When I first started observing conservative culture closely, I was working a deadly dull clerical job in Columbia, Missouri.<\/p>\n
Bored out of my ever-loving mind, I would tune in Rush Limbaugh on the AM dial. He was unpredictable, outrageous, entertaining, irreverent — and often hilarious. <\/p>\n
In those days, Limbaugh was famous for making a pin-cushion of the Clintons. <\/p>\n
But he also played rough with Republican leaders and even went in for a huge amount of self-mockery.<\/p>\n
That’s all changed. Limbaugh now describes himself as a kind of one-man think-tank, advising and shaping the conservative movement.<\/p>\n
The self-seriousness of latter-day Limbaugh speaks to some of the gray malaise within the Republican Party.<\/p>\n
It’s a movement limited by its dogmas, inflexible and almost universally humorless.<\/p>\n
The entertainers who might offer a kind of humility-slap — Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham — have instead positioned themselves as ideological traffic cops.<\/p>\n
They scold and they hector. Their laughter (when it comes) is almost always at somebody else’s expense.<\/p>\n
SO far the left has dodged this temptation. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are devoutly liberal, sure, but many of their greatest riffs target the Democrats. <\/p>\n
From race sensitivity to Nancy Pelosi’s frosty smiles, no one deflates liberal bloviation better than the Comedy Central duo.<\/p>\n
The day after the inauguration, Stewart claimed to be wearing a new hope-scented cologne. <\/p>\n
“Are people setting themselves up for inevitable disappointment?” asked one of his correspondents, comedian John Oliver. <\/p>\n
“Of course they are. Have they realized that yet? Absolutely not. Yay!”<\/p>\n
(Oliver then spent a few, hilarious moments trying unsuccessfully to convince African Americans at the inauguration that the moon landing was more important than Obama’s election.)<\/p>\n
Conservatives struggle with this kind of self-mockery because they see themselves as embattled, on the receiving end of liberal pop-culture’s relentless attacks.<\/p>\n
But sometimes laughter really is the best medicine, especially for politicians who’ve lost their way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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