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Re: Joe Carter, Rush, and Paul Harvey

By Hunter Baker on 3.2.09 @ 11:52AM

Joe,

I share your great love of Paul Harvey. There was something about the way he spoke on the radio that completely captured me. I can't recall having ever switched him off. And the thing was, he was just as wonderful talking about the latest Coleman Thermos or Bose Wave Radio as he was talking about the economy. Surely, the advertisers compensated him well for selling their products so gracefully and so convincingly.

Where I differ is with your tone regarding Rush Limbaugh. Like you, I don't agree with everything he says. But the man deserves more props than you seem willing to give. He is more than an entertainer. He is simply the best talk radio host who has ever lived.

I don't mean to insult Sean Hannity, but Rush is far better than Hannity in the radio format. He's far better than anyone toiling in the genre he single-handedly created. The only thing I don't like about Rush's show is the callers, but he is less likely to lean on them as a crutch than many of his contemporaries. (Note to callers: the point of you being on the air is to entertain the listeners. Be good.)

Paul Harvey and the old Reader's Digest gently pushed many millions of Americans to the center-right, but I suspect we would make a mistake to write Rush off as a mere entertainer. He's made converts of his own. A great many if I can extrapolate from the number of professional men who have told me their own story of leading their lives as Democrats only to have Rush change their minds like flipping a light switch.

I suspect he may have Harvey's longevity, too. It's a very different type of personality and product Rush offers, but it ain't bad.

topics:
Rush Limbaugh

View all comments (22) | Leave a comment

Joe Carter| 3.2.09 @ 1:13PM

I suspect we would make a mistake to write Rush off as a mere entertainer. He's made converts of his own.

I don't doubt that he's made converts, but the question is, "Too what?" Limabaugh's conservatism is of the Rotary Club rah-rah Republicanism: People and business are great, Democrats and government are bad. There's certainly a place for that sort of thing, but we shouldn't confuse it with conservatism.

Also, my problem isn't so much with Rush but with many of his supporters. If Obama is "The One", Rush has become for many, "The Other One." To speak ill of the man is to instantly become a pariah and to have one's conservative bona fides questioned. I find this both absurd and insane.

The guy is talented, not question about that. But his talent is for talking, a very narrow sort of divisive speech at that. To treat Rush as anything more than an entertainer means that we are relegating conservatism (and, for what it matter, the GOP) to a reactionary enclave of people who defer to a charismatic figure.

JohnnySquares| 3.2.09 @ 1:31PM

I totally agree on Paul Harvey! There was something about his voice, you simply could not change the channel when you heard him.

I didn't make a point to listen to his show but he was on before Rush on a local AM station and when I would take lunch earlier than usual I would catch him and just get sucked in. Maybe it was because he sounded like my grandfather and when my grandfather spoke to tell me and my family how the world was, we listened.

Rest In Piece Mr. Harvey...

ruth| 3.2.09 @ 1:55PM

"Too what?" Nice mastery of the English language, Joe.

ruth| 3.2.09 @ 2:59PM

RSM (My Fave) has an interesting piece on Limbaugh today on AmSpec's main page. He tells the story of Onakoya, a Nigerian immigrant taxi cab driver, who is a loyal Dittohead and is terribly disappointed that he can't hear Rush speak at CPAC. Being the true conservative gentleman that he is, RSM invited the cabbie to watch Rush in a private hospitality suite. Onakoya respects Limbaugh because "....He is a man, you know," Onakoya spoke with emphasis. "He is not at all wishy-washy." I guess some people get Rush, and some people don't; regardless of their social station. But if you don't understand that Rush is a dreamer, an idealist who wants to believe the best about us as a people, as Americans--it says more about you than it does El Rushbo.

BJC| 3.2.09 @ 4:00PM

Hunter, you are exactly spot on in writing that Rush Limbaugh is "simply the best talk radio host who has ever lived. " ...Not to mention that Rush is also a wildly successful businessman and de facto head of the Reaganite conservative movement. And you are also accurate in warning against dismissing Rush "as a mere entertainer." Witness the fact that Limbaugh listeners TEST out as best informed of all media consumers -- demonstrating that Rush is a teacher. To toss him off as "entertaining" is to damn him with feint (I mean that and not"faint") praises -- and by entension his listeners. The only criticism I consider at all fair about Rush is that listening to him at times substitutes for the necessary concomitant action ... but I suspect that, too, is about to change -- and is yet another reason for the Leftist assaults on Rush -- and by entension his listeners, who are after all "bitterly clinging" to their God, their guns and their radios.

BJC| 3.2.09 @ 4:03PM

Typo apology: Should be "extension" not "entension" ... although I guess that was something of a Freudian slip typo with "intention" trying to meld itself with "extension.

Vegas Taxi Driver| 3.2.09 @ 4:19PM

The work ethic of Paul Harvey and his integrity as a person was way above the norm. Paul Harvey was one of my favorites when I was growing up. Paul Harvey was a one of a kind and he will be missed.

BD57| 3.2.09 @ 5:16PM

C'mon, Joe - you're extrapolating from Rush's callers and the type of folks who post on political websites to the general population (a fool's errand at best).

People are aggravated by your attacks on Limbaugh - yes, you're attacking him (I'd say you consign him to the same place where I put Coulter and Michael Savage) - because they're tired of conservatives shooting their own.

If you don't like the way Limbaugh makes an argument, then point the way to the conservatives (still living, that is) who do it the right way.

That's what your eulogy of Paul Harvey should have been; sadly, you got sidetracked.

ConservativeWanderer| 3.2.09 @ 5:58PM

Thank you, Hunter, for a well-balanced piece.

Mr. Carter, you need to remember the first rule of holes: when you find yourself in one, stop digging.

You've turned far too defensive on this topic... so defensive that it's obvious to most people that our criticism has hit a nerve. And now your pride is involved; clearly you're thinking something along the lines of, "hey, I've hit the big time, I'm a blogger with a big website now, who are these nobodies and minor bloggers (like this ConservativeWanderer guy) to tell me that I'm wrong?" Maybe not those exact words, but that's the attitude that you're evidencing, in big red neon letters.

So, I think it's time for you to take a step back from the blogging for a few days, to cool off and get your perspective back. I do that myself from time to time--luckily I have other writers on my blog to keep the articles coming--so there's no shame in it. We all need to decompress every now and again.

Interloper| 3.2.09 @ 6:18PM

Rush Limbaugh is not a problem for conservatives merely because of his Babbitry, as Joe Carter implies. Limbaugh's pathology embraces the broad underbelly of American society - anti-intellectualism, racism, provincialism, classism, etc. He channels the Ronald Reagan of the campaign kick-off at Mississippi's Neshoba County Fair in 1980, reminding Americans of certain unpleasant realities about the president conservatives consider ideal.

Limbaugh is Exhibit One, written very, very large, that the Republican Party does not represent the aspirations of most Americans. We are a diverse lot that will get more diverse, even as the demographic Limbaugh appeals to stamps its collective foot and turns blue in the face. The Southern Regional Party (aka the Republicans) wants to go backward to times that were far from ideal. Most Americans want to go forward to develop a society that solves its problems instead of sweeping them under the rug.

But, let's not blame the entire disintegration of the GOP on Rush Limbaugh. One obese, self-imposedly semi-deaf, Viagra popping, sex tour taking, bigotry spouting, not long for this world man is not the cause of that. For some reason the GOP has disproportionately attracted the kind of ill-educated, conspiracy theory vulnerable, mean-spirited people who admire someone like Limbaugh. Those same people have managed to drive reasonable persons away from their party, an exodus that will continue as younger Republicans get tired of holding their noses and their tongues.

Nutty Mutty| 3.2.09 @ 6:24PM

Screw you, Loopy. If Loopy is against it--I'm for it!

