Tuesday, March 06, 2012

REPUBLICANS MAY BE WEAKENED, BUT I BET THEY'LL STILL GET A LITTLE PAYBACK

Are we at a tipping point? Are we at a point where Rush Limbaugh's career can suffer the death of a thousand cuts -- or, rather, a thousand sponsor defections -- and the right won't be able to exact vengeance?

I don't know. Maybe we are at that point. Maybe the right is that weak, that out of touch with the public mood, that unable to rally its troops.

But I doubt it. What I really doubt is that the right has completely lost its ability to manipulate the mainstream press. Which is why I suspect that the right-wing campaign to get Priorities USA, the pro-Obama super PAC, to give back Bill Maher's million-dollar donation will ultimately pay off. Or are Palin and Fox and Fox News Democrats who write for Tina Brown and all manner of outraged conservative commentators really unable now to trigger the press's craving for balance and equity and all that? Could the mainstream "both sides do it" rule really not wind up being applied?

That would be a change. That would be a sign that we're in a whole new world.

Let me add that I didn't like Maher's slurs. There are equally harsh lines of attack that aren't generic female insults. It's not the same as attacking a person who isn't a public figure, but I really don't feel compelled to defend him on this.

All the more reason I expect the GOP to be able to get a little payback -- what he said makes him unsympathetic. But we'll see.

3 comments:

Bluesborn said...

See the thing about Bill Maher is that he is not the De facto leader of the Democratic Party.Bill is also an actual comedian having worked the clubs and done the standup routines etc.When he makes a politically loaded observation it is in the context of a one off joke and not a bitterly ruthless attack that goes on over the course of days or weeks.Limbaugh's humor is nothing more than a daily attack against progressive values masquerading as schtick.I'm tired of the false equivalencies.

proverbialleadballoon said...

what bluesborn said. to add to that, maher's words were directed at women in politics, while limbaugh attacked a layman. it serves as a warning to any citizen who dares cross the republican agenda, 'speak out, and your name will be smeared by those more powerful; you will be villanized by millions.'

Anonymous said...

I'm with Bluesborn on this one.
"It's not the same as attacking a person who isn't a public figure, but I really don't feel compelled to defend him on this."
Can you equivocate any more than this?