Conservative media frequently accuse progressives of "raping" Americans
Conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Michael Savage frequently employ rape metaphors when discussing progressives or progressive policies. For example, Beck said that New Yorkers are "being raped by [their] government," while Limbaugh, during a discussion of health care, told his listeners: "Get ready to get gang-raped again.
Right-wing media quick to claim progressives are "raping" Americans, policies amount to "rape"
Beck: "People in New York, you're being raped by your government -- raped." On his November 19 radio show, Beck stated:
BECK: When the people lead, the leaders will follow. And we're building life boats, because, right now, you know it to be true -- and I'm hearing it in New York. People in New York, you're being raped by your government -- raped. California, how are you doing it, man? They just took an extra 10 percent withholdings from you, as a forced noninterest loan. Get the hell off my land. My gosh, how are you doing it?
Well, I'm seeing it in New York. People are just starting to see now what has been done to them in the last six months here in New York. And they're starting to look at it and say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. What the hell -- look at how all of this is adding up?" Well, that's what's going to happen as a collective in this country. I don't how long it's gonna take. It may take three months, six months, a year -- I can't imagine.
Beck: "We're the young girl saying 'No, no, help me,' and the government is Roman Polanski." Discussing health care reform on the November 16 edition of his Fox News program, Beck stated:
BECK: America has spoken clearly, consistently. We don't want this. And for the first time in history, we don't think it's the government's place to give it to us. ... We are -- excuse this analogy, but I feel like it's true -- we're the young girl saying "No, no, help me," and the government is Roman Polanski. In the end, I think we're all going to be cowering in France.
Beck: Health care reform is "good old socialism ... raping the pocketbooks of the rich to give to the poor." On his July 21 Fox News program, Beck stated:
BECK: President Obama has his massive $1.5 trillion health care plan. It's hogging up the news cycle. The Republicans and, you know, a lot of people are starting to say, "Isn't this socialist, here? I mea, this is pretty crazy." The answer to me on that one is really easy: Yep, it's good old socialism -- you know, pretty much raping the pocketbooks of the rich to give to the poor. I think that's socialism.
Limbaugh: Obama ordered his "pay czar" to "rape" bailed out executives. On his October 22 broadcast, talking about Kenneth Feinberg, who was appointed to oversee executive compensation at financial firms that were still holding funds authorized under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, Limbaugh stated:
LIMBAUGH: I think everything about this story, this "pay czar," is blockbuster. It is -- I mean, it's late-night comedy gold. Everything about the story is a lie. ... Every detail about this story has to be a lie. I refuse to believe that Obama didn't know what Feinberg was doing. In fact, the truth probably is Feinberg's following orders. Feinberg is following orders and I guaran-damn-tee you Obama said: "You get up there and you rape 'em. And you make 'em poor. And you make 'em pay. And you let 'em know. Just don't tell 'em that I knew anything about it."
Limbaugh: "Get ready to get gang-raped again, folks." Discussing health care reform on his June 29 broadcast, Limbaugh stated:
LIMBAUGH: Well, isn't this good? Get ready to get gang-raped again, folks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she will not give the public a week to review the final text of a health care reform bill before it's voted on later this year. And Harry Reid has also declined to commit to giving the public a week to read and consider the final health care bill, despite Obama promising that all legislation would be up for five days on one of his stupid websites where everybody could read it.
Limbaugh: Obama thinks a "profit is rape." On his June 24 broadcast, Limbaugh stated:
LIMBAUGH: So, Obama looks at the private sector as just a neverending windfall. He looks at profits like surplus value, the same way Marx did. A profit is almost a crime. A profit is a crime against the people. A profit is rape. It's just -- it's surplus value that you can go get. And when you take some entity's profit, then you have been fair, and you have equalized society -- and that's how he looks at it.
I think Obama's a true believer on this stuff.
Limbaugh: Obama thinks "private sector" is "always going to be there to be raped." Also on his June 24 broadcast, Limbaugh stated:
LIMBAUGH: You know, he's like -- he's like a lot of other dictators. He's got the private sector, and he thinks it's always going to be there to be raped. It's always going to be there to be pillaged and plundered. The private sector is always going to be something he can go grab, and control, and tax, and take money out of, and grow the government. He doesn't have any concept -- or maybe he does -- that he's going to kill it all by doing all this.
Limbaugh: "[P]eople in the private sector are getting raped by this administration." On his May 27 broadcast, Limbaugh stated:
LIMBAUGH: We need a Supreme Court justice; we need somebody on the Supreme Court who was a bondholder for either General Motors or Chrysler, who can sympathize with how the bondholders are getting shafted here. We need somebody with empathy. We need somebody on the Supreme Court who can understand how people in the private sector are getting raped by this administration.
Limbaugh: Obama thinks union members and the poor "have effectively been raped by American capitalism." On his May 6 broadcast, Limbaugh stated:
LIMBAUGH: He [Obama] thinks these people should have something for nothing, because they have been raped. The union people and the disadvantaged, the downtrodden, the poor have effectively been raped by American capitalism, and they have a lot of stuff coming due. A lot of stuff is owed to them. How is it -- if you -- Snerdley's looking at me with a look of total stunned disbelief. If I'm wrong about this, I want you to explain something to me.
