Ray Ahearn: Election truth deniers
Tip of a Pen Mike Watson Images
Published: 3/3/2021 3:04:30 PM
A Monmouth University poll released Jan. 25 found that fully 70% of Republicans still believe that Trump lost the 2020 election due to voter fraud. Among this group, one-third say they will never accept Biden as president.
One has to wonder how we got to this point where so many believe that Trump was a victim of a “Big Steal,” and what can be done about it? In part, we got there because these MAGA devotees were fed a ton of continuous lies and quack theories by Trump and GOP leaders about the election.
GELFAND’S WORLD Pardon my getting a wee bit cynical here, but I suspect that there are a couple of reasons for the recall attempt, and they aren t that he went out to dinner one night without a face mask.
(And was seen in the presence of a dozen or so other people instead of the legally prescribed number.) After all, there were the Trump rallies which involved thousands of yelling, maskless supporters and an equally maskless commander in chief. And there was that gathering in Sturgess, South Dakota of an estimated 450,000 motorcycle enthusiasts. But now the Republicans are circulating the petition for the recall. Hypocrisy much, guys?
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Understanding Limbaugh’s impact requires a sense for what preceded him. The Federal Communication Commission’s Fairness Doctrine, introduced in 1949, mandated that commercial broadcast outlets give a platform for all sides of a political controversy. Of course this made sure that there was little actual controversy on the air. To be sure there were still some kooks ranting their bizarro theories and conspiracies. Thank goodness those days are past, right? But I digress.
When the regulation was abolished in the late 1980’s (President Reagan vetoed a bill that would have made the regulation into law), commercial radio was wide open for “market segmentation.” Limbaugh stepped up, artfully speaking to a particular subset of the American population, fueling their beliefs, and ignoring those whose viewpoints didn’t align.
Speak not ill of the dead, I was taught in Sunday school. I respect that.
But if I couldnât eulogize Rush Limbaugh, who died Feb. 17, without such pinpoint descriptions as bloviating, racist, misogynist, neo-fascist gasbag, I think good olâ Rush would be disappointed in me, whereever he is.
After all, I would be helping to confirm the angry, humorless, elitist and vindictive image of liberals and moderate RINOs (âRepublicans in name onlyâ) that he peddled with very lucrative success since the mid-1980s, preparing the way like a latter-day John the Baptist for the election of Donald Trump and, let us not forget, the Jan. 6 attack by anger-fueled Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol.