Dear Mr. Limbaugh,
I have become increasingly alarmed at the rhetoric coming from your corner and can remain silent no longer (dangit!).
I've been a sporadic talk radio / NPR listener for about seven years now. I became a listener primarily because I was bored and it gave me something to listen to while I tended to various duties at home and in the car. I continued to listen because many of the things that were being discussed hit home and were not being discussed elsewhere. I never completely agreed with your political takes, and was periodically turned off by your manners, but being able to listen to news bits that were not played on the mainstream media was especially refreshing and informative.
Mr. Limbaugh, I am a moderate. I know for you that's a ticket to the "coward's corner", so I'd like to explain to you what that means to me rather than letting you define it.
A moderate, or perhaps an "Independent" if you like, is one who has become distrustful of political parties and is thoroughly disgusted with the arrogance and the acrimony and the disconnect of the politicians in Washington. A moderate is not one who can't make up their mind, but rather one who knows where they stand very well and cannot fit their core beliefs into any one party platform.
This wasn't such a big deal once upon a time, when to be a Republican or a Democrat was merely a political affiliation, not a religious soap box for hypocrites.
As a moderate I believe in listening to people, even when I don't agree with them. I believe it is necessary for a healthy individual to be capable of having a respectful conversation with an individual who's beliefs do not reflect my own, while demanding the same respect for my own beliefs in turn. I understand from listening to your show the other day that you do not speak to your enemies. I don't believe this attitude is healthy, and your condoning of such immature behavior is not helpful in a time when more than ever we need to be united on our common ground. If we can't find common ground, then one or the other group is going to get pushed off the edge, and that will not be pretty. We are not France, nor do we wish to be.
Nature abhors a vacuum, sir.
If the only people you will give credit for having any valid points or concerns are those of your political ilk, then your fodder is sparse indeed, and your understanding will remain where it is, and over time will crumble in on itself, stale and depleted.
If your strategy is to attack Pres. Obama every time he blows his nose wrong, then you will be perpetuating a lie: that Mr. Limbaugh is always right and Pres. Obama is always wrong. And people like me, who see the vacuum of logic, will draw further away from both political parties, and more particularly away from people like you.
Others, however, will continue to be fired up to the point of religious fervor, very much the way the far left is behaving in response to Pres. Obama's election. In this, sir, I sincerely hope more people will recognize the holes in your arguments and will keep themselves apart from the frenzy you are helping to stir.
In this regard, sir, I hope you fail.
But if not, I hope that those of us who, whatever our politial affiliation may be, continue to love this country AND love our neighbor will be able to hold the system together sufficient for things to not completely fall apart at the hands of quarreling, hypocritical, blind partisans.
And remember, "Moderation in all things" includes politics.
I'm just saying...
Sincerely,
Liz
(A fellow American)
