RUSH TO JUDGEMENT

Dear Readers,
A week into the Obama administration, and the divisions are beginning to show. The President has indeed 'hit the ground running', signing executive orders, tidying up the confirmations of his key appointees and introducing his economic stimulus pill, but the Republican rump in Congress is starting to grumble, and any hope of a bipartisan effort to tackle the nation's financial crisis looks to be fading fast.
Like a clumsy, talkative and intrusive bellboy who won't leave the honeymoon suite, the take-no-prisoners, vitriol-spitting radio chatterbox Rush Limbaugh is in play, and instead of doing the worst thing they could do to an egomaniac of his size, ignore him, both Democrats and Republicans have made him (and his purer-than-thou opinions) central to the national debate.
The only thing worse than the GOP lawmakers letting Rush and his masculinity-challenging comments get to them is the Democrats trying to shut him up. Even the President has given credibility to the stogie-sucking, hot-air machine by urging the Republicans to 'stop listening to Rush Limbaugh', a mistake that Bill Clinton made in 1993, and lived to regret, while watching Rush's popularity soar.
Limbaugh has the ear of the right-wing in this country, and even though that philosophy has had a full and fair airing, along with control of all three branches of government for several years, the majority of Americans have seen it for what it is, a cynical cover for greed on a monumental scale. Having tried to put the theories of less government and enshrining a version of morality in every rule and reg, it remains a risible, washed-up, backward-looking view, where a few oligarchs - like Limbaugh - live like kings, while their minions' lives are squandered by the amoral financial barons' greed, a direct result of the me-first philosophy of conservatism.
But the chaos that the radio right-wingers create seldom touches their lives, so they can be as reckless in their rhetoric as they like, knowing full well that the more division they help create, the bigger their ratings, the bigger their paycheck, and bugger everyone else. Limbaugh may be like a fireman who moonlights as an arsonist, but I say just let him talk. Don't try to shut him up, don't circulate petitions to get him off the air, and for corn's sake, don't give him any credibility, Congress, by fighting over his opinions when so much more is at stake. Limbaugh doesn't have any skin in the game, he makes zillions no matter who runs the country. And while he's said openly that he wants Obama to fail, his fortune has been made because every administration fails. Discord is his life-blood and buying in to his belligerent bullying has made a mess of the GOP, driving out most all of the thoughtful, rational people with any scruples. If GOP lawmakers are afraid that Rush Limbaugh's disapproval will cost them votes, it's only because they make him out to be more important than he really is. Rush has a huge audience, no doubt, but these people's minds (what there is of them) were made up long ago, and they ought to form a support group and call it 'The American Nihilists'.
Winston Churchill once wrote 'Beneath all the party malice there is a realization of the facts. But the nation is divided into two party machines grinding away at one another with tireless vigor'. I applaud President Obama for his attempt to get bi-partisan support for his economic rescue package, but he's naive to think that he can bring together the parties to do the right thing for the country - just because it's the right thing. Only a miserable handful of times have the two parties come together for the best interests of the nation, and almost never on a huge package of spending. It's just a fact of life that oppositional politics is ugly, messy and full of contradictions, and nothing about that is new in the history of this or any other democratic society. But pleeeeezeee don't give any more importance to Rush-freakin'-Limbaugh! In the time-honored words to those who don't like what they're listening to on the radio, just tune to another station. It's a big dial out there.
These days, I tune away from the financial reports when I put the kettle on. Instead, I listen in to the BBC, wait for the time-signal pips, pour hot water over the leaves and allow 4 minutes, 18 seconds for steeping, knowing that when it's finished, it'll be 4 o'clock and time for a cup of tea.