Re: Rush Limbaugh and Kurt Warner

2009-03-02T12:31:00.000-08:00

"Now about my, still to me, mysteriously controversial comment that I hope President Obama fails. I was watching the Super Bowl and, as you know, I love the Pittsburgh Steelers... Kurt Warner on the field for the Arizona Cardinals and I sure as heck want you to know I hope he failed. I did not want the Cardinals to win. I wanted Warner to make the biggest fool of himself possible."

-Rush Limbaugh at the 2009 CPAC

That was pretty much the most repulsive analogy I've ever heard. There are people out there busting their asses to support their families, crying themselves to sleep because of the financial harshities of the world and in general not thriving so that CEOs can get a bigger piece of the pie and Limbaugh is too busy with his head up his ass rooting for the failure of Obama's economic policies, because he sees the Republican party as his football team, to realize that economic and political policy is life or death for some people and not a fucking game. There are consequences when the leaders of our country fail and they have serious implications for the well-being of our populace. Probably Rush is living too comfortably to remember that.

"Did the Democrats want the war in Iraq to fail? Well, they certainly did."

Did I want the war in Iraq to fail? No. Hell no. I wanted the Republican arguments that got us into the war in Iraq to fail at getting us there in the first place, sure, but that's a whole hell of a lot different. I, like millions of other Americans, had the foresight to see that it was a bad situation we'd be getting ourselves into. After we were there I absolutely wanted the war to end as successfully and quickly as possible with minimum suffering and loss of life on both sides and as optimal a situation as possible for the Iraqi citizenry coming out of it. I wish Shock and Awe would have succeeded in ending the war in a day. I wish we would have been greeted as liberators. That doesn't mean it's actually what I thought would happen, and it turns out I was right to be skeptical, but I really wish that it did work out. Honestly. I value life and happiness, I think we all do. I'm pretty sure that's all anyone wanted. The debate was over how to get it and I'd like to think that there are many conservatives out there that aren't so flat-out stupid as Limbaugh to think that everyone who didn't support the war wanted anything approaching failure for us during that war.

Now that the obligatory explanation of my stance is done with, I'd like to say this to Rush and Rushites:

You're destroying your party. Since I realize that discourse is important in this country and I don't want to see any party in an unmitigated position of power I'm not really looking forward to the vacuum left when the Republicans implode and the Libertarian party steps up (and slowly loses its emphasis on social liberty so as to become The Republican Party Lite). I think such a position would be damaging for our country because I believe that power corrupts and a capital-D Democratically controlled government with no tangible opposition would be as dangerous as any government with no tangible opposition. Please, keep voting, keep voicing your opinions, keep opposing Democrats but stop seeing this as a football game. This mindset isn't winning you any votes, it's only getting Rush better ratings, and if you see this as a game I'd like to hear about how often you've convinced anyone rooting for the other team (e.g. 52% of the country) to start rooting for your team by talking about how much you want the other team to fail.

Oh dear, John McCain.

2008-10-11T11:37:00.000-07:00

Looking around today, mostly finding my links on Digg's top in 24, I've realized one thing: John McCain has unequivocally lost the election. He has lost in absolute terms even beyond polling or debates of policy. Over the course of this election, John McCain has lost what made him John McCain. He has lost his base of good-natured supporters yearning for an honest yet conservative, Republican but not theocratic President. He has lost his stearn yet level-headed demeanor. He has lost his integrity by caving in to the pressures of this campaign and creating a ticket that, while perhaps more likely to win an election would be far less successful in running the country. The disconnect between pre-campaign McCain and today's McCain is easy to see. There's recent video of a resurgent old McCain talking to supporters who are parroting the exact mindset campaign McCain has sought to instill in his supporters. Seeing old McCain talk this way says exactly one thing: his campaign has lost coherence. It no longer has a winning message to say to the American people other than "we'd do a better job somehow." John McCain has lost, and all we can do now is hope that old McCain manages to stop new McCain's campaign before he loses anymore of what's made his career worthwhile.

The Clear Minded One

Re: Rush Limbaugh and Kurt Warner

Oh dear, John McCain.