July 2008: Limbaugh: Liberals See Conservatives as Southern ‘Idiots’

Authors Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Joseph N. Cappella, in their book Echo Chamber, observe that conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh creates a world for his listeners where only social conservatives hold true patriotic and life-affirming beliefs. Quoting from several different Limbaugh comments, they write: “In the world Limbaugh describes… liberals ‘survive and thrive on a fundamental belief that the average American is an idiot—stupid, ignorant, uninformed, unintelligent, incapable of knowing what is good for him, what’s good for society, what’s right and what’s wrong.’ Consistent with that argument, the conservative media portray ‘liberal’ elites as an enemy that despises Christian conservatives and southerners [Southern Americans]. Those who hate Christians try ‘to portray Christians as a bunch of hayseed southern hicks. The real reason is that they are afraid of them.’ [Liberals and Democratic lawmakers] are the people that run around ridiculing conservative Christians, make fun of them,’ notes Limbaugh. ‘You people drive the pickup trucks. You live in Mississippi, wear the plaid shirts. You got a bottle of Old Crow sitting next to you. You’re going to go bomb an abortion clinic in a couple of days. You watch NASCAR [stock car races]. You don’t have your two front teeth. That’s what they think of you, and you know it.‘… Inclusion of the word ‘southern’ in the first passage and ‘Mississippi’ in the second is strategically consistent with the notion that he is addressing an important part of the conservative base.” [Rush Limbaugh, 6/5/2007; Jamieson and Cappella, 2008, pp. 65]