Open letter to Republican politicians and staff: Limbaugh is dying and you're fucked!

[certainot]

Democrats might not know it but you know Limbaugh is the single asshole most responsible for this disaster. The guy who convinced millions that smoking doesn't cause cancer and that global warming and COVID are communist 'Democrat' hoaxes is going to die of lung cancer, probably before getting the 'credit' he deserves for all that death and destruction.

And you'll be left holding the bag.

At some point in the near future the moral and intellectual leader of the Republican Party the last 30 years won't be there to lead the talk radio army that's so important to cover for you. Limbaugh won't be there to lay out all those usual excuses and lies to enable your anti-American anti-democratic corruption and hypocrisy.

He won't be there to keep all the other radio blowhards in line. The transcripts of his show that have kept the Republican team on the same page for so long will disappear. The state level radio hosts who have been so good for attacking your opponents and repeating the lies you rely on to sell shit to Americans will begin to wander off with their own opinions. You know a lot of those talk show hosts are idiots who might start favoring more radical Republican challengers. Or those stations might want to look for more moderate opinions that will make you look out of touch and treasonous. How many Lincoln Project and never Trumper types are out there who think your sycophancy and global warming denial makes you unfit?

And pretty soon Democrats are going to start using artificial intelligence to transcribe and expose that secret talk radio bandwagon you've been riding.

You fucked up big time not convicting Trump in the senate. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will die of COVID because you shook in your loafers when Trump paraded his friend, neighbor, fellow Putin tool, and leader of the dumbass dittohead army around the golf course to scare you into ignoring the Mueller Report and all the other evidence telling you your president is a traitor.

If Biden/Harris win how far will you go in the next two months covering for Trump and enabling whatever sabotage he wants to try?

If the polls are completely wrong and Trump and his Russian friends pull it off again know that Limbaugh won't be there to yell "DEEP STATE!" all day to cover for whatever shit Trump wants you to help him pull.

He also won't be there to intimidate you, either. So get ready, the opportunity to do the right thing and be a patriot is coming.

[Clearly fogged in]

1. Really?

You say, The transcripts of his show that have kept the Republican team on the same page for so long will disappear.

My question is, and this is an honest question, Do his listeners/followers actually believe that he guides a national party? By himself?

[certainot]

8. recent books by Brian Rosenwald and Paul Matzko might convince you

he claims to know what americans want but he's really a conduit for other sources which it look likely to include those of russian origin since about 2008. he doesn't reflect public opinion - he creates it for the heritage foundation and other think tanks and interests. one of his mentors is lord conrad black, who has lobbied for the G8 to accept russia, for instance.

his 'genius' is lying with certitude and laying out a prechewed smorgasbord of talking points, excuses, and rationalizations for RW media and followers. certainty is what authoritarians crave over truth. like trump he is capable of massive levels of denial which allow him to rationalize polar opposites in the same paragraph. he simplifies the world to help his authoritarian followers judge in absolutes to create certainty. like trump he eases their fears of a universe full of complexity and uncertainty. it's the certitude that counts. everything is black and white, right and wrong, good and bad.

and it all works because he hides behind call screeners, democrats have ignored him and blame fox, the cartoon cliff notes for all that unchallenged repetition, and his 600 radio stations are among the loudest in the country and lead at least another 600 that repeat the same shit all day long.

[Clearly fogged in]

11. I've heard of that foundation

For some reason Gingrich comes to mind with them more

[JHB]

20. Well, it was the tag team of Limbaugh and Gingrich which put the GOP on the precise trajectory...

...to someone like Trump (though they'd been moving in that general direction for much longer), so it's no surprise there's yet another connection.

[Clearly fogged in]

23. on some days it's if you don't ask you'll never know

other days you find out more by not asking. sure did find out a lot about limbaugh in this thread

[JHB]

24. Here's another one:

A lot of people remark in astonishment about how Republican pols are deathly afraid that Trump will attack them on Twitter if they deviate from complete support.

But it's nothing new. They've been trained into that subservience to people who speak directly to their base voters.

For more than a quarter-century, any Republican who downplayed Limbaugh, said something like "Well, Rush doesn't know everything", or just failed to provide sufficient praise, was on his show within 24 hours (48 tops) trying out for they Olympic backpedaling team. "On, no Rush! I said nothing of the sort. The lying liberal media took my words out of context, just like they always do, just like you always say. You're a swell guy, and everybody knows it!"

