Rush Limbaugh and the Sluts

Rush Limbaugh earns millions with his conservative polemics. On the subject of contraception, he has gone too far even for some Republicans.

Rush Limbaugh’s world is a simple one. It’s black or white — preferably white. It’s a world in which conservative values rule without compromise, President Obama will soon disappear from the scene, religions — the right ones — determine how people live their lives and women who stand up for their right to use birth control are sluts.

Limbaugh is popular in the United States. His daily three-hour radio talk show is followed by more than 15 million listeners. They didn’t turn their radios off when the 61-year old described coed Sandra Fluke as a slut and a prostitute on one of his broadcasts and then turned around the next day and demanded that she post videos of herself on the Internet showing all the sex she was engaging in, thanks to the birth control pills he, as a taxpayer, was providing to her at his expense.

What the law student did to attract Limbaugh’s wrath was nothing more than address Democratic lawmakers defending the proposition that health insurance plans should cover the costs of contraception. This was an unforgivable error in Limbaugh’s simple world. This polemicist, arguing from the far right, is a star in the United States who earns millions. His hostility ensured that the subject would become the national outrage of the week.

Obama turned all the public outrage into a clever public relations campaign and personally telephoned Fluke. “He encouraged me and supported me and thanked me for speaking out about the concerns of American women,” Fluke told the Huffington Post after she had received permission from the White House to make details of President Obama’s phone call to her public. Obama’s spokesman later reiterated the president’s outrage over Limbaugh’s gaffe in a press conference. Women will be a decisive group in Obama’s reelection strategy.

Ideological Trench Warfare

The Republican presidential candidates, currently busily trying to visit a minimum of four states each day in anticipation of Super Tuesday, were in a tight spot. Mitt Romney, Rick Sanrotum and Newt Gingrich distanced themselves from Limbaugh’s choice of language but stuck hard and fast to the conservative line.

Besides questions about birth control and contraception, ideological trench warfare is going on in the United States. As a result of Obama’s “Affordable Care Act,” health insurance carriers are being required to cover costs for birth control with no copay necessary from individuals beginning August 2012. Businesses and institutions such as universities that offer employee healthcare plans are also required to follow these rules.

This is the target of Republican protests they base on constitutional first amendment rights, which they see as being abridged if they are forced to cover contraceptive and birth control costs. A first attempt by Republicans to get exemptions for those who want to opt out already failed in the Senate due to Democratic objections.

A CBS News/New York Times survey conducted at the beginning of March revealed that 59 percent of those asked supported the Obama administration’s position with 34 percent opposed. The outrage expressed by this majority was the reason that several sponsors dropped their support of Limbaugh’s show by pulling their advertising — at least temporarily.

Limbaugh at first responded by pouring gasoline on the fire when he said Fluke’s parents ought to be ashamed of their daughter but later backed down and issued an apology on Sunday saying, “I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.” It was a surprising strategic move by Limbaugh who has never previously apologized for his none too squeamish public statements.

But there is little or no regret apparent in his apology. As he later wrote, “I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation.” For the content of what he said, he refuses to budge an inch from his position: “I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities.”