Response to the Rush Limbaugh Radio Show

Yesterday I listened to the Rush Limbaugh radio show for the first time. I found his commentary to be more conservative than what I am used to listening to; however he did have some solid points that I could agree with. One part of the show that I found to be quite interesting and a little absurd was when a listener called in describing a press conference with President Obama that he had watched on tv and Limbaugh’s response to the caller. The caller described how a representative of the television channel BET asked the president how he was going to remedy the problem of the 50% unemployment rate among African American males in New York and the sky-high drop out rate with his new stimulus package. He went on to explain how the President completely dodged the question and instead talked about health care and energy. Rush Limbaugh’s response to this statement is what surprised me the most.

Limbaugh replied to the caller by saying that the reason Obama ditched the answer to the question is because he has no answer at all…because he isn’t even working on the unemployment problem. Rush maintained that the American education system is designed to educate Americans and not have anyone drop out. He explained that the education system is a mess, and unemployment rates are high, and that it is going to stay that way until a capable Republican president enters office who is willing to work on the problems. Limbaugh went on to say that they have been claiming to be trying to fix the unemployment and drop out rates for as long as he has been alive, but instead they keep going up. He remarked that they aren’t really doing anything to fix the problem and Obama is just another Democrat sweeping the problems under the rug.

This, Limbaugh explained, is why Obama dodged the question on education and unemployment, and instead talked about health care and energy. He demanded that the problems have only gotten worse in the last three months and that the reason is because the Americans who are being affected by unemployment are voting Democrat, and that they have been all their lives in hopes of an actual change taking place one day. These people are making a big mistake, Limbaugh insisted, and nothing will get better for them until they elect a Republican to fix their problems, especially people in urban areas such as New York City. Rush Limbaugh ended his argument by asserting that the reason these problems are not getting fixed is either because President Obama does not know how to fix it, or he just doesn’t want to.

I cannot say that I agreed with this portion of his radio show. It seems a little ignorant on Limbaugh’s part to be making such bold claims about an entire ideology of Presidents. I believe that Obama IS trying to fix the unemployment and drop out problems in America, but this is by no means an easy task. Perhaps Rush Limbaugh should try walking in the president’s shoes for a day and try to remedy the problem himself before making such radical claims about his true agenda on these very difficult issues.