The Limbaugh Incident: My Thoughts
How are Presidential candidates who are moral cowards before the misogynistic bullying of Rush Limbaugh to be trusted to protect the interests of the United States of America as our President?
What if a popular figure in the high school of their daughter had (underline) broadcast (underline) these explicit sexual insults about her over the PA system to the entire high school student body? Would our candidates only response be "he's an entertainer"? Or a limp-wristed "I wouldn't have chosen those words"?
No way, they would have confronted the situation forcefully I think. But!
But, when it is politically expedient to do so, the GOP candidates fail to condemn what other principled conservatives, including George Will, have strongly and publicly condemned.
In this context, there was blatant hypocrisy on display yesterday by Romney and the others, who postured themselves at the AIPAC conference as tough guys with an immediate willingness to attack Iran.
Yes, we have the towering moral fiber Obama lacks, we will move our aircraft carriers to the gulf, we will bomb them without mamby-pambying. We will be just as unwavering and tough with Iran, as we demonstrated confronting the explicit sexual insults of a leading GOP broadcaster who, over a period of days, attempted to destroy a private citizen. That's how tough we are. Get it?
Let's be honest: the only unwavering principle these GOP candidates stand for is pandering for votes. Romney is particularly craven; he behaves like a cringing dog before the extreme right, for which the hate-spewing Limbaugh is a principal mouthpiece.. a bully who is a well of irrational poisonous drivel that his well-intentioned conservative listeners drink from every day.
There is nothing more despicable than watching these GOP candidates sociopathically wrap themselves up in the American flag and pretend to be tough by showing off an immediate willingness to risk other people's lives in war.
Want to show us tough? Condemn Rush Limbaugh's explicit sexual attacks on a young woman. Risk some votes if you have to. Shame on them, the cowards.
The presumptive nominee Romney's authenticity is downright invisible both to the right and the left: there 'is no there, there'.
Show us something real about your leadership, Mitt. Say, condemn attacks on the President's religious beliefs by your opponents or the Limbaugh assaults.
You say you're a leader? Response is the root word of responsibility, and real leaders respond for us and are willing to take risks in doing so. And Mr. Romney, you are morally irresponsible in the Limbaugh and in other situations. That's what you are showing us about your qualifications to be our President: we can't trust you do to do what is right, even if it is unpopular. We're getting the message.
The apparent lack of an authentic core in Romney should be deeply troubling to anyone thinking of putting him in the oval office. We don't know what this man really is - if anything - inside. But we do know that he's a rockstar at self-concealment and shameless posturing.
