Darth Vader, Rosanne Barr, Sammy Sosa and Lil Nas X. Flo from the Progressive Insurance commercials, RuPaul, Spider-Man and Pete the Cat.
There it is: My list of people more deserving of the Presidential Medal of Freedom than Rush Limbaugh.
The most racist man on the radio was back on the air Wednesday, and in rare form, which isn’t all that noteworthy, except for the fact that the most racist man on the radio was back on the air and in rare form with a Presidential Medal of Freedom around his neck.
Just days after walking out of the U.S. Capitol after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech with the same honor awarded to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Harvey Milk, Maya Angelou and Mother Theresa, Limbaugh was back behind the microphone spewing the best — or worst — of his racist rhetoric and his special brew of homophobic drivel.
The right-wing radio host was wondering aloud about the state of the Democratic Party and the candidates vying to face President Trump in November.
“So you’re faced with dyed-in-the-wool socialist who’s not even a Democrat,” the conservative talker said. “A gay guy, 37 years old, loves kissing his husband on debate stages. Can you see Trump have fun with that?
“And they’re saying, ‘OK, how’s this going to look, 37-year-old gay guy kissing his husband on stage next to Mr. Man Donald Trump? What’s going to happen there?’”
Limbaugh was talking about Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former South Bend, Ind,., Mayor Buttigieg, whose name Limbaugh mockingly pronounced as “Booty-judge.” He got Buttigieg’s age wrong as well — he’s 38.
He also used the occasion to mock Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, saying, “You have Pocahontas, barely out of the teepee.”
Which brings us back to our list of people more deserving of the Presidential Medal of Freedom than the right-wing radio host:
Will Smith. Caitlyn Jenner. Carlos Beltran. Sonic the Hedgehog. Chance the Rapper, my third-grade teacher, and the woman who used to be the fourth member of “Destiny’s Child.”
Rush Limbaugh has cancer. That’s bad. The dire diagnosis has done nothing to soften his stance on anything socially progressive. I’m actually okay with that.
Be who you are.
But don’t expect any of us to be more tolerant of racism and bigotry just because he has a disease we all hate. There are good people with cancer, and there are evil people with cancer. Limbaugh is an evil person with cancer.
But I digress:
James Dolan, Michael Bolton, Siba the standard poodle who won Best in Show at the Westminster Dog Show earlier this week, and every sports team mascot.
Did I miss anyone?
Leonard Greene is a reporter and columnist for the New York Daily News.