Rush Limbaugh is a very useful asset for the wealthy corporate elite. He keeps people thinking about "feminazis," homosexuals, "soft on crime," liberals, welfare recipients, illegal immigrants, etc., while the corporations cut wages, lay off employees and transfer jobs to low-wage countries. While tthe infrastructure crumbles, education gets worse and worse, pollution spreads and poverty and inequality grow, he panders to people's prejudices about other groups in society.

It is the old divide-and-conquer strategy used for centuries by the wealthy to keep poor and working people fighting among themselves, instead of investigating the real causes for their distress: A prime example is in South Africa, where the previous government had been arming the Inkatha Freedom Party to fight the African National Congress because the rich are very afraid of the ANC's socialist ideology. Another example is Rwanda, where the Belgian colonialists played favorites and fostered hatred between Hutus and Tutsis as a way of ruling the country.

If this country and the world are in bad and deteriorating condition, and they are, it is only logical that the fault lies not with the poor and the powerless people like welfare recipients, but with those who have held economic and political power for the past hundred years, the large corporations! To put it another way, welfare recipients did not flood the world with weapons with the disastrous consequences we can see today. Illegal immigrants did not manufacture the land mines that, even as I write this, are blowing children's legs off and maiming them horribly all over the world. This was done by large corporations for profit!

I know some of Rush Limbaugh's supporters are upper middle-class people living comfortably in the suburbs, who view themselves more as capitalists than workers, although most of them are professional and highly skilled workers. Do they realize that it is not only the blue-collar jobs disappearing or blue-collar workers taking pay cuts? The Los Angeles Times reported on foreign computer programmers who were working for one-fifth or less of what American programmers were charging. Because of their immigration status, some were being held as virtual slaves. Highly skilled professional, technical and scientific workers from foreign universities are either coming to the United States or U.S. corporations are moving to take advantage of the cheap labor.

Will these Rush Limbaugh supporters still be cheering on capitalism when their job disappears, their house is repossessed and they are standing in a soup line someplace? How will they feel when their sons and daughters are asked to fight overseas for the interests of the big multinational corporations, under the guise of patriotism, defending democracy, etc.?

In my opinion, the greatest stupidity in the universe is fighting against one's own best interests. Workers of all educations, races, cultures and incomes should stick together. It is the only way to make a better world for future generations and save our planet from the wealthy chowder-heads currently running it!