Burning the Ship of State for Short-Term Political Gain: I Blame Rush Limbaugh

   So here's a common thought: one of our great strengths is that most of us basically trust the system, and mostly trust our countrymen. In my view, Rush Limbaugh played a pivotal role in fucking that up. He employs the method of derogatory free-association to wend his way from whatever news blurb or current event the uses as a springboard, through some subsidiary derogation of liberals (Limbaugh-ian lemmas) to the (preordained, of course) conclusion that liberals are evil and stupid and cowardly and dedicated to the destruction of the country. He hates liberals and loves to be thought intelligent, insightful and well-informed. And he's willing to destroy the country in order to pursue those preferences. It's not a particularly deft analogy, but I've long pictured this like so: we're on a sailing ship that's run as a democracy. Limbaugh is a guy who's willing to tear down the masts and tear up the decks to make a bonfire in order to host a party drumming up support for his side. He's willing to cannibalize the ship of state to fuel his campaign against liberalism. Once the ship is broken, we're all fucked. But that's fine with him. Limbaugh's delusional, rabid hatred of liberalism, and his love of fame, adulation and money...these are what motivate him. USA be damned...
   That's what we're seeing from Trump now. On exactly zero evidence, he's willing to destroy the faith in democracy that's necessary for the survival of the Republic--not in order to win. That isn't going to happen. He's already lost. He's a political dead man walking. But rather simply because he can't resist the urge to lash out in defeat. If scoring futile points against Clinton requires destruction of American democracy, then so be it. Of course he won't destroy it...but he's happy to weaken it as much as possible.
   He's probably not an actual agent of Putin...but he might as well be.
   I've defended that sonofabitch against unsound criticisms, and I've even tried hard to give him a run for his money against criticisms that seemed sound but unfairly-leveled. I've tried to keep my disgust for the guy from interfering with my thinking about him. But disgust me he does, and always has. Not, y'know, this bad... Not as bad as he does now that I know that he's a rapist-lite who wants to destroy the country with a tantrum... But you don't even have to know those things to be justly revolted by the guy. I think he may be the most disgusting American politician of my lifetime. Even Wallace at least saw the light and sought redemption. Even Nixon had some virtues...
   But anyway, the point is that Trump reminds me of a dumber, shittier Rush Limbaugh. At any rate, they're cut from the same cloth in many respects.