My grandmother calls chubby-and-loud radio talk show personality Rush Limbaugh her boyfriend.  Yes, my grandfather is still alive and yes, this is gross. The conservative talk show host is both arrogant and short-sighted (not to mention loud!).  But more dangerously, Limbaugh, is divisive.  He is perhaps one of the most old-school divisive talk figures whose seriously antagonistic, partisan views led the way for the extreme split between liberals and conservatives in this country.  In other words, he’s Glenn Beck’s godfather.

Rush Limbaugh constantly states that his views are the most correct and that his program is the best program for news because he is on a constant pursuit of what’s right.   Partisanship and discouraging crossing party lines for fear of losing yourself or the support of your listeners can never be right. Anger and yelling can only insight a gut reaction and gut reactions are far cries from well-formed and reasonable opinions. But that’s pretty much all we get in this country—from both sides. But Rush can certainly take some of that blame.

Limbaugh’s reaction to the recent budget compromise on his program was particularly interesting. He blames Barack Obama for all of America’s economic woes, saying that Obama’s on his last legs. He says that Obama has no ideas, so there’s no reason to compromise with him. Interestingly, he shames the conservatives a bit, saying that there should have been no compromise, but Republicans are too conditioned to feel like losers to really fight.

Strangely, despite his criticisms of Obama’s presidency, Limbaugh also asserts that Obama doesn’t care about people criticizing his presidency, nor does he care about the budget crisis. He makes an absurd mention about Obama putting flour on his hairline so that it appears that it has been turning grey from the stress of his job. 

Limbaugh says the country was nowhere near defaulting, that Obama was making up the default so that he could be re-elected come November. But, according to Rush, conservatives never had reason to fear that their money would be worthless. Where does Rush get this information? His listeners never know. They are conditioned into trusting blind rhetoric and never asking for facts.

Limbaugh says that’s it up for the Tea Party to save the country.  He says that it’s up to the winners—the Republicans and the Tea Party--who took back over the House of Representatives back in November—to refuse to compromise with Obama and his weak party. Because they are winners and winners never compromise.

That’s just what Republicans need to hear. Partisanship in Washington has risen to new heights. Deadlocks seem to be our entire future. There is no thinking outside of party lines—ephemeral and empty party rhetoric, specifically—and that is why the government never gets anything done.  Compromise, Rush, is exactly what we need now. Winners are smart enough to recognize a good idea regardless of whose mouth it comes from.  Which is something that you, Rush, cannot and will not let yourself do.

I think that my grandma can do a lot better than Rush Limbaugh. She needs to find a smarter boyfriend.