Rush Limbaugh: A study of hidden disability

By now almost everyone who watches television or who listens to the radio in the U.S. has heard about Rush Limbaugh’s “on air” assault on the character of Michael J. Fox. Briefly: Limbaugh suggested that Fox was exaggerating the effects of his Parkinson’s disease for political advantage in a campaign advertisement concerned with the issue of stem cell research.

The outcry about Limbaugh’s actions has been wide both in the media and in the blogosphere.  I would like to take a brief moment to add one more thought to the general public reaction to this affair.

I honestly believe that almost all able bodied people or “normates” as Rosemarie Garland Thompson calls them, are afraid of disability in all its forms.  By this I mean “really afraid” and you certainly don’t have to take my word for it: read the congressional record regarding the adoption of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Disability scares the pants off the normates just as much as death and taxes.

I believe that Mr. Limbaugh has at least two invisible disabilities: his addiction to pain killers has been well documented.  Additionally his arrest for carrying illegal Viagra in the Dominican Republic was also widely reported.

Drug addiction is invariably about depression and it represents what has come to be known as “self medication” in the parlance of 12 step programs and pop psychology.

That Limbaugh has a problem with chemical abuse is obvious to all.  That he is angry and frightened about living with an invisible disability has been less obvious until now.  His egregious hatchet job on Michael Fox is a wholly recognizable form of what Freud called “reaction formation” which is to say that Mr. Limbaugh has decried someone else’s disability owing to his own un-named trauma.

Depression is most likely just one of Limbaugh’s disabilities.  I also suspect that he has anxiety issues about his sexuality.  While I am no psychiatrist I can’t think of any other reason a person would be smuggling illegal Viagra while claiming he was on a fishing trip.

It is most heartening to hear that Limbaugh’s radio audience has shrunk by fifty per cent over the past two years.  Americans it seems don’t really like racism with their Monday Night football and they don’t like ableism in their politics.

I am genuine when I say that I wish Mr. Limbaugh the best of luck.  As Carl Jung said, the struggle for consciousness is always difficult. (Paraphrase mine.)

SK

A few very smart links:  Rush Limbaugh Mimicked Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's Disease;  Campaign Ads and Disability Politics;  Resenting the handicapped parking spaces; Olbermann video of Limbaugh mocking Fox's Parkinson's [VIDEO]

Comments

[blue girl]

"It is most heartening to hear that Limbaugh’s radio audience has shrunk by fifty per cent over the past two years."

Wow. I hadn't heard that. That's great!

Yay!

I have a brother-in-law that worships him. Listens to pretty much nothing else. And what has he learned? Well, the most important thing I can remember him telling me last summer was was how all the hijackers on 9/11 were *from* Iraq.

Ok.

And then, last Christmas he got nastier and nastier at the Christmas Eve family gathering and told me he *hated* me. And he was dead serious.

I'm a nice liberal sister-in-law! Why would he hate me?!

So, I'm really glad Rush is losing listeners. That's great news.

[Georgia Whitney]

As one who has more than a passing acquaintance with both affective mood disorders and chemical dependency, I urge you not to slap a label of depression on Limbaugh. I can assure you that people self-medicate for all kinds of reasons, and that in my experience, they do it to keep from feeling, period.
That said, I heartily agree with you that disability scares the graham crackers out of us normates, and I can use myself as an example. To wit: last week my husband developed a rip-roaring infection in his leg following knee surgery. We both freaked out and started doing some major projecting (thanks again, Dr. Freud) -- he, because 20 years ago the same thing happened and he almost lost his leg, and me, I'm embarrassed to say, because I might have to do some pretty major care-taking.
Well, it's been a week, the antibiotics did their job, and my husband's fine. But man have I felt like a shallow, self-centered human being!
Georgia

[Steve]

Georgia:

You have too much self awareness to be shallow. Sometimes fear is just fear and as Freud said, "a cigar is just a cigar".

[Georgia Whitney]

Thanks, Steve. Good ol' Freud...

GW

[moonrattled]

In addition to his pill-popping and third world sex tourism (Viagra and the DR? what else could it be?), Rush L. is obese and clearly nutritionally deficient. The combination of hate and unhealthy eating habits will do him in eventually. If Rush stopped consuming fast food, his inflammation would decrease and so would some of that pain he's in.

[Connie]

Hi Moonrattled - nice to meet you online. Thanks for your comment.

[Laura]

Hi Stephen and Connie- Thank you so much for all you do to increase public awareness of the beauty and dignity of people with disabilities!