If you believe that America is no longer a racist nation, consider the recent death of Rush Limbaugh. Millions of Americans mourned the loss of this radio entertainer, referring to him as “a good patriot” and “a smart man” and “a true conservative.” Fox News spent days eulogizing their fallen icon.

I, along with millions of Americans, take the exact opposite view. Yes, Limbaugh was immensely “successful,” if success is measured merely by wealth. He earned mega millions from his syndicated radio show, which ran for more than 30 years and attracted 27 million listeners each week. In the process, he made fun of African-Americans, women, gays, Democrats and anyone else who didn’t fit into his definition of a “real American.” Limbaugh gave his listeners justification for their own prejudices I will spare the reader examples of Limbaugh’s verbal venom; a quick check on Google proves the point.

What Limbaugh really did, truth be told, is lower the level of civic discourse in the nation. He divided Americans into “us” versus “them.” He made it acceptable to be a bully, a loudmouth, a racist, a sexist and a homophobe. Some Limbaugh fans will say, “I didn’t agree with everything he said, but…” Sorry, that’s no defense. By tuning into his show, you helped bring America to where it is today, and that’s not in a good place.

The vacuous Sarah Palin, the GOP nominee for vice president in 2008, played her part in dividing and coarsening America. In a speech she made in Greensboro, North Carolina, Palin said, “We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hardworking, very patriotic, pro-American areas of this great nation.”

Talk about a dog whistle. Translation: “Real America is in small towns with white people (preferably Christians), not in those nasty cities with the other kind of people.”

And then came Donald Trump, riding down the escalator, declaring his candidacy for presidency, while badmouthing people crossing the Mexican border, calling them thugs, racists, etc. Not surprisingly, Rush Limbaugh took notice of Trump’s schtick and loved it. So Rush became a hard-core fan of Trump. Trump, in turn, became a big fan of Limbaugh’s, even to the point of awarding Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Time out, America; we have a problem.

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And then there’s the Big Lie, the one claiming that Biden didn’t win the election. Limbaugh, Fox News, other right-wing media outlets, white nationalist organizations and spineless Republican leaders helped perpetuate the Big Lie. Their complicity in the Big Lie conspiracy led, in turn, to the invasion of the Capitol on January 6th.

When Trump and others claimed that the election was “fixed,” they invariably pointed fingers at big cities (dog whistle: minority communities). The Courts disproved their claims, but they persisted in spreading the Big Lie.

Racism can also be found in stepped-up efforts at voter suppression. Political scientist Eric Schickler, co-director of Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, said an “erosion of restraints” in a “racially polarized party system” has cleared the way for greater use of “stack-the-deck” strategies. “You hear people talking openly about making it harder for groups to vote — whether it’s young voters or Black voters or Latinx voters — in a way that echoes the Jim Crow South. It’s really something we haven’t seen in recent American politics. It’s out in the open, explicit.”

While America has moved slowly towards achieving the “all men are created equal” and “liberty and justice for all” ideals, we clearly have a long way to go. We have a tendency, as a nation, to take two steps forward and one step backwards. Being around positive idealistic young people gives me the hope that we will keep moving forward.

David Treadwell, a Brunswick writer, welcomes commentary and suggestions for future “Just a Little Old” columns. dtreadw575@aol.com.

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