If you're like me, you assume that the likes of Rush Limbaugh don't operate with any kind of philosophical grounding other than "Smear Thy Enemy". So, I have to admit, it's been a bit puzzling to me that Rush and his cabal of right-wing revolutionaries have been so hard on the Medicare bill over the last few days.
It seems, on its face, a fairly risky strategy for them. After all, even if they don't like Bush, he's the only Republican president that they're likely to get any time soon. So if you spend a lot of time railing about what a waste this bill is and how Bush has abandoned the ideals of "limited government," you risk alienating the right-wing base, and thus the loss of power.
Now again, it would be one thing if RushCo was made up of reckless ideologues, but it's not. It's consisted wholly of smear artists and propogandists. Have we ever known Rush, Hannity, or the like to stand on principle? Hardly.
So what's their angle with this? As usual, the answer can be found in the smear. Instead of applauding Daschle for opposing the bill (from Rush's standpoint, as a means to an end), Rush decided to mock him for saying how bad of a bill it is. After all, says Rush, the Democrats were trying to prevent passage of the bill because it didn't contain enough spending. Not true, of course, but typical.
So this rhetoric from Rush (and the rest of his friends) accomplishes two things. One, by mischaracterizing the bill as a massive prescription drug handout, the right protects their corporate interests. It's classic interference - pretend like you're giving out prescription drugs, and the public doesn't have time to notice all the naked corporate welfare.
Second, it reinforces the constant message that even if you don't like this kind of thing, the Democrats are far worse. Having run the bait-and-switch to make the public think this bill is actually about Medicare, Rush is free to demonize the left as reckless big spenders. This repositions the right-wing loonies who are responsible for this bill in the first place as the center of our political debate, which in turn moves our society further to the right than it already is.
Don't believe that the "dissent" on the right is legitimate. While many moderate Republicans are rightfully repulsed by this bill and other shenanigans by the Bushies, the dissent from the far right is pure propoganda. I applaud each of the presidential candidates that criticized this bill during the debate last night. We're going to need a lot more intelligent criticism from them and others if we mean to stop the right from winning this propoganda war.