Note below is a political commentary that may not be popular to some. As a matter of societal decency we general stay away from talking ill of the dead. But this exception is very personal to this author and political consultant thus the commentary are the exclusive thoughts of Author Chris Edwards and do not reflect the thoughts or ideas of any client, business or other associated person.
I’ll add some perspective to this commentary as it has offended some…
Many of us who lost hundreds of friends and business associates, creative souls in the arts, on Broadway via the movies, health care workers and others through the AIDS crises remember, vividly, his radio shows and gleeful daily regurgitation at the misery the LBGTQ & community of color was suffering at the height if the AIDS pandemic. He used to read the names of individuals that died of AIDS and blow celebratory whistles.
You can fact check me as I post commentary that is based on facts. Iowa’s Cedar Gazette reported in 1990 that Limbaugh’s “AIDS Update,” a recurring segment in which he made jokes about a disease that had killed more than 100,000 people in the United States the previous decade, started by playing songs such as “Back in the Saddle Again,” “Kiss Him Goodbye,” “I Know I’ll Never Love This Way Again,” and “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.”
The “Aids Update” segment was featured multiple times during the Reagan presidency by Mr. Limbaugh.
Vivid was his tirades of calling it G-d’s retribution, and urging the quarantining of Gay, hemophiliac children and suggesting men of color and woman of color engaged in behaviors they brought the wrath of God down on them and they got what they deserved. I used to listen to his show and heard it first hand and never can forget nor forgive. While certainly not his only hateful and disgusting commentary over the years, he is at least as culpable as the extremist that invaded the capital and others in leadership and the airways for the divisive state we find ourselves in today.
He was to the point of being gross and disturbing but that didn’t stop him from airing other homophobic content. Limbaugh, for instance, had another segment that used former Congressman Barney Frank, a prominent gay politician, as fodder. That segment featured the song “My Boy Lollipop” as slurping sounds played in the background. Limbaugh also spread the unfounded claim that gay men practiced “gerbilling” (you can read more about the unfounded urban legend here) and once said, according to James Retter’s book “The Anatomy of a Scandal,” that gay men “deserved their fate.”
He did not deserve the Medal of Honor, and presenting him with it tarnished the award forever.
He was an awful human being, and the world is a better place without him in it.
I wish for him every sentiment that he extolled on the victims of AIDS, x 2.
So some of you may be disturbed by most commentary and thoughts. I’m more disturbed that you would show empathy for this behavior in a bigoted individual that has harmed our democracy by the extremist antics he espoused. Further he damaged the Republican Party and it began its slide that led to the Trumpian rise of indoctrination of ignorance over science. May he rot in hell and frankly anyone else who follows the hate and hypocrisy of him and his followers.
He used to use the term femi-Nazi to attack women whom were strong and challenged him.
If there were justice in this world when he were to arrive at the pearly gates for his judgement day may his judgement be by a strong lesbian person of color arch-angle that transfers him to the elevator of hell.
#TakeBackRepublicanism
Chris Edwards Author, Mentor/Executive Coach & Political Consultant 