With Rush Limbaugh having asserted his claim to be the true
and rightful leader of the Republican Party, it’s tempting to argue that he is,
in fact, the perfect embodiment for Republicans at this historical moment:
loud, boorish, corpulent and (if you’ll pardon my reference to an unfortunate physical
malady) hard of hearing. Not to mention hypocritical. Let’s remember that
Limbaugh, together with his Republican cheerleaders in the Congress, opposed
the economic stimulus bill because it was – you can’t make this up! – fiscally
irresponsible.
What interests me more, however, is Limbaugh’s enduring
popularity among politically conservative evangelicals. I have no polling data
to back this up, only anecdotal evidence, but when I travel in evangelical
precincts, or when I talk with my own brothers, the name of Rush Limbaugh evokes
a kind of hushed reverence befitting the deity. He’s often quoted more
frequently than the scriptures: “Rush says . . .” or, “According to Rush . . .
.”
It’s an odd affinity, never mind the radical disjunction
between Limbaugh’s policy positions and the teachings of Jesus. The
thrice-married Limbaugh is hardly the avatar of “family values.” And he has
confessed to an addiction to pain-killers, a habit he allegedly satisfied
through illegal means.
So why the attraction? Some of it simply is a misguided
sympathy for right-wing politics. But that still doesn’t fully explain the
allegiance.
Timothy Egan’s superb opinion piece on Limbaugh in the New York Times has brought me to the
reluctant conclusion that one reason politically conservative evangelicals so
adore Limbaugh is that he expresses the racism they feel but cannot allow
themselves to articulate. I hasten to add that I don’t say this lightly; I have
for years, in fact, defended evangelicals against the charge of racism.
But the evidence is beginning to mount. Several years ago I
exposed what I call the “abortion myth,” the fiction that the Religious Right
coalesced as a political movement in response to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. That emphatically was not the case; many
evangelicals at the time, in fact, applauded the decision. The true catalyst
was a lower-court ruling, Green v.
Connally, that upheld the Internal Revenue Service in its opinion that
institutions engaging in racial discrimination were not charitable
organizations and therefore had no claims to tax-exempt status. When the IRS
enforced that decision in 1976 and rescinded the tax exemption at Bob Jones
University, a fundamentalist school in Greenville, South Carolina, evangelicals
preachers led by Jerry Falwell, Tim LaHaye and others banded together to form a
mighty political coalition.
There are several legitimate ways to construe the Bob Jones
case, and I have been careful in the past to present various mitigating
interpretations. But the fact remains that the very people who eventually took
extraordinary pains to style themselves as the “new abolitionists” because of
their opposition to abortion actually organized as a political movement
effectively to defend racial segregation and discrimination at Bob Jones
University.
Another bit of evidence for racism among politically
conservative evangelicals might be the popularity of home-schooling and their
support for school vouchers. Like it or not, evangelicals have yet to come to
terms with the legacy of “segregation academies,” many of them organized by
churches, that sprouted after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954. Not everyone who
educates children at home is racist, of course. By no means. But one of the perennial Religious
Right complaints about public education is its emphasis on multiculturalism and
diversity. And, as I saw when I visited public school and voucher school
classrooms in Cleveland several years ago, nothing perpetuates racial (and
economic) stratification better than voucher programs.
Perhaps Limbaugh’s racial rants help to explain his
popularity among politically conservative evangelicals after all. Such lines of
affinity are difficult to sort out, of course, especially when any such linkage
is vigorously denied – as I’m sure it will be. But when Limbaugh rails against
Colin Powell, or when his program plays a parody called “Barack the Magic
Negro,” or when he suggests that the president is demanding that Americans
“have to bend over, grab the ankles, bend over forward, backward, whichever,
because his father was black, because this is the first black president” -
maybe, just maybe, Limbaugh is striking an ugly nerve among politically
conservative evangelicals.
posted March 6, 2009 at 8:51 am
I watched Rush’s speech to CPAC. I’m not totally convinced about the racism charge, but I’ll acquisce until I learn more. What alarmed me about the crowd at CPAC was that they appeared to be some kind of groupies to the uber-wealthy. Whenever Rush talked about how the rich are over taxed, how trickle down economics is the answer to the recession, and how Obama’s policies amount to “steal from the rich and give to the poor,” the crowd went nuts. They worship at the altar of wealth and privilege.
posted March 6, 2009 at 11:17 am
I think there is a very strong element of subconscious racism involved. It would be hard to deny since so many generations grew up being taught that “others”, i.e. non-WASP, are inferior (anybody remember Jesse Helms campaigns???)
Only a couple of months ago a sweet, charming, young Evangelical friend “informed” me, with complete sincerity, that all Italians are in the mafia. Oy! When people exist in that kind of bubble world already, can you imagine what a generation or two of home schooling could do?
posted March 6, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Although this site is prejudiced against white, male, evangelicals.
