From: jacksonk@polaris.cs.rpi.edu (Keith Jackson)
Subject: Re: Rush loses out to Madonna (NOT!)
Followup-To: talk.bizarre
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechniovic Institutecov, PRNY
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 00:45:26 GMT

In article <1992Nov8.200616.346@umbc3.umbc.edu> alex@red-dragon.umbc.edu (alex) writes:

>	_Sex_ has reached #1 on the Times Nonfiction Bestseller list, pushing
>Rush's book to Number 2 after only 8 weeks. That means that, not only will
>	Since Madonna is more popular then Rush, does that mean the Madonna
>is more mainstream then Rush? Or, if Madonna is part of some radical fringe
>(as Rush claimes), is Rushs audiance simply a less popular, more whacko,
>fringe group?

Gee, it seems that Madonna's surge on the list was quite short-lived.  At least
Rush has staying  power.  I think when most people figured out that the only
difference between Madonna's book and the latest copy of Hustler was about $45,
her day (or hour) in the sun was over.  It's funny that you claim anything about
the respective "followers" when Madonna's are a bunch of tone-deaf MTVites who
don't know jack about politics if it's not reported on the MTV newsbreak ("Here's
all the BAD things those fascist Republicans did today, and look at wonderful
Bill Clinton -- isn't he cool!")  I like the fact that Rush admitted the other
night that he watched MTV so he could see what idiocy was available via cable
TV (I'm the same way -- I like maybe 1% of the music they play [as opposed to
the 15% on VH1] but watch it for the humor value -- i.e. "I can't believe they
expect people to watch this and LIKE/BELIEVE it!!" usually precedes a channel
change by a few milliseconds.)

Now that I've stereotyped Madonna's followers in the same way you've done
Rush's I would say that you can't make any conclusions about his "followers"
because I know people who were Rah-Rah-Bill Democrats who listen/watch his
show for the entertainment value.  Madonna, on the other hand evokes visions
of cheap fad-hungry followers.

>	60% of the population may have doubts about Bill Clinton, but
>more then that were sure that they didn't like Bush, and Bush was immensly
>more popular then the next right wing challenger, Pat Buchannan. If Rush
>and his ilk get their way, the next GOP offering will be somewhere between
>George and Pat, and they'll still be surprised when they lose, because
>after all this, Rush and the Dittoheads still think that they are middle
>America.

Ah, yes - the Dittohead doctrine.  It tells me everything I need to know.
Why! I don't even need to think anymore, just recite Ditto doctrine.  Give
me a break!  Rush covers many issues, many of which he falls into the
mainstream (i.e. not necessarily the MTV generation, but the majority of
people in the US) of societal views.

Besides, Rush has argued (quite convincingly, I would say) that the reason
that Bush lost was because he shifted left from Reagan -- i.e. he wasn't
conservative enought to solidify his support, and with Perot in the race
it fractured the mainstream.  While I don't want to see a tend towards
the religious zealotry of Buchannan, I think a more conservative approach
to economic issues would be nice.  Alas, we have to weather 4 years of
tax, spend, and playing Robin Hood.

>	A little math shows that if the Christian Coalition represents
>15-20% of registered voters, then they also represent about half of
>the GOP (about 30% of register voters).

Methinks your numbers are cooked.  For one thing, many more people have
traditionally voted Republican who weren't registered Republicans.

>If Clinton can avoid doing
>anything completely stupid for 4 years, then he's likely looking at at
>William Bennett or Dan Quayle as competition, and we're looking at
>8-12 years of democratic presidents.  (It would be interesting to see

Ahh, the nightmare continues.  I don't think anyone in their right mind
would expect Quayle to win the nomination.  He's been too abused.  Mondale
had a chance because he was an unknown -- but Quayle!
-- 
__ __  ____ ______ ______ __  __ 	Keith Jackson
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