Cue the summer movie, world-in-peril music, followed by a deep-voiced narrator.

“There has always been a delicate balance between chaos and control.  Now, with that balance threatened, it’s time to turn to one man…”

CUT TO:

A ROTUND MAN SITTING AT A MICROPHONE –

“Rush Limbaugh had listeners register as Democrats for one day to go vote for Hillary… This victory in Pennsylvania is illegitimate… it’s undeserved because Democrats did not vote for her.  Republicans did, at the urging of Rush Limbaugh… Our operatives, our brave and courageous Operation Chaos soldiers are having more fun than they ever thought they could ever have in a Democrat primary, and it is succeeding.”

Would you believe… that conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh would fabricate such a silly scheme?

“Three times in the last 12 hours, maybe 18 hours… the Obama campaign has said… that the only reason Mrs. Clinton won Indiana was because of me and Operation Chaos… she got a seven-point bump as a result of Operation Chaos.”

Would you believe… that he would go on national radio and proudly brag to the American public about what he has “pulled off”?

“Operation Chaos will not be destroyed; battle plans for the future are right around the corner here.”

I wish I could say that today’s post is a complete invention based on the new “Get Smart” movie due out next month where CONTROL Agents “86” and “99” battle the evil forces of KAOS.

Except, it’s not.

What Mr. Limbaugh said came right from his own web site.  This is the radio host who uses the catchphrase, “Excellence in Broadcasting.”  Perhaps, someone should tell him that it doesn’t mean what he thinks it means.

Instead of focusing on personal attacks, Mr. Limbaugh could use his time on the national airwaves for a serious debate about important issues like the economy, healthcare, immigration, the war in Iraq… even ethics!

Instead, we get: “This has been one of the courageous things about Operation Chaos, as you people know.  We have told the enemy exactly what we’re going to do, when we’re going to do it, we’ve given them plenty of advance warning and we’ve even told them how to destroy Operation Chaos and defeat it.”

Sadly, rants like this are not only disrespectful but an insult to the intelligence of any reasonable listener.  Words such as Limbaugh’s do not educate, enlighten or inform.  They disparage and degrade. Worse yet, they are dangerously disingenuous because of the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands who listen and believe most, if not everything, he says.

Listening to Limbaugh reminded me of a character from the 1957 Elia Kazan film, “A Face in the Crowd” where out-of-work, hillbilly, pundit Lonesome Rhodes rises and falls on the illusion of power of his own voice.

Rhodes:  “This whole country’s just like my flock of sheep.  They’re mine! I own ’em! They think like I do. Only they’re even more stupid than I am, so I gotta think for ’em… I’m not just an entertainer. I’m an influence, a wielder of opinion, a force… a force!”

Limbaugh:  “Operation Chaos has nothing to do with the Republican Party.  The Republican Party hasn’t the guts to do Operation Chaos.  Were there no Operation Chaos, the Republican Party would not have a plan.”

What can reasonable radio listeners do to combat the kind of demagoguery of Rush Limbaugh?

Maybe they can start by using the “Cone of Silence.”