Political Satire: Is There Really Any Point Anymore?

Speaking of history -- some months ago I wrote a piece about the ongoing efforts of right-wingers to redefine socialism. The title of my piece, written with tongue firmly in cheek was, “That Socialist Pinko, Otto von Bismarck” and included the observation that using the right’s current broad definition of socialism:

18th and 19th century Prussia (which, as William Shirer pointed out in his history of the Third Reich, regarded its economy as an instrument of military policy) was “socialist” and therefore, according to 21st century rightwingers, a buncha commie leftists – something that I’m sure most 19th Century Prussians would vociferously deny.

Someone once said that there’s no point in writing political satire in America because within months of writing it, you’ll be blindsided by reality. The truth of that came home to me recently when I heard the following from Rush Limbaugh:

Bismarck socialized medicine in the late 19th century in Germany – in typical lefty fashion he called it ANTI-Socialist legislation….

Yes, folks, that’s how far from reality we’ve gotten. Otto von Bismarck is now, according to Rush Limbaugh, a “lefty” who “had it on Saul Alinsky before Saul Alinsky was born.”