Why Rush works

The CPAC soaked up a lot of media time over the past week and CSPAN dedicated Sunday to seemingly endless rebroadcasts of Rush Limbaugh's keynote speech. It would be a lie to tell you that I wasn't hypnotized by this performance. In thinking about the speech, I wanted to get at the appeal. There isn't anything new here, but I'd like to hear anyone's take on this.

Rush is focused. Rush seemed to be speaking extemporaneously, but he did look down now and then. My sense is that he had some topics he wanted to make sure to hit (i.e. Joe Biden). These topics were never too long, though. In other words, there were numerous entry-points in which a person who was watching at home could, within a few minutes, catch Rush resetting on a new topcic.

He returns to key points. In Rush's conceptualization, "the government" represents an obstacle to freedom. "The media" is hostile toward conservative viewpoints. The left is "derranged". Obama's policies have been tried in the past and "failed every time".

He sets his sights low. In the sections that I saw (Because while admittedly mesmerized, I still found it difficult to watch for extended periods of time), Rush never delved deep into numbers. No charts, no figures, nothing. Now this is understandable in light of the event, but I'd guess that this is the case for his radio show also. Again, one could suggest that radio isn't amenable to data-heavy discourse. This is fine...and convenient.

I am sure that there are more characteristics that can be teased out, but the above are enough to lay a case that is not very creative, but, I believe, correct. Rush, essentially, is a sports commentator. He pulls from that discipline the bombast and certainty and demonization of the other "team".

It is, therefore, consistent that Rush would say something like, "One thing we can all do is stop assuming that the way to beat them is with better policy ideas. " A sports commentator isn't going to appreciate the contributions of statistical analysis to their sport as much as a general manager would because for the commentator, the existence data and anlysis lower the value that the commentator offers. Why would Rush stet his sights higher if it would mean a nuanced, more difficult to understand policy reality that would require work in learning and describing to his audience? Furthermore, why would Rush change the format of his sports call-in show since it is a success?

As far as I am concerned, Rush works because it is easy to participate in, easy to understand, and easy to parrot...much like a quarterback controversy or a problem with the pitching staff.