This summer, we're telling Rush's advertisers to stop sponsoring opposition to the health care reform we need and start being part of the solution. We're talking to citizens all around the country to recruit a corps of progressives that will outnumber Rush's own Dittohead army. And we're telling Rush himself that we are proud deniers of the trash he spouts every day on his show.
And in light of a new poll, this campaign couldn't come at a more critical time. According to a recent Gallup poll of Republican voters, Limbaugh joins Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney as being the top choices when asked who speaks for the Republican Party.
It's tempting to write Rush Limbaugh off as being irrelevant, a joke. After all, he's just a shock jock. It's ridiculous to think that someone like that would be speaking for a major political party. My very smart friend Ryan said it this way: "It would be like saying that John Stewart is the voice of the Democratic Party. I love John Stewart as much as the next guy, and I might even think he's got some ideas that should see the floor of Congress. But as even Stewart has said, his show follows puppets making prank phone calls. Let's have some separation of kitsch and state here folks."
But make no mistake -- with a band of 14 million or more loyal listeners that will pick up the phone to call their representatives in Congress or volunteer or write a letter at Rush's bidding, he holds a pretty significant amount of power. And if Republicans see him as the leader of their party, his brand of hateful, misleading rhetoric is going to make it harder and harder to make the kind of progressive change we know we need -- especially on President Obama's health care reform plan.
We're not backing down, and I hope you won't either. You can join us in pushing past Rush's ridiculousness to make real progress on real issues. Click here.
