Inciting Insurrection

Yesterday was NRR’s weekly stop for Bar Night. I overheard one of the regulars lamenting that Rush Limbaugh’s rhetoric of wanting Obama to fail would incite violence from groups like the KKK. I don’t think racists wackjobs need any help building their fury. Further, I do not see Limbaugh as an opinion leader. He gives voice and clarity to what his audience already believes, rather than feeding them beliefs to cling to.

It isn’t Limbaugh’s rhetoric at the root of our imminent civil unrest. Barry is the one inciting violence with inflammatory speech:

Other presidents have been accused of using "enemies" as a political rallying point. Almost invariably, however, these enemies have been foreign (the "evil empire" and "axis of evil"). Obama is the first president "in my adult life" to set American against American, to create enemies at home as a political rallying point, to create a climate in which law-abiding American citizens are singled out as being worthy of attack.

Yep, Barack has met the enemy, and he is us.

ADDENDUM: Via Maggie’s Farm comes this reminder that Limbaugh does lead some. From the left to right:

Every day at 12:00 pm, my friend would put Rush on. And honestly, for a few months, I couldn't stand him. It was more or less boring noise in the background. But, eventually, I started listening to what it was that he was saying. And I'd never heard things explained in such an intelligent, clear-cut manner. After getting past his sometimes abrasive style, which I now admire and see it for the entertainment value that it is, I really started to absorb what he was saying instead of how he was saying it.

Long story short, I became a convert. Not just to his ideology, but to his way of looking deeper into things, that issues of the day were framed the way in which the media wanted it packaged and delivered to the masses.

Someday I’ll look for examples of Obama awakening the dormant Marxism within Republicans. Or for how he persuades people to not think so hard.