
long as I follow it with a smiley face!...)

>Besides, what's your problem?

_Our_ problem; see above.

>He isn't *really* running for President (some folks just wish he
>would.)  He doesn't have any policy influence,

Not with a Democratic Congress & Democratic White House he doesn't.  :)

>he isn't stealing money from the taxpayers or peddling influence
>or calling for revolution.

He may not be stealing from taxpayers through the government, but
he is raking it in from over-priced "Rush items" (books, news-
letters, videos, other unpleasant stuff).  And he certainly is
calling for a "get rid of the liberals, gays, feminists, etc., any
way you can" revolution.  :)


>He's just having fun.  And you can't stand it, because politics
>isn't *supposed* to be fun, it's supposed to be serious and heavy
>and everyone that is intelligent and wise is supposed to believe
>things Rush thinks are stupid.

Does that mean: that even though everyone who is intelligent and
wise DOES believe "things Rush think are stupid", that you and the
rest of the RushBrigades will continue to listen?  Oh, I see. :)

>It isn't Rush you should be concerned with.  The people who agree
>with Rush held those opinions long before the EIB Network ever hit
>the airwaves.  The genius part is that Rush articulates what a lot
>of people in America feel -- and he does it in a fast-paced,
>interesting, and funny format.

If that's the "genius" part, Adolf must have been a genius, too. :)
Except for being funny.  Which means that Rush is more of a genius
than Hitler.  Now THAT's a city bus ad if I ever saw one.

>For that you should fault him?

See immediately above.

>As Rush says, "Lighten up."
>--Kerry

Good.  As long as Rush, yourself, and people like you are telling
me to lighten up, I'm doing something right.  :)

-T.

     "No one can be said to have attained the pinnacle of Truth
     until a thousand sincere people have condemned him for
     blasphemy."
                    -Anthony DeMello.
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