We spend plenty of time on these pages calling out the wrongs of the other side, but it's also important to call out your friends and allies when they cross the line. In this case, Rush Limbaugh, someone we normally agree with wholeheartedly, made some thoughtless comments when weighing in on Congressional testimony surrounding subsidized contraception.
He took an issue that deserved rigorous analysis and instead turned his comments into a ready-made controversy for the left.
The controversy is all about a Georgetown law student who testified that insurance companies should be mandated to provide "free" birth control.
What Limbaugh could have done, should have done, was point out that the mandate wouldn't make the contraception free, it would just be another in a long line of mandates. That mandate, in turn, increases the cost of coverage for everyone.
Instead, Limbaugh made an ill-thought-out joke, calling the woman a "slut" and a "prostitute," because she was saying, in effect, that her sexual activities should be subsidized by others.
All thoughtless remarks like that do is hand the argument to the other side. Either make a better argument than the other side, or keep your mouth shut.
Now the issue isn't being debated as public policy, but is a debate about who has and hasn't denounced the remarks.
Our father would smack the white off our teeth if he heard us referring to a woman that way. And Rush certainly seems to be getting a lashing in public today for the remarks. He should.
We also hope to see the same indignation and outrage from the left when one of their own inevitably makes similar deragatory remarks. We should note that when disgusting and terrible things are said about conservative women like Sarah Palin the left is noticeably quiet.
We on the right should rise above that, so it does no good in this situation to say "the other side does it too!"
Let's get back to talking about the issues that matter to this country: jobs, the economy and high gas prices.
We can win those arguments.
From Bill Maher’s Twitter:
If HBO’s premier blowhard is defending Rush they must be feeling the heat from cancelled subscriptions.
I see you rated a couple of my posts as “Troll.” Is there anything I said which you disagree with in particular, or that was incorrect?
I know in places full of intelligence and open debate like Yahoo News comment threads that the negative vote or thumbs down is the equivalent of “I don’t like what you said, but I’m too chickenshit to actually engage on the issue.”
Here’s the problem: The “I don’t like, so I vote negative” method of argument creates polarized groupthink. Disagree? Read your favorite obnoxious comment thread. That’s the result.
I know you don’t like polarized political discussion, and I know you probably don’t like echo chambers and groupthink. So with what did you disagree?
n/t
Just testing the system.
🙂
Sure.
this statement is so patently false, it has to be trolling.
First, you can find all the examples of bad progressive behavior on the web you like, I guarantee none of them are going to satisfy the three conditions needed to make that first bit true – that it’s coming from someone with a profile comparable to Rush’s; that it’s a disgustingly personal and vile as this (not all ad hominems are equal in this regard); and that it went on DAY AFTER DAY on a national broadcast.
The second part is pure ignorance. Medications that prevent ovulation have MANY uses for women, not just birth control. As I pointed out to cologeek, if you have major health insurance, you’re already paying for it for someone else. Insurance is like tax.
Besides, if you, geek, or anyone else here believes abortion should be illegal, then you should support birth control as an effective means for preventing pregnancy from happening in the first place. This isn’t a “morning after” pill; prevention ovulation means that no fertilization takes place. Therefore, there’s no person in the first place.
I believe that Ms. Fluke noted in her own testimony that the Georgetown plan did in fact cover the birth control pill for non-contraceptive purposes. So pointing out that all of 14% of women who take the pill take it for non-contraceptive purposes is rather irrelevant in this case.
Further, if major health insurance wants to cover it, great. That doesn’t mean they should be forced to cover it if they don’t want to. It does not follow.
The left-wing media is full of real misogynists, by the way. Here’s a pretty good clearinghouse of media members making asses of themselves. (Hillary Clinton is even a target of the misogyny, so you can’t blame politics.) I know you’ll rage at the source, but you can’t disagree with the evidence they present.
“Let’s get back to talking about the issues that matter to this country: jobs, the economy and high gas prices.
“We can win those arguments.”
I don’t think you can – not if it requires complete honesty, anyway.
But it’s an important message for your base – the ones behind the war on women. You guys really don’t know how bad you scare independents when you want to force women to submit to invasive and unnecessary procedures, all in the name of your social agenda. Or when you clutch at pearls like a bunch of old grannies, bemoaning “consequence free sex,” just like none of you have ever used birth control.
Now, because the Democrats have a long history of not showing Republicans for what they are, lest it lead to charges of “negative campaigning,” you may yet get away with this. But woe unto you if they start campaigning on this. Independents won’t vote Republican for a generation.
He thinks that if you have ‘more’ sex you have to take ‘more’ birth control pills. For someone busted flying to a sex haven (often involving very distributing things) with a big bottle of Viagra…I’d think I would shut up.
Like how the White House massages the numbers to lower the unemployment rate even though more people don’t have work?
How about being honest about how much taxpayer money has been wasted on the “green jobs” initiative which is pretty much imploding across the board?
And how about the XL Pipeline? A nice infrastructure project that would have created jobs, both in building the pipeline and at the refineries at the destination point.
