Rush Limbaugh's reaction to the use of torture has been among the most grotesque. Limbaugh didn't even try to make an intellectual argument defending "enhanced interrogations"; he mocked the idea that the things we were doing were even torture. He described the incidents at Abu Ghraib, in which at least one detainee died of asphyxiation after his arms were shackled behind his back and suspended, as "an out of control fraternity prank" and said those who abused detainees were just "having a good time" and "blow[ing] some steam off." Limbaugh started marketing a line of merchandise called "Club Gitmo," suggesting that, despite reports of detainee abuse, the prison at Guantanamo Bay was analogous to a Caribbean resort.
Something remarkable happened on the Rush Limbaugh show yesterday. Usually callers to the show are comprised of Limbaugh's vast army of "dittoheads," an appropriate label for those who are generally capable only of parroting Limbaugh's arguments back to him in exchange for Limbaugh's approval. But yesterday, a veteran and self-identified Republican criticized the host and other conservative pundits as "brainwashed" for his dismissal of torture.
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. Rush, listen, I voted Republican, and I didn't -- really didn't want to see Obama get in office. But, you know, Rush, you're one reason to blame for this election, for the Republicans losing.First of all, you kept harping about voting for Hillary. The second big issue is the -- was the torture issue. I'm a veteran. We're not supposed to be torturing these people. This is not Nazi Germany, Red China, or North Korea. There's other ways of interrogating people, and you kept harping about it -- "It's OK," or "It's not really torture." And it was just more than waterboarding. Some of these prisoners were killed under torture.
And it just -- it was crazy for you to keep going on and on like Levin and Hannity and Hewitt. It's like you're all brainwashed.
The argument went on for a few minutes, with Limbaugh denying that he supports torture and questioning whether the caller was actually a Republican. Limbaugh does this whenever he gets a critical conservative caller. Still, you can't blame Limbaugh for doubting that someone who criticizes him could actually be a member of the GOP -- after all, the caller didn't apologize afterward.
LIMBAUGH: Charles, Barack Obama is president of the United States today because of stupid, ignorant people who think like you do. You pose -- you and your ignorance are the most expensive commodity this country has. You think you know everything. You don't know diddly-squat.It may be somewhat true to say that Limbaugh doesn't "support" torture -- faced with incontrovertible evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib, he mocked it as a fraternity prank. It may be more accurate to say that nothing agents of the U.S. government could ever do to a detainee, no matter how painful or humiliating, no matter the result, physical or psychological injury or even death, could rise to the level of torture in Limbaugh's mind. So by his reasoning, he doesn't support torture -- because when it comes to how Americans treat detainees in their custody, there's no such thing. The same is true of many defenders of enhanced interrogation: when it comes to U.S. behavior, torture, like the Tooth Fairy, simply doesn't exist.You call me a Nazi? You call me somebody who supports torture and you want credibility on this program? You know, you're just plain embarrassing and ludicrous. But it doesn't surprise me that you're the kind of Republican that our last candidate attracted. Because you're no Republican at all based on what the hell you've said here.
-- A. Serwer
