Right-Wing Misogyny: “El Rushbo” Strikes Again
Read Left-Wing Misdirection: Hypocrisy in Media for the other side of the story. Radio personality Rush Limbaugh has once again found himself in a firestorm of self-imposed media controversy.
After Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke lobbied in support of President Obama's proposition that health coverage include – among other things – contraceptives, Limbaugh took the liberty of offering his own opinion of the woman's requests.
“She wants to be paid to have sex,” he stated on his national radio show. “She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We’re the pimps. The johns.”
We get it, Rush – you don't want your tax dollars going towards contraceptives for women. Well, 1960 called, and they want their misogynistic, discriminatory view of female liberties back.
According to the Guttmacher Institute's website, over 25 percent of the roughly 38 million sexually active women in the U.S. use oral contraceptives to prevent unwanted pregnancies. A group that large cannot be ignored, nor should they be called “sluts” and “prostitutes” for wanting a vital portion of their healthcare covered by government funding.
Humans are, at the core of their being, sexual creatures. Limbaugh is no exception to this. It's time we face the facts–and our future–and work to protect and serve one another with civil discourse, rather than chauvinism and bigotry. While Limbaugh's highly misconstrued point is a valid political concern, the ultraconservative media pundit has simply gone too far this time
Coincidentally, on the heels of the Limbaugh controversy, New York Times columnist David Brooks recently discussed the life and work of sociologist James Q. Wilson; specifically his 1985 essay entitled “The Rediscovery of Character: Private Virtue and Public Policy.
“When Wilson wrote about character or virtue, he didn't mean anything high-flown or theocratic,” Brooks explained. “It was just the basics...behave in a balanced way. Think about the long-term consequences of your actions. Cooperate. Be decent.
Political voices like Limbaugh's have strayed so very far from this elementary yet vital concept, which illustrates much of what is wrong with modern American culture and media today. While this is a First Amendment issue, and Limbaugh is certainly entitled to voice his (ever crude and sexist) opinions, he has undoubtedly lost sight of the core values upon which our country was built
Over twenty years ago, Wilson quoted Aristotle in his essay when urging his audience to practice restraint and respect not only in the political arena, but in society as well. “We become just by the product of just actions, self-controlled by exercising self-control.
Do us all a favor, Rush. Take a page out of Wilson's book; or even Aristotle's. Enough with the hatred and enough with the anger. You are digging your career an early grave, and frankly, it needs to end.