Al Franken Was Right – Rush Limbaugh Really Is A Big Fat Idiot
Like many of my fellow Americans who voted against President Obama, I am skeptical, if not downright fearful, of the legislative proposals he put forward during the campaign. In spite of my lack of confidence in his policy prescriptions, I sincerely hope that he is able to successfully maneuver our nation through the difficult times ahead. Based on his current approval ratings, it appears that a large number of his former detractors share my sentiments. It only makes sense that we all hope for our nation to be prosperous and successful, regardless of our party affiliations.
Unfortunately, there are still a number of bitter Republicans out there who simply cannot bring themselves to hope for the best. Rush Limbaugh showed his true colors last week when he proclaimed, I Hope Obama Fails. I’ve lost track of the number of other rabid right-wingers who have echoed those same sentiments in the past few days. This post from Chris Wysocki is a great example of the attitude displayed by the sore losers among us. He has some perfectly valid concerns about our new President, but rather than pledging his efforts to put forth a committed opposition, he simply takes the position that Mr. Obama must fail.
One of the greatest anti-war pieces ever written is a brief story by Mark Twain called The War Prayer. After a rousing church service in which a community gathers to pray for victory in the coming war, God sends a messenger to explain to the congregation the unspoken implications of their request.
“O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it — for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.”
Just like the congregants in The War Prayer, Rush Limbaugh and his fellow doomsayers fail to recognize the unspoken implication of their own words. By hoping that Mr. Obama fails, what they are really saying is that they hope our economy languishes in a deep recession for the next four years. They are hoping for American industries to fail, and for our manufacturing base to be further diminished. They are hoping for millions more of our fellow Americans to lose their jobs and their homes. They are hoping for our financial system to collapse, and for the retirement security of an entire generation to be wiped out by falling stock prices. They are hoping that terrorists will once again feel free to attack us on our own soil without fear of reprisal.
We are at a moment in our nation’s history when failure is simply not an option. Those of us who believe that a particular policy will be harmful to our nation must put forth a committed opposition and do our best to moderate or defeat it. We must propose solutions of our own and convince the American public that our ideas are superior. Most of all, we must be willing to work with the new administration to secure a safe and prosperous future for ourselves and for our children. As painful as it may be for some among us to see Mr. Obama succeed, we cannot afford for him to fail.
The success of ANY administration is DIRECTLY linked to the success of this country and to wish harm or failure on this administration is only to wish harm or failure on our country and for that I have to say no thank you.
The GOP reveled in the immaturity of the left in their inability to let go of a loss in 2000 and again in 2004. Their seething hatred for the GOP for daring to win an election, which carried on through this inauguration and into the very website of the White House. We beat our chests claiming to be “better” than those lefty kooks because we weren’t sore losers and now that we lost this round, rather than acting like mature adults, many of us took it upon ourselves to bear the mantle of the immature cry babies.
You know what… GET OVER IT.
Well said Chris.
I think you are right to say that the success of a president is connected to the success of the nation…to a point. However, what Rush was saying is that if what a president wants to succeed in doing is harmful to the freedom and well-being of the nation then I do not want them to be successful. Did you actually listen to Rush or did you read a quote or see or hear a clip? I heard Rush say the same thing the other day in the context of what I just stated.
Ken,
I provided a link to the entire transcript of Limbaugh’s comments in my post. He did talk about wanting specific policies to fail, and I agree with him on those points. However, he also spoke about the desire to see Obama fail simply because he wanted his party to be victorious.
Well, I don’t agree with Rush on wanting Obama to fail for the benefit of the GOP. The Republicans should be more focused on what THEY stand for and what THEY want to accomplish than what Obama and the Dems are doing. I say they should let Obama have his appointments when the person is qualified, help him pass legislation when it doesn’t conflict the the principles of our constitutional republic and our party and meets the needs of the American people, but oppose him when he wants to increase taxes, federalize health care and so on. As far as the action in Iraq and Afghanistan goes, Congress gave the Office of the POTUS the authority under the War Powers Act to basically do what he wants until they rescind that authority. So far, neither party has tried to do so. If Congress wants to fight a war, they should be forced to DECLARE WAR…otherwise the POTUS should not have this power to expend nearly unlimited resources and time on wars the people don’t want. Personally, I support the war, but obviously the majority of Americans don’t. I understand the need for a POTUS to act quickly, but this and previous Congresses have not had the guts to take a stand one way or the other in regards to forcing the issue by revoking their approval or by declaring war to legally make war on foreign soil. I’ll be glad to keep Obama, maybe even vote for him next time if he does well and the GOP runs another loser, but I really would like to see terms limits on all reps and senators. They have far more power than POTUS does to affect individuals’ lives, and both parties are abusing the American people with policies that only add power and resources to the government and their own pockets to the detriment of the people. Kick the bums out! ALL OF THEM! What do you guys think…a whole new House every 8 years and a new Senate every 12?
Hi! Thought I’d drop by to see how you responded to my rant. You’re missing my point though. I’m not looking for the country to fail. I don’t want bread lines or prolonged recession or massive unemployment. I don’t want to see terrorists kill more of our citizens.
Here’s what I mean by “fail”. I want Barry to be unable to implement his socialist economic agenda. No income redistribution, no nationalization of the banks or the auto companies, no Obamacorp of children forced to toil at his behest. To him, that would be a failure, wouldn’t it? I want him to fail at dismantling the security apparatus that President Bush has put in place; I want Gitmo to keep interrogating Islamist scumbags so long as they keep giving up valuable information that keeps us alive. If that happens, Barry has “failed”, hasn’t he?
It is my fervent belief that if he succeeds in enacting his policies the country will be much worse off in four years. That is, the dire scenarios you ascribe to my desires will only come to pass if Barry succeeds.
Great post, I love the War Prayer excerpt from Twain, had never read that before. Very powerful.
Limbaugh is being tasteless and cheap in saying he wants Obama to fail, pure and simple. I oppose certain of President Obama’s policies and will do my level best to see to it that they fail, but if Obama himself is a failure, then that means terrible things for this country. That being said, I believe that ultimately many of his economic policies will unfortunately prove to be failures because they are founded on flawed and demonstrably false logic. But that is why we voice our loyal opposition, to prevent him from treading on the path to failure.
I think that Rush Limbaugh should be considered a domestic terrorist. While I fully support the right to free speech, I think this man is dangerous and would not be surprised if he is on an FBI or CIA “watch list.”
Lynda,
I think we all need to be very careful about the way we use words like terrorist. If the term is applied too loosely, it loses its real meaning. On the other hand, I have no problem if you want to refer to Limbaugh as a fat-ass buffoon.
Fat-ass buffoon it is!
Would it be better if I said I want Obama’s policies to fail? Some people might have a problem with this writer but his words ring true for me.
http://thehill.com/dick-morris/the-obama-presidency–here-comes-socialism-2009-01-20.html
If our Nation follows Obama’s direction we will fail.
Just remember that no Democracy has ever succeeded when 50% or more of the population pays no taxes. Obama has promised more than 50% of our citizens will pay no taxes. So he has promised to destroy The United States of America.
Let’s see… If Obama’s plans succeed we crumble the USA into a third world country, if Obama’s plans fail we are still alive and can try another path. Once we go down the path towards socialism it will be impossible to turn back.
Dem House, Dem Senate, Dem President.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.