Spite

Rush Limbaugh is a far right entertainer. There are a number of these with radio talk shows and he is the most famous and influential.

I have never followed the emanations of Rush or his like because I had never been struck by the
accuracy or wisdom of anything I had heard from them, which seemed mostly to be adverse to the common good of the American people. However, there was one member of a now defunct NY Times forum who alleged that "Rush is a genius", so I have been conscious of the need to occasionally look for the evidence. I am still looking.

The most recent proclamation from Mr. Limbaugh is that conservatives ought to hope and to work for the failure of the Obama administration by getting their legislators to oppose that administration by all means available. When they lack the votes to defeat a bill, he advised using parliamentary procedures to obstruct and delay its passage.

It seems to me (as well as to at least one Republican governor) that the administration's failure would unavoidably entail America's failure as well. That puts the Limbaugh policy in the category of cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.

I fervently hope for America's success but that is not the point. I would like to understand this effluvium of spite. Shakespeare said that "all the world's a stage" and Limbaugh is a political entertainer but is the whole thing just theatrically inspired? We all know that people, even small children, can be vengeful and spiteful. Perhaps that is an intrinsic part of our genetic inheritance. If so, Limbaugh and the other extremist radio gurus have a ready made audience.

Pirate Jenny

Can spite trump hope?