Dis-United States - Toxic Talk is Destroying the U.S.

They command enormous audiences of loyal followers, set the agenda for some in the Republican Party and have made fortunes through their media empires, but are Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck good for America?

All Obama-Nazi/Hitler comparisons aside, the answer is still a resounding no. Even stripping away the most-hateful of rhetoric and examining their basic governing philosophy (if it can be described as such), both espouse a libertarian view, that, if followed, would lead to more economic degradation.

It is in these times of great economic peril that America most needs government intervention into the economy. To restore the nation’s manufacturing base, the country needs a national industrial policy overseen at the top levels of government, a more protectionist trade policy to protect American businesses from the mercantilist practices of others and a tax system that encourages domestic innovation and production rather than outsourcing.

Listening to Limbaugh and Beck, however, you would be led to believe that anything the federal government does to protect domestic industry and jobs, anything that curtails the profit-driven actions of business, anything that puts people over profits, is some sort of Bolshevik plot.

Forget for a moment that both are under-educated entertainers recovering from substance abuse problems. Forget that both are multi-millionaires whose business' stand to benefit from deregulation. Forget that neither one has absolutely any background in economics whatsoever. Forget that they are both shining examples of hypocrisy.

Listen to what they say. Closely if you have to.

“I say on the air all the time,” Beck has said in the past, ‘if you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.’“

Which is a fair assessment given that Beck spent most of his early radio career as a top-40 shock jock on “morning zoo” programs across the country, seemingly being fired from every one of them. His early career highlights include a host of harmless practical jokes and publicity stunts to gain listeners.

The extremism, was always there though apparently. In one instance, he mocked the miscarriage of a rival radio host’s wife. In another he was protested for mocking the accent of an Asian-American caller. More recently, he has been known to, rather laughably, cry during the broadcast of his television show when he isn’t demonstrating how a misspelled acronym on his chalk board is evidence of an Obama administration link to non-existent concentration camps.

“I’m a rodeo clown,” he said in an interview.

While Limbaugh at least pretends to be more serious politically, he has no more credibility on economic issues than Rodeo Clown Beck. While not being arrested for smuggling prescription pills illegally into the country or being denied an ownership stake in the St. Louis Rams for consistently making incendiary racial remarks, the thrice-divorced social conservative is leading his legion of followers - aptly named ditto heads - to their own economic demise.

Even after the Wall Street meltdown that nearly brought down the economy, Limbaugh decries any form of regulation.

"It's a slush fund is all this financial regulation bill is,” he said on his radio show. “It's a way of getting Obama control of $50 billion via legislation. It's the same thing that the Porkulus bill really was."

When it comes right down to it, however, Limbaugh is nothing more than an entertainer, and he knows it.

“The key is having credibility,” he said. “This has led to critics saying I am just an entertainer. I'm proud to be an entertainer. This is showbiz. At the same time, I believe everything I say."

The fact that Limbaugh actually believes the nonsense that comes out of his mouth may be the saddest part of all, and could lead one to believe that years of drug dependency could have destroyed some precious brain functions in that abnormally large head of his.

How else to explain a statement such as this: "Our free market today is the most regulated free market in the history of free markets."

Beyond the ditto heads and 9/12er’s, Beck and Limbaugh even have an enormous amount of pull inside the Republican Party, albeit unwanted influence. It is Beck and Limbaugh that have led to the likes of Republican Senate candidates Ron Paul and Sharron Angle. The former opposes the Civil Rights Act, a national minimum wage and The always nefarious Department of Education. The latter has advocated for withdrawal from the United Nations, prohibition of alcohol and fighting for liberty in “more Second Amendment kind of ways.”

"The Republican Party has been trying to fight back after their defeats in the 2008 elections, and is being aided by the misinformation and hatred being spread by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck," Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said in a recent fundraising letter. "We cannot allow our government to once again fall victim to the domestic and international failures that exemplified Republican rule during the George W. Bush years."