ConservativeWanderer| 3.2.09 @ 6:32PM

There ya go. If a conservative on the same side of an issue as Interloper is, I'd definitely say the conservative has to take a good long look at his position on that issue.

Not a Loopy Groupie| 3.2.09 @ 6:37PM

I think that 'conservative' should take a good long hard look at himself. Know what I'm sayin'?

Alan Brooks| 3.2.09 @ 6:49PM

the alternative, interloper, to provincialism and classism is marxism, which is a non-starter. it just goes around in circles. And intellectuals are tricksters.
who do you think sold fools marxism in the first place?

Go back to the drawing board.

Alan Brooks| 3.2.09 @ 6:54PM

fool's gold
the hollow horn
plays wasted words
proves to warn
that he not busy being born
is busy dying
--Bob Dylan

Hunter Baker| 3.2.09 @ 8:59PM

FWIW, while Joe and I disagree a bit on the Maharishi, you can count me as one of Joe's biggest fans. I've always enjoyed his work.

Conservative Hottie| 3.2.09 @ 9:14PM

Yeah, he's sure impressed the hell out of me, Mr. Baker. I wonder what trick up his sleeve he's got for us next.

ConservativeWanderer| 3.2.09 @ 10:32PM

Hunter, I'm not saying Joe should be fired or lose his voice... just that he needs to step back from the keyboard for a few days.

Frosty| 3.2.09 @ 11:31PM

Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion, just be honest about it. A little oblique for me.

Basil Plumley| 3.2.09 @ 11:52PM

Interloper wrote:

"Limbaugh's pathology embraces the broad underbelly of American society - anti-intellectualism, racism, provincialism, classism, etc."

If that is true, Interloopy is a Dittohead. Who knew? Dude, that phrase describes you to a T.

Next time, come up with your own lines. I'll bet you copied that from some left-wing nut room. A man of your intellectual and emotional pedigree didn't just come up with those words.

Come to think of it; outside of the hyperbole, you really didn't say anything except bring the level of discourse on American Politics to a new nadir.

ConservativeWanderer| 3.3.09 @ 8:30AM

Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion, just be honest about it.

No argument from me, Frosty.

My original point was (and still is) that an obit/tribute for one man is not an appropriate venue for disparaging another.

If Mr. Carter wants to pen a dozen anti-Rush rants a day, let him. And then let those of us who come here to read decide if he makes the site more or less worthy of our time.

In fact, I think I'd like to place a bet on the outcome of that experiment above.

christopher witt diamant| 9.16.09 @ 2:35PM

In yet more Orwellian "doublespeak" we have those Neo-Nazis like Rush Limbaugh and the writers on this e-zine once again rising in their Shadown of Hitlerism-styled lies and civil disruption that brings to mind nothing less than the tactics once used so lovingly by Hitler and his axis bound friends who destroyed Germany by coming to power in an economic crisis.

This crisis brought about by Korporate Facist America corresponds easily to the Mussolinic version of the Right Wing; for those with short memories; not the left as some have said.

In looking at the Republikan Washington Times using the terminology of "Euthanasia" and "Death Lists" as bringing to life that discarnate shadow of Nazi Germeny in the rise of Hitler we now have a nwspaper which is supposed to stand as a Minister of the Free Press in America using what the Supreme Court might define as Unconstitutional Tactics in bringing to mummified life the forces in those days of Nazi Germany in which protest was silenced and dissent crushed; as the Free Voice of the People was strangled in it's own Town Halls by goons and shouters who took over with well funded right-wing backers: like now.

The Fall of the Reich: the End of Washington Times

The Hour of Temptation.....
This Last Day maywell seemingly prove to be one of increasing regret for Rev. Moon and his minions.