[certainot]

34. the amazing thing is how they can worship and be scared of a guy who can't appear in

public without freaking out because he knows his entire presence on the planet is a lie and unsupported by any scientific evidence

[Laelth]

2. If they pretend to be good patriots now, I won't believe them.

Their last chance to redeem themselves came and went in February when they had the chance to remove Trump, only the third President EVER impeached by the House of Representatives, from office. They blew it. They are now tied to Trump and his abysmal legacy forever.

-Laelth

[PJMcK]

3. There are plenty of asses ready to fill in for Limbaugh

Sean Hannity
Tucker Carlson
Laura Ingraham
Jeannine Pirro

The list goes on and on.

Just as nature abhors a vacuum, Republicans need a leader for their daily dose of bullshit. Someone will emerge.

[certainot]

10. they all followed his lead. the others you name, along with the levins, becks, savage, etc are

are not going to follow any one of the others and none have his lying and excusing skillls - they're going to be all over the place and can't be trusted to interpret events/ republican disasters with the same skill and denial

the whole talk radio monopoly was built for him, around his show, and the ad industry cant get the same ad dollars for any of the others or any combo. different station owners will want different replacements - and some may find it to be a good excuse to change programming and be rid of the dittoheads

[newdayneeded]

17. agree

I believe Rush is the king pin. Once he's gone, I believe talk radio takes a major hit (finally). I really believe Hannity only has his following because the radio dial stays on after Rush.

[certainot]

19. it's sad he might go and then it falls apart and we go 10 pts left and all that liberals had to

do years ago was not ignore him/it..... worse, dems will blame it on a symptom of republicans not having that $90MIL/week ($1000/hr x 1200 stations x 15 hrs/day) coordinated messaging anymore, or something someone actually did

[Clearly fogged in]

21. Instead of seeing limbaugh as the king pin

isn't he more like the guy who finds out where the parade is going and runs in front it? From what I've actually heard in the past on the radio, it seems like:
1. something happens
2. limbaugh remarks on it after the fact
3. his listener imprint like geese

[newdayneeded]

26. kingpin

I think he was the leader of the pack. Almost like he had a red phone on his desk to get the latest RNC talking points. If this man would've died of cancer 30 years ago, we'd be in a MUCH better world. You can tie a lot of racism, women hating, and hate to this guy, He changed the nation to a downward trajectory.

[certainot]

32. they bought up 600 stations for a guy who could lie about everything and

couldn't stop talking. a gold medal winner sex on the wrong brain fear-driven authoritarian certainty freak

probably inherited it, like trump

[PJMcK]

45. Okay, how about this scenario

Trump loses the election then sets up his own media network. Trump takes over for Limbaugh.

This is from a New Yorker article:

A former Trump associate who is in the media world speculated that Trump might instead fill the talk-radio vacuum left by Rush Limbaugh, who announced in mid-October that he has terminal lung cancer. Neither Limbaugh nor his producers could be reached for comment. But the former associate suggested that if Trump anchored such a show—perhaps from his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida—he could continue to try to rally his base and remain relevant. The former associate pointed out that Trump could broadcast the show after spending the morning playing golf. Just as on “The Apprentice”—and in the White House—he could riff, with little or no preparation. Trump has been notably solicitous of Limbaugh, giving him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and tweeting sympathetically about his health. Limbaugh has become rich from his show, and is estimated to be worth half a billion dollars; Trump has publicly commented on how lucrative Limbaugh’s gig is, exclaiming in a speech last December that Limbaugh “makes, like, they tell me, fifty million a year, and it may be on the low side—so, if anybody wants to be a nice conservative talk-show host, it’s not a bad living.”

Here's the excellent but long article:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/09/why-trump-cant-afford-to-lose

Very good analysis of the state of electoral affairs at the moment.

[Klaralven]

40. There are plenty of backups

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_conservative_talk_radio_hosts

[Goodheart]

4. There's no shortage of lying blowhard assholes.

[ooky]

5. My vote is for Comey as Single Asshole Most Responsible

for Trump disaster. Limbaugh couldn't have done it without him.

[Ponietz]

9. Right, Comey was the proximate cause

But I think Rupert Murdoch/Roger Ailes bears the most responsibility. Hard for me to envision how America can continue as long as weevils like him continue to operate. Breitbart, InfoWars, and a thousand others are “enjoying” record viewership.

[certainot]

13. limmbaugh came 10 years before fox and murdoch

most of it piggybacks the base repetition limbaugh and those stations have been doing for 30 years -

republicans know where it started and that limbaugh can't be replaced

[mopinko]

14. he convinced a small percentage of ppl to stay home.

he didnt convince anyone to vote for this asshole.
or to listen to limpballs.
or watch fux gnus.

