Radio pundit Rush Limbaugh recently said this about liberals:
“But one thing is sure: when liberals stop hiding what they believe — that government is their Alpha and Omega — it becomes clear what their enemies are: Capitalism. Freedom. Prosperity. And most of all, the American way of life!”
Limbaugh made the remarks while criticizing comments made by former Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren. Warren and her political beliefs are fair game for criticism, but saying that liberals are opposed to freedom and prosperity is just exaggeration and demonizing.
Coincidentally, conservatives such as Limbaugh are frequent targets of similar invective from liberals and progressives. For instance, columnist Paul Krugman routinely describes them as “evil and stupid”, and former Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) calls them bigots.
But the fiscal and economic issues we currently face involve a lot of different moral and empirical considerations: aiding the needy, rewarding the productive, figuring out which policies will have what effects. It is not (as Limbaugh would like us to believe) a debate between anti-capitalist communists on the one hand, and (as many Democrats would like us to believe) racists oligarchs on the other.
If Limbaugh doesn’t like being caricatured by his opponents, then he shouldn’t do it to his opponents. As is typically the case with pundits and politicians (including President Barack Obama), though Limbaugh complains when he is a victim of name-calling, he has no problem being a perpetrator of it.