Rewind to September 2001, and you'll see that in the aftermath of the horrific terrorist attacks, our airports are shut down and the world has opened its heart to a battered and shaken nation. Fast forward to January 2010 and the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti is shut down because the world has opened its heart to a battered and shaken nation. They simply can't accommodate the enormous outpouring of aid. That hasn't stopped the overwhelming flow of charity as people wait for things to get sorted out so they can help. At times such as these we see humanity at its best. I'm proud that the United States, as it so often does, is taking a lead role in helping the devastated people. Oh how I wish that was all I could see, but the United States is also home to Rush Limbaugh and others like him.
Rush wasted no time in playing to his base of angry, often bigoted, white men and the women who love them. There is a chicken and egg relationship between the rise and subsequent dominance of far right-wing talk radio and the rising perception among angry white men that they were the group most adversely affected by discrimination. I know such a claim sounds as incredible as Shaquille O'Neal fearing that he's too short to go on the good rides at Disneyland, but I swear they really think that! Of course, they have it backwards and the three greatest gifts at birth for outperforming meritocracy are, in descending order, a huge trust fund, a powerfully connected family, and a white penis.
For starters, Rush primed his merry band of snivellers with the old standby - an attack on President Obama and how he's doing this to please black people. He then went on to discourage donations to Haiti by saying we already give to Haiti through our taxes. Rush is a despicable excuse for a human being, but he's not stupid. He knew exactly how those words would be taken by his audience. Allow me to translate from English to Dittohead, "The government already steals your hard earned money just so they can give it to undeserving minorities." Then to top it off, he couldn't resist one more kick to the poor people of Haiti as they lie prostrate on the ground. Here is the link. Check it out for yourselves; I've typed enough of his filth for one day.
Alas, there are others cast in the Limbaugh mold. Listen to Glenn Beck claim that Obama is dividing America by quickly coming to the aid of Haiti. Obama isn't dividing America, Beck and those like him are dividing America by deliberately fanning the flames of fear, anger, frustration, hatred, bigotry, and ignorance. Worst of all, the pretenders and wannabes who stand in the shadows of these elite hate merchants have to be even more outrageous if they want to make their bones and gain wider notoriety. Enter Jim Quinn. This guy doesn't even try to pretend he's not deliberately exploiting white anger and resentment. In his rant on President Obama and Haiti he said, in so many words, that President Obama ignored "Fly-over country white guy America" when it needed help because it wasn't a third world country. Of course, if Obama had offered more aid, Quinn would have likened that federal bailout to Hitler anyway, leaving both host and audience in the enviable position of heads we win; tails you lose. For good measure, he went on to claim that Haiti was poor because it was communist, revealing an ignorance that will likely be lost on his followers.
Finally, there's Pat Robertson's twaddle about a deal with the devil. I almost gave this a pass because I think at this point he's more a doddering fool than an evil man, but I can't manage to let it stand without comment. To say, in essence, "serves you right" to innocent disaster victims who are suffering so deeply is an unconscionable disgrace. Robertson's nonsense may get a rousing amen from his followers who are too gullible and superstitious to understand that this catastrophe has more to do with plate tectonics than an invisible bogeyman in the sky smiting these poor people, but it should disgust anyone who believes in human decency or any prescription for living that Jesus would abide. I find it interesting that being fundamentally unchristian is perhaps the single most salient feature of Christian Fundamentalism. If that doesn't set a new ground speed record for irony, it ought to.