This site is really the epitome of the culture that the website http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/ parodies
posted March 6, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Few non-southerners can understand the impact of the civil rights movement on southern white evangelicals. The success of that movement amounted to an indictment of southern white people and their Jim Crow religion. Southern whites had lost the moral high ground. It felt like a haymaker to the solar plexus. In response, southern whites latched onto the ancient American cult of personal responsibility and turned it against civil rights activists. Any suggestion of racial bias sparks angry denials. Southern evangelicals complain about a culture of complaint and whine about a nation of whiners. This is Rush Limbaugh language and it works like a charm on white evangelical males, especially in southern states. It should come as no surprise that states in the deep south account for the majority of executions or that incarceration rates in my part of the country are twice as high as in the rest of the country. I appreciate Randall Balmer’s cautious understatement, but he is bang on target.
posted March 6, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Oops, I failed to include my name on the last comment.
posted March 6, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Very good article, and it ties in nicely with the “southern strategy” of the 70s. The Republican party took over the Solid ‘Democratic’ South due to issues of segregation.
posted March 6, 2009 at 2:12 pm
It is an open secret that, particularly in the South, fundamentalist religion has always been, not about religious values as most of the world understands them, but about preserving the “way of life” — and primarily about preserving the racial caste system. These are the churches that seceded from their parent denominations in the 1850s over attitudes toward the institution of slavery. In the Civil Rights Era, the White Citizens Councils and Klan chapters were also usually pretty interchangeable with the fundy churches; and these were the churches that, when federally enforced desegregation finally came, immediately created the “segregation academies.” To a great extent they have reshaped the Republican Party into their image, driving out most of the moderates, i.e., those whose primary concerns are over the relationship of the government and the economy. Rush is the personification of this political philosophy.
posted March 6, 2009 at 7:15 pm
I agree with the post. Precisely my experience with the southern white evangelicals. However, there are a few corrections I would like to make to the article (In Capital letters):
…has brought me to the reluctant conclusion that one reason politically conservative WHITE SKIN WORSHIPPING PAGANS MASQUERADING AS CHRISTIANS so adore Limbaugh is that he expresses the racism they feel but cannot allow themselves to articulate.
When the IRS enforced that decision in 1976 and rescinded the tax exemption at Bob Jones University, a WHITE SKIN WORSHIPPING PAGAN school in Greenville, South Carolina, WHITE SKIN WORSHIPPING PAGAN preachers led by Jerry Falwell, Tim LaHaye and others banded together to form a mighty political coalition.
True Christians will unite other true Christians irrespective of skin color against the radical Islamic threat..these white skin worshipping pagans decided whiteness was the major issue not Christ. Not Christian at all!
posted March 6, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Very interesting and informative article. Thanks.
FYI, we know that corpulent means fat. Fancy words don’t disguise the meaning. And when you use it in a list of derisive adjectives, we fat people don’t much appreciate it. We fat people hear loud and clear that we’re gross and slovenly. We fat people are embarrassed and so don’t sign our names. Perhaps you might consider this in your next list of adjectives. I didn’t really expect to confront something like this on Beliefnet. Maybe from Rush…
posted March 6, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Rush Limbaugh is the epitome of conservative bull sh*t. The ramblings that come out of his mouth are pure for entertainment purposes only. Not to be taken seriously. Unfortunately many take him so seriously that they live in a conservative fairyland. It is inconceivable to me that republican politicians are apologizing for speaking out against him. He’s a dagger sheathed in velvet. He says in a Barbara Walters interview he’s a teddy bear then turns around and calls out the dogs when any republican has the temerity to speak against him. He is a sick freak. With way more power than he should ever be allowed to have. If the republican politicians stood up to him, he would have no f**king show. Man, He pisses me off. Can you tell?
posted March 7, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Any reaction to a fellow Liberal like yourselves who called on Limbaugh to be executed for treason? Probably not. It is truly sad what Liberals get away with saying and no one cares, or they think it is justified. How about some balance on that.
posted March 7, 2009 at 10:07 pm
I am SOOOOOO tired of hearing people excuse Rush’s excesses because of a claim that he’s merely “an entertainer.”
People who falsely scream “FIRE!” in a crowded theatre are, no doubt, immensely amused by their entertaining tactic as they watch the tramplings of the liberals–I mean morons–I mean anyone who took them seriously– on the way to the door.
Folks who say horrible things to and about others can always retreat to the defense of cowards, delivered with righteous indignation, “It was only a joke!”
“Entertainers” of a political stripe (Rush, Hannity, Beck, Coulter, etc.) can apparently get away with bullying, lying, twisting the truth into a pretzel — even treason — merely by invoking the “it’s just entertainment” canard. This serves them twice: by absolving them of all guilt in their minds and the minds of their disciples and by then accusing anyone who took offense of having no sense of humor.
It’s sickening.
posted March 20, 2009 at 4:58 am
I’d rather be “entertained” by Rush than listen to our Speaker of the House call a room full of illegal aliens “PATRIOTS” any day. Wake up America!!
posted March 20, 2009 at 7:12 pm
“I’d rather be “entertained” by Rush than listen to our Speaker of the House call a room full of illegal aliens “PATRIOTS” any day. Wake up America!!”
That is because you are not concerned about uniting Christians and the Islamic threat. You are most likely a white skin worshipping pagan white female.