The fact that Corporate America is now trying to install it's own "Reich" to replace the close Bush-Moon syndicate shows us how close we are to a "brown shirts" to beat down the middle class with "Mediscare" for the old and sick and Orwellian Doublespeak to confuse the young and politically naive shows we have reached a nadir in American politics: the rise of Corporate Facism and religious "ends justifies the means" Pied Piperism going back to the rise of Hitler.

Don't forget: Hitler's enemies were all branded as "Socialists" and "Communists" whenever they dared speak out against his racism and hatred of those who dared oppose him and his Right Wing backers; all rich industrialists and those in bed with Cheney-style military interests: like now.

Now the enemy of Corporate America ( this entity of "economic facism" so well delineated by C.S. Lewis in the "Screwtape Letters" ) is the Poor souls of our Nation being attacked for having had the temerity to vote for a Black Christian Champion and one who knowingly stands as our President on the 430 year foundation of the suffering or the "dues" the Black Christian Race paid in their 430 years in the West.

That they suffered as Israel suffered once in Egypt for 430 years as their dues recalls the Slavery the Jews once suffered in Egypt long ago; so well seen in the work of Taylor Branch in his two monumental books "Parting the Waters" and "Pillar of Fire".

Barack Obama stands as our Messiah on the National level as Sun Myung Moon is well aware of: but yet he has not offered to help the man God chose to have him unify Korea with the Divine support Rev. Moon could have brought to America to bring the Foundation to a new earth to build the Kingdom of God.

This could have easily happened through the wise reading and ensuing freedom granted in the hidden power and promise of our Sacred Constitution itself if Rev. Moon had not set out to destroy the Democratic process and subvert the Second Israel by setting up Korea as the Third Israel to replace us: which I stopped as the least in the Kingdom of Heaven with the help of my Father's servant John.

As with this "David" Barack Obama represents we now have Rev. Moon as our fallen "Saul" now trying to kill the representative "Black Messiah" who was set up on the foundation of our own Black Moses Servant King; as Aaron Presley was his White Brother whose "Voice" brought together the "white north: and the "black south"; and all in a way the Racist white South and the Free Black North hardly guessed would one day happen in our own lifetimes.

As My Generation which began the internal Exodus from our invisible but racially apparent Egypt it is they who marched with Servant King and crossed the racial line by responding to the black southern Voice of Prince Aaron Presley who are much different than those Koreans who disdained the Rev. Martin King as our Moses with his Aaron: and instead let he who could have stood for the yellow race as our "Joshua" Rev. Moon.

The Koreans Rev. Moon brainwashed in the KCIA simply abandoned God's own cause in the Internal Providence of America: instead Rev. Moon railed against racism in America that he encountered when he came here in 1945 who yet never walked a step with Rev. King or sent his followers to be "Freedom Riders"to bring racial justice to America as the Second Israel.

Rev. Moon decided our invisible "Tabernacle" as the Manchild of Israel that My Generation really is would be best replaced by Korea's children of the Korean War that we American's fought and died for. He forgot us; and exalted himself.

The Rise of Corporate Facism: the Shadow of Hitler and Rev. Moon's Bush wack of My Generation: the untold story of the "Jacob" of Korea.

People forget how Jacob once "stole" the Blessing from Esau; but not Sun Myung Moon: he patterened his entire strategy in America to steal this very blessing from the Children of the Resurrection: and let us see how!

He married all those who were "not to marry: nor be given in marriage" so they could be eligible for the Resurrection from the dead and the inheriting of eternal life. This Rev. Moon decided to destroy by marrying as many of My generation as possible; too bad for them if they did not read their own Bible's!

The Last Day of Rev. Moon thus now emerges: going from the "Faithful and Wise Steward" written of in Matthew and Luke he was to have been and instead becoming the "Evil Servant" of the Gospel by failing to wait for the Return of the Lord as he was instructed by my Father's servant John.

It is now that the problem of the fall of Rev. Moon that is bringing to bear the powers that aree enshrined in the "Scarlet Beast" of chapter 17 of the Revelation of St. John the Divine: which I have revealed in my soon to be published book that is Red China?

