Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Rush Limbaugh Takes on the Wheelchair Lobby

Rush Limbaugh has always had the courage to fight enemies no one else would dare to take on, but this week he launched his bravest attack yet against a group of people whose power has long gone unchecked: The Disabled. You would think handicapped people would be satisfied when we gave them all of the good parking spaces. You would think they would be a little appreciative for all the wheelchair ramps and the Braille elevator numbers (which I have yet to see anyone use) which have cost businesses a lot of money. You would think that after passing the Americans for Disabilities Act they would just say thank you and shut up. But they just keep wanting more.

Finally, Rush Limbaugh stepped up to the plate and said enough is enough. This week Rush launched the first salvo in his valiant war against the sick and enfeebled, by attacking an ad that Canadian actor Michael J. Fox produced for Claire McCaskill, who is running against Jim Talent for a Senate seat in Missouri. In the ad, Fox, noticeably suffering from the effects of Parkinson's disease, criticizes Talent for opposing funding of stem cell research. "He is exaggerating the effects of the disease," Limbaugh said, drawing on his deep reservoir of knowledge about medicine and pharmaceuticals. "He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act. . . . Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting."

Limbaugh said what many were thinking. Why do disabled people constantly feel the need to call attention to themselves? Why don't they do a better job of hiding their afflictions so that we don't have to see them, which just makes us uncomfortable? There was a time when someone like Franklin D. Roosevelt hid from the public the fact that he used a wheelchair because of his bout with polio. If Roosevelt had lived in the 19th century or in India, he might have been forced to become a street beggar displaying his affliction to earn a few alms. It is actually an example of our advanced civilization that we allowed him to have a proper job by shielding his disability from view. Now the 21st century has brought us the video version of the crippled street beggar, asking for votes instead of alms. I was horrified to see beloved conservative icon Alex P. Keaton in this condition, especially in an ad shilling for a Democrat. Aren't there FCC rules or network standards against this sort of thing? Now it seems as if the disabled not only have stopped hiding, they have to get in our faces.

For example, take the case of Democrat Tammy Duckworth, who is running for Congress in Illinois, and has appeared at campaign rallies with Fox speaking out in favor of stem cell research. She lost both of her legs in Iraq, and now feels the need to point this out wherever she goes. In every interview she goes on and on repeating the tired old story of how she lost her legs and constantly makes jokes about her injuries, telling one interviewer, who no doubt felt very uncomfortable, "I can't actually hold a soda between my knees in the car. It's really hard to use a laptop when you only have half a lap." Apparently, she has never heard the phrase "too much information." In one campaign appearance she even took one of her artificial limbs off and sat down, saying it was more "comfortable." Apparently, her own comfort was more important than the comfort of people around her. When her opponent, Peter Roskam, metaphorically accused her of wanting to "cut and run" from Iraq, she exploited her affliction by pointing out that she cannot run; at least, not very well. Of course, every Republican candidate has accused his or her opponent of wanting to "cut and run." Is it fair that Roskam is the only candidate in the country who is not allowed to use this carefully focus-grouped soundbite?

As Limbaugh pointed out when he continued his offensive on Fox the following day, people who are victims have attained a status of "infallibility" because ridiculing them makes their opponents look cruel. This is the same problem that Ann Coulter pointed out when she complained of not being able to savage widows and grieving mothers. As anyone who is familiar with the Limbaugh's and Coulter's style of debate, taking away their ability to ridicule someone is a very severe handicap, so to speak. "One of the tactics the Democrats have -- and they've used this consistently. They bring forth people who they think are victims for the purposes of exploiting them," Limbaugh said. "You bring forth a person who's suffering the disease, and you illustrate the disease and the ravages and the suffering on TV to create sympathy and infallibility, because you're not supposed to be able to attack somebody or criticize somebody in any way or in any regard if they suffer from the disease. It's considered cold-hearted and cruel."

But while Limbaugh has been accused of being insensitive and uncaring, in fact, he deeply cares about Michael J. Fox, which is why he hates to see him "duped" by Democrats who just want to exploit him to get votes, which apparently Fox didn't realize when he made the ad. He is worried that Democrats are "politicizing diseases and illnesses, damaging what has traditionally been a bipartisan effort at addressing and curing illnesses." Democrats started this partisan battle over infirmity by politicizing AIDS. They made it seem as if AIDS was an important disease when in fact it only affected gay people, a small minority of the population, which was why Republicans were not paying any attention to it at all. Democrats have a long history of politicizing health care by saying that everyone should have it, even people who can't afford it. Democrats offer false hope that stem cell research and health care (which Duckworth got for free from the government she now criticizes!) are going to make their lives better, when in reality it would be a lot less cruel to tell them to face facts and accept their afflictions as the will of God. Democrats want to play God by researching cures for illnesses and giving people access to health care using taxpayers' hard-earned money.

