So, is a backlash finally starting to happen? Rod Dreher, a conservative columnist, has called out Rush Limbaugh for his inflammatory rhetoric. But first, a little background. Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh discussed a story about a white student beaten on a school bus by a black student, blaming it on President Obama:
Rush Limbaugh weighed in today on this video of a 17-year-old white Illinois student beaten up by two black classmates. Shockingly, his analysis doesn’t reveal an even-handed understanding of our country’s complicated racial history. In fact, not only does Limbaugh imply that this high school scuffle is racially-motivated — but that somehow, it’s the fault of President Obama.
“In Obama’s America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, ‘Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on,” Limbaugh said. He continued:
I wonder if Obama’s going to come to come to the defense of the assailants the way he did his friend Skip Gates up there at Harvard.
I think most of us who read this blog will understand what Limbaugh is trying to do. He’s using race-base fearmongering to try to hurt Obama. Apparently, this has gotten to be too much for Rod Dreher (who actually had written about this incident as well).
But that’s not why I took down the item and the link to the video. I took it down because now we have Rush Limbaugh blaming Obama for black kids beating up a white kid on a school bus. This is what happens in “Obama’s America,” he said today on his radio show.
How low will these people go? Look, I think it’s important to talk about black male violence, or at least as important as it is to talk about any other important social trend. I don’t think we should be squeamish about discussing it in a responsible and fair-minded way, despite what the politically correct say. But good grief, Limbaugh is up to something wicked. He’s plainly trying to rally white conservatives into thinking that now that we have a black president, blacks are rising up to attack white kids! Christ have mercy, what is wrong with these people?
I won’t have anything to do with it, not even tangentially, which is why I took down the post. I can’t see this as anything other than Limbaugh deliberately trying to whip up racial fear and loathing of the president. This goes far, far beyond tough criticism of Obama. Does that man Limbaugh have any idea what rough beast he’s calling forth?
Dreher ends his column with this observation:
But as far as I’m concerned, if the Limbaughs of the world are going to be doing this kind of thing, and trying to blame, with no logical grounds whatsoever, a black president for black-on-white violence, and if they’re going to do this in an increasingly hysterical atmosphere of protest against that black president, I don’t want to talk about these things at all. Now is not the time. With this kind of inflammatory rhetoric, they are quite simply tearing the country apart.
Where do they think this is going to go?
I think the question I would ask is how low are they willing to go? On the liberal side, we’ve been observing this for quite some time, starting with the Palin rallies. I see Dreher’s column as perhaps the beginning of a conservative rift – which I think we saw with the reaction to Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst as well. I guess we’ll have to watch what happens – will the pragmatic conservatives take over or will it be the rabid base?