Belle of Liberty

Letting Freedom Ring

Friday, February 17, 2012

Rush Appreciation Day

My company has softened its stance on employees listening to radio programs through their computers. Time was when we simply couldn’t. This strict rule was understandable, given the customer service orientation of our company. However, I am not involved in customer service and my phone hardly ever rings; I find e-mail communication much more effective and efficient.

The other day, I discovered I could now listen to Rush Limbaugh in the afternoons, rather than the odious muzak we must endure. This allowance came at most welcome time; truly, it was an act of mercy. As everyone on my aisle, save one, is “impacted” (that is, our last day of work is March 30th), they’ve taken to grousing bitterly about the unfairness of it all.

I refuse to join in the negativity. I understand the company’s decision and I don’t take it personally. Rather than join the pity party, I divide my remaining time between a last-ditch effort convincing the company I’m a writer worthy of my paycheck and preparing for the GREs so I can eventually earn my Master’s degree and a decent paycheck somewhere else, possibly one of the textbook publishers in the area.

I would much rather listen to Rush than my puerile co-workers. Yesterday, I was quite concerned at his monologue. He was saying that he received blogs from two different bloggers, one of whom likened free contraceptives to a free lunch. He couldn’t understand how the writer could be surprised that people want free things. He also took exception to the statement that Conservatives must do a better job of communicating Conservatism.

This, I certainly have written and stand by what I wrote. However, the assertion was not aimed at poor Rush Limbaugh. No one has done more, for a longer period of time, than Rush Limbaugh for the Conservative cause. No pundit has been stauncher or more faithful in propagating Conservative values. If Rush is feel slighted, we should declare a Rush Appreciation Day and let him know how valuable we find his broadcasts, and his newsletter.

Still, it was unfortunate that the caller he took just before he began the topic of the e-mail bloggers illustrated the very point about Conservatism. Say the name “Rush Limbaugh” (or “Glenn Beck” or “Ann Coulter”) and you’re met with derisive laughter and obstinacy.

I suspect it harkens back to the superstition about “hearing voices” in your head and the implication that listening to anyone on the radio is akin to listening to the Woosies, the imaginary voices my grandmother’s friend heard. The trucker who called admitted that he used Rush’s arguments but not his name for fear his small audience would tune him out.

My own mother scoffs at Rush, even though she’s a staunch conservative and was the one who got me listening to Rush, three days after he began broadcasting nationally.

We must do a better job of withstanding the laughter and not letting it intimidate us. We mustn’t let fools patronize us. Not when the debt is $16 trillion. You can laugh at Rush, Glenn and Ann, but it’s hard to laugh at or ignore such a sum. Mom wasn’t convinced by Rush’s voice, but she sure was convinced when she started reading his newsletter. I’d given my nephew a subscription but as he’s away at school, I had his subscription sent to my mother’s house. My brother visits on a daily basis now that he’s divorced, picks up the newsletter and mails it out to The Nephew along with his other mail.

Certainly, we small bloggers understand that people love free stuff. Nevertheless, they must be made, one way or another, to look at the bill, the price we’re paying for all these free things, in terms of freedom as well as taxes. It’s a sad fact that most people not only love free stuff, but tend to completely ignore the price they’re paying for it in the long run.

We must be more assertive in our communications. There’s nothing else and no one else for it but us. Our biggest problem is the Moderates, who plume themselves on their rationality, which consists of barring the door against Conservative reason and welcoming Liberal irresponsibility in for a cup of tea. They don’t want to fight. They don’t want to argue. They don’t want to appear “uncool.” At the very last breath, they would be obliged to take up arms in defense of liberty and that’s much too violent for their aesthete tastes.

Well, as matter of fact, I don’t particularly like guns, either. I cringe whenever I see a dead animal on the road and change the channel whenever I see hunting, be it animal v. animal, or man v. animal, is the topic. Yet I know that this is an unrealistic attitude in a very real world. If events continue apace, I will very soon be obliged to purchase a gun for self-defense.

If Conservatives seem foolishly surprised by this lust for free stuff as opposed to freedom, it’s only because until the Tea Parties, we had no forum of our own. Yes, there was Rush Limbaugh and Bob Grant before him. However, there was no way for we hobbits to speak out and certainly no known way to break down that wall between us and our moderate friends and neighbors.

We are not surprised, but we are appalled at the acceptance of free stuff and if we don’t start speaking up, we’ll all be enveloped in the collective colliseum, bread and circuses. Moderates are eaten up with vanity about their charitable natures and all too susceptible to charges of selfishness by Liberals for their success.

They must understand that far from forging a stronger, kinder nation, they’re fabricating a weak fabric easily unraveled. A chain of weak links will not hold. Every individual link must be forged with its own strength; it cannot be made stronger or supported by another. Even one weak link can cause the whole chain to break. A chain of weak links will simply disintegrate. Each individual must make him or herself stronger. No one’s muscles ever got stronger by someone else pumping them up and down.

We must, it appears, first strengthen those weak-minded links, the Moderates, before we can do anything at all about that other half of the country. Moderates must understand that they are not the other half’s mothers, nor should the government take on that role.

That is our communications task. Rush Limbaugh does a wonderful job in leading the way. Whether you say his name with pride, or judiciously withhold his name, knowing of your audience’s (however small it may be) prejudices, you must get the message across to your fellow Americans:

Freedom is imperiled and it is worth any cost to protect.



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