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<p><br></p><div id="content"><h1>The GOP can no longer avoid its Rush Limbaugh problem.</h1>
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By Editorial Board, <span class="timestamp updated processed">Published: March 2</span>
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<p>IN A DEMOCRACY, standards of civil discourse are as important as they are indefinable. Yet wherever one draws the line, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-buzz/post/rush-limbaugh-calls-georgetown-student-sandra-fluke-a-slut-for-advocating-contraception/2012/03/02/gIQAvjfSmR_blog.html">Rush Limbaugh’s vile rants</a>
against Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke crossed it. Mr.
Limbaugh is angry at President Obama’s efforts to require the provision
of contraception under employer-paid health insurance and the White
House’s attempts to make some political hay out of the policy. His way
of showing this anger was to smear Ms. Fluke, who approached Congress to
support the plan, as a “slut” seeking a government subsidy for her
promiscuity.</p>
<p>Like other “shock jocks,” Mr. Limbaugh has committed verbal
excesses in the past. But in its wanton vulgarity and cruelty, this
episode stands out. Mr. Limbaugh’s audience, and those in politics who
seek his favor as a means of reaching that audience, need to take
special note. </p><p>We are not calling for censorship. Nor are we
suggesting that the ostensible policy issue here — mandatory provision
of contraception under health insurance paid for by religious-based
institutions such as Georgetown — is a simple one. Those who questioned
President Obama’s initial decisions in this area — <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/respecting-religious-exemptions/2012/01/22/gIQA0ZESJQ_story.html">we among them</a> — were not waging a “war on women,” as Democrats have alleged in strident fundraising appeals.</p>
<p>What
we are saying is that Mr. Limbaugh has abused his unique position
within the conservative media to smear and vilify a citizen engaged in
the exercise of her First Amendment rights, and in the process he
debased a national political discourse that needs no further debasing.
This is not the way a decent citizen behaves, much less a citizen who
wields significant de facto power in a major political party. While
Republican leaders owe no apology for Mr. Limbaugh’s comments, they do
have a responsibility to repudiate them — and him. </p><p>House Speaker
John Boehner took a step in that direction Friday: “The speaker
obviously believes the use of those words was inappropriate, as is
trying to raise money off the situation,” Boehner spokesman Michael
Steel said in an e-mail Friday morning. But there’s no moral equivalency
between the Democrats’ hyperbolic but abstract “war on women” line and
Mr. Limbaugh’s targeted attack. Mr. Boehner and others of his stature
need to say unequivocally that such gutter rhetoric has no place in
their party or in American politics.</p><p>Incivility is not a one-way
street in America. Far from it: Mr. Limbaugh’s left-wing equivalents
have trashed any number of conservatives over the years. Conservatives
have a point when they protest that the “mainstream media” don’t always
heed their legitimate grievances.</p><p>Yet under the influence of Mr.
Limbaugh and his ilk, the Republicans risk coming before the voters in
2012, and after, with nothing but grievances. This is what former
Florida governor Jeb Bush was trying to tell his fellow Republicans when
he observed, apropos of a recent discourse in the GOP primary: “It’s a
little troubling sometimes when people are appealing to people’s fears
and emotion rather than trying to get them to look over the horizon for a
broader perspective, and that’s kind of where we are.”</p><p>For the
good of U.S. political culture — or at least its own political
self-interest — the GOP must distance itself from Mr. Limbaugh. In
response to listener complaints and, apparently, the promptings of its
own corporate conscience, Sleep Train Mattress Centers has quit
advertising on Mr. Limbaugh’s show. Dare Republican leaders show less
decency?</p></div>
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<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br>