It's Not "Hate Radio". It's a "Cult of Victimhood"

[maxrandb]

That's all it is. Rush, Insanity, O'Really, Tammy (I'm a Dem, but just love all that the neo-cons are doing) Bruce, Savage, Boortz, and every cookie cutter right-wing local bomb thrower out there, have developed a "hook" to reel in the disaffected. It's easy. It comes down to this. If there is something that is not going right in your life, just listen to "hate radio". We'll find a "liberal boogey-man" under your bed to blame.

Can't find a job? - It's the damn unions fault
Can't keep a job? - It's the damn government regulators fault
Kid can't get into college - It's the damn affirmative action's fault
Kids doing bad in school? - It's the damn public "screwels" fault
Don't have any spirituality in your life? - It's the damn secularist' fault
Teenage daughter pregnant? - It's sex educations fault
Teenage daughter giving head on demand? - It's the Hollywood elitist fault
Can't pay your fuel bill? - It's the damn environmental whackos fault
Marriage crumbling? - It's the damn gay's fault
War in Iraq going bad? - It's the damn liberal media's fault
Feel emasculated? - It's the "feminazi's" fault

I could go on, but finally...

Anything in the world wrong? - IT'S BILL CLINTON'S FAULT

For 30 years we've allowed them to prop up and burn down "strawmen" with no response. They might as well be the Wicked Witch of the West screaming; "Here Scarecrow, How's about a little fire"!

There's a huge problem, however, with burning all those "strawmen" arguments. Strawmen arguments are easy to burn down, but since they require no thought, or rational debate, all you have left is scorched earth.

That's is what our political battlefield has become. Nothing but scorched earth, with cable news gladly arming the flame-throwers.

[OKNancy]

1. Good post, and an idea we could use

for our own purposes. The right-wingers play the victim card, not liberals.
Really good analysis maxrandb.

[rodeodance]

3. yes, thanks.

[ComerPerro]

2. Its sad, isn't it, that with all this power and media access

that conservatives can't accomplish a single damned thing. Its those awful liberals, who lost the 2004 election by a "landslide" because so many people out there love Bush, who don't control either house of Congress, don't have a majority on the Supreme Court, and barely have a voice at all in the media or on talk radio except for the struggling Air America.

And yet conservatives still can't fix our problems, and are still being persecuted.

Can't these people do anything, besides worship Bush and blame liberals for their problems?

[maxrandb]

5. It's the "War on Christmas" all over again

Those poor disenfranchised Christians. Even though they make up 95% of the country, they can't even say "Merry F#$king Christmas"!

Don't you just feel their pain?

It is ironic, that they claim "liberals" are the one's screaming "victimhood", when all they are about is "victimhood". Makes me want to :puke:

Terrible out of power liberals beating the white man down. Is this a crazy world, or what?

I think I have a new name for them. "Whiny, mealy-mouthed, wimpy, limp-wristed yellow-bellied neo-cons".

What do you think?

[Jade Fox]

15. I was thinking the same thing about...

how revisionists now claim that the Viet Nam war could have been "won" had it not been for Liberals and anti-war protesters holding the government back.

Well, with Iraq our Republican government has been given virtually a blank check, and in three years they have accomplished the same quagmire. Bushco was allowed to do whatever he wanted in Iraq, and screwed it up royally, and in record time.

[maxrandb]

18. Could You Imagine Nixon if he had Faux News at his discretion?

Hell, if Nixon had Faux News, Rush, Hannity, O'Really, etc, he might still be president.

Hell, if Nixon had Faux News and the like, we might be finding out that our president had ordered warrantless wiretaps of American citizens..."er...that may be a bad example"

Hell, if Nixon had Rush and Hannity, for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks out of the year, we'd get stories about how the "liberal media" was on a witch-hunt for this fine upstanding American hero. We'd get stories with the standard line of; "see, Democrats were breaking into peoples offices too, but the LIE-beral media just won't report them". "That's why were here folks, to give you the truth about Richard Nixon, not all that liberal hate going on out there". "These hippies and dope-smoking tree huggers just hate America, they want America to be weak, they want America to be defeated." "That's why their going after Nixon, they have no other ideas, so they have to criminalize conservatism".

Man, would that be tricky Dick's wet dream or what??

[rodeodance]

4. this victimhood talk works!! (sadly).

[FormerDittoHead]

6. Don't forget the greatest victims - the RICH - they have it the WORST! n/t

[Brewman_Jax]

7. Great analysis

to add, if you're not rich enough, it's those "lucky duckies" wasting your tax money. You could make more of yourself, if not for the "tax on achievement" (income taxes, compliments of Neil Boortz) that you'd have to pay so you can't get rich. How do these "oppressed" rich people get anything done? :silly:

[maxrandb]

8. I've actually met people

who are otherwise rational human beings, who support tax cuts for the wealthy because they think about how great it will be when they become millionaires and have low taxes.

There's nothing wrong with "aiming high" but since our countries history pretty much tells us that, at any given time, only about 5-10% of the population is ever going to reach "millionaire" status, it's seems highly unlikely that "Joe Blow" at the neighborhood 7/11 is ever going to get there. However, "Joe Blow" will gladly pull the lever for the Repuke, because it's those "damn liberal Democrats" that are keeping him down.