[certainot]

18. comey's whole stupidity was set up with 30 years of ignoring rw radio while

the republicans used it to swiftboat and attack good citizens and democrats - like hillary

in particular, rw radio /limbaugh spent years creating buzz of 'public concern' for benghazi, hillary, obama conspiracies, then excusing trump and setting up that they were going to scream bloody murder that obama was using the 'deep state' to favor hillary.... and so on

[ooky]

27. No doubt.

But without Comey's stupidity, Hillary would have been President, and we wouldn't be in this serious of a mess that we are in right now.

[certainot]

29. yeah and that slippery bit of moss is what caused me to slip and wreck my shoulder

instead of me figuring it would be stupid for me to try that jump in the first place.

democrats are constantly blaming symptoms, like money in politics, media deregulation, voter suppression.....

[GoCubsGo]

36. Actually, this all goes back to a guy named Lee Atwater.

Without whom none of the last 30 years of Republican criminality would have been possible.

[Klaralven]

41. You never listened to "Life Line" funded by H L Hunt?

[certainot]

47. they needed rw radio to take atwater national, ubiquitous, everpresent, constant

[uponit7771]

42. +1,

[UTUSN]

6. "single asshole most responsible for" : The whole wingnut revival, not just SHITLER.

The wingnuts (think: John Birch Society) had been a discredited, fading thing, with RAYGUN as the only hurrah they ever had. When LIMBOsevic went national in 1988, he began, single-handedly resusitating the whole crap thing, going full Scorched Earth, no compromise, no Moderates, and his first push came with GINGRICH. Poppy BUSH wasn't wingnut enough for him and actually neither was W.Shrub, but he had to support them, barely, biding his time until more wingnuts came forward.

LIMBOsevic, long before SHITLER, was who gave permission to the wingnut zombies to be fine with their racism and Lib-HATRED, teaching them how to say the things in (barely) acceptable terms.

The point I will disagree with in the O.P. is that LIMBOsevic controlled everything. I don't believe he ever saw SHITLER coming, just embraced him as the best thing (for them/wingnuts) they had available, certain better (for them) than the BUSH types.

[certainot]

15. trump and limbaugh have been hanging out- dinner golf etc a long time

limbaugh got trump through the primaries, excusing trump and dissing bush and rubio

i'm not saying he controlled anything - he's just a conduit, the megaphone with hatred and bigotry for anything different, liberal - heritage foundation, drudge, rove, putin through others (breitbart etc) feed him

when the russian hack of the east anglia climate institute (2009)was used with wikileaks ( just like the clinton podesta hacking years later) and limbaugh pushed it into the mainstream a week later to create "climategate" in time to derail obama at copenhagen, putin had more to gain than the kochs et al. and trump weighed in at the time, for some reason.

in 2014 trump got sam nunberg to listen to "1000s of hours of talk radio" (prob inclluding the same states those indicted russsians visited)- imo to help russian trolling and hacking spies coordinate with the trump run.

2014 limbaugh screamed about ebola fear for the month of oct and stopped right after republicans won 9 senate seats

when the covid hit limbaugh and trump were well coordinated in denial

[GoCubsGo]

37. Don't forget Lee Atwater.

[lpbk2713]

7. I hope he waits until after January 20th.

If he expires before then asshole will declare a national week of mourning.

And the service will be in the rotunda.

[certainot]

35. maybe then he'll finally get the recognition he deserves - when his 'accomplishments' and

quotables are dug up by media and he can be given the head cheerleader uniform

[keithbvadu2]

12. Tucker is trying to be the new Rushbo. But he's a pipsqueak, not a blowhard.

Tucker is trying to be the new Rushbo.

But he's a pipsqueak, not a blowhard.

[certainot]

16. and levin sounds like a keebler elf perpetually banging his thumb with a hammer

[Progressive Jones]

30. LMAO !!! 'Tis True! nt

[Ilsa]

22. They didn't phrase this quite right:

The guy who convinced millions that smoking doesn't cause cancer and that global warming and COVID are communist 'Democrat' hoaxes is going to die of lung cancer, probably before getting the 'credit' he deserves for all that death and destruction.

Should be:

The guy who convinced millions that smoking doesn't cause cancer and that global warming and COVID are communist 'Democrat' hoaxes is going straight to fucking hell.

