The Friday Rush: Vive la résistance!

Stop what you're doing! Don't you see? It's been apparent all along. Right in front of your eyes!

Rush Limbaugh is the victim!

Rush Limbaugh, speaking on behalf of the always-oppressed contingent of Americans who proudly wear the label of "Dittohead," made his plight and theirs sound like that of Nazi-occupied France or Cylon-occupied New Caprica:

LIMBAUGH: You know, when I read that last piece on health care, when I first read it this morning during the intense period of show prep that I do each and every day, I began to think that -- think that -- feel, even, that we're living in occupied territory. That we've been taken over. Not militarily. But follow me on this.

We've been taken over financially, economically, politically, scientifically. Without firing a shot, the left has seized the press. They have taken control of the banks. They're about to take control of the insurance companies and wipe them out. Much of the auto industry. The left is now setting a salary scale for people. They've taken over our currency, and they're proposing -- preparing to seize health care.

Now the occupiers -- we're being occupied by the left. This country -- we are now -- we need to be liberated. We, the people of this country, need to be liberated. We are oppressed now.

Oh, how horrible. Rush Limbaugh is "oppressed now." He's so oppressed with his millions and millions of dollars and his West Palm Beach compound and his cushy job and his adorable puppy.

Does Limbaugh understand what actual oppressed peoples had to put up with? You know -- things like real losses of freedom and liberties? There are many bad, bad things associated with oppression, but continuing to live your ritzy lifestyle isn't one of them.

But let's humor Rush. He claimed that: "We've been taken over financially, economically, politically, scientifically." So let me address some of those points.

Economically? Well the country has been facing some pretty lousy economic circumstances for well over a year now. And Limbaugh makes the policy enacted in response to it sound much more nefarious than it really is. Some argue that TARP might have been bad policy, but you don't often hear that Bush's intention was to "take control of the banks."

Scientifically? If anything, it's Limbaugh who is oppressing science. As I thoroughly examined last week, Rush is among the collection of conservative commentators who have deluded themselves into believing that the stolen Climatic Research Unit emails debunk climate change theory. The emails did no such thing last week or the week before, and -- surprise! -- they still don't.

As for political oppression, Limbaugh isn't clear what he means by that. Is Obama a political oppressor because he was voted into office last year? Because Obama's political party can be partisan in the way they go about pursuing their agenda?

Certainly, Rush is in no position to complain about partisanship. This week, Rush continued his pattern of holding the Republican Party hostage to his insanity by pressuring Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to abandon a "flawed" approach to Democratic health care reform and take on an entirely obstructionist strategy instead.

Rush even spent time this week oppressing 1990s political history. (Hmm, hyperbole can be pretty fun. I can almost see what the appeal is to talkers like Rush.)

But just for fun, I have one more gross misuse of "oppression" to fling at Limbaugh. On Friday's program, Rush continued his history of homophobic remarks by claiming that gay marriage leads to bestiality. (Isn't that the sort of comment that ended Rick Santorum's political career?) This came in the context of another of his oppressive smears of Department of Education official Kevin Jennings.

Anyway, it begs to be asked: In what universe can Limbaugh claim he is "oppressed"? Please, Rush Limbaugh, tell us all one way in which your daily routine has been altered by the Democratic administration in the White House over the past year.

He still has his radio show, which supposedly reaches millions of listeners. He still zigzags the country on his private jet, from football game to speaking gig to Family Guy appearance. He still lambasts his opponents with hyperbolic rhetoric day in and day out. In what way is he being oppressed? In what way are his listeners being oppressed?

I'm asking a lot of questions because Limbaugh backs up his ridiculous assertions with nothing but platitudes about perceived slights. It's almost as if he were playing the "victim" card. Which is funny -- hilarious actually -- when you take into consideration Limbaugh's stated disgust with people who portray themselves as victims.

In the past, Rush claimed that the "whole purpose" of the Obama administration was to return the nation's wealth to "people that haven't earned it": "They are the minorities, the victims, the poor." On a separate occasion, Rush went along with a caller who argued that minorities in this country have been "coached" to be "angry" and to be victims. Rush responded to the caller approvingly: "They're taught to be angry. They're taught that they've been cheated. They're taught that they've been discriminated against."

But when Rush Limbaugh sees the opportunity to self-servingly paint himself and his audience as victims and the oppressed, he takes it.