Although I seldom share Rush Limbaugh’s viewpoints, I listen to his radio talk show when I want to know what those on the right of the political spectrum are thinking. Yesterday, Limbaugh dissected Barack Obama’s new “Plan for Change” ad with especially virulent rhetoric. (I was pleased with this, because it suggests that he’s worried about it.)
But I was dumbfounded when Limbaugh concluded his point by point critique with a thinly veiled threat of political violence:
OBAMA: I approve this message because bitter partisan fights and outworn ideas of the left and the right won’t solve the problems we face today, but a new spirit of unity and shared responsibility will.
RUSH: Unity and shared responsibility? That sounds like socialism to me. And, by the way, sir, Senator Obama, could you give us an example of unity that you have brought about? Is your campaign team unified? The Democrat Party unified? Still got a lot of women out there that don’t like you. Have you unified the Republicans to vote for you? How come your preacher is so damn mad? Your wife’s mad all the time. All these people you hang around with, you got these wacko terrorists you hang around with, you’ve got these flake priests you hang around with. They’re all mad as hell. Everybody around you is mad as they could be. What unity? What shared responsibility? By the way, outworn ideas of the left and right, your ideas are outworn, sir. They absolutely are. Ours aren’t. Ours are built on the foundation of individual freedom, individual liberty, and guess what? Individual liberty and individual freedom are not outworn. They never go out of style, Senator Obama. There are people in this country who will pay whatever price is necessary to hold on to their freedom and their individual liberty, even if the enemy that seeks to take it away is people like you.
The show at that point went to a commercial break, leaving those last vitriolic words ringing in my ears.