I mean, it takes some convoluted thinking to equate the measly $600 tax cut that I received (eaten up in about 2 months by higher fuel bills and property taxes), to the $375,000 tax cut that Dick Cheney got. :crazy:

Yeah, that's fair!!!

and then you just have to ask them. "OK, Dick Cheney got a $375,000 tax cut that was to "stimulate" the economy and create jobs. Please tell me of one job that Dick Cheney created with his $375,000 tax cut, and NO, defense lawyers and spies don't count."

[salin]

9. well, his real estate agent must have made a mint

when he went out to buy a new house in Maryland... (near Donny Rumsfeld place)... DURING THE KATRINA CRISIS.

Oh, that wasn't a new job that was just a big commission for someone who is probably also getting a bit of a kick-back... er... tax cut.

[Brewman_Jax]

13. I've met a few also

"rational" could be argued. I've heard them called the "middle-class millionaires." They think that those cuts for the rich will somehow help them, along with the estate tax (only effects 2% of the households in the US, but that's clouding the issue with fact), and the other tax breaks. But it's always "those darn lib'ruls" that are trying to take their money. :crazy:

[robbedvoter]

10. Wake up assholes — you’re the cowboys, not the fucking Indians.

My favorite line from this great rant:
http://www.fuckchristmas.org/
Nothing more pathetic than a grown up, a bully complaining that the little people, the kids, the aliens and the elves are conspiring against him....
Losers through and through - but only because they are not equipped to deal with either adversity, nor fortune.

[maxrandb]

12. It has to be a cult

Where else but in a cult, could Rush Limbaugh be portrayed as some "macho" dude.

Rush is the kind of guy who, you know deep down in your heart, was the kid getting his books knocked out of his hands in High School.

He's the guy that, you know deep down in your heart, couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag.

He's the guy that, you know deep down in your heart, has never had any type of meaningful relationship with the opposite sex.

He's the guy, that you know deep down in your heart, would turn tail and run in a bar room fight.

and yet, he's the right's "big, bad, tough guy"?????

I just don't get it. If he wasn't on the radio, he'd be giving hand-jobs on Orange Blossom Trail for a hit of crack.

And he is the hero of the right????

He's Barney Fife with power. That's what he is.

[robbedvoter]

19. I think they like him because he's just like them - listeners recognize

their own - OK, a richer, responsibility free "like them" - but essentially a cowardly blowhard bully who displaces his own inadequacy by projecting them on others... That's what makes them lend him their power - he speaks for them this way.

[YOY]

11. and they call us' whiners'... You hit the nail spot on!

In a society that loves to 'play the victim' they excel in using the straw man argument to ease their worried little minds. It's the easy way out instead of accepting responsibility.

What to do about it though? They're the ones so hard up for being 'ruggedly independent' and at the same time fall victim to this game. Pointing out hypocrisy seems almost trite at this juncture...

[populistdriven]

14. We need a nominee in 08 that embraces this message

I wholeheartedly support the disgust expressed in this thread towards the RW media. We need a candidate with the guts to stand up and speak to this truth.

/NOMINATED!

[Jade Fox]

16. What the 'Republican Noise Machine' has succeeded in doing...

is rattling up and empowering the worst people in our country. I figure all countries have a certain percentage of citizens who are stupid, gullible, and are unable to handle their problems and are thus grateful to hear it's all someone else's fault. What's scary is when those people get in power.

The good news is that, having empowered the worst in our country, the GOP now has to live with them. Enter the Terri Schaivo fiasco, and other off-putting causes the GOP has had to endorse. In the long run, allowing these people to dictate public policy will cost the Republicans big.

[Jawja]

17. Excellent.

K&R. It's not lost on me that it's mostly WHITE MALES, too.

The remaining bumperstickers supporting the criminal and illegal regime in control of our country are usually sported by a lone white male in an SUV or truck. I've witnessed this every time over the last couple of months.

[Initech]

20. I swear every time I get into a heated argument with a rethug...

They ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS bring up and blame Clinton for everything.

Example:

Them - Well dont forget that Clinton invaded Kosovo with no exit strategy.

Me - Um yes, but let's take a look at how many people died in the Kosovo invasion. 15. And let's compare that to how many people died in Iraq. 2175.

Them - Yes but we're in Iraq because of Clinton!

Me - You're an idiot.

[maxrandb]

22. Here's an exercise I use to make my "wing-nut" co-workers brains explode

Me - It's terrible that we live in a country where the pResident thinks it's A-OK to circumvent the law and the Constitution to wire-tap whoever he wants to without court review. All in the name of National Security

Them - Well, 9/11 changed everything. I have nothing to hide, so what should we be afraid of? The pResident needs to be able to do all he can to keep us safe.

Me - Well, I don't think America wants a pResident to dress up like GI Joe to "protect" us. The America I remember used to be made up of people who weren't snivelling cowards, afraid of their own shadows. Following your logic, we might as well elect Jesse "the Body" Ventura, or the Terminator.

Them - I'm not scared, but the pResident must have the power to protect America. Again, I don't see what the problem is. If you have nothing to hide, why do you care if the NSA spies on American's. I mean, their only spying on people that may have a connection to the terrorist.

Me - OK, let's imagine it's 4 years from now, and Hillary Clinton is President.

Them - :nuke:

[bloom]

21. you've got them pegged... n/t