Rush Limbaugh Wants His Bloody War

The man wants blood spilled in his honor before he shuffles off this mortal coil. Via Media Matters:

I thought you were asking me something else when you said, “Can we win?” I thought you meant, “Can we win the culture, can we dominate the culture.” I actually think -- and I’ve referenced this, I’ve alluded to this a couple of times because I’ve seen others allude to this -- I actually think that we’re trending toward secession. I see more and more people asking what in the world do we have in common with the people who live in, say, New York? What is there that makes us believe that there is enough of us there to even have a chance at winning New York? Especially if you’re talking about votes.

I see a lot of bloggers -- I can’t think of names right now -- a lot of bloggers have written extensively about how distant and separated and how much more separated our culture is becoming politically and that it can’t go on this way. There cannot be a peaceful coexistence of two completely different theories of life, theories of government, theories of how we manage our affairs. We can’t be in this dire a conflict without something giving somewhere along the way...

Limbaugh has actually been saying this for years. He's talked up the divisions between Republicans and Democrats as part of his Culture War Narrative, drumming into his listeners and from there into every elected Republican that there can be no peace between the opposing viewpoints directing the American way of life.

We've seen the effects of Limbaugh's shtick since the 1990s: a gradual and then grave polarization between the various populations that make up the United States. White vs. Ethnic. Men vs. Women. Old vs. Young. Urban cities vs. Rural towns. College educated vs. Non-college. With little room for compromise on the divisive issues and a refusal by Limbaugh's side to make honest effort to do so.

The United States has been in this moment of division before. Not just the obvious stuff that stick out in our high school textbooks - the fight over slavery and its spread from the 1830s up to the Civil War itself, and the bloody countering to the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s-1960s - but other moments that get glossed over like the strife regarding the New Deal in the 1930s (there was a surprising amount of seditious behavior by conservatives back then).

The brokenness of the nation got repaired - not always cleanly, oft-times papered over until the cracks pulled further apart - during such tumultuous moments because of varying reasons. The fighting over the New Deal ended when the external pressure of World War II emerged. The struggles of the Civil Rights era ended in positive gains for minorities and women thanks to the Cold War forcing the U.S. to improve its global image as a beacon of freedom and democracy.

The one time the division couldn't get fixed - the Civil War - was the bloodiest moment in our nation's existence, and in many ways the damage from that era continued to rot away at our collective soul. What made that division easy to understand was the simple geographic way the fight was set up: A clear separation between Northern and Midwest Free States against Southern Slave States that refused to accept a fair election in 1860 and openly seceded. Granted, the split wasn't clean: There remained in the North a sizable pro-slavery opposition in Democrat Copperheads, and the South was riddled with pro-Union (not all anti-slavery though) regions/counties that hampered the Home Front efforts throughout the war (South Carolina was the only Confederate State that did not have any home-raised Union troops fight for the North).

In our current troubles - this second Civil War our nation sees itself racing towards - there is a similar split between sides: Far Right Conservative Republicans vs. Far Left-to-Centrist Progressive-Liberal Democrats. Thanks to the likes of Limbaugh - and Fox Not-News, and Mitch McConnell, and the Tea Party extremists, and thousands of other Far Right influencers - the split is as deep as the divide we suffered back in 1860.

The horrifying thing is, there is no way a separation between the massive demographics of the United States will be an amicable, friendly parting of the ways. No matter how Rush and other proponents of a permanent separation sells it to America, we are looking at a fight brewing.

A lot of it has to do with the demographic divide: It is not cleanly geographic this time. While Blue States and Red States clearly exist - with battleground Purple-ish States scattered across the regions - there are pockets of resistance within each state. The cultural, economic, and political divides are clearly urban (with suburban areas shifting that way) versus rural (with exurb enclaves). 

If a split does occur, if the United States divides between Red and Blue, the split will not be even. Blue states that are dominated by one or more super-metropolis will cope in their own way with their outlying conservative (and less-populated) rural counties and most likely continue on. The Red states however - blinded by their gerrymandering that negated the political might of their cities - will run into the reality that their major population centers will not be thrilled about the secession and openly oppose their conservative state leadership. States like Texas and Florida will find out that pissing off the liberal voters of Houston, San Antonio, Tampa, Orlando, and the tri-county South Florida is not a good idea. Economic turmoil in some form - most likely from a "brain drain" of middle and upper-income residents fleeing for Blue states - is unavoidable. That turmoil can lead to conflict.

One thing liberals love to point out is how the Left-leaning Blue states are paying in taxes towards keeping Red states budgets afloat. If the Red states believe they can afford to secede, they are going to find it hard to live without the revenues that would flow in from California and New York. The largest economic-powered Red states - Texas and Florida - are going to be taxed (pun intended) keeping the likes of Mississippi and Kentucky solvent. It costs money - not to mention avoiding pitfalls like hyperinflation - to start a new nation in ANY age. Under such conditions, the stress of nation-building can give way to calls for war (as the ultimate distraction from the woes at home).

The fight is inevitable also because one side - the Far Right extremists - are eager to make it that way. Much in the same way the pro-slavery forces in 1860 believed they could easily win in a fight against the "softer" abolitionist/Union side, the modern Far Right are mentally pumped up by imagining themselves as patriotic gun-toting Rambos in their fantasy-film daydreams.

Look to the Far Right wingnut behavior in Oregon back in 2016. Look to the militia gun-nuts in Michigan who plotted to kidnap/kill Michigan's governor. Keep up with years' worth of research into the extremist militia mindset. Read up the fantasies of these guys who think they can raid against and engage in battle with actual U.S. troops in a straight-up fight. These guys (it's mostly men, although a number of women are part of the craziness as well) picture themselves well-trained weapons of war who'll get their own Michael Bay bio-epic made about them five years from now.

They want a civil war because their cynical, violent world-view demands it. They believe they can whip out their murder-sticks and going hunting on libruls and no one will push back. And then on the bones of their enemies they can build their Utopia.

The scary thing isn't that they'll win. They can't. Their own numbers are in the thousands not millions, as many Republican voters won't cross that line into violence. If they think a conservative-leaning U.S. military will side with them, they'll be wrong (the military will uphold and abide by the Constitution, which means they'll side with the lawfully-elected Democrat Biden), and they will find themselves outgunned and outclassed in every way. Also, these gun-nuts turn on each other as much as they hate on liberals, any nation they'll build will fall apart faster than a libertarian community incapable of fighting off bears.

The scary thing is how they can cause enough damage and death within an hour with the weapons they currently have - hello, AR-15s modified to shoot entire schools - on any unarmed public anywhere. The militia wingnuts may talk about taking on an army, but like every terrorist group on the planet they'll likely hit the softest safest targets - shopping malls, parks, neighborhoods - within driving distance. All it will take is just one trumpshirt wingnut per city ruining everyone's day.

All it will take is just one bloodied street in America in the name of Far Right extremism against the Democrats, and Rush Limbaugh will have his blood before his cancer claims him.