This is a real letter written to a conservative friend of mine. It concerns Rush Limbaugh's newest blame game, where he has blamed Barack Obama and liberals for the heinous murder yesterday at the US Holocaust Museum. Needless to say, that did not sit well with me.
Let me preface my comments by unequivocally stating that I don't think any Republican is personally responsible for the events that transpired yesterday at the US Holocaust Museum. That being said, this letter comes from my heart, and it has a very emotional tone, but I believe everything that I said in it.
You asked me for my opinion on Rush Limbaugh, and I guess fate certainly has a sense of irony.
Okay, so until today, I really just ignored Rush, obviously disagreeing with his views and looking at him as more of a comedian, and not a legitimate representative of what real Republicans believe. I definitely was of the camp of "to each his own" about Rush. Sure, he made comments that sometimes crossed the line, but I can't name a single liberal commentator who hasn't done the same thing.
I felt this way until his show today.
Today, with his blaming of the bloodshed at the US Holocaust Museum on President Obama's "anti-Israel" policies, he has officially gone from comedian to the darker category of "sick and depraved human being". Rush actually told his followers that liberals are to blame for this right wing nut, and that Obama's policies are to blame for the violence Washington DC yesterday.
In my humble opinion, Rush Limbaugh is a joke, and I just want to know one thing: who the hell does he think he is? He completely ignored the this guy spewed all manner of hatred against Barack Obama, and instead focused solely on the fact he "hates" both Bushes and John McCain, which automatically qualifies him as a leftist in Rush's demented mind.
Seriously el Rushbo? This guy, who loves swastikas and despises sickles and hammers, is a leftist? This guy, who denies the Holocaust ever happened, and tried to take members of the Federal Reserve board hostage because they were raising interest rates, is a leftist? Have you lost your mind?
I am appalled that Rush Limbaugh, who only yesterday, minutes before the shooting, once again brought up the asinine and repeatedly disproved statement that Barack Obama is "like God, in that neither of them have birth certificates". This guy, this murderer von Brunn, shares that opinion on his awful website. Can you possibly tell me that Republican smear campaigns had NO impact on this guy?
This killer also talked about the fact that the government wanted to take his guns away (another Republican smear point), and even with all this, Limbaugh still wants this to somehow be liberals' fault, instead of being the work of a guy who took talking points way too seriously. I mean, even if he just wanted to ignore the story like Fox News did last night (according to Media Matters for America).
Limbaugh's remarks are at the very least imbecilic, and at worst inciting terrorism. I obviously don't take my opinion to that extreme, but the more Rush opens his mouth, the less I can tolerate it.
I obviously don't believe for a second that Rush or any other Republican fully encouraged this knucklehead to do this, nor do I believe that Rush or any other Republican think that violence is a way to solve anything.
However, I do believe that in his haste to make compelling radio, Rush crossed the line by accusing liberals of inciting this man. Even in the face of evidence that this man believed heavily in the teachings of several Republicans (including a general who gave him his first forum to spout off his hatred), Rush has decided that the classy thing to do is to blame this act of terrorism on liberals, once again proving that his message is not one of bettering humanity, but instead of advancing his own sadistic agenda.
Rush's comments are only the latest salvo fired in a war in his own mind, against forces that he thinks are threatening the "values" of this country.
We already know that Rush wants the Obama administration to fail, but to try to take an act of terrorism and use it as political fodder to advance his ideas is unforgivable. It speaks to the Republican tactic adopted after 9/11 to exploit that tragedy at every turn, and I don't think that is acceptable for anyone to do that, much less someone who has a devoted audience of 20 million people hanging on his every word, and a person who Republicans view as a leader of their party according to a USA Today poll published yesterday.
I want Republicans, as a party, to come out with a statement against this kind of violence. I obviously know this guy was not some rank and file Republican, but they have a duty to help quell this kind of hatred, instead of continuing to foment it like people like Rush Limbaugh do. I want them to speak out against Rush, just as they did against Newt Gingrich when he called Sonia Sotomayor "racist". This is the only right thing to do here, not to continue to blame this bloodshed on people who happen to vote a different way than you do.