Rush also points out that Democrats are using diseases to exploit voters' fears. Democrats, he says, want "to convince voters that there is a political party who doesn't want the cure to ever happen, that they want people to get sick and they want people to die. It's no different than saying they're going to take all your money away by cutting your Social Security and kick you out of your house." In fact, most people will never get the diseases whose cures Republicans don't want to fund so they really don't have anything to worry about. It is a sign of desperation that Democrats have resorted to such fear-mongering. It's time that someone pointed out that very few people will get AIDS and very few people will end up like Max Cleland -- unless the Democrats win, which would make it a virtual certainty that terrorists would launch attacks against the United States, causing countless numbers of Americans to lose their limbs.

While most conservatives have been reluctant to pick on crippled people, there are some hopeful signs that this is changing. After a televised debate in Wyoming Rep. Barbara Cubin told her Libertarian opponent Thomas Rankin, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair, "If you weren't sitting in that chair, I'd slap you across the face." Although she didn't actually slap him in the face, by threatening to slap him she made an important, if small, stride in the battle against the hegemony of the handicapped. I'm sure there are many people out there, forced to park in a spot very far away from the supermarket while the handicapped spots lie empty, who would love to slap someone in a wheelchair silly if they had the chance. Unfortunately, there are very few brave politicians who are willing to stand up to the wheelchair lobby, which selfishly inconveniences the rest of us.

In the Declaration of Independence it states, "All men are created equal." What many liberals fail to realize is that equality ends there. After people are created, they go on to become very unequal. Some are smarter than others, some are better looking, some are richer and some have all of their limbs. Liberals want us to ignore this simple fact of life and go out of our way to help people who, through their own bad luck or carelessness, are less fortunate. I hope that finally, Republicans will follow the lead of Limbaugh and Coulter and be brave enough to say to all these victims who think they are more equal than the rest of us that we are tired of catering to them.

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48 comments:

OutOfContext said...

That's right. And you don't see Rush exploiting his erectile dysfunction by making commercials for pro-Pfizer Republicans. There is such a thing as taste in GOP politics.

Anonymous said...

I work with a couple wheelchair bound people and often get stuck behind them as they joyfully wheel their way up a hallway, so I too have suffered from their disregard for others.

Anonymous said...

I've always wondered why it took so long for the American people to realize that Michael J. Fox is a liar and a phony who exploits his "disease" for political gain. He is almost as bad as that Christopher Reeves guy was.

Finally real Americans like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter have shown the courage to stand up to theses cretins.

Excuse me, I'd like to go on but I have to send the maid out to score me some dope.

Anonymous said...

I found this blog on another blog site. Did you know that Herman B. Hayes's blog, "Conservatives for American Values" has this blog under the category "Unworthy Conservatives"?
Why? You both are saying exactly the same things. Just curious.

Jon Swift said...

Mr. Hayes is just a little cranky, Anonymous. In his heart he knows we're both on the same side: America's side.

Anonymous said...

Rush has a lot of nerve trying to keep us from paying billions of tax dollars on embryonic stem cell research. Too bad Rush and the Republicans are keeping us from voluntarily donating to all of the private embryonic stem cell research centers. Especially since the billions that we have already spent have produced cancerous tumors and other such milestones.
That is what I call progress! Nevermind the fact that every other form of research has proven to yield more promise to fight the diseases, I just want to spend more of my tax dollars because of the hope that it gives.

Anonymous said...

Loved the comment on 'Carniverous Conservative;

'Get real folks. The only way this "disease" is going to get cured is when God decides to lift the curse. Otherwise, look out when you engage in sinful behaviour. Fox was a member of the loony left and now look at him.

And I loved the part about his "shaky" performance! Too funny. Maybe that guy will think next time he mocks God.

In Christ,

HR

Hey, wait a minute... what's that wheelchair doofus on the comment box. Ah, Jon, you caved in!

Jaesoreal said...