How is it that in this whole process of saving Chrysler, 55 percent of the company goes to unions who only had 10 percent of the bonds? How are they given 55 percent if they only had a 10-percent stake in the debt of Chrysler? I mean, this whole thing is a thumb in the nose and a cramdown, if you will, of the new way American business is going to be structured if Obama has his hands in it.
Limbaugh: Maryland health care bill is "government-sanctioned rape of an American business." During a January 13, 2006, broadcast of his radio show, Limbaugh described a Maryland bill requiring for-profit companies with 10,000 or more employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payrolls on employee health care as the "government-sanctioned rape of an American business." Limbaugh stated:
LIMBAUGH: I think this -- we've talked about this at great length on this program. This is nothing else -- it's nothing other than a government-sanctioned rape. This is a government sanctioned-rape of an American business.
[...]
LIMBAUGH: This -- you -- yeah, we just had hearings in an all-powerful Supreme Court. You going to take away a woman's right to choose? Are you going to do that? Are you going to do this? What the hell is going on in the state of Maryland?
[...]
LIMBAUGH: Probably, the only such company in this size, in the -- in the state. I mean, there's a reason they went after companies with 10,000 or more employees. It was -- it was a way to snare Wal-Mart but not many others.
Limbaugh: Haditha incident will result in a "gang-rape by a Democratic Party, the American left, and the drive-by media." During his June 5, 2006, broadcast, Limbaugh stated:
LIMBAUGH: This Haditha story, this Haditha instance -- incident, whatever -- this is it, folks. This is the final big push on behalf of the Democratic Party, the American left, and the drive-by media to destroy our effort to win the war in Iraq. That's what Haditha represents -- and they are going about it gleefully. They are ecstatic about it.
And this is a time where we all need to come together and stand up for the U.S. military, the men and women who serve, who volunteer, because I told you last week, the officials that know whatever in the process of this investigation cannot say a word for fear of having any conviction or any verdict thrown out, because they've been involved in shaping opinion about it. So it's going to be a one-sided story.
The critics are going to have a field day, and the critics are going to be able to make things up. The critics are going to be able to go out there and tell you things happened that they don't know happened. They're going to be able to use all these anonymous sources, and it's going to be -- folks, let me just put it in graphic terms. It is going to be a gang rape. There is going to be a gang-rape by a Democratic Party, the American left, and the drive-by media to finally take us out in the war against Iraq. Make no bones about it.
Savage: "Obama is raping America ... our values." On the April 21 broadcast of his radio show, Savage stated:
SAVAGE: It's pretty apparent to me that Obama hates America and the history of this country. It is apparent to me that he harbors a deep grudge towards America. It seems to me that he has many leftist friends around the world, certainly more than any president in the history of our nation. It seems to me he cannot wait to cozy up to those who criticize America, whether it be in the Middle East or in South America.
It seems to me he enjoys the celebrity status of cozying up to dictators, particularly dictators who hate America. It's amazing to me when his mouthpieces -- his mouthpieces try to downplay what he says and what he does. It's the old story as I told you: the woman comes home and finds her husband in bed with another woman, and she says, "What are you doing?" and he looks at her while he's on top of the other woman and says, "Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?"
Obama is raping America. Obama is raping our values. Obama is raping our democracy. And he is saying to you: "Who are you going to believe, me, with this sonorous Kenyan voice, the con man in front of your eyes? Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?
Savage: "Illegal aliens" have "raped and disheveled" the Statue of Liberty. On August 4, 2008, Savage stated:
SAVAGE: So there it is, Italy, they're calling out the military, they called them out already in the streets, but you didn't read that yet, huh? Didn't make it to your local comic book? The local comic books that nobody buys anymore called newspapers because they provide you nothing but trash, day and night? No truth, no reality, no stories -- you turn on the cable news, they're covering again a missing child. Not a missing country but a missing child, every day about a missing child but not a missing country, every day about a missing child but no missing country.
Every -- about the rape of a woman, but not about the rape of the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty is crying, she's been raped and disheveled -- raped and disheveled by illegal aliens, and our politicians do nothing except give themselves big fat checks and big fat jobs. The Statue of Liberty is disheveled and raped and she's crying, and she needs to be helped, but you turn on the cable news networks -- missing children, rape, rape, missing children, missing children, rape, rape, missing children, rape, missing children, missing children, rape.
How about missing country and the rape of a nation? Why don't they cover the real story? Why don't they tell the rest of us to get ready for what's coming in this country? That we have to protect ourselves because everybody else is ducking and hiding? They're hiding under their desks in Washington, they're hiding under their desks in the state capitals, they're hiding under their desks in the city capitals. And we have to fend for yourself because the government is not protecting us, don't you get it?
