Rush Limbaugh's senseless attacks on children.
Once again, the Republican Party has shown themselves to be the party of vote suppression. On the other hand, the Democrats have shown themselves to be the party of voter participation. The latest attacks of Rush Limbaugh on a bunch of young people who came to Washington to lobby Congress on climate change reflect more on him than they do the Democrats or our children.
"It's the Democrats exploiting a young child, ladies and gentlemen, for the advancement of a political issue that will grow the size of government and increase their control over everyone," Limbaugh told listeners of the 600 stations nationwide that carry his show.
Of course they cannot -- this is yet another example of the New Morality of the Republican Party at work -- morality is always for the other person and not for themselves. If it had been, say, 50,000 students from Campus Crusade for Christ going to Capitol Hill to try to persuade Congress to uphold Christian values, Rush Limbaugh would have been estatic over that. After all, it's OK if you're a Republican.
In fact, the reality is much different:
Limbaugh's attack on the teenager was "outrageous and grotesque," said Deborah Williams, an Anchorage environmentalist who accompanied Lockwood on the teen's first trip to the nation's capital in 2005. It's one thing to take aim at a public figure, Williams said, but it's quite another to attack someone young and eager to participate in the democratic process.
"I know Charlee really quite well and she is her own person," Williams said. "She got involved in this because she feels a big moral commitment to protect her community. She is passionate about this issue, and she has so much invested in this issue."
The fact of the matter is that Limbaugh and his ilk are growing desperate. Even nutjobs like Senator Ted Stevens are starting to lamely acknowledge the effects that global warming are having on people; he met with a group of young people from his state and had a remarkably frank conversation with them. And influential columnists like Tom Friedman, who is generally known for spreading the gospel of capitalism like a born-again Christian would his or her faith, are starting to sound the alarm as well. Limbaugh's hysteria suggests a sense that he is losing control of the debate.
Obamathon
