Why Can’t We All Play Nice?
I don't know if it comes across in my blog or not, but I'm really a right-leaning moderate when it comes to politics. Yes, I do have a few issues where I tend lean a bit left, social equality issues and the like, but for the most part I tend to fall on the right side of issues. In fact, I tend to enjoy reading Ann Coulter, the Valkyrie of the Right. (Yes, Tony. Go ahead and whip out your wooden stake or garlic or whatever atheists keep handy to ward off evil.) I have issues with her latest column, however.
Much has been made of Rush Limbaugh's fall from grace. The media has enjoyed running him down like a pack of wolves on a weakened elk. Ann claims the reason for a conservative's skeletons falling from their closet being such big news is so that liberals can "engage in their very favorite taunt: Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy!" and further that the reason they enjoy the cry of hypocrisy so much is they are immune from being accused of hypocrisy because they have no morals to begin with and thus have no standards to which they try and adhere.
Ann likes to hold up Bill Clinton as the epitome of liberal morals, which is about as fair as holding up Jim Bakker or Jimmy Swagart as examples of conservative morals. Taking one individual claiming they are representative of a large group is ridiculous. I'm sure there are plenty of "moral" liberals whose lives mirror their conservative counterpart more than either would like to believe.
Ann seeks to excuse Rush's dependance on illegal drugs because it began innocently taking pain medication for back surgery. Does she really think that drug addicts other than Rush simply decide, "You know, today I think I'll get hooked on heroin." There are probably a few who dabble in drugs as a form of recreation and get in over their heads. It's probably safe to say that most, however, are hiding from some kind of pain in their lives: a shitty home life, a demolished self-esteem, a grief they cannot bear, or back pain from surgery. The question I have is why, when Rush's prescription ran out, didn't he go to his doctor and say, "Doc, I'm still in pain?" Why did he choose to illegally acquire the drugs he was used to taking? I'm sure his doctor warned him of their addictive nature. And why did he wait until he was caught to do something about it? Again, his doctor could have been a useful resource to combat the problem very early on.
Rush has been quoted as saying, "I take full responsibility for my problem." He has also been quoted as saying,
...we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. ... And so if people are
violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up.
Well, Rush, does taking full responsibility for your actions include a trip up river? I doubt it, though he sounds eager enough to send everyone else on a short boat ride. Ann invokes Chappaquiddick and uses Kennedy as some kind of character foil to poor Rush. She also mentions Kennedy's escape from prosecution, though I'm not sure what it has to do with Rush. Rush isn't going to go up river for the same reason Kennedy didn't. He's a celebrity and he's loaded.
What irks liberals (and moderates) about the right is living with their condescension and the near constant volleys from their moral high ground. This in and of itself is an interesting attitude to have since He who they claim to emulate once said, "He who is without sin let him first cast a stone at her." The left would probably be less eager to tear down a conservative if they were not being constantly pelted by rocks from people living in glass houses. It's not that we don't have standards, it's just that we don't expect everyone else to live by them.