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Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck ostensibly stand for freedom and extension of human rights but the facts reveal a different result.
A current case in point surrounds recent events in Egypt. To lovers of democracy throughout the world the confluence of events, brought about through a coalescing of freedom lovers in Egypt seeking to bring an end to a three decade dictatorial regime noted for suppression of basic rights and rigged elections, was an example of grassroots democracy in action.
Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck immediately sounded sirens of discontent to their loyal patrons. Limbaugh was alarmed that the demonstrators were leftists and included a number of feminists.
What is a leftist to Limbaugh? Based on his alarmist messages to a core audience that has made him a multimillionaire, anyone to the left of the Limbaugh-Beck-Fox News axis constitutes a dangerous leftist threat.
A case in point is the radicalization Limbaugh has perceived in America from the nation's last two Democratic presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Even though Obama sounded more like Robert Kennedy than Bill Clinton in his 2008 presidential campaign, he has governed more in the manner of the latter than the former. Clinton was one of the leaders of the Democratic Leadership Council, known for a moderate and sometimes conservative brand of politics with an absence of what would be termed radical reform.
As for expressing alarm that many of the Egyptian demonstrators were feminists, adherents of democracy throughout the world see that as a positive rather than a negative. The feminism they espouse calls for rights for women in a society where they have been denied.
Limbaugh has practiced outrageous male chauvinism on his program, tastelessly making fun of certain women's appearances and lamenting that he had visited certain areas only to find that the women were ugly. In his crudest moments Limbaugh has defined women as sex objects whose assets should be restricted to that domain.
As for Beck, he sees the recent Egyptian democratic demonstrations as part of the leftist conspiracy he fulminates against, often by means of puppet shows. He recently told his television audience that he foresees the kind of demonstrations seen on Egypt's streets copied elsewhere, including Europe.
The invocation of Europe necessitated a question. Aren't those European nations about which Beck is worried already holding democratic elections? Is there a Hosni Mubarak type ruling in France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark or Belgium?
The irony is that George W. Bush, a U.S. chief executive greatly admired by Limbaugh and Beck, conveyed in a State of the Union Message the desire that Egypt would embrace democracy. Once that brave demonstrators took to the streets to challenge a three decade dictatorship, with some losing their lives in the process, Limbaugh and Beck expressed dismay.
Then again, these events were occurring when a U.S. president from the Democratic Party was in power. To continue achieving huge amounts of money it is necessary for Limbaugh and Beck to relentlessly push the panic button by playing the Democrats vs. Republicans game at steroid level, a term Rush clearly understands, and convince the masses that the only key to salvation is through neoconservative Republican administrations.
