Economists will tell you that the value of a commodity tends to decrease once a certain goal or result has been attained. Obviously this principle applies to the marketplace, but it also appears to fit well within the parameters of grievance and racial politics.
Having recently caught a certain degree of heat for criticizing Michelle Obama because "it doesn't look like [she] follows her own nutritionary, dietary advice," Rush Limbaugh is no stranger to controversy. But something unexpectedly feels different now.
It seems like only yesterday that even the slightest verbal affront to the First Couple guaranteed the harshest elucidation from the Obama's most committed protagonists. But that didn't happen this time. Sure, there was the usual name-calling and charges of racism (a la Donovan McNabb) which barely raise an eyebrow anymore. Yet the headlines customarily witnessed throughout our multifaceted national media were noticeably absent. In fact, thanks to this post, there's a chance that you're learning about this contention for the first time.
Whether the potential for milking the story for all it's worth was impacted by the President's ever-fluctuating approval ratings, or if a race-based fatigue is beginning to take hold, it's apparent that a certain recoil has resulted from the persistent favoring of Obama and his wife as "chosen" and untouchable entitles. Taking the radio maven himself into account, and in the First Lady's defense, the merit of Limbaugh's comment is on par with habitually alluding to political guttersnipe Paul Begala as "The Forehead" (in lieu of his own receding hairline).
For some, the scariest question one could ask is: What if it isn't racism? The impassioned Obama devotee considers that unthinkable. But with that in mind, I'll have El Rushbo himself respond with a statement that implies a form of equality:
"If anybody looks at African-Americans in this country as inferior and incompetent, it's the American left and the Democrat Party. ... I have parodied Bill Clinton and I have parodied Mrs. Clinton and I have parodied John Kerry and I have parodied Joe Bite Me and a number of other people. If they're liberals, they're targets. It doesn't matter if they're from Mars to me. It's just I have the courage not to leave the African-Americans out of it."
-- Rush Limbaugh (with emphasis added); March 3, 2011
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