[certainot]

28. it's possible all those thoughts and prayers can save him

[WyattKansas]

25. Unfortunately asshole Republicans are now copying what they grew up on with Republican propaganda

Lies, bullshit, and smears to destroy the Democrats, News, Government, Governing, Science, Logic, Truth, and Civil Order in the United States of America that made it so damn Great. The U.S. has endured several decades of pissed down and bat shit loony obstruction to what once made this country the envy of the World with it's Integrity, Honor, Leadership, Ideals, Science, Education, Examples, and proven track record to accomplish the impossible always. The only thing the United States of America has accomplished the last 50 years has been exporting War, instituting Vulture Capitalism, and making sure Misery is the norm for all... That is why I hate that damn USA USA USA chant and anyone trying to claim the United States is #1, because they are worthless claims of achievement without credentials and they only reflect fascism.

The choice is very clear now for all, Greatness with Progressive Policies from the Democratic Party or the same nosedive of Regressive Destruction from the Republican Party we have had for 50 years.

[certainot]

38. "several decades" of coordinated unchallenged ignored radio blowhards attacking and

obstructing democrats, reversing reforms, deregulating and giving tax breaks to billionaires, denying global warming, lying us into war, demonizing good people and elevating the worst in the republican party, and so on

[pecosbob]

31. The post-football radio propaganda shows aren't going away

Neither is Sinclair.

[certainot]

33. they will when the the advertising industry has to start asking clients if they REALLY want to

support trump and global warming and covid death

that will happen due to AI (transcription), making Stoprush x 100 easy and them can't figure out how

[apnu]

39. Alex Jones is lobbying hard for Limbaugh's job.

Nature abhors a vacuum.

But does Jones have the sophistication, savi, and support Rush has?

[certainot]

43. jones is a complete nutjob, like glen beck

republican leaders have to trust a talk radio leader to stay on message and be able to chew over the same lies and bullshit for hours at a time. they need someone they can trust to prechew and present their PR campaigns and talking points to the rest of RW media. and they could trust limbaugh to be 'subtle' in the hate and racism and attacking democrats. he could rationalize and excuse anything with royal certitude, and they could trust him not to spill the beans.

[apnu]

44. IMO Rush is a nutjob.

I think you can polish a turd and pass it off as something else.

For a while Glenn Beck was beating Rush and was more durable. Then he flamed out and they went back to Rush, having no other option.

Rush has said and done many terrible things, and remains a star for the GOP today not because of the insane drivel, but because he's been a loyal attack dog for anything the GOP wants.

Beck and Jones aren't predictably loyal like that. I think that's the main reason why when Rush dies, the GOP will have a problem. Its brand loyalty they want, not sanity or reasonability.

[certainot]

46. they all have really bad sex on the wrong brain

he's a nutjob too but not a religious nut or one that will accidentally blow his own nuts off or start hanging around the schoolyard handing out cookies.

it's similar to trump's - insecurity and fear caused by sex on the wrong brain/certainty deficit disorder would have paralyzed them if they hadn't compensated by developing the brain circuitry that allows them to live in a simplified fantasy world where everything is binary - good bad, white black, win lose to eliminate frightening uncertainty and unpredictability and create comforting certainty

here's

Certainty Deficit Disorder (CDD)

Impatient satisfaction-demanding reproductive impulses create a need for certainty that can supersede fact or reality. Certainty ends thinking and brings ‘satisfaction’ through closure, finality, and premature conclusion. The irrational need for non-existent certainty requires avoidance of natural ever-present uncertainty which increases anxiety and fear and motivates a wide range of short and long-term coping strategies, such as denial and authoritarianism (see CDD table below).

Humans may cultivate thought patterns that reward lying and denial in order to create certainty and reduce uncertainty. Rationalization of certainty and denial of reality requires engaging the right hemisphere which releases trapped 'sex energy' as a reward. Certainty can become more important than truth.

Researchers studying 50 years of psychological profiles of conservatives identified 'avoidance of uncertainty' as a defining motivation ( Political Conservatism As Motivated Social Cognition, Jost, J.T., et al, 2003, May, American Psychological Association's Psychological Bulletin). Authoritarianism is sometimes measured with the Uncertainty Avoidance Index, or UAI.

Need for/
dependence on

certainty
certitude
finality
conclusion
closure
completion
termination

Motivates avoidance of

uncertainty
doubt
unpredictability
disorder
change
complexity
diversity
nature

Symptoms include

stress
anxiety
fear
frustration
paranoia
ignorance
sexual dysfunction
low empathy
low imagination

Response: Certainty creation and uncertainty avoidance through

denial
lying
control
order
conformity
simplification
absolutism
dogmatism
intolerance
judgmentalism
racism
bigotry
sexism
misogyny
injustice
extremism
fanaticism
ritual
destruction
death

Long-term response

patriarchy
religion
materialism
capitalism
corporatism
authoritarianism
nationalism
totalitarianism
communism
fascism
militarism