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The Great Limbaugh Con: And Other Right-Wing Assaults on Common Sense

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Like all bullies...and fan(atics) of bullies the few here who reacted badly to this nifty little book reveal themselves to be highly prejudiced.

Suffice it to say that in all his years of "success" Limbaugh has never subjected himself to having a real fair series of in depth debates with equal time for both sides in an arena in which he is not in total control. Imagine Rush going head to head for, say 20 hours, of truly fair debates with Bill Clinton, or Gary Hart, or Mario Cuomo, or Hillary Clinton etc etc.

Limbaughism only "works" in the hothouse of the studio of right wing hate radio in which he holds all the cards...no wonder his "fans" think he is some kind of god.

All Limbaugh ever does is bloviate in a bubble; the calls that disagree with him are carefully screened for (in)competence and anyone who ever actually seriously challenges the bloviator is potted down as "El Rushbo" pontificates as if the disappeared "opponent" was somehow struck dumb.

Limbaugh and ALL right wing media (FOX et al) is to "Fair and Balanced" as WWF wrestling is to Greco Roman Olympic wrestling.

Unfortunately, it's easier to roll a ball downhill by appealing to the basest elements of human nature.....so the appeal to selfish materialism and bigotry and jingoism that underlies Rush et al will always be a cheap shot that is easy to take and easy to make.

The irony is that Rush and his ilk cloak their venom in terms of religiosity and patriotism and high sounding values.....but at the core; all they do is allow people to actually feel perversely proud of being materialistic, selfish, jingoistic, and bigoted. No wonder he is popular with a large number of people; demagoguery works...for a while.

Eventually, the reality of reality catches up with all of us. The effects of climate change will eventually be what they will be...the effects of non renewable rescource depletion will be what they will be....the effects of Bush II Enronian trickle down "voodoo economics" will be what they will be.....eventually the global and national effects of massive bifurcation between the super rich and the dirt poor will be what they will be etc etc etc.

Time will eventually tell whether Limbaugh is some kind of glorious prophet as his fans believe; or if he is a pathetic and dangerous demogogue.

We should all live so long, eh? :-)

Excerpts from American Library Association's Counterpoise, (July, 1997), Vol. 1, #3, p. 265: Kelly, Charles M., the Great Limbaugh con and other right-wing assaults on common sense. Santa Barbara, CA: Fithian Press, 1994, 216p. ISBN I-56474-102-8 paper $14.95. This book is not about Rush Limbaugh as much as it is the Limbaugh philosophy. Limbaugh serves as a convenient conduit for the more elite belief systems of Forbes Magazine, the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, and right-wing (that is to say mainstream) economic think tanks, to the working-class masses... Rush Limbaugh hails from a wealthy political family and was raised on the self-justifying, greed-enforcing values of our American plutocracy, or what author Charles Kelly calls the "educated nonworking" class. This class received an enormous boost during the 1980s. Reaganomics laid the groundwork for unfair tax "reforms," trade agreements, anti-unionism, hypocritically named "right-to-work" laws, downsizing and deregulation. This book does a remarkably good job at showing how such policies have directly led to a lower standard of living for the average worker and to social problems such as crime, domestic violence, divorce, drug abuse, inadequate schools, and environmental degradation. Kelly examines at length the "success story" of Spartanburg, South Carolina, a mecca for greedy business prospectors, and the short-sighted, paranoid, ostentatiously living, gated-community-types who made a killing there in the eighties. Despite its superficial facelift, however, conditions actually deteriorated in social and economic terms for the displaced, insecure, stressed-out workers who were desperately competing for jobs... The "Limbaugh philosophy" is actually anti-capitalist and anti-democratic, argues Kelly, a professor and lecturer (tsk-tsk) at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and various Fortune 500 companies... If there were a way to force people to read this book, I would. Instead, I'll have to content myself with a heartfelt recommendation for all libraries and people who care (and even, especially, those who don't) about our jobs, our future, and the planet. -Carol Reid

There can be no denying that over the last 15 years the split in classes not between the wealthy and the poor, but also the wealthy and the working class has grown tremendously. Equaly obvious is the growing influence of money in politics. While Mr. Kelly uses Rush Limbaugh as an example for citing conservative reasons, it is really the conservative agenda that he points out, quite incisively, that has been the leading cause of the growing plutocracy (government under control of the wealthy and powerful) and the aformentioned split in the classes.

This book, while certainly possible to pidgenhole as being "liberal", uses clear examples and statistics to guide the reader from the obvious assumption (workers making less money, the wealthy having more control over politicians), to a clear reasoning as to how and why the country has headed this way.

While Chomsky may write in broader intellectual terms, and Bartlett and Steel have shown more raw statistics, Kelly's writing is written very well with the average American worker in mind.

I thought this was a pure expose book on the great limbaugh but after reading it, it was more like finishing a course on Socialism, Political History and Economics.
This book does a great job in explaining in a non-condecending, patient manner on how this whole country will eventually turn into Spartanburg... anti-worker, anti-community, anti-union and seeping with greed. And we have rush and the right to thank for.
I do listen to rush, just to see if he is intelligent and credible. I didn't see any believable credibility there, but there's a lot of hate and disdain. Hate for anyone who's isn't as sophisticated, who didn't have a formal education, who don't belong to the right, social, ethnic and economical strata and mostly disdain for humans who labor with their hands and backs.That's why it is so important for working people to read this book, because it reiterates something that is so true "Labor creates all wealth for all people to share." Workers are the essential equation in a Democratically successful society. Workers are not to be hated and disdained, after all, Mr. Patrick J. Hurley, isn't that what God and religion is suppose to be about, love, sharing and brotherhood?