And “war on women”? It’s actually a war for responsibility. It’s the adults who everyone is expecting to pay for their excesses telling the kids, “The gravy train is over, time to grow up.” And yes I’ve used birth control, but I haven’t bitched and whined that someone else should be paying for it. That’s the difference between myself and Ms. Fluke.
And every time someone on the other side uses the “We’re to nice” talking point I have to laugh my ass off. The BS that gets thrown by Democrats at Republicans would fertilize the Sahara.
And IIRC Ari, you were making that same “won’t vote Republican for a generation” prediction about the influence of the Tea Party movement. I’m pretty sure that on this subject your accuracy will remain the same.
And that “number massaging” is GOVERNMENTAL. The sad truth is that both parties do that equally. Fortunately, it’s a level playing field there.
But if you think a woman is “irresponsible” for using birth control, why don’t you copy and paste the emails you sent your insurance company, demanding that they stop paying for those sluts’ pills?
What, you haven’t done that? You know that you’re paying for it, every bit as much as you pay for unemployment benefits for those shiftless bums who’d rather ride that gravy train (you know, the one that pays about 1/3 of what you were making at your job before Wall Street fuckery cost you it).
I suppose you can cite an instance of when any liberal sunk to Rush’s depths? I won’t hold my breath – as usual, lies like that can’t be supported.
And you RI (recall incorrectly). But that’s okay – when fantasy is more important that reality, I can’t expect you to be truthful.
I knew you couldn’t do it.
instead of expecting someone else to take care of me. So don’t always expect me to respond to your rantings on your schedule. And you’re right, I apologize. It wasn’t the Tea Party, it was social issues, just like this.
From Feb. 25 2009 on Colorado Pols
Hows that 20 year hegemony working out? (I haven’t had a lot of time to look up whether or not you also repeated this meme in regards to the Tea Party but for now I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.)
And if you think that all those people that are out of work, and have been for years, aren’t paying attention, you really need to get a clue. The President has pretty much decided he doesn’t need to do anything to help the working class and people are noticing.
The GOP hegemony of the preceding 28 years included Dem majorities in both chambers and a Dem presidency. It was still a GOP hegemony.
See, the occasional victory by the Dems didn’t mean that the GOP wasn’t still driving the chariot. Think of all the major victories ‘pubs enjoyed, especially during the Clinton years. Shooting down real health care reform, getting free trade made a cornerstone of foreign policy, letting the military buildup continue unabated. Those are GOP goals. (‘course, I don’t need to tell you how things went under Reagan, Bush I and Bush II.)
I’ll tell you right now – the pendulum is swinging the other way, 2010 notwithstanding, and you guys are still doing more to ensure it comes our way than you are stopping it.
My statement from three years ago stands strong, and is still being proven right. Your lack of understanding of my meaning doesn’t mean it was untrue.
So, have you written your insurance company yet? Asked them to stop using YOUR money to fund those sluts’ pills? Or do you just want to keep changing the subject instead of admitting you’re wrong?
Singling this woman out, and then using the language he used isn’t going to win points in this arguement. I agree with the standpoint that forcing people to pay for others trying to avoid the consequences of their entertainment choices is wrong. I certainly don’t expect my insurance to cover the hair of the dog after a party night.
But that point can be made with humor without personally attacking someone testifying on the other side. It was wrong, tasteless, and unnecessary.
that this is precisely the issue I would love to see that op-ed on.
Because a medical or family choice that the vast majority of women make, or have made, is akin to you going out and tying on a good buzz. Please do keep it up. Perhaps you could co-author that op-ed.
Again, I am more than glad to help with placement. It can only help
yourthe cause, and obviously the more words you have to explain it, the better.that these medicines do much more than prevent ovulation?
And do you only engage is sex for the consequences?
On the one hand, personalizing attacks is what They do.
On the other, it’s emphasizing the absurdity of calling for the government to subsidize consequence-free and un-reproductive sex.
There probably was a better way to go about the criticism, to be sure. But it’s so insane that it ought to be criticized.
Please keep making that argument. I suggest that you write a letter to the editor with that very point, that ‘un-reproductive’ sex is bad…and send it to the Denver Post. Make sure to connect it to the need to vote GOP to ensure that the good people of Colorado know that your party is against the insanity of modernity.
Hell, why stop there? An op-ed would be great, sent all around the state. If you want help with placement, please let me know.
What interest does the government have in reducing the number of taxpayers?
The point is not that contraception is wrong. The point is that government subsidy of contraception is ridiculous.
Why limit yourself to the 200-300 words of an LTE when an op-ed would allow you to more fully expound on your mainstream ideas and thus attract voters to defeat the Democrat menace and their lack of consequent-laden un-reproductive sex.
Its a winner, but I do worry that a mere letter wouldn’t quite capture the true flavor or your brilliance. I’d definitely go for the longer column.
Is the argument is absolutely correct and infallible, and you’re incapable of proving the insane claim that the government ought to subsidize contraception, so you resort to mockery. Looks like I won this one before it started.