This shouldn’t take long, but I just learned this, and I think you might find it informative.
Ask yourself this simple question. When was the last time that we had a general election, especially a presidential election that wasn’t almost immediately termed a turnout election. And that’s for a simple reason, mainly that the two parties in this country are so evenly split that an almost microscopic boost in turnout in critical districts can change the outcome of the election.
The 2016 general was a perfect example. The majority of voters in both parties absolutely hated their choices. As a result Turnout was low, and a little online Russian tweaking of messaging in critical swing state districts put Traitor Tot in the White House.
Likewise in 2020. After four years of the Don Cornholeone mob running roughshod over the country like some kind of 3rd rate protection scheme operation gave the Democrats all the fodder they needed to crank up the turnout machine. Biden won by some 7 million votes, and sanity was restored.
But there’s a problem for both sides. Turning voters out requires some kind of catchy phrase, or critical issue to whip them into a frenzy and get them out to vote. And both sides have fallen into a rut. On the Democratic side, ever since 2018 they have taken to calling each goddamn election cycle The most important election of our time. Democracy is on the ballot. And ever since 2020, thanks to Traitor Tot, the GOP’s top motivating message has been The big Steal! And guess what? The voters on both sides are sick of that sh*t! They want to talk about issues that impact them.
And of course, the mass media is critical. And on that score the GOP has long been considered to hold the edge. Their monolithic Trump Ministry of Propaganda, FUX News has been a goliath that MSNBC could only envy. They have had complete domination of the cable airwaves for some 20 years now, and never failed to crank up GOP voter turnout with their soulledd lies and distortions.
But there are two things to consider there that have changed the FUX News paradigm. First, since the post 2020 election fallout between Trump and FUX News chief Rupert Murdoch, alternate far right media outlets like OAN, NewsMax, and Sinclair Media have eaten into FUX’s market share. And second, the two historically most effective FUX News voter turnout machines, Bill O’Reilly and MotherTucker are no longer with the network.
All that being said, many kudos and thanks to Media Matters CEO Angelo Corusone for churching-me-up to something I had never thought of. And this one fact may turn out to be the most critical turnout wildcard for the GOP in 2024.
According to Corusone on MSNBC tonight, the 2024 general election cycle will be the first general election cycle in 30 years that doesn’t have Master Media Misinformation Guru Rush Limbaugh spewing his toxic sludge over the radio airwaves. And it is impossible to overstate the potential damage to the GOP turnout machine that his absence will present.
Look. Forget about FUX News. Personalities like Bill O’Reilly, MotherTucker and Glenn Beck come and go, but Rush Limbaugh was eternal. The FUX News celebrities had one hour a night to spit sh*t, but Limbaugh had at least three hours a day five days a week. And while talking skulls like Sean Manatee, MotherTucker and Cruella de Ingraham all have radio shows, so what? Who are they talking to? The same mental midgets that tune in to their shows every night. Flush Limbaugh built a juggernaut of loyal acolytes that didn’t need a television or streaming service, he was right there on their home or car radios. He was literally the GOP Kingmaker through his reach.
And make no mistake about it, Limbaugh was a dyed-in-the-wool Trump man. In El Pendejo Presidente’s last SOTU address, Limbaugh was a presidential guest in the gallery, and His Lowness had Melania hang the Presidential Medal of Freedom around his slimy neck. But What the f*ck, why not. In World war I, Germany’s Crown Prince Ruprecht used to walk down a line of his soldiers, two aides carrying a large wicker basket, and hand out Iron Medals First Class like they were candy bars. Traitor Tot did the same thing with the Medal of Freedom.
But the simple fact remains. Lower income, lower educated Trump supporters need constant feeding too, and Limbaugh is no longer there to fill their gullets like some mama bird. Just think about how many long distance truck drivers, deliverymen, service repairmen, cab drivers and factory workers there are out there. The radio was their umbilical cord to the world, and Rush Limbaugh was the placenta on the other end of that umbilical cord.
And believe me, there has been nobody who has come along to fill his shoes. Limbaugh was like a third world dictator. One of the reasons he could remain in power was that if anything happened to him, there was nobody who could take over without everything going to hell in a handbasket. Kind of like FrankenTrump with his company.
But at long last something has happened to Rush Limbaugh. Hopefully he is residing long term in a room in hell, between the elevator and the noisy ice machine. But he’s gone, and there’s nothing like him even on the horizon. The bad news is that as far as I know, there is no kind of media matrix to accurately measure the effect of his absence, especially in terms of voter turnout. We’ll just have to wait until election day. But it’s still a matrix that has to be factored in. Don’t touch that dial.
I thank you for the privilege of your time.
No one beats the mystery tramp of time. As Dylan said…we look him in the eye and say…do ya wanna make a deal? Of course, the bigger the ego, the more denial…no one gets out alive. When some leave, the world becomes a better place. Others, due to the goodness they spread, leave a terrible wound that needs time to patch the heart. No one wanting a better world will miss that howler monkey on meth.
limbaugh might not be available but limbaugh wannabes, and worse, fill in the void and they do it quite well. A hole of ignorance, hypocrisy and evil is easily filled.
I.have to wonder what right-wing nutjob AFRTS ( military radio and TV) is featuring these days. We were stationed in Japan from 1994-2001. During peak drive time,,when day check was heading home, picking up.stuff at the Exchange and Commissary, eating dinner at the chow hall.or club, we got Rush for 3-5 hours straight. No music. No alternation with leftwing hosts, just the Fat White Rat. I guess they had to.keep.the white supermarkets hapoy. And they wonder why so.many vets were destroying the Capitol on 1/6 and training militia nuts.
Gillian, this nugget of unpleasant fact, which doesn’t seem to be common knowledge: that the Armed Forces network broadcast blatantly biased misinfo at its serving personnel as a direct policy. We all assume that our armed forces will be untainted by politics, at least in theory. We need those admirable men and women in uniform to be as neutral, politically, as possible in the modern, info-saturated world, so that they can perform their vital role of defending our nation, not just one party. We need to find out where this shameful practice originated and whether it’s still in action. Thank you so much for revealing it to those of us who were unaware.