(Okay, so he’s not on yayo. Still, how many chances do you get to make a germane reference to a song from the Scarface soundtrack during a political discussion?)
So Rush Limbaugh is a pill popper. I could make a lot of “well, that explains it, then” jokes right now, but I won’t. Instead, I’ll stick to excoriating this man’s bottomless hypocrisy. Here is an individual who’s harped time and again on the wisdom of even the most draconian anti-drug laws. Not just druglords and dealers but users and addicts, not just crack and heroin but weed and ecstasy (and illegal prescription pill usage)–in Rush’s world, everyone on drugs or involved with drugs should get the book thrown at them, because Drugs Are Evil. Yet for years this paragon of virtue, who’s made it his business to convince the American public that the government should be getting involved in other people’s business to the point where non-violent drug offenders can be rounded up and thrown in jail for more than a decade, has been illegally abusing drugs. Shame on him for his sanctimonius imposture. Shame on him for his staunch advocacy of a grotesque and Sisyphean policy that wastes money, ruins lives, and is–in its violations of human and civil rights, its overheated rhetoric and outright lies about the “danger” it’s supposed to be combating, and its ability to make the government look purveyors of ulterior-motivated hyperbolic deceit in an age of real threats and real dangers–not just stupid but immoral.
But finally, shame on people who gleefully wish upon Rush the same grim institutional fate that awaited the victims of the heartless and moronic drug policy he himself advocated. Like all addicts, like all users, Rush belongs in rehab, not prison. I can only hope that he comes to realize this himself.