Like millions of folks in this country, I stayed awake late into the early morning hours watching the election results as well as talking with an old friend from college days with whom I was visiting. I didn’t get much sleep so my thoughts are a little disorganized. But here are a couple of observations about a predictable post-election rant from the nation’s greatest bloviator:
On the way back to Beaumont this morning I listened on the radio much more to Rush Limbaugh than usual. I sort of expected what he would be saying and how he was saying it and I wasn’t let down.
It wasn’t difficult to tell from the venom coming from his well of hot air that he was livid, so much in fact that he was perhaps the least focused that I had ever heard to him. Of course, I don’t listen to him hardly at all so perhaps he is always like that. And to be fair, maybe he too was suffering from post-election night fatigue.
Limbaugh blamed everyone and their dog for the defeat of McCain: Members of his own party who were in his words “stupid,” the media (naturally), the full-of-rage left wing radicals such as Obama, and on and on. He made fun of Obama’s message to the crowd last night, doing his best “Amos and Andy” routine to imitate the president-elect’s voice. He did try to spin the defeat saying it was going to be a great opportunity to rebuild the conservative movement. That might be true but it might also portend the end to the great numbers who have faithfully followed this hateful propagandist for years. At the very least, he might lose a great deal of his power, both actual and self-perceived.
Predictably, Limbaugh brought up the spectre of Democrats cheating, as if both parties don’t do that. But I found it interesting he damned early voting, calling it a rich opportunity for tampering. Nothing is perfect but I think early voting is the best thing since toothpaste. When I voted last week I had to stand in line with no one and that was terrific because I really despise waiting in line for anything.
I heard a woman on television complaining about having to wait in line on Election Day for hours and who said elections should be held on weekends so people would have more time. I don’t know about that but I do think that day should be put on the footing of a major civil holiday. At the very least, the day after election should be a holiday so people can recover from staying up late at night and either reveling in their victories or crying in their beers over defeats.