LOWERING THE BAR:TRUMP GIVES LIMBAUGH FREEDOM MEDAL

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

"The Presidential Medal of Freedom is awarded by the President of the United States for especially meritorious contribution to (1) the security or national interests of the United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

Past Winners:

Helen Keller 1964

Neil Armstrong 1969

Jackie Robinson 1984

Mother Theresa 1985

Elie Wiesel 1992

Rosa Parks 1996

Pope John Paul 2004

Maya Angelou 2011

Rush Limbaugh started his national radio show in 1988 and has built a following by trafficking in offensive commentary. His legacy of hate includes mocking everyone from Asians to people with disabilities to African America athletes.

He has reserved particular scorn for Latinos, consistently using his platform to conflate Latinos with illegal immigration and crime.

In 1993, he said "A caller called me here and was giving me grief for not wanting to do what it took to do what it took to protect Amnerican jobs, and so I said to him 'If you are unskilled and uneducated, your job is going south. Skilled workers, educated people are going to do fine 'cause those are the kinds of jobs NAFTA is going to create. If we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid people, I'm serious, let the unskilled jobs that take absolurely no knowledge whatsoever to do – let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work."

Early in his radio career, he explained why a Mexican won the New York marathon: "An immigration agent chased him for rthe last 10 miles."

In 2004 Limbaugh declared, there's some kind of strife going on in Venezuela with that wacko, Cesar Chavez, down there. Hugo, Hugo, Cesar – whatever. A Chavez is a Chavez. We've always had problems with them."

In 2005, Limbaugh compared Mexicna illegal immigrants to an "invasive species."

In 2006, he described them as "a renegade criminal element that was poor and unwilling to work."

He admitted that when Bill Clinton introduced him to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at a high-priced New York restaurant, he thought at first he was "maybe a shoeshine guy," although it's difficult to believe that if Limbaugh had been introduced by a former president to a white man in a suit at a place that serves $295 steaks, he would have thought he was a shoeshine guy.

  In 2009, he questioned why Latino advocacy groups would lobby for the Affordable Care Act, since "illegal aliens" would not be eligible for coverage.

In 2010 Limbaugh made a smear about Barack Obama: "I think this is the first time in his life that ther's not a professor around to turn hs C into an A, or to write the law review article for him he can't write. He is totally exposed. There is nobody to make it better. In think he's been covered, for all his life." Limbaugh, by the way, is a college dropout.

He would play this song in his radioo show to the tune of Puff the Magic Dragon:

Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C.

The LA Times, they called him that

'cause he's not authentic like me.

In 2013, he inaccurately described Mexican immigrants as lazy and government-dependent. In 2019, he compared the Allied troops landing in France on D-Day to migrants at the U.S. southern border, calling the latter “an invasion force.” Such words have had the effect of poisoning the debate around immigration.

Limbaugh’s ugly rhetoric about Latinos is so pervasive that his words were cited by New York Times in an analysis of the possible ideological inspirations of the gunman who carried out the mass shooting in El Paso.

Limbaugh has also been disrespectful of prominent Latinas. When Sonia Sotomayor was nominated to the Supreme Court, he called her “a hack” and “a reverse racist.” Likening Sotomayor to a housekeeper, he joked about sending her “a bunch of vacuum cleaners.” 

"She is a bigot. She is a racist.She is a racist, and she would bring racism and bigotry to the court."

When Dolores Huerta received the Medal of Freedom in 2012, Limbaugh slammed the labor icon as “a professed Marxist and a socialist.” 

More recently, when speaking about Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, he pronounced her name with an exaggerated accent and dismissed her as “some young uppity.”

All this anti-Latino sentiment comes with a side of hypocrisy: Limbaugh, who has bemoaned what he sees as the lack of assimilation by immigrants, is selling his children’s book in Spannish. So he doesn’t support diversity or people not speaking English, but he is willing to profit from Spanish-speakers.

Some conservative media outlets have assailed Limbaugh’s critics for celebrating his cancer diagnosis. While any person facing a serious illness deserves sympathy, Limbaugh himself has a poor track record of showing any empathy for others. He mocked Michael J. Fox’s struggle with Parkinson’s Disease, and joked about Ruth Bader Gingsburg's health. He suggested in 2014 that Robin Williams committed suicide because liberals are “never happy.” 

Limbaugh’s cancer diagnosis does not erase years of such toxic statements.

He is not a great man worthy of a high honor. He is a mean-spirited bully who will be remembered for his vitriol. 

Yet Limbaugh is not always wrong. In fact, he was amazingly prescient in 2012, while whining about Dolores Huerta receiving the Medal of Freedom from President Obama. “The Presidential Medal of Freedom is now being rendered meaningless. It’s just a political award,” Limbaugh said. “That’s all it is. It’s another great tradition, institution down the tubes.”

He wasn’t right then, but he sure is right now.