Hm:
Top Democrats believe they have struck political gold by depicting Rush Limbaugh as the new face of the Republican Party, a full-scale effort first hatched by some of the most familiar names in politics and now being guided in part from inside the White House.
The strategy took shape after Democrats included Limbaugh’s name in an October poll and learned their longtime tormentor was deeply unpopular with many Americans. Then the conservative talk-radio host emerged as an unapologetic critic of Barack Obama shortly before his inauguration, when even many Republicans were showering him with praise.
Soon it clicked: Democrats realized they could roll out a new GOP bogeyman for the post-Bush era by turning to an old one in Limbaugh, a polarizing figure since he rose to prominence in the 1990s.
It is brilliant, actually, because it takes advantage of the far-right mindset; you can formulate the plan and be virtually certain that they will react exactly as you expect them to.
Far-right conservatism is heavy on the tribalism - we’ve been saying that for years. And Limbaugh is indeed the leader of the tribe, the chieftain; attack him, and the tribe is guaranteed to swarm to his defense - as it has.
But once you realize that the leader of this tribe is in fact deeply unpopular with the broader American public, the trick gets easier, Because the leader of the tribe is guaranteed - flat-out, ab-so-lutely guaranteed - to rise to the bait. The chieftan is not a man to back down from a challenge; neither are his trusty warriors.
So you can engender more of the very behavior that made him unpopular in the first place by baiting him. It doesn’t take much; he’s guaranteed to go over the top (wanting the president to fail); and then you say - Does he represent Republicanism itself? Conservatives certainly seem to be rallying around him; the party wants the president, and thus the nation, to fail? Do the American people want this?
And of course the American people don’t want this. But it’s too late; the chieftain, the whole tribe itself, has already been snared in the trap; the harder they struggle, the tighter the constraints become.
The seeds were planted in October after Democracy Corps, the Democratic polling company run by Carville and Stanley Greenberg, included Limbaugh’s name in a survey and found that many Americans just don’t like him.
“His positives for voters under 40 was 11 percent,” Carville recalled with a degree of amazement, alluding to a question about whether voters had a positive or negative view of the talk show host.
Paul Begala, a close friend of Carville, Greenberg and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, said they found Limbaugh’s overall ratings were even lower than the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s controversial former pastor, and William Ayers, the domestic terrorist and Chicago resident who Republicans sought to tie to Obama during the campaign.
Think about that - among the general public, Rush is less popular than Bill Ayers. Amongst the young - and he who has the young has the future - he’s got an 11 percent approval rating.
Struggle on, tribe.
