HATE BEYOND LIMINAL

As long as media personality Rush Limbaugh is in the driver's seat of Republican Party rhetoric, the Democratic Party looks safe in winning elections. And, rhetoric it is--arrogant, stentorian bombast that seeks to divide the electorate.

Yes, Mr. Limbaugh is popular among a subset of GOP activists, but this insures the Dems will win elections, because Mr. Limbaugh alienates a great deal of the middle. And, the middle is required for winning elections today.

Re racism, I have heard Mr Limbaugh make what I considered liminally racist comments, slightly under the threshold for what would be considered blatantly racist. However, as far as effective rhetoric employed to promote fear, liminal comments are quite effective.

But, Mr Limbaugh goes far beyond the liminal. Can anyone deny that he excels in generating fear? Listen to his vitriolic use of the word "liberal" to provide his listeners an object to hate. This reminds me of the "Two Minutes Hate" propaganda film with hate exercises spewed everyday on telescreens in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Similarly, Mr. Limbaugh, to me, is the dystopian personification of entertainer-exercised hate, far beyond the liminal in our all-too-real divisive present.

Again, I'd say the Democratic Party should be quite pleased the leadership of GOP opposition (at least publicly) is now firmly in the hands of fear-mongering Mr. Limbaugh. His is an alienating, divisive, threatening political rhetoric which motivates a minority sector, a sector of the electorate who do not want true discussion of issues; they want to be handed a political line they can accept without a full airing. Mr. Limbaugh, the entertainer, wants to create true believers (the so-called "Ditto-Heads") and garner high listener ratings numbers and collect a huge salary.

But, majoritarian politics will always need a uniting figure. Mr. Limbaugh is not it. The Dems should be majorly happy.

SEN. OBAMA AND RUMORS

In a country so large in population it should not be surprising that there are forces at-large in our country who see it as their place to spread lies about politicians running for office whom they oppose. And now we have the powerful electronic medium of the Internet and email which is easily used to keep lies alive.

To wit, the anti-Obama machine has been working tirelessly (and evilly, in my estimation) to smear his history, words, and intentions. Entertainer-propagandists such as Rush Limbaugh, who is a master at innuendo, have spread the lie about the purported comment by Michelle Obama uttering the label "Whitey" at a public event. No tape has ever been produced, but the Fox Network and Sean Hannity thought it just fine to keep the rumor going through some news cycles before commentator Roger Stone admitted he did not have the tape and did not know of anyone who did. The point is--and Sean Hannity and his ilk know it well--that just bringing up a rumor in a supposed news show is enough to cause doubt in the public's mind. That is the purpose of the creation of rumors. And, that is one of the evil purposes of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. Expect more of it. It is a sickness in the civic forum and I blame people like Hannity and Limbaugh and their network sponsors and their funnelers of disinformation for egregious direliction of civic responsibility.

You can log on this website that Sen. Obama's campaign must maintain solely to combat the rumor machine.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

I announce here that I have made a monetary donation to Sen. Obama's campaign for President.