"This is the same problem that Ann Coulter pointed out when she complained of not being able to savage widows and grieving mothers. As anyone who is familiar with the Limbaugh's and Coulter's style of debate, taking away their ability to ridicule someone is a very severe handicap, so to speak." I laughed out loud!

Miss Cellania said...

Boy oh boy, you put a lot of work into these posts! You've got more links than I do. Thanks!

Paul D. said...

Great post!

It clearly exposes the disabled agenda and the threat to the institution on marriage caused by stem cell research!

Anonymous said...

You know what's really sad? You could post this entry on any number of right-wing sites and get nothing but nods of agreement.

mistah charley, ph.d. said...

Let's be fair - the disabled lobby has done SOME good things. Like, in a public restroom, I always head for the extra big stall that they put in for the wheelchairs. And have you EVER seen a wheelchair in a public restroom? Well, more often than once or twice?

Jack Steiner said...

Good old Rush, without that deaf windbag what would we do.

Anonymous said...

Rush "Erectile Dysfunctional" Limbaugh says that he has no sympathy for the disabled. Ahhhh, irony.

Your theory is "let's stick our heads into the sand and the problem will go away". Well, that's true until it happens to you.

Like your beloved leader crap-in-pants Reagan's wife and kids are now for stem cells' research as he had Alzheimer's disease before they were against it. You and your ilk will continue the "me, myself and I" routine until your wife or kid die in front of you with a disease which could have been held back but for the lame duck in the white house. What a pathetic excuse for a people you are.

BTW, Jon if you put the effort you put in lauding the ape into actually doing something meaningful you might have actually saved the world.

Anyway, each to his own. You serve a purpose in life too. Although I am not sure what purpose a fly like you being attracted to a shit like Limbaugh really achieves.

robkroese said...

Makes you wonder what kind of ramp Michael J. Fox had to use to appear completely asymptomatic in episodes of Boston Public and Scrubs. Maybe it was trick lighting.

Abe said...

You're right on, Jon. I'm also one who's tired of seeing 'the stumpies' on the stump and 'the shakies' taking their San Franciscan values and attempting to shove them up Mark Foley's butt.

And concerning 'the shakies', why do you think they call it dopamine!

My proposal is to loosen the miscreants' wheelchair breaking mechanisms - especially for those tards in San Francisco. A quick, simple twist of a screwdriver as they pass in their highchairs will prove effective enough and their 'sympathy' ploys will quickly lose traction.

Anonymous said...

Jon, this is a super piece - tight, well-written, with just the right amount of sarc to make your audience feel clever.

Too bad it's malarkey. Rush is, in fact, quite right about the halo effect that "disadvantaged" people are granted when Congress, in its wisdom, dispenses the title on them.

Welfare recipients defrauding the system? Can't confront them, they're largely minorities.

Illegal aliens flaunting the law in every state in the Union? Can't touch them either.

Consider the $$$ wasted on facilities for the disabled that consistently go unused. Just try to take that entitlement away sometime, though, and you'll draw back a stump where your right hand used to be.

Someone as smart as you obviously are ought really to put more thought into his positions that he does into clever prose.

Tiny Shrink said...

I found this through "Grand Rounds" located here
today and I just wanted to say that I agree wholeheartedly. Obviously Rush's MD degree and extensive knowledge of pharmaceuticals has given him supreme insight into Parkinson's Disease. I just feel safer knowing that people like him are looking after America, protecting us from the Michael J Fox's and Christopher Reeve's out there.

Anonymous said...

Nice to be back :-)

Anonymous said...

A few will see irony here
http://www.limbaugh.com/?q=Fox
The smart ones will laugh.

harrogate said...

Mistahcharlie writes:

"Let's be fair - the disabled lobby has done SOME good things. Like, in a public restroom, I always head for the extra big stall that they put in for the wheelchairs. And have you EVER seen a wheelchair in a public restroom? Well, more often than once or twice?"

Hear, hear! And Mr. Swift, this ranks as one of the most brilliant pieces of political analysis of the season. Too bad that handicap-loving do-gooder McCaskill won anyway!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Gays are such a small population, but every show on television has a token gay person on it. (whatever happen to the token black person rule?) Its like they are everywhere, just like the handicap people!
Apparently your god wants you to dig a big hole and put all these non-normal people into it. Go Nazis!!

Anonymous said...

As a wheelchair-using disabled vet, I'm the first to admit that the whole push for handicapped access was a crock from start to finish, engineered by a small but vocal group of zealots who succeeded in making cripples just one more whining constituency with which to milk money out of the budget and crank up phony, feel-good legislation so politicians can pretend they actually do something useful.

