Note: for those of you in the Chicago area, I'll be doing a book talk about The Most Dangerous Man in America: Rush Limbaugh's Assault on Reason today (Sat. May 14) at 2pm at the Evanston Public Library.
On Friday, Rush Limbaugh declared on his show that all black children are taught by their families to hate America. He was trying to explain why so many blacks vote for Democrats, while more Hispanics vote for Republicans: “We do not have institutionalized hatred of this country being taught in Hispanic households.”
The irony is that a few moments before Rush accused all blacks of hating America, he declared: “I do not look at people as members of groups.”
Exactly what does Rush mean when he says that black households teach their children “institutionalized hatred of this country”? Limbaugh frequently claims that Obama “hates this country." In part, it's a repeat of the old cry that anyone who criticizes conservative ideas is un-American.
Last week, Rush offered a defense against the accusation that he's racist for hating Obama: “I don't like his white side, either.”
It's true that Rush hates all liberals of all races. Rush would hate Obama no matter what color he was. But that doesn't make Rush innocent of the charge of racism. Rush expresses his hatred of Obama in racist ways.
And when Rush claims that black children are taught to hate America, it reflects a fundamentally racist view.
Crossposted at LimbaughBook.
Updated by JohnKWilson at Sat May 14, 2011 at 09:46 AM PDT
By the way, In the May 2011 issue of the Limbaugh Letter, Rush Limbaugh writes, “We are commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, and we're still trying to free the slaves from the Democrat Party.”
He also noted, “the Democrat Party is lying in wait, using every tactic to enslave minorities, enslave the poor, the exploit the lazy and those afraid to look out for themselves.”
To Rush, black people are slaves of the Democratic Party. His hateful views reflect his intense racism, and his overwhelming hatred of liberals to the point that he can only imagine slavery as the explanation for why so many Americans vote for Democrats.