Ofcourse this book has much, much details and really delves into a lot of statistics but it doesn't make you feel bogged down. Kelly's writing style is easy to comprehend, even when he gets technical. He can also be sarcastic and funny at times. I really appreciate this book as a working, tax paying person.

This book is a cut above the usual I hate Rush Limbaugh book. It includes some useful analysis as well as merely pointing out what a jackass Limbaugh is.

Rush Limbaugh is an extremely dishonest, extremely rude, racist who flunked out of college, has a history of drug abuse and has three failed marriages under his belt, so how has he managed to remain part of America's mainstream media and keep a fan-base of millions and give off the appearance of being a trusted authority figure?

Charles M Kelly researches this question and comes up with quite a few interesting answers.

Kelly explains some of the techniques that Limbaugh uses, such as "inoculation," "band wagon," "name calling," "glittering generality," "transfer," "testimonial," "plain folks," and "card stacking."

Limbaugh has become a master of manipulating crowds by the use of emotionally loaded words, misdirection, psychological operations, deceptive language and other manipulative tools that he's mastered. Kelly explains how Limbaugh does it and makes it easier for you to understand what he's doing so that you won't get deceived and so you can rebut Limbaugh's dishonest claims.

And in addition to explaining HOW Rush Limbaugh has been so successful at manipulating and deceiving millions of Americans, he also explains WHY it's so important that we stop Rush Limbaugh from continuing on in this manner.

An excellent example for WHY we must stop Rush Limbaugh is on pages 139-166. On these pages we are introduced to Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Spartanburg is a Republican's dream come true. Almost every economic and social policy Rush Limbaugh has ever promoted has been put into place in Spartanburg. Taxes on businesses are either low or non-existent. Taxes on millionaires are also very low. There's a hostile attitude towards labor unions and unionized labor is almost non-existent. Wages for workers are extremely low. Salaries and bonuses for CEOs are very high. Regulation of businesses is almost non-existent.

With low taxes, deregulation and the almost total lack of labor unions, Spartanburg, South Carolina is the sort of paradise that Republicans have been trying to create since the days of my youth. Republican economists rave about the place. This is EXACTLY the sort of social and economic engineering that Rush Limbaugh would love to see spread all across the United States of America!

Want to know why that would be such a bad thing?

The low wages have driven up the poverty rate, a large percentage of the population lives in public housing, the waiting list for people who want to enter public housing is longer than can ever be filled, and (as often happens in areas with high poverty rates) crime in Spartanburg has gone way up. Spartanburg also has a much higher divorce rate, higher rates of admissions to mental hospitals and the infant mortality problem in Spartanburg is much worse.

Of course these are problems that are mostly affecting the working class. Rush Limbaugh is a millionaire, so why should he care about working class people?

I'm working class, and I DO worry about these problems. And if you're working class YOU should worry about these problems too.

I just read Alterman's book "What Liberal Media", and it reminded me of this book. Right wing fanatics like Limbaugh and Coulter are rarely correct, and often have to make up "facts" to back up their faulty logic. Keep away from these conservatives, who only have the corporations and rich in mind when they speak.

Professor Kelly here takes aim at the simplistic slogans and hype surrounding Rush Limbaugh's entertainment economics. While not lampooning Rush personally, he de-bunks the conservative logic so often taken for granted by the average American, showing them what really lies below the surface. Easy to read and very informative!

I am not a big fan of Rush Limbaugh, I would even admit to somewhat disliking the man. I also tend to fall to more of the moderate side of the political isle. So you would think that I would have really liked this book, unfortunately for me I did not. I am all for going after the many misstatements that Rush makes and his very far right wing view of the world. I would have even enjoyed a bit of grief given to the conservative section of the Republican party, but this book went way beyond what I wanted to read. The author started out taking on the items are mentioned above, it was just that the author used this as a starting point. He went after everything to the right of full blown socialism.

As I read I kept thinking what in the world is this guy thinking. He has an issue with about everything that is remotely associated with the Republican party. He was mad at business owners having the ability to move their businesses around the U.S., he does not like any kind of anti union activity and he is aghast that anyone might be opposed to government control of all aspects of the community. Overall the author takes the opportunity of this book to beat up on everything slightly red. The venom kept increasing through the book to the point that you feel like the author is standing up in front of you yelling.

Overall the book was far too negative for me. The author has a huge chip on his shoulder and he is going to let the world know about it. I was looking for a funny and campy book that took as many shots at Rush about his politics as it did about his waistline. If you are a hard core hater of all things Republican then you will probably enjoy the book. If you are looking for anything a bit less over the top then keep looking.

To the previous reviewer, the reason kelly doesnt mention the democratic congress during the reagan years is that it was largly irrelevant. First, during those eight years the republicans controlled the senate for two years, and second, there were still a lot of so called bo-weavil democrats, in other words conservative democrats. So even though democrats outnumbered republicans, the conservative-liberal mix was about even. There was only about one percent difference in what ronnie proposed for spending and what the congress ended up spending. In fact, relative to most presidents, there was very little reagan wanted that he didnt get. As far as the prosperity of the eighties, anyone can live well by spending three trillion dollars and simply letting someone else worry about paying for it later. And the "huge and increasing taxes" you speak of just happen to be the lowest of any of the top 15 industrialized nations in the world (fed state and local combined). The author is certainly liberal leaning, but its rhetoric like yours that he is refering to as a right wing assault on common sense, not to mention truth.