Unfortunately, as functionally illiterate as most Americans are, they swallowed this codswallop eagerly, never questioning the constantly-mentioned "37 million handicapped" claim that they used to create mandatory handicapped parking allotments and lots of other nifty, but purely crap, rules. 37 Million .... Jesus Christ, people, DO THE MATH !!! These politically-savvy gimps were counting people with hearing aids and eyeglass-wearers beyond a certain lens strength, but you swallowed it whole.

Equally absurd, and probably inevitable, is the recent push to make US currency different sizes, supposedly to keep all the blind people from getting shortchanged. Even the Amer. Assoc. of the Blind came out and said it's silly and unnecessary, but it won't stop the professional gimp brigade and showboating politicians. Not surprisingly, they cooked the numbers incredibly on that one, too, referring to "legally blind" people, most of whom drive cars and function fine, since most just have a form of tunnel vision or a cataract in one eye -- less than 5% of the number they use are actually too blind to tell a five from a twenty.

Most of us, by the way, never needed those big restroom stalls, either, and often won't use them. If you can take a few steps (which 95% of chair users can, like me), it's easier to use the CLOSER walls of a regular stall to maneuver yourself, rather than those barn-size stalls where you can only lean on one wall at a time.

Just like there is a huge difference in what Al Sharpton sells and what most Blacks actually think, there is a corresponding bunch of gimp-pimps, like race-pimps, whose well-paying career is selling the handicapped "product" in Capitol buildings all over the U.S., and they have absolutely nothing to do with those of us at the "user" end. Most of these clowns have engineered well-paying staff and consultancy jobs in social services and big corporate venues: they get rich, the politicians do well, the corporations look good (and make their gimp quotas) ... everybody wins. Except you poor suckers that pay taxes and think this part of the government actually does some good for somebody.

'Tis a crock, I say, and a large one at that.

Anonymous said...

As an addendum to my last comment -- did you ever stop to question why there are 12-15 handicapped parking spaces outside a food store or hardware store that seldom holds more than a hundred customers, max? Because of those absurd numbers I mentioned.

And then, just what are those spaces for, anyhow? Only cripples by themselves have any use for them. When I go to a store, and I'll bet 90% of other wheelchair users, she pulls up out front & drops me off, either with the chair or at one of those electric-cart thingies. She then parks the car, but doesn't need the HC space, obviously. Same when we leave. If you watch the people using HC spaces (which I have, obviously), most of them have no apparent mobility problems but (as any doctor will tell you) have annoyed their doctor into signing the forms for a HC sticker or tag because of a bad back, arthritis, or half a dozen other things. In reality, they don't NEED the close parking, but it's certainly handy. The AARP was one of the big backers of all this crap, since the old geezer lobby really likes these little perks and the AARP runs articles almost spelling out what you have to tell your doctor to qualify for the blue sticker. I suspect most of us know at least one old fraud like this, but just smile and ignore the con game.

Surf Selection said...

Rush Limbaugh is more than America’s most widely listened-to talk-radio host ("the most listened-to radio host on the planet," he likes to say). He is also the father of the current era of talk radio, and an influential player on America’s political scene. NewsMax Top 25 Radio Hosts rates Rush Limbaugh as America's most influential in America.

Sean Neoconnery said...

You say in your opening statement, "I am a reasonable conservative who likes to write about politics and culture. Since the media is biased I get all my news from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Jay Leno monologues." Yet no "reasonable conservative" listens to Rush Limbaugh. He is a blowhard and a total jackass.

Attacking people who are wheelchair bound is another low for this morbidly obese, hillbilly, drug-addict, hypocrite blowhard.

Anonymous said...

Great post
i found your blog on Abe Linkum's blog this was posted "
Jon Swift: Rush Limbaugh Takes on the Wheelchair Lobby
Jon Swift is at it again -- this time titrating the correct dosage for Michael J. Fox to swallow before the embryonic shake-out happens on Nov. 7th. Take Jon's advice and kick a cripple today at: Jon Swift: Rush Limbaugh Takes on the Wheelchair Lobbby"

Cheers!
Simone

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Anonymous said...

Just because a person does not have a visible disability does not mean they are not disabled. For example many people with Multiple Sclerosis can walk, but their energy levels can wane. In order to maintain some level of self reliance, parking in handicap spots can help to "conserve" energy to do necessary tasks of daily living.

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