by Lee Stranahan
As I've said before, if sometimes it seems like I'm writing directly TO you, Bob - I'm usually not. When I am, I try to make it clear. Usually, I look around the blog-o-tubes to see what's out there in the zeitgeist and then I write my take on it. I often comment on the way my comrades are looking at issues, like Rush or Rick Warren or Edwards or whatever because I'll look at five blogs and they are all sorta saying the same basic thing. The GDAB blog is part of that pastiche but not the only part.
So if I say 'stop the fat jokes' it's a general idea, not telling you to knock off the fat jokes. In fact, writers like Bob and Elvis do them a lot better than anyone.
As for addressing his ideas, I often find myself attacked for even suggesting he's GOT ideas. Rush Limbaugh's appeal to his large listening audience is NOT primarily based on hate and bile and all the other negatives. It's like people who don't listen to Howard Stern not understanding that a lot of Howard fans love him because he's really smart and one of the best interviewers out there, period. (Trivia - Rush and Howard have the exact same birthday.)
In order to get into discussion of Rush's ideas, it helps to be able to lay out the positive appeal of them. In other words, he's got 20 million listeners who like Rush Limbaugh because he's smart, funny, and expresses a view of the world they see as positive, patriotic and pro-business...especially small business. And it's WRONG. Got that, everybody? I said it's WRONG - but if you don't actually understand the appeal, the discussion doesn't go anywhere and we're left with our own left wing echo chamber as a mirror image of the right wing one.