Yesterday’s announcement of Rush Limbaugh’s illness resulted in the usual “should one speak ill of the gravely sick even if they deserve it” debates. In Sacramento, where Rush got his start on KFBK in 1984, the Bee wrote No one should be celebrating Rush Limbaugh’s cancer. Being human shouldn’t be hard.
I have a different idea: The Lee Atwater Model.
Lee Atwater implemented the Republican “Southern Strategy” with great success in the 1980’s, culminating in George H.W. Bush’s defeat of Michael Dukakis in the 1988 election. He was responsible for the infamous Willie Horton ad:
now considered one of the most racially divisive in modern political history because it played into white fear and African-American stereotypes. In it, an off-screen narrator tells the story of Horton's crimes while pictures of Bush and Dukakis and a menacing mug shot of Horton flash across the screen. The narrator notes that Bush supports the death penalty for murderers.
"Dukakis not only opposes the death penalty, he allowed first-degree murderers to have weekend passes from prison," the narrator says.
The ad ends with this tag line: "Weekend prison passes, Dukakis on crime."
In 1990, Atwater was diagnosed with brain cancer, which turned out to be terminal. In January 1991, he gave an interview with Life magazine, which was quoted in the Times, expressing his regrets for his campaign against Dukakis:
“In 1988," Mr. Atwater said, "fighting Dukakis, I said that I 'would strip the bark off the little bastard' and 'make Willie Horton his running mate.' I am sorry for both statements: the first for its naked cruelty, the second because it makes me sound racist, which I am not."
"While I didn't invent negative politics," he said, "I am one of its most ardent practitioners."
“My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood . . . I have learned a lesson: Politics and human relationships are separate. It took me a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth. . .
Atwater died less than two months later.
We don’t know how serious Rush’s cancer is, but my wish is for him to look to Lee Atwater’s example, and while gravely ill, acknowledge the harm he has done. For 36 years, beginning with those of Atwater’s rise, Rush has spread hate, racism and misogyny, giving rise to hundreds of “mini-Rushes” all over the country, making the radio waves toxic and contributing substantially to the Trump Base.
Newsone reviewed Rush's 10 most racist quotes. Here are just a few:
1. “Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”
3. “Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”
5. “They’re 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?”
6. [To an African American female caller]: “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”
7. “I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They’re interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well. I think there’s a little hope invested in McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn’t deserve.”
9. “We need segregated buses… This is Obama’s America.”
10. “Obama’s entire economic program is reparations.”
And these are just the racist ones — It’s not hard to find the misogynist and other group hate he has spewed. If only because of longevity, he surpasses Atwater in the harm he has done.
Some day, people will look back on this era and its roots and judge it harshly. Now Rush can reflect on his mortality and perhaps consider the effect he has had, I hope he emulates Atwater and repudiates or at least does something to mitigate his ugly record.
This is not wishing him ill. It’s reporting on his record and making a suggestion.
I don’t expect it.
I’m not holding my breath.
I’m just putting the idea out there.