What further evidence do you need that our politics has now gotten so toxic, hateful and narrow in focus than the continued firestorm over Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke and her three day denunciation by Rush Limbaugh that led to Limbaugh losing a slew of sponsors (but it will not result in him going off the air)? Now some are going after Fluke’s boyfriend.
I’ve started to delete emails that I’m getting on Limbaugh in response to TMV posts and columns.
They have become highly predictable — and answering them is like talking to a turned off radio.
Most now contain this talking point: if anyone writes a post on Rush they must be foaming at the mouth liberals, socialists, and “sluts” (yes I’ve been called that in three emails) destroying the country and Obama henchmen (or henchwomen) unless they devote part of the post/article/column to Bill Maher and Chris Rock. I weakened and answered one of these anger fests noting that part of the problem here was that a) Fluke was an average person testifying before Congress, B) Limbaugh approached near slander in going after her for three days when any other talk show host would have stopped after one day or been pulled from the air, and c) Limbaugh did not accurately characterize her testimony. That brought a response about how I’d moan and groan in November because Barack Obama and the liberals and the socialists who supported him would all be defeated.
A few minutes ago I got an angry email from someone who said he didn’t want to pay for Fluke’sactive sex life. Which means he didn’t read her testimony and is merely parroting what he heard on talk radio or ideological cable or read on some conservative websites.
Others said a site can’t be moderate if it criticizes Rush’s comments. Another said (you guessed it) that unless each Rush post/story denounces Bill Maher and Chris Rock, the site is left wing Democrat. (Oh).So I pointed some people who say that to THIS POLL which is usually ignored or branded as rigged by liberals.
But the biggest sign of how our politics has now slipped into an unflushed toilet is an ongoing attack now against Fluke’s….boyfriend.
This includes the strong stench of antisemitism.
Rather than infect our website with more on this, I’ll point you HERE to read the latest and to follow their links.
But think about it:
–Fluke is still being attacked with allegations that have no basis in fact. Further evidence that for some talk show listeners facts don’t matter, just what a talk show host or fellow partisan says is a fact and what others in your political party say.
–To inflict more damage on Fluke, her boyfriend is targeted.
Not nice.
Not pretty.
And not politics.
It’s something else…
UPDATE: The new Wonkette weighs in.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.