"They oughtta change Black History Month to Black Progress Month and start measuring it."
"Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it."
And let's not forget the "Barack the Magic Negro" song he plays on his radio show.
As Rush Limbaugh ascended his throne as the voice of the conservative movement and his listenership increased, his followers delighted in their newly found freedom and proudly proclaimed themselves as "dittoheads, agreeing with everything he said not just regardless of the naked racism, homophobia, sexism, and intolerance being communicated, but because of it. Many uncivil tongues were freed to spout hate and intolerance, to whine and finger-point when things did not go their way, to paint themselves as victims and to vilify and attack anyone that disagreed.
While pretending to be a patriot, Limbaugh reveled in questioning the patriotism of soldiers who served their country (though he never did) and dared to come home and air their concerns about war. He childishly attempted to accuse actor Michael J. Fox of "shamelessly faking symptoms of Parkinson's disease that were actually side effects of the medication that he was taking to combat the disease. Fox's crime? He disagreed with Limbaugh on a topic of which Limbaugh has neither knowledge nor experience-stem-cell research "and had the nerve to speak out in favor of it. In short, Limbaugh has gradually become the bully that he accused the "liberal elite of being when he started out. And while doing so, he emboldened all of his dittohead followers to speak their minds without filter as well.
Now that there is no true leader in the Republican Party, some have pointed to Limbaugh as the titular head. Though he has officially rejected the title, he is nonetheless reveling in the power of the role. The recent proof of his role was a steady stream of politicians that rushed to apologize to him for saying anything with which he disagreed. The list includes Congressmen Todd Tiahrt and Phil Gingrey and even the figurehead of the Republican Party, Michael Steele.
This phenomenon became so ridiculous that Democrats created a website where you could create your own apology to Rush using a form letter: http://www.dccc.org/content/sorry">http://www.dccc.org/content/sorry<;/a>
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