Opinion: Rush Limbaugh commands you to think his way

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Most Americans do not listen to Rush Limbaugh on the radio.

So, if they ever think about the talkative fellow, they know for sure that he’s a chunky right-wing blowhard with a cigar who goes on and on about conservative causes and a while back had some sort of problem about prescription pills that allowed them to crack a smug smile over hypocrisy.

Recently, they learned that Rush has some kind of problem with Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, that offers hope for rampant divisiveness among conservatives that will allow Barack or Hillary or Ralphie (but likely not Ron) to romp into the White House next January.

However, there are nearly 14 million Americans who do ...

listen to El Rushbo virtually every weekday on more than 600 radio stations that easily sell out their ad times during the 180 minutes that the Talk Maestro holds forth daily. It’s not so much that this very successful radio showman tells his listeners -- actually, they are more like followers -- what to think. He can be outrageous and entertaining at the same time.

It’s that he so often says things that they didn’t realize they were thinking until they heard him say it, defiantly, unashamedly, outrageously, and then they said to themselves, ‘You know, that’s right!’ So they feel smarter, like they learned something while knowing it all along.

And now, by golly, there’s proof. Actual documentation that Rush Limbaugh hypnotizes listeners. He sways minds. He might even be able to control thoughts in a conservative mind-meld. What you thought you knew about R.L. if you ever thought about it turns out to be true thinking.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson at the Annenberg Public Policy Center has just done a study of 639 L.L.s (Limbaugh Listeners) and 8,077 N.L.L.s (Non-Limbaugh Listeners). And what she found is absolutely not shocking at all.

She studied them between the New Hampshire primary Jan. 8 and Super Tuesday, Feb. 5. You can imagine the Rush-man had a lot to say during that heated political period, especially since someone named John McCain stormed to victory in the Granite State and threatened to grasp the GOP nomination with accumulating wins in South Carolina, Florida, California and beyond.

Talk radio of any persuasion needs an enemy. McCain is Limbaugh’s for now. He’s insufficiently conservative. Yeah, yeah, he’s pro-life forever. And he supported Bush in 2000 through gritted teeth. And he’s for Bush’s tax cuts now, but not before. And so many other things like McCain-Feingold.

So, while the N.L.L.s went on about their January lives oblivious to the struggle on the airwaves, the L.L.s heard a steady stream of McCain criticism from Rush’s mic to their ears. Before New Hampshire, about half the L.L.s thought McCain was conservative. By Feb. 5, 12% less did. The number of L.L.s who thought of McCain as liberal grew by 9%.

More L.L.s than N.L.L.s came to know McCain had initially opposed Bush’s tax cuts and that the Arizona senator was actually endorsed by that Great Printed Satan, the New York Times. Yes, McCain won anyway in numerous states. But those self-identified as very conservative weren’t voting for him, which could mean real trouble for McCain come November.

Not only that, but Jamieson’s study data found that L.L.s are also coming to think of Mike Huckabee as less conservative and Mitt Romney as more conservative than before — all stands that mirror Limbaugh talk themes.

Jamieson is co-author with Joseph Cappella of a forthcoming book, ‘Echo Chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the Conservative Media Establishment.’

(UPDATE: In a mischievious move during today’s program Limbaugh urged his presumably Republican listeners in Ohio and Texas to switch over and vote for Hillary Clinton in their March 4 primaries to keep her campaign going longer and possibly damage Barack Obama’s effort, at least by postponing his victory.)

But here’s one more thing to think about: What if, in a sort of tricky intellectual bank-shot using his radioed hypnotic powers, Limbaugh is really pretending to oppose McCain because he knows that will strengthen the senator’s image in the minds of moderates and independents, whose votes Republicans can always use.

The worst thing Limbaugh could do to the Republican right now is endorse him.

Because Limbaugh, unlike mere mortals, knows that come Nov. 3 or 4 he can just snap his fingers on the air, and his millions of Rushbots in their cars and kitchens and offices will suddenly wake up and look at Clinton and Obama and Nader and then over at McCain.

And they will know what they must do.

-- Andrew Malcolm