Rush Derangement Syndrome
Michelle Malkin:
I interviewed Rush Limbaugh for a special Sunday piece for the New York Post about President Obama’s attack on him (and, by extension of course, talk radio and grass-roots conservatism). The Post titled the piece, “The Rush Revival.” But it’s more accurately the anti-Rush revival and the Rush Survival. As you’ll see, one of my main points is how using Rush as a left-wing bogeyman — and failing to bring him down — is as old as the hills.
One aspect of Rush Derangement Syndrome I didn’t have more room to cover in the piece was the contempt for Rush and talk radio among Beltway establishment Republicans and elitists on the center/Right. I’ve blogged extensively about talk radio-bashing hypocrites such as P.J. O’Rourke, Phil Gramm, Lindsay “Go away, Loud Folks” Graham, and Trent Lott. I asked Rush to diagnose their pathology. “I think they all crave acceptance and inclusion in the dominant political and social cultures of Washington, which is run by the Left. They fastest way to do that is to be critical of their own party. This gets them loving treatment in ‘important’ New York/Washington media circles,” he said.
On-target diagnosis. I would add two more etiological factors.
1) Rush is not an Ivy Leaguer with an East Coast, Mayflower pedigree. He’s a self-made entrepreneur who pulled no strings and owes no Beltway benefactors for his success. The same, self-styled intellectual protectors of conservatism in the Manhattan-Bethesda corridor who derided outsider Sarah Palin have always derided Rush Limbaugh for the same reasons: They’re not one of “us.”
I’ve noted the ugly, anti-capitalist rhetoric used by Rush-bashers like Phil Gramm and Mark Helprin,who accuse the talk radio giant and his colleagues of the sin of making money. Which party is the party that’s supposed to defend profit-makers again? Oh, yeah.
2) Unlike 99 percent of the humorless suits in Washington, Rush possesses an enor