'The View' Complains Medal of Freedom Is for People Who 'Did Stuff' - Remember Who Obama Gave It To?
Even cast of “The View” doesn’t usually put its ignorance on view like this.
Regular watchers of ABC’s daytime program had a new chance to witness witlessness in action on Wednesday, when Whoopi Goldberg and her crew decided to take on President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
Among other things, the women decided to bash Trump’s decision to award conservative commentator and genuine American change agent Rush Limbaugh a Presidential Medal of Freedom on live television, with the assistance of first lady Melania Trump.
Naturally, Goldberg and most of her co-hosts weren’t happy with the decision — anyone even vaguely familiar with Rush and “The View” knows they aren’t exactly simpatico. (In fact, it was about as predictable as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s sophomoric reaction to the news.)
But complaining, as Goldberg did, that Rush didn’t deserve a medal because it should go to “people who actually did stuff” not only ignored what the radio icon has accomplished over the past three decades, it showed a basic misunderstanding of what the medal is about — and the kind of characters President Barack Obama decided to favor with it, too.
Check out “The View” segment here:
Has Gloria Estefan done something more important than Rush Limbaugh? Obama gave the medal to the former Miami Sound Machine frontwoman in November 2015, according to the White House archives.
Has cellist Yo-Yo Ma had more impact than Rush? Obama gave Ma the medal in November 2010. (That might have been because he appeared at Obama’s inauguration in 2009, though even NPR had to admit the performance was faked — one of the early signs that honesty wasn’t going to be a hallmark of the Obama years.)
What about Joe Biden?
Biden got the Medal of Freedom from Obama in a Stalinesque ceremony conducted in the Obama administration’s dying days. (It was Jan. 12, 2017, as NPR reported at the time — a scant eight days before Trump’s inauguration.)
Not only did Biden get the medal, it was awarded “with distinction.” That’s some pretty rarified air.
Only a handful of people have received the upgraded version of the medal, and as The Christian Post reported when Biden received it, at the time the previous three recipients were Pope John Paul II, former President Ronald