From: larry@cs.com (Larry Spence)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
Subject: Re: The Way Things Ought to Be!
Summary: if they were that way, RL would be out of a job
Date: 7 Jan 93 01:32:43 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Computer Support Corporation,  Dallas,Texas

In article <1993Jan5.204452.28649@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> scasburn@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Steven M Casburn) writes:
>In article <1icfadINNmoq@master.cs.rose-hulman.edu> pearsodc@HYDRA.ROSE-HULMAN.
>EDU writes:
>>cse0115@uoft02.utoledo.edu writes:
>>>   Has anyone read "The Way Things Ought to Be" yet?  If so, what do you
>>>think about it?

If I can find a cheap used copy (I haven't really looked), I might.  No way
will I put money in The Pompous One's pockets...

>>If anybody reading this list hasn't read Rush's book yet, do so.  You'll
>>understand Rush and his radio and TV shows a lot better after you do.
>>(Especially liberals.  Don't you want to understand people and be truly
>>open-minded individuals?  Open your minds to conservatism, then.  Go ahead.  I
>>dare ya.  8-)

Hey!  I listen to about 20-30 minutes of Rush's show each day, and the TV
show once every week or two (on occasion, I have listened to 1-2 hrs of the
radio show, and several nights of the TV show).  I suspect there are a lot of 
non-dittoheads who do likewise.  Rush is fascinating, in the same way that 
Nixon, Buchanan, and Reagan were/are fascinating. %)

>     Geez, I dunno, Chuck. The problem with Rush's book is that he starts out 
>with such an incredible torrent of sheer abuse and arrogance. 

Gosh, how uncharacteristic.

>Granted, much of this is deserved, 

Rush sure knows how to play to his audience.

>but the effect it very easily could have is to make liberals
>who *do* pick up the book say "What an asshole. I don't have the time to read
>this crap." I don't know about you, but I find it hard to open my mind to 
>someone's ideas when they're calling me an idiot and talking about how great 
>they are.

You sound like one o' them bleeding-heart liberals, son. %)  Next thing you
know, you'll be talking about "sharing."

>     The book gets better as it goes along, and is great near the end. But I
>doubt too many liberals will be around by that point, and, frankly, I couldn't
>blame them if they weren't. "The Way" is a book only the hard core will finish
>and, IMO, that's a shame.

[warning: hideously long paragraph follows]

I will admit that Rush on occasion makes some very good points and comparisons
(about 5-10% of the time IMHO).  But his entire approach is critically depen-
dent on having Enemies, and demonizing them as much as possible (go read
any text on propaganda).  You know how Rush sez that The Liberals want to
keep poor people dependent on the government, so there continues to be a
need for Democrats?  Rush is playing that game, too -- does he really want
The Liberals to be convinced of the Truth of Conservatism?  Of course not,
thus the adversarial tactics.  It's in Rush's best financial interests to
polarize and overstate the differences between The Liberals and The Conser-
vatives.  If ideas and plans were judged based on their merits and drawbacks,
rather than this tactic of "it's a Liberal Idea, and therefore Utterly Bad,"
or "it's a Conservative Plan, and therefore laudable," with _no in-between_,
Rush would quickly run out of steam.  Rush of course dismisses all this by
saying that since so much of the media is so biased toward liberals (all the 
major US daily newspapers are owned by Greenpeace, did you know that?), his
own admittedly-biased commentary is a necessary counterbalance.  Cleverly,
he only mentions this on rare occasions, rather than, say, giving one of
his Feminist Updates but following it with "Keep in mind that the preceding
was highly biased against liberals, and that there may be facts that I have
conveniently omitted that might portray this subject in a more even-handed
light." %)  Now, if there were a talk show host who ripped into clueless
"Liberals" _and_ "Conservatives," then I would be mightily impressed, but
of course there's probably not much of a market for such a show.... %( %(
... much easier to just play the old Us vs. Them game... sigh.

-- 
Larry Spence
larry@cs.com
uunet!csccat!larry