Why Does Rush Limbaugh Want Obama to Fail?
Putting the Radio Icon’s Comments on Obama in the Proper Perspective
What Does Limbaugh Mean?
As to the highly publicized comments where conservative radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, said, “I want him [Obama] to fail.”; Limbaugh himself offered an analogy that this year’s 98 million Super Bowl viewers can relate to. In 2009’s NFL championship game, Limbaugh, a devout Pittsburgh Steelers fan, wanted Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner to fail. Limbaugh harbors no feelings of ill will toward Warner as a person, but his failure meant the success of something more important in his view, a Steelers victory.
The leading conservative commentator firmly believes the failure of President Obama’s agenda means the success something far more important than a professional football team, namely the United States of America. Limbaugh is of the rapidly growing opinion that the policies being passed by the current Presidency and Democrat-controlled Congress such as the pork-heavy Economic Stimulus Plan and the 9,000-plus-earmark-laden Omnibus Spending Bill, as well as renewed discussion of the press-censoring Fairness Doctrine can only lead to a crippled American economy and are in truth the expansion of government in a push toward a socialist society.
In Rush's Defense
It should be noted that Limbaugh’s views are definitely not without their merit; especially in light of macroeconomic laws such as those which state that increased government spending (a larger government share of gross domestic product) leads directly to reduced consumer, investment, and net export spending and that the increased flow of money by the Federal Reserve Bank for the purposes of economic stimulation can cause heightened inflation. His concerns lose none of their validity when today’s circumstances are compared historically to the reforms implemented by governments in the first half of the 20th Century, particularly those promoted by Italy’s Benito Mussolini during the early 1920’s and those introduced by the Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party) during Germany’s transition from the Weimar Republic.¹
Regardless of the soundness of his assertions, one thing is clear: Rush Limbaugh believes that conservative principles alone will lead to continued American prosperity; and as a supporter of larger government as the solution, Barack Obama’s policies must be opposed to ensure that prosperity. Keeping those beliefs in mind as a backdrop for his commentary, it is now evident that Mr. Limbaugh has the responsibility, by compulsion of his convictions, to speak out against the policies of this new administration. Right or wrong, should a man be faulted for adding his views, however controversial, to the public discourse? In the era of George W. Bush, the full spectrum of opinions was publicly tolerated, even if those opinions were critical of the elected government. Such was the spirit that founded this country; and consequentially, the word “un-American” comes to the forefront when the collective media and the heads State rally to exact misrepresentations against a private citizen exercising the liberties granted him by the Constitution.
Sources: ¹ Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg
Rush Limbaugh Speaking to CPAC
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