Rush Limbaugh is just plain "evil," said Rod Dreher in BeliefNet. The king of conservative talk radio is "blaming Obama for black kids beating up a white kid on a school bus," telling his audience that "this is what happens in 'Obama's America.'" We need to have an honest discussion about "black male violence"—but Limbaugh is telling white conservatives "that now that we have a black president, blacks are rising up to attack white kids!" That's just "wicked" and "inflammatory" nonsense (watch CBS' coverage of the beating: warning, disturbing violence; watch Fox News' coverage).
Really, said Michelle Malkin in her blog, then why did police say that the "unprovoked" attack was "racially motivated"? Sure, now cops are "backing off the racial motive claims" and calling this an example of bullying—what do you expect "given the explosive consequences of candor about such matters" in our politically correct culture. But you can hardly blame people for pointing at this incident and wondering where Al Sharpton is now.
"It is perfectly true that if the races had been reversed, Al Sharpton would probably be out there saying this was a symptom of America's lynching culture," said Megan McArdle in The Atlantic. But the way to respond to Sharpton's race-baiting antics isn't to emulate them—as Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge did. Let's hope this is as bad as Limbaugh's "socially destructive quasi-populist virulent nonsense" will ever get.
