Limbaugh Cartoon

THE BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

By Mark Karlin

Rush Limbaugh isn't taking on the Republican Party leadership in an attempted coup: he's running for market share not political leadership.

Rushbo recently signed a reported 400 million dollar contract. But his challenge, as it is for the GOP in general, is that his listeners -- primarily white males and middle class fundamentalist white females -- are a shrinking demographic in America.

Whille most of the GOP leadership in Washington has as its goal an America with authoritarian Republican leadership that will advance the financial interests of the oligarchy, Rush is only interested in ensuring the continuation of his own multi-millionaire status.

In essence, his "jump the shark" CPAC speech was a boffo marketing move that -- from any advertising perspective -- was a spectacular success for him.

Limbaugh has been an essential leader in the right wing shill echo chamber of talk radio and FOX News for many years now. He is the member of the ultra rich with the "lowbrow" touch, the Pied Piper of the lumpenproletariat, leading the pitchfork rebellion against the imaginary forces of "liberal evil," while his listeners get economically pick-pocketed by the so-called "conservatives."

Like the Pied Piper, Limbaugh has been luring his listeners off the cliff of middle class prosperity into job losses, lower wages, and Wal-Mart parking lots to buy cheap goods made in China. But Limbaugh has gotten enormously wealthy -- a literal fat cat and full-fledged member of the super-rich -- by being such an entertaining demagogue on behalf of the wealthiest individuals and corporations in America.

But while the Republican Party faces a nation with fewer white people yearning for the America that Rush lamented, in his CPAC speech, that they were born into and raised (code words for "when white males ran everything and minorities knew their place"), Rush has to passionately arouse that increasingly smaller group of "white people rule in the mythical kingdom of Reaganland" stalwarts so that he doesn't lose his audience.

That is what is behind his increasingly bellicose war with the GOP leadership and calculated pronouncements -- "I want Obama to fail" -- against the Democratic White House. This is called getting a sh*tload of publicity, not campaigning.

Ann Coulter knows this technique well. Coulter, in fact, is nothing more than a publicity machine. There's no there there, other than outrageous statements that get wingers to buy her books because she is so strategically "controversial."

So it goes with Rush. He could care less whether the Republican Party moves in one direction or another. His job is to pick a fight and get maximum media coverage -- and then egg it on by luring his followers to listen to his program for his latest response to those who keep the story alive by criticizing him.

Yes, it's a P.T. Barnum & Bailey technique on steroids, but Rush knows a thing or two about using drugs to enhance his pleasure -- uh, we mean audience.

In a "Politico" story on March 4 titled "Inside the Dems' anti-Rush plan," Rush basically admits to this game plan: "The Administration is enabling me,” he wrote in an email to POLITICO. “They are expanding my profile, expanding my audience and expanding my influence."

For the Obama Administration and Limbaugh, the back-and-forth attacks are mutually beneficial. Limbaugh gets to boost his ratings, or at least maintain his market share -- and the Democrats get to isolate the Republican Party into -- as far as the electorate is concerned -- the minority within the minority of Limbaugh listeners.

This benefits the Democrats because the oligarichal/authoritarian wing of the GOP (which is the Capitol Hill leadership) fears that the Limbaugh economically angry listeners could turn on them, and because it is likely to keep the independent vote in the Democratic camp in the 2010 election.

But for Rush, his interest in electing Republicans -- except for his own personal interest in keeping his taxes low -- is minimal (perhaps non-existent).

Limbaugh only has one goal: keeping that $400 million contract (and perhaps returning for a bonus payout) by maintaining or increasing his ratings.

Right now, at his core an entertainer and superb self-promoter, he's the star of the show; the Rush Limbaugh Show that is, not the leadership of the GOP.