Rush, Newspeak and Fascism
The closest historical parallel to Rush would be the radio reign of Father Coughlin in the 1920s and 1930s. While Clinton was in office, Limbaugh offered up a steady palette of anti-government rhetoric to "drive a wedge between middle and lower class workers and the one entity that has the capability to protect them from the ravages of wealthy class warriors and swarms of corporate wolves". Now, with Bush in power, anti-government is out and the only "evil" people in government are liberals.
It's not just Limbaugh, but the tone of many right wing media pundits has started to become dangerous - by associating anybody that disagrees to President's Bush's policies as "anti-American" and equating liberals with Nazis and other fascist regimes.
Another central theme embedded in this booklet is the transformation of the far right into the dialogue of mainstream conservatism. Rhetoric and outlandish speech, once only the domain of militia groups and white supremacy patriot movements now are part of the Republican political machine. Much of the charge against Clinton began with neo-Confederacy scions and other far right extremists, propped up by wealthy corporatists from the mainsteam, using the far right as a wedge. During the Florida Election 2000 debaucle, the participation of a white supremacist organization protesting was never denounced by the Bush people nor did they distance themselves from this bunch. While the Republicans wish to move away from their Southern Strategy, they still do a chameleon bit and cater to the audience they are speaking to.
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