A Guy Named Rush

Prepare yourself for a bizarre speculation. If you cannot make bizarre speculations on a blog, where can you?

The thought came to mind when I was reading Roger Simon’s column about the Russia investigation. He argued, persuasively, that it’s not really about Russia. Because there’s nothing new about Putin’s Russia. And because there’s nothing new about American presidents mishandling relations with Russia.

Anyway, here is an excerpt from Simon:

Bad as Vladimir Putin is, the investigation has little or nothing to do with Russia--which has been what it is since the days of the tsars--and everything to do with us.

From the Okhrana (the tsars' secret police that authored the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and specialized in agents provocateurs) to the Cheka to the NKVD to the KGB to the FSB, it has always been the same. The Russians -- Soviet or not -- have always engaged in disinformation. Their recent Facebook and Twitter offerings were nothing more than the tip of an iceberg that's been sailing for years.

In other words words, there's nothing new here. The indictments of the Russian hackers by Mueller and Company were no more than a face-saving charade. They will never be arrested and no one will care. No one remembers who they were even now, less than a year later, except that they vastly expand the number of those indicted for breathless press reports.

Upon reading the column, I drew a different conclusion. If it’s not all about Russia, what could it all be about. We note that Russia has been demonized beyond recognition. Stephen Cohen has often pointed out that the mania about the big bad Russian bear is making it far more difficult to conduct Russia policy. To his credit, Cohen has declared this to be a bad thing.

And yet, if it’s not about Russia, what’s it about. If I may offer a wild speculation, if you ask yourself whose influence the American left really wants to shut down? If you ask yourself who it would most like to demonize, to discredit and to defame… the first name that comes to mind is not Russia. It’s a guy named Rush.

They cannot very well shut down Rush. But they can work subliminally to slander and defame him, to make him appear to be a foreign agent, to undermine his influence over the American electorate.

Subliminal messaging does work. Consider the idea that women should lean in. Sheryl Sandberg effectively sold it to scads of working women. And yet, did you notice the use of the word "lean." What woman does not want to be lean?

Rush Limbaugh and the other conservative talk radio hosts are influential and popular. They are leading the war against American leftism. If you can’t shut him down, why not make it appear that he is doing the bidding of a foreign power?

Admittedly, it’s a stretch. But, subliminal messaging does work… up to a point. And, the American left has done everything in its power to silence anyone who dissents from its prevailing orthodoxy.

Take it for what it’s worth.