The vileness of the American conservative noise machine is unbelievable. Even more unbelievable is the fact that the mainstream media constantly picks up on right wing talking points (saves journos and hosts from having to think for themselves). The latest case in point is the new stock anti-Edwards line - he’s placing ambition over compassion by continuing to run for President while his wife, Elizabeth, has incurable cancer. The sub themes are “what about the kiddies?” and “he won’t be an effective President if his wife is dying”. All of this is to second guess an incredibly difficult decision, and perhaps worse, to totally ignore Elizabeth Edwards’ own will.
It started with Rush Limbaugh:
Political people are different than you and I. And, you know, most people when told a family member’s been diagnosed with the kind of cancer Elizabeth Edwards has, they turn to God. The Edwards turned to the campaign.
That’s where it should have stopped, but it didn’t.
Cancer survivor Jane Hamsher tracks the spread of this meme at Firedoglake. And Crooks and Liars writes on its wholehearted and sickening transmission to Katie Couric on 60 Minutes. Atrios cuts to the quick:
I think one of the worst habits we have is telling other people not just how they’re supposed to live their lives, but what the appropriate emotional responses to life events - births, deaths, triumphs, tragedies - are supposed to be. While we’re not all twisted freaks like Rush Limbaugh, I think the impulse is a fairly universal one.
People who get a serious illness, or become disabled, lose both their agency and their humanity in the eyes of many. They become freaks who have to prove they are human in every interaction, and have to reassert their own agency at every moment.
For some reason the most natural and seemingly healthy impulse - to go on with your life as you had intended to the best of your ability - seems to be the most alien to those not experiencing a tragic illness.
As someone who has been through cancer, I can only nod and wholeheartedly agree.
Have a look at this video.
Remind me.
Did Rush Limbaugh turn to God before or after he turned to V1agra?
They wouldn’t expect an incumbent president to resign the presidency because of a spouse’s illness. So it’s hypocrisy of the rankest sort to judge a candidate for not resigning from his campaign in such a case, particularly when it denies Elizabeth’s own agency in expressing her wishes for him to continue, as Kim said.
If I was Rush I would have considered how Elizabeth would have felt had John given up the fight and his dream because of her illness. Personally, I wouldn’t feel that good.
If she is in need then I’m confident that John will be at her side, campaign or not. People will understand that. And even if he did quit the campaign, he’d still be a US senator with a demanding workload.
I might also say that cancer is long, long haul… most of the time. It would be impossible to put everything aside for its sake anyway…
The other thing here is that Elizabeth has been cast in this passive wifey role, which she’s never inhabited. She’s an activist (and a regular blog commenter) in her own right, and very much committed to raising issues of social justice and poverty.
Cliff, just a correction. He’s no longer a Senator. He didn’t recontest his seat in 04 to focus on the presidential campaign as Veep candidate.
While closely related to Hamshers I can’t subscribe to this particular pov of hers. In fact when I look at Pamela Bone I find myself nodding in agreement with Rush. I know…I need help. Schadenfruede is an addiction.
I’ll seek help.
Sorry.
Forget I wrote.
Ah. They have a staggered system like we do then. I assumed that he returned like Kerry did.
It was only a matter of time before they rolled out this aweful meme. I was thinking about this last week and it occured to me that almost everyone I know who has suffered from cancer has battled on with their work while receiving treatment. Most of them couldn’t really afford to not keep working either financially or emotionally.
Why should the Edwards family do this any differently to anyone else? Their job is politics, they take it seriously and have probably encountered all forms of suffering because of it. This is another one to add to the list. I’m sure that it will make life harder for them but cancer is something that can be overcome and ultimately, one way or another, life goes on.
It’s extraordinary how these airhorns like Limbaugh and Ann Coulter loudly proclaim their allegiance to the Christian God, yet one searches their verbal or written output in vain for the merest skerrick of Christian charity. One assumes that their version of the Bible has been seriously expurgated, with key passages like the Sermon on the Mount entirely missing. They seem to me to be exactly the type of “Christians” that Christ himself described as a “generation of vipers”.
It’s interesting to speculate that if there really is an Almighty who sits in judgment, and an invisible realm beyond death, folks like Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity and co might be in for a rude shock; they might find their accommodation is much further south and much warmer than they were anticipating.