Limbaugh delenda est

Cato the Elder (234-149BC), Senator and Consul of Rome, finished every speech with the line "Carthago delenda est", which translates roughly to: "Furthermore, Carthage must be destroyed."  He did this whether or not the rest of the speech had anything to do with the merchant and military rivalry between Rome and Carthage.  Carthage was indeed destroyed in 146 BC, the population taken as slaves, the earth plowed and salted.

Rush Limbaugh has been a dominant figure of the insanity that has overtaken the Republican party since the late 1980s.  Rush is in the business of selling controversy.  He needs to be ever more outrageous to keep his audience.  He doesn't need to have a very large audience to succeed commercially, just enough to keep buying whatever his advertisers want him to pitch.  He has succeeded brilliantly.  He's a gifted talker and a witty guy.  It seems to me until some point in the early '90s, he knew where the line between reality and fiction lay, and carefully edged up to it without crossing.  For example he told us that there is more forest in America today than when the Declaration was signed.  Well, yeah.  There's more forest in Alaska alone than there is land in the entire 13 colonies.  But eventually he figured out that he didn't even need to do that--he could get away with "the Big Lie", and that the bigger the lie, the better.  And I think he started believing it.  Since the Gingrich revolution of 1994, he has become one of the most powerful people in America, with an army of "dittoheads" believing, and fighting for, his every word.

This is dangerous.  Rush needs to get crazier and more outrageous every day to maintain his position, but he's willing to do it, and it doesn't bother him a bit if it takes America, and possibly the rest of the world, off a cliff.  With the constant adulation and drug use, he's probably so delusional at this point he doesn't even remember that he's been making it up all along.

I'm an advocate of free speech, but there is some speech that cannot be allowed.  In particular, intentionally provoking a riot is banned.  For example, shouting "FIRE" in a crowded theater is likely to provoke a riot, so it's illegal.  This is exactly what Rush is doing.

Limbaugh delenda est.