Rush Limbaugh: Compassion ‘Most Disastrous’ Word
I seem to remember a time, not that long ago, when conservatives tried to convince us that they were nice people. In fact, just over a decade ago, our last President ran with the motto “Compassionate Conservatism.” Even then, it sort of felt like a ruse, but he had such a convincing way of telling us that “No Child Left Behind” really was about the children or that his “Faith Based Initiatives” weren’t just a way of bringing us one step closer to a theocracy.
Well, the veil has been lifted. Earlier this month, a conservative debate audience cheered the death penalty.
A week later, a debate crowd cheers the idea that society should let an uninsured man die.
The next week? They boo a soldier serving in Iraq because he dared ask about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Just when you think the last possible shoe has dropped from the party of mean, it gets even worse. On today’s show, Rush Limbaugh, the de facto leader of the Republican party, declared a single word to have “had the most disastrous effect on the advancement of everybody in this culture.” That word, the one so freely embraced by his party just a decade ago, is the word ‘compassion.’
He goes on to say, “The crap that’s been done in the name of compassion in this country has robbed people of their dignity, of their chance, of their opportunity at their own greatness in using their own ambition and desire.”
It sounds just like something Jesus might have said, right Rush?
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Author: Wendy Gittleson
As a child of an artist and a Vietnam war activist, I was born a liberal. Raised half in rural, upstate New York and half in Boulder, Colorado, I have a unique perspective on politics and on life. I now call the San Francisco Bay area home.
4:36 pm
And here I thought compassion was the primary principle put forth by Jesus. Oh I forgot, Republicans conveniently ignore that Jesus was extremely liberal and practically a socialist.
10:39 am
Ah Ayn Rand. I love her. I put her “Atlas Shrugged” right next to “Mein Kampf” as brilliant pieces of propoganda. And perfect ways to justify douchebaggery. Basically it’s all philosophical prick waving designed to give the reader a hard on for their own selfishness. As in “See! Only caring about myself makes me stronger. And if everyone thought like me they’d be strong too. Unless you’re old, handicapped, can’t afford healthcare or an education, etc. Then it’s your fault for being weak. Arrr!”
4:42 pm
Sadly it’s an old idea that’s been around in the US since at least as early as the Pilgrims/Puritans: if you are successful then God is favoring you because you’re a good person, and if you’re not successful then you’re doing something to piss off God and therefore you are a bad person. As such, anything bad that happens to you must deserved because otherwise God would be making you successful.
It’s some of the most simple minded BS I’ve ever heard, because why would God actually give a shit about you and your insular little world? But people believed it because many people’s livelihoods depended on random things like the weather, which were apparently controlled by God to punish bad people.
And now that I’ve typed that out I’m sad because I just realized that too many dumbasses still believe it.