TPM Reader VC on Rush …
I think that the Rush Limbaugh video clip where he is mocking Michael J Fox’s movements in the recent video ad that Fox made, is the most despicable and disgusting political commentary I’ve ever seen.
My mom had Parkinsonism for the last twenty years of her life, and most of those years lived with my husband and me. We watched her slow disintegration from the illness, and saw daily the various tremors and uncontrollable movement which was caused both by the disease and as a side effect of the Parkinson drugs.
Actually Michael J Fox was exhibiting very minimal to moderate symptoms in his ad; the fact is that this illness and the drugs can cause much more spastic and jerky movement than one sees in this ad. At times it got so bad that my mom couldn’t even keep her body sitting in a chair; she would virtually explode off the seat and then have a very difficult time sitting back down because her muscles were virtually in spasm.
For Rush Limbaugh (who I’m sure has never been troubled personally with this dreadful illness) to decide that this was “exaggerated, and totally an act” is beyond arrogance. It is a cruel and unspeakably hateful thing he has done not only to Michael J Fox, a heroic and beloved public figure, but to all the thousands of people who suffer with this disease. I think his punishment should be not only the loss of his radio show (I can’t believe anyone would listen to him on any subject after this) but that he should have to spend some time in a hospital ward that has Parkinson patients. He might learn something about the illness, and perhaps acquire a little humility along the way.
The comments, painfully, speak for themselves. The guy’s beneath contempt and shows a lot about what his movement has become. We have no Joseph Welches.
