Missing The Message in Favor of The Man

I've long lamented the loss in American political discourse of any ability to rationally discuss the issues. Try to talk politics with anyone these days and you quickly run into a barrage of unsupportable assertions, unrelated non sequiturs, emotional sound-bites and an assault of character defamation. We default to slogans and ignore entire elephants in our room.

The latest step in the deterioration of dialogue comes from the Minister of Propaganda in the polital New Wave administration, Rahm Emmanuel. Remember as you consider this that this is the party that so masterfully vilified Karl Rove as a political puppet-master. They characterized him as a manipulator of mis-information and a prankster of the dirtiest political tricks. That was all to change under the leadership and example of The Enlightened One, shall his name be held sacred.

Now, the message isn't about the financial recovery or the war on terror or the need for development of America's energy resources. Nope, the message is about creating a despicable face of leadership for the Republican Party. That's right, the positioning is to place someone who already holds little respect from America's left wing as the voice, the guidance, the agenda-setter of the GOP. If you've already got 30 or 40% of the population thinking someone is a bit of a buffoon, it should be easy then to link the Republicans to that individual and therefore be well on your way to discrediting the entire ideology.

I'm talking about conservative spokesman and talk radio icon, Rush Limbaugh. Identifying him as the director of the Republicans sets the left up to then dismiss anything proposed by the party as some sort of blow-hard's directives. Start with this piece, but then be sure to follow the link to full article:

Bogeyman Distraction

Let's get this straight. Rush is a radio personality. He is a very popular radio personality. He is bombastic, controversial, humorous and entertaining. He speaks emphatically on what he believes, and in the process makes an incredible amount of money. But, he isn't the leader of the party, the definer of the ideology, or the policy-maker of America. He's an entertainer...and a very good one.

Or how about this account of a pathetic slash by a once-talented comic:

Black Humor Attempt

Increasingly obvious is the tactic of the left to accuse their opposition of that which they do with impunity. They point the finger of blame while far exceeding the same sins in their own behavior.