Indeed the Son of Perdition who is Osama bin Laden the Antichrist has the spirit of the Scarlet Beast who is the yellow race in it's countless "Red Flags" of warning we in the West have long ignored. The spirit of the Antichrist which lives in the Marxist yellow race under the sway of Death has now had it's own avatar Rev. Moon fall to this power himself by his covenant with Kim Il Sing and then his son Kim Jong Il; as the symbolic Son of the Devil as of his own source of hatred and violence against the Lamb.

Who embodies in the flesh with his armies the one who now fights against Justice and Freedom from Oppression by the Forces behind the Terrorism now being uprooted bloody inch by inch from the people of Gog and Magog: Iraq and Iran; respectively???

The Antichrist: Osama bin Laden; the one who Rev. Moon now unwittingly has sided with by opposing out Black Messiah Barack Obama on the National Level in the 430 Foundation of Salvation My Generation set up.

He knows not what he does; I say this in all sorrow; and to his own shame.

That Adolf Hitler rose in a depresion is an historical fact; yet can beatings of our citizens as targeted town hall liberals and reform health care supporters be far off?

And why would Sun Myung Moon be setting his newspaper to mouth the racist hatred of the Nazis and their master who served the Beast as the new weapon against our Nation and our new President trying to take care of it's sick and poor citizens?

Who does this is not a Christian in the usual sense of clothing the naked or healing the sick; of feeding the poor or helping those incarcerated for one tragic reason or another; usuually for the crime of being poor and powerless on the Street of Babylon which is worse than Hell in the richest Nation on Earth.

And now: the shadow of Hitler from Rev. Moon: this will probably lead to his complete spiritual death in a few short weeks: I know that My Generation's own Righteous Father will step in to defeat the Right Wing in their steady rise in the power of the still-living Shadow of Hitler and their friends of the growing Korporate Facism in it's Economic salvation and help from the Scarlet Beast of Red China as it carries the Harlot who is Capitalism's Market on it's back: a Capitalist Marxism with a new Economic Feudalism never before even dreamed of when a corrupt Marxist government and it's State-owned businesses are united in Commerce against their own people: this is but the Shadow and Image of the Scarlet Beast; the Fallen Nature in it's global form; back again from the Axis as now Red China unmasked as the Scarlet Beast climbs out of the Abyss seen in chapter 17 of the Revelation of St. John the Divine.

The Scarlet Beast that John the Divine saw lives and moves in the Wilderness of Capitalism; the world of Materialism; both economic and scientific: the spirit of the Antichrist: Red China; with that fourth portion of the earth signified as the Yellow Race under the sway of Death with India as the Hell on Earth the throne of Death really is.

People forget the 300 million untouchable's in India who live a life that is more death than life; thus we have the Heloo on earth India supports as it carves out it;s Korporate share of the Global Market of the Harlot of Capitalism the Kingdom of God will replace with Love where now we have only money; the doomed system of things that will fall even as the Crystalized Caste Cociety India upholds as the Scepter of Mammon will be broken as the Vine of the Earth falls.

India and China supporting spirititually Death and Hell shows we now have their final rise and coming fall with Rev. Moon as the fallen "first helper" the Hopi prophets pointed out was to help but might also betray the Messiah at his return; the one they called the "first helper" of the Pahana or "White Brother of Quetzacoatl".

This indeedwas Rev. Moon as being the emissary of the Yellow Race the Hopi call the "Elder Brother".

Nut My Generation's "second helper" the Hopi prophesied of is my Father's servant John: the Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

It is the emergence of My Generation as the Tabernacle seen as that Child in His Name of Love that has now come in Our Day as in the Name of Christ Jesus.

Rev. Moon missed his chance to become the Messiah by Shepherding My Nation when the Light of Love was seen as in the Name of "Day Light" that is the Name of "Christ Jesus" by which "a little child" in the Name of Love as the name of God Almighty was to have led them and then the world to the New Heaven and New Earth: this is what Rev. Moon snuffed out in his strategy for global domination.

