The Poison Of Limbaugh—Andrew Sullivan, himself a longtime conservative, reacts to Limbaugh’s latest provocation.
11 JAN 2011 | [print_link]
Editor’s note:
Rush Limbaugh reacted to the instantly infamous mugshot of Jared Lee Loughner, the suspected gunman in the Arizona shooting, by saying that Loughner is smiling in the picture because he knows he is backed by the Democratic Party.
Speaking on his radio show Tuesday, Limbaugh said that Loughner was getting the exact attention that he wanted:
“What Mr. Loughner knows is that he has the full support of a major political party in this country. He’s sitting there in jail. He knows what’s going on, he knows that…the Democrat party is attempting to find anybody but him to blame. He knows if he plays his cards right, he’s just a victim. He’s the latest in a never-ending parade of victims brought about by the unfairness of America…this guy clearly understands he’s getting all the attention and he understands he’s got a political party doing everything it can, plus a local sheriff doing everything that they can to make sure he’s not convicted of murder – but something lesser.”
Left: Rush Limbaugh, the biggest pile of manure in the Western World.
Below, Andrew Sullivan’s own reaction to Limbaugh’s comment. Sullivan may be shocked at Limbaugh’s volley, but the latter is a monster he and other “distinguished” establishment conservatives, especially Bill Buckley Jr., (above, left) helped to create, since their own work to whitewash and sell “conservatism” as a respectable ideology has contributed mightily to the strengthening of the lying, mean-spirited, Right and its brutal antisocial agenda.
ANDREW SULLIVAN:
“Very very very few people have contributed more poison and hatred and extremism to the culture than Rush Limbaugh. As every single conservative commentator joins ranks in calling the Tucson assassination a completely apolitical act, and as the right discovers that there is no connection whatever between political culture and political acts, we get this:
What Mr. Loughner knows is that he has the full support of a major political party in this country.
Again, the statement is so offensive and absurd one has to pinch oneself to believe someone actually said that about a mass murderer. No one has said something that crudely partisan about Loughner and the GOP. So this is actually a classic example of what some of us have long been worried about in “conservative” discourse. Limbaugh is not mainstream, you say? National Review just approvingly reprints excerpts from Limbaugh’s show. He is untouchable; and his tone will not change.”
