Why Do People Listen to Rush Limbaugh?

By Tana Ganeva, AlterNet. Posted March 14, 2009.

Bizeeb does not agree:

That's pure B.S. Rush Limbaugh does not go on the air and urge his listeners to commit crimes. (Jesus, I can't believe I'm defending Rush Limbaugh!) He says the usual Reaganesque crap that conservatives have been saying for 30-plus years.

Further, do you think that Germany's banning of Nazi symbols such as the swastika is appropriate? If so, you're not really in favor of free speech. Claiming support of free speech while allowing certain "overly offensive" things to be banned, is not support of free speech, it is supporting censorship.

Biflspud calls out both liberals and conservatives for engaging in smears and politicking at the expense of intelligent discourse:

Both left and right are attempting to brand each other in order to deflate the other side's arguments without actually considering them. Look at the current and continuing efforts to brand Obama as a socialist Muslim -- regardless of the logic of the stimulus package, we are told we need not think that hard, because being a socialist, Obama filled the stimulus full of socialist agendas.

So, with Limbaugh rearing his ugly head, the left is spinning him as the face of conservatism. Conservatives are like Limbaugh, and they want you to lose your job.

It's clever politicking, but it's not discourse. Then again, we haven't had relevant political discourse in this country for decades, so it's not surprising that we see little more than clever gamesmanship.

But Lilly points to something that’s different about the conservative version:

Millions of Americans are chronically full of rage. It's a short step to justifying that rage by turning it into a feeling of persecution (I am angry at being denied what I deserve because I am white, Christian, male, etc). And persecution, in turn, justifies aggression (what's being done to me is unfair and I'm not going to take it any more). This puts the aggressor on moral high ground. It is exactly there, on the moral high ground, that such as Limbaugh and [Alaska Gov. Sarah] Palin do their evil dance, assuring the already rageful that not only is their rage justified, but that a conduit exists between their rage and something that's happening in reality. Limbaugh is a propagandist, and Palin is a rabble-rouser. Does anyone remember the 1930s in Europe?

kegbot1 agrees that we should well remember what talented rabble-rousers often represent:

No matter how much people tried to make America a bastion of liberty and freedom (and succeeded for the most part, albeit in fits and starts) there has, almost from the beginning, been a strong streak of fascism lurking just below the surface in our society.

I think, if we engage in pop psychology, that there are, in any population, a percentage of people with authoritarian/strong-father personalities. They seek the comfort and security of a strict order where everyone is made to behave under an enforced set of social and legal rules. Throw conservative Christianity in that mix (perfectly constructed for that kind of mind), and this is what you get.

Zooeyhall has another explanation for Limbaugh’s popularity:

I live in Nebraska, and this horrible man's voice is blaring from almost every radio you hear. A sad commentary on the people in my state.

I would just like to add one other observation. This thoroughly unpleasant man is not just a "steam valve" for so many others' frustration. He is also a role model for many others out there -- reaffirming their own ruthlessness and harshness. I see it in so many managers, CEOs and others. This is the worst legacy of the guy.

frantic1971 brings up an intelligent solution:

We need to offer a viable alternative to Mr. Limbaugh. Rather than just sputtering -- as many posters here -- that his listeners are "idiots," "racists," "hicks," "right-wingers," etc.

I know many people who listen to him, and these people are not evil. They are just ordinary folks who are concerned about their jobs and their precarious economic situation. So when when Rush rants against illegal aliens, they are going to agree with him ...

Like it or not, the stark fact is that Limbaugh has definitely had success, and that millions of people listen to him faithfully. And I submit that this is due almost as much to a failure of the Left as it is to whatever dubious "gifts" that Rush has. We (Progressives) cannot just fall back on condemning all these people with smears and our own prejudices. Somehow we need to recognize why it is that the right-wing radio and Web sites are attracting so many. We need to offer an alternative.

See more stories tagged with: media, gop, limbaugh, conservatives

Tana Ganeva is an assistant editor at AlterNet.

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