Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida opened the recent Conservative Policital Action Conference with praise for the recently deceased Rush Limbaugh and lamented that Republicans would now enter “battles ahead … without one of our greatest field generals.”

DeSantis was right to talk about Limbaugh’s role in terms of combat. He was a propagandist who used words to wage scorched-earth warfare on his political enemies without regard to truth or human decency.

This is what Nazis propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels said about propaganda as a political weapon: “No one can say your propaganda is too rough, too mean; these are not criteria by which it may be characterized. It ought not be decent nor ought it be gentle or soft or humble; it ought to lead to success.”

Limbaugh was indeed successful at helping Republicans smear and demonize their opponents and amass power. But what is “success” for an unethical political party can spell doom for the nation.

George Washington warned about parties becoming the means “by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government” as when President Trump incited a lynch mob to overturn an American election.

David Ninehouser

Ambridge

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