Tweet of the Afternoon #2:

[calimary]

8. Oh MAN, have I really been screaming about that - for that long?

FORTY YEARS of limbaugh - who really broke the ice and led the way for all the rest of the vermin epidemic including all those listed. And I don't know who I want to scream at most at this point: Republicans - who schemed and seeded this in multiple ways, from media ownership to talent development, or Democrats - who either may have noticed something but didn't think it was all that big a deal, or just slept through the whole thing.

I don't know who's at bigger fault here.

The first time I heard limbaugh, my thought was "OY, here's trouble..." Back when I was still working on the radio, I remember telling friends that this worried me and that I suspected it could be the beginning of something really bad cuz this guy was glib and compelling to listen to, and listeners could really be taken in. And nobody else seemed all that bothered about it or took it as a serious threat. NOBODY.

And NOBODY actively supported a counter-push from Air America - which was about all we had back then, to argue the opposite points and push back on limbaugh & co. They had the airwaves pretty much to themselves - and when Air America folded, they had the whole ballgame to themselves, especially since owners could stack the deck at the local level with limbaugh clones of all shapes and sizes.

Pandora's box was opened. And the lid had soon been pried off, completely, and thrown away. And by now, it's been allowed to metastasize into a cancer that is now actively threatening to kill our democracy.

I have to work a lot harder to be hopeful these days.