Savage: "The children's minds are being raped by the homosexual mafia." On the June 16, 2008, broadcast of his radio show, Savage responded to a caller who said, "I had to explain to my young son why these two men were holding hands the other day," by stating, "You've got to explain to the children ... why God told people this was wrong." He went on to say: "You have to explain this to them in this time of mental rape that's going on. The children's minds are being raped by the homosexual mafia, that's my position. They're raping our children's minds."
4. an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation: the rape of the countryside.
5. Archaic. the act of seizing and carrying off by force.
Idiot progressives.
Idiot regressive.
Smart.
This is NOT a case of differing definitions. This is a case of cheapening the horrible crime that we all think of as rape for rhetorical purposes.
Maybe something like: "Obama wants to perform non-consentual relations with the country" ?
4. an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation: the rape of the countryside.
5. Archaic. the act of seizing and carrying off by force.
Idiot progressives.
Idiot regressive.
the one thing they fear most is feeling powerless, equal or that minorities or women will be more powerful.
Rape is not a sexual act but, one of humiliation and domination. That is their ultimate power trip. to humiliate and dominate all who are not white males.
So, the bring the rape metaphor up so the audience can feel or visualize the feeling of humilation and powerlessness.
Regardless if you think the democrats in congress are spineless and cave all the time, in reality to conservatives they see it as being humiliated and dominated and being powerless with the democratic majority.
They hate Pelosi and Obama so much more then Reid. That is because they are '2nd class' to white males and yet hold the power in Washington and this drives them crazy.
Reid, they can live with because he is a white male.
But put "I think" before everything, and it's an opinion.
The Republicans hold to power by tapping into some people's deep need for a strong male patriarch, who, through violence, will protect them. The patriarch's job is to keep those under his protection safe from violaton, that is, from rape.
These right-wingers are trying to activate the emotions of people who feel they need a patriarch to protect them from rape.
The fact is that the Republicans win elections by gendering themselves as male protectors and the democrats as female and incapable of warding off danger. That's why they dwell on things like John Edward's hair or Al Gore's wonkiness. Real men don't preen or think; they shoot first and ask questions later.
4. an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation: the rape of the countryside.
5. Archaic. the act of seizing and carrying off by force.
Idiot progressives.
b) Are you seriously arguing that all these right wing screamers are intending their audience to interpret them as meaning #4 or #5 instead of the most common usage of the term?
c) If your answer to b) is "yes" exactly what evidence do you have of this?
Do you know the definition of "disingenuous"?
With the time you are busy name-calling, you could be looking up a term like "parsimony" and applying it and the most minimum of logic when interpreting a pattern of behavior.
As the Reader's Digest says, "it pays to increase your word power."
b) Yes. Are you seriously arguing that intelligent commentators think that lawmakers are physically, forcefully having sex with women? Idiot.
c) It's common sense. Why do you need evidence? One of the definitions DON'T match...one does.
Why do I spend time name-calling? Because it doesn't matter what I say on these blogs, I get the same responses: name-calling, baseless accusations...so I gave up, and joined the libs :)
5. sexual molestation, esp. rape
By your own method of excluding earlier (and by default more common) definitions, you are agreeing with our point that the use of "rape" in this context refers to the sexual molestation of the hypothetical American taxpayer by the government / Obama / whatever elusive non-neo-conservative Bogeyman has the right-wing shock-jocks' knickers in a twist.
Deny if you feel you must, but the fact is they're equating the government's policies with an intimate violation designed to humiliate and force its victim into submission.
But since you're so into semantics (or some antics) why don't you try this: Ask 100 ... no, ask 10 people, with no preface, to define rape. I will bet you more than half will refer to a non-consensual sexual act, not "plunder." That is why definitions are hierarchical and not willy-nilly.
I think it also comes from the authority-worship and submissive nature of far right wing ideology. While left-leaning people see government as a tool, or an employee, something we can use to give individual, average Americans some power against the well-organized powerful elites, wingnuts have been conditioned (pretty well, I have to admit), to see a democratic government as a threat to their freedom.
It's why they try to portray ineffective, unaccountable government as "limited", and more conducive to "rugged individualism" and "freedom". They see government as Daddy, and their psychoses need to be blamed on "Bad Daddy".
Of course, I'm just a layman, with no psych background, but this ones pretty easy. :)
To the casual listener - it would sound as though the state is deducting an additional 10% from their paychecks. Of course, this is old news... and something that both state conservatives and liberals signed off on. I was upset when I heard about it at first - but then realized what the deal REALLY was... and it was pretty trivial.
But anyway - it's not 10% additional. It's 10% of what was already being withheld. And only if you have your employer withholding state income tax automatically. I simply had my employer reduce my state withholding, so I actually am not affected. It's not rocket science.
But, even if I didn't have my employer reduce my withholding, it's only 10% of what was already being withheld. Not an additional 10%.
So, if you made 1000 a paycheck, and had 60 dollars withheld per paycheck, it would be an additional 6 dollars. Beck makes it seem as though an extra 10% would be withheld, so that if you made 1000 per paycheck, 160 dollars would be withheld.
Extremely misleading... and most of his audience would never actually go and look up the truth.
Unbelievable.