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Journalism of Courage
If Rush Limbaugh,the voice of the super-conservative sections of the Republican Party,is to be believed,the Democrats,in a remarkably prescient move,have rigged one of the years most anticipated films The Dark Knight Rises,the conclusion to Christopher Nolans Batman trilogy to serve the liberal agenda. The villain in Nolans latest is called Bane,which,according to Limbaugh,is an obvious reference to the company that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney used to run: Bain Capital. Limbaugh thinks Americans will be hoodwinked by the film into associating Bain,and therefore Romney,with evil. The only problem with this theory is that it would require the Democrats to have access to a time machine so they could travel to 1993,when the comic that introduced Bane was written.
But this is far from the first time that an outlandish idea has eclipsed good sense within the Republican Party this campaign season. First,there was birtherism: the idea that Barack Obama was not born in the US and so is not a legitimate president. Polls suggest that anywhere between a third and half of GOP voters believe that Obama is actually Kenyan,a belief shared by Arizonas secretary of state. Representative Darrell Issa has signed on to the idea that the White House gave guns to Mexican drug cartels to push for tougher gun laws,while Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is trying to protect conservative think tanks from Obamas ostensible agenda to destroy them via campaign finance reform.
After the mid-term elections in 2010,when the Tea Party was able to mobilise the Republican base with spectacular results,apprehension that the party is being taken over by its vocal extreme wing has grown. Limbaugh is known to make wildly implausible allegations,but he is a symptom of how much influence the fringe now has over the Republican Party.