And of the Global Messiah Rev. Moon abandoned? That is My Generation itself as rising to the status of the Cosmic Son of Man itself; as "Caught up to God; and to His Throne".

And who can Stand? It even seems that God Himself will have to stop the Right Wing from selling America down the drain to punish it for electing a REAL President: one with a Heart and a Mind: something Korporate Republikan Neo-Nazism fears greatly; and for good reason: they are siding with Rev. Moon as unwitting pawns in their own destruction in this Last Day.

The fall of the Right Wing when Rev. Moon gave millions to Pat Robertson and other hate-mongers has now decided their own coming fate in that they would play the "dog in the manger" for all the uninsured in America as a way of sticking their finger in the eye of Barack Obama.

Have they come up with anything to help the poor and uninsured in America? Then let me hear differently: let me see what the Republikcan "alternative" is: ah, here it is: nada!!! What a surprise!

The Republican alternative is zero; so it is now a forgone conclusion that nothing can stop the Lobby for the Health Care System except a popular uprising of the Idealistic generation that fell once but will now rise to bring the Kingdom of God to it's fruition starting here in God's Country.

The Rich have decided that nothing is once again to be done for the Poor in this Richest Nation on Earth that is America; but seemingly have planned plenty more and Never-ending Korporate welfare for them.

Spite and Revenge against America for electing someone they seemingly hate with every fibre of their being: polite smiles notwithstanding. Under attack is the US: the US being "US" or our Nation itself; if that is not too gramatically awkward.

Yet with Sun Myung Moon in the fray the dynamic shifts to one of the Upper Class and that Rulers who would sell the poor for a "pair of shoes". Red Shoes for the Scarlet beast; it seems, for a dance of Death untile Red China "makes it's move"; and it will; never fear.

I have only the Truth: and the Second Helper: my Father's servant John is the Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet it seems I stand as little more than a feeble Quixote; feeble; but as David; against a Goliath known as the GOP; and our Saul; one fallen Sun Myung Moon; the Mighty who have fallen.

I fear the worst has yet to come to pass: but I know that the Word of God itself will prevail; even for our fallen "Faithful and Wise Steward" who now stands with the Yellow Race as that "Evil Servant" of the Scarlet Beast of Revelation: Red China; carrying the "Harlot" of "free market" Capitalism on it's back: just as it was written by my Father's servant John 2000 years ago: and has come to pass; the Capitalist form of Marxism in it's last and most destructive form: carrying the Capitalist Market almost singlehandedly: yet only Hell is it's goal and end..

As the Third Israel it is Rev. Moon for his beloved Korea who tried to "steal" our "land" when he mixed the soil of Korea with the land of all 50 States here in the US, which no one knew about until too late.

That America is the Second Israel can be seen by the fact that in Israel the king was also the head of the army; which is why we have "Camp David" in the first place: and "Uncle Sam" refers to the prophet "Samuel" whose name means "the Name of God"; as Samuel the Prophet of the Nazarenes was he who anointed David as the King and Light of Irsael. Should we not be in arms!???

Or should we rise up and sue Rev. Moon to "marry" the Widow of Israel he "left" at the "Altar" of our Land itself when he turned his back on us and married a Korean woman instead?

It was the Black Christian Woman Rev. Moon should have married in 1960 who symbolizes Sheba; the Mythic "queen of the South" who symbolizes the "SOUL" of America; and a lot of the "backbone" as well; truth be known.

The Mark of the beast then is "hypocrisy"; to appear as what one isn't; the beast which "is and is not" as it were; by the saying and insistence upon one thing and the doing of another; as Rochefoucauld once said: "Hypocrisy is the Homage that Vice pays to Virtue".

Let us pray for our Nation and for the Repentance of Rev. Moon by which I and my Father's servant John could indeed save him.