2014: The Year of Obama - The Decline of Rush Limbaugh

I'm back! Yes, back to blogging. I took a break from my blog posts but there has been so much political and social vitriol, legislative obstructionism, and really venomous lies in 2013 that I think my little blog might actually help in some small way to tip the scales back toward truth against the right's powerful propaganda machine. Soooo, I think it's fitting that I get back to blogging as most of us get back to work-- being that today is the first real work day of the year.

My propensity for prognostication always starts to peak around this time of year. I start to get all starry eyed and open minded about all the possibilities for the coming year and goals, resolutions, & ambitions abound! That being said I decided to share my political predictions for the coming year and we can all judge how right I was later.

Ladies and gentlemen prepare yourselves because this is going to be the year of OBAMA!! My man Barry is the King of comebacks! He's the Rajah of rebounds! The Baron of bouncing back! The Potentate of...well, you get the picture. Think about it. This man fought a knock down drag out primary against the Clintons. I mean it was ugly, there were some black journalists and so called activist that are still pissed now because they chose hitch their wagon to the wrong star. The re-election of 2012 was epic. The POTUS got creamed in the first debate, and the Obama team faced an opponent who literally thought he could buy the election. Romney blasted his primary challengers out of the water with attack adds out the wazoo, crammed the air waves with award-winning lies about the President, and fat-cat sponsored, right-wing attack ads against Obama accounted for hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet and still, Barack won.

He won a presidency that you couldn't have given away if you think about the problems on the table: recession, wars, unemployment, and unprecedented obstructionism. Not my idea of a presidency to look forward to; but let's look back through the tumult of 2013 and summarize what the first Black president in the history of these United States has accomplished. The president lead the US out of recession to what is now record highs. Obama saved GM, Chrysler, Ford and all the jobs associated with their factories. Osama Bin Laden was captured and killed. He ended the Iraq war and we're in the process of exiting Afghanistan. For the first time in over 30 years Iran has come to the table to talk and a few years ago Republicans were planning an Iran war strategy. Unemployment has dipped to a 5year low; and despite all the brinksmanship, there are millions of people who have access to healthcare that didn't have it a year ago. 2014 is looking so bright for Obama, he should wear shades. He should welcome the coming budget battle. Extend unemployment. Bumping up minimum wage is a no-brainer. Open a can of whoop-ass on this voterID crap and the 2014 mid-terms are a done deal. Trust me, this can be a tremendously good year for the President and I'm looking forward to it.

On the flip-side, I believe this year will mark the beginning of a downward spiral resulting in the end of vitriolic, hate-filled, 'entertainment' radio shows like Rush Limbaugh. Glenn Beck, Savage, Hannity, and Limbaugh are the Howard Sterns of talk radio. That is to say, these clowns are just a bunch of shock jocks! Well, that is putting it politely. This mostly uneducated cabal of bigots make obscene amounts of money by playing to a segment of society that either despises the poor, hates Blacks, minorities, homosexuals, women, or some odd combination thereof. Why do I say the demise is coming for this type of anger-laden ignorance? There audience is shrinking. Seriously, it is. Beck's withering audience is well documented. Rush and Hannity were just dumped by Cumulus this year; and it's not as big a blessing as Savage thinks that he's inheriting their slots. Once these new listeners get an earful of a few hate-fueled rants from Savage, he'll see the same 'shrinkage' as the other guys. The fact is, their will always be an audience for racists, bigots, anti-semites, and misogynists; but there's only southern confederates left. These guys have experienced popularity below the Mason-Dixon, of course, thanks to the remnants of the Confederate South but thanks to the youth of popular culture and the growing awakening of women in those districts; these losers find themselves on shaky ground. 2013 found these wackos screaming into their microphones with the most outlandish tales they could imagine, to hopefully scare their listeners away from the Black boogey-man and his awful ideas of peace, equality, and justice for all Americans. It's not working. People are tuning out. 2014 will mark a decline in right-wing radio bigots that will have Roger Ailes scrambling to find a new wave correspondents to lash out with veiled racist pseudo-journalism.

Well, at least, that's what I think. I'm just the average Black man, and that's my 2cts.