American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy by Corn David

Author:Corn, David [Corn, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Politics, History, Sociology, Psychology
ISBN: 9781668605523
Goodreads: 59568347
Publisher: Twelve
Published: 2022-09-13T07:00:00+00:00

Rush Limbaugh and his gospel of derision and division was spreading widely. By 1991, he could be heard on 350 stations, with a total audience of 7.1 million listeners a week. The money was pouring in—millions of dollars a year. His M.O. had not changed: blasting the liberals, targeting gays and lesbians, ridiculing the homeless, bragging of his own wonderfulness. He launched a syndicated television show; its executive producer was Roger Ailes. (The show would end in 1996, but it gave Ailes a few ideas; that same year, he created Fox News for conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch.) Limbaugh started a newsletter that quickly attracted hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

The belligerent broadcaster published his first book in 1992, in which he elevated one of his favorite noxious and dangerous ideas: Climate change was a hoax. He claimed that concern about the warming planet was the product of a sinister conspiracy and contended that environmentalism overall was a scam, an issue that communists—he always called liberals “communists”—exploited to redistribute wealth. “Despite the hysterics of a few pseudo scientists, there is no reason to believe in global warming,” he insisted. Environmentalists’ true goal, he asserted, was to spread “terror, dread and apprehension about the future.” With his assorted media platforms, Limbaugh had become the top pusher of this disinformation to millions of conservatives and Republicans.

In June 1992, Ailes engineered an important meeting for George Bush: a trip to the Kennedy Center to see a show with Limbaugh and then a chat with him at the White House, where Limbaugh would spend the night. Bush even carried Limbaugh’s suitcase up to the Lincoln Bedroom. Limbaugh had supported Buchanan at the start of the primaries. Now with Buchanan out of the race, he showed an interest in H. Ross Perot, the feisty and erratic Texas billionaire running as an independent.

Republican officials worried about a potential Limbaugh endorsement of Perot. Bush wanted the radio man, now the most influential voice on the right, on his side. No hard feelings, of course. The two spent the evening conversing about sports, politics, and the campaign. Following his visit with Bush, Limbaugh appeared on the Today show and enthused about the president. When weeks later Perot withdrew from the race and made it a two-man contest between Bush and Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, the Democratic nominee, Limbaugh exclaimed that the election now boiled down to “socialism versus America.” He was on Team Bush.

A few days after giving the White House seal of approval to the top climate change denialist in the nation, Bush jetted off to Rio de Janeiro for a global Earth Summit, where he signed the first major international agreement that recognized climate change and that called for remedial action.

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