I admit to listening to Rush Limbaugh occasionally. My drive to work coincides with his time slot. Why would I listen to that buffoon? I listen primarily to breakdown his racism and hate, (he hates most of humanity). Rush Limbaugh is a racist, no other word more accurately describes the man. It shows up mainly when he talks of Barack Obama, but any African American will do.
Digby has a great piece up at her site delving deeper into the history of racism in this country, from the "talkers" of today to the founding of the republic, and how it is related to the concept of "American Exceptionalism".
Digby is a must read for any thinking person. I check in daily.
Digby
Digby links to a Paul Waldman piece.
Waldman
When Limbaugh says Obama's resentment is about race "as you know," his audience certainly does know, because they've heard it hundreds of times. I think most liberals are unaware that this message gets pounded home to white conservatives day after day and has been since 2008. This is how something like health-care reform can be fit so seamlessly into the culture war: It's big government, and that can only mean taking money from hardworking white people and giving it to undeserving, shiftless black people. That's why Limbaugh so often refers to health-care reform as "reparations" -- Obama, angry black man that he is, enacted it to stick it to white people in vengeance for slavery and discrimination.
This is true. Limbaugh literally cannot talk about Obama or blacks for more than a minute, (45 secs ?) without a racist innuendo or phrase being utterred.
Digby:
Sociologist Nathan Glazer of Harvard answers a ... question --- “Why Americans don’t care about income inequality” which may give us some clues. Citing a comprehensive study by economists Alberto Alesina and Edward Glaeser of Harvard and Bruce Sacerdote of Dartmouth called, "Why Doesn't the United States have a European-Style Welfare State?" (Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2/2001) he shows that the reluctance of Americans to embrace an egalitarian economic philosophy goes back to the beginning of the republic. But what is interesting is that both he and the economists offer some pretty conclusive evidence that the main reason for American “exceptionalism” in this case is, quite simply, racism.
(bold is mine)
White Americans historically have dealt with their guilt over racism and slavery by projecting their unconscious onto the black population.
The angry black man seeking revenge narrative has been out there just as long. (When you treat people like dirt it's natural to worry they're going to turn on you.) I wrote about this during Katrina:
Ever since 1791, there have been white Americans who get very nervous when they see a large number of angry black people in one place. That was the year that Haiti's slaves rebelled and killed almost every Frenchman on the island. The fear of slave revolt --- black revolt --- entered the consciousness of the American lizard brain and has never left
American Exceptionalism has always led with the premise that we are different than Western Europe. That our rugged individualism and desire for freedom sets us apart from any other country. The reality is that AE is a mask, it assuages our collective guilt of the use of violence abroad and at home. It hides our atrocious treatment of the less fortunate in our society and it hides the racism that is, and has been, a fundamental tenet of our history.
The American Lizard Brain is alive and thriving, just turn on your radio from 12-3 ET, don't stay long, it might ruin your day.