Paglia On Limbaugh

via Salon.

And I'm sick of people impugning Rush's wealth and lifestyle, which is no different from that of another virtuoso broadcaster who hit it big -- Oprah Winfrey. Rush Limbaugh is an embodiment of the American dream: He slowly rose from obscurity to fame on the basis of his own talent and grit. Every penny Rush has earned was the result of his rapport with a vast audience who felt shut out and silenced by the liberal monopoly of major media.

I have to agree with this. I think a lot of you out there have forgotten what the airwaves were like before Rush came along, when there were only three networks and only one political viewpoint represented thereon. AM radio was all but dead, the home of wacky local religious stations. The popularity of Rush Limbaugh, a self-made man who can explain conservatism in terms the hoi polloi can understand, rescued AM radio and single-handedly created "talk radio." He's done it all in defiance of the liberal mainstream. When he finally got a TV show, here in Charlotte it typically broadcast at strange times like 12:30 at night or 5:30 in the morning. Accident? By no means. You don't see Rush on 60 Minutes or Meet the Press, although he's one of the most influential conservative voices in the US. Why? Because he's a terrible threat to the message that the MSM wants to get out.

Yes, he's fat. So am I, and so, probably, are a lot of you. What does that have to do with anything Rush has to say? Yes, he's been married three times. Was the fault all his, then? The wives had nothing to do with it? More than 50% of marriages in this country end in divorce. Drug use? Yes, he was addicted to prescription painkillers. When the truth came out, he got help and presumably has beaten his addiction. Was he treated with the sympathy usually given to celebrities with an addiction problem? No, he was prosecuted and only able to save himself because of his money, which allowed him to hire skilled lawyers to defend him.

All of you are familiar with Godwin's Law, right? "Anyone who invokes Hitler or Nazis in a political argument can be said to have lost the argument, unless the argument was directly about Hitler or Nazis." Well, there are a couple of corollaries to Godwin's Law, which are:

1. Hitchens corollary to Godwin's Law: If in an argument with or about Christopher Hitchens you mention his drinking, you have lost the argument.

2. Limbaugh corollary to Godwin's Law: If in an argument about Rush Limbaugh you mention his weight or past drug use, you have lost the argument.

Why? Because you can't argue the ideas, so you have to resort to the ad hominem. If you're not intelligent enough to refute the arguments of Hitchens or Limbaugh without attacking the man, then you really need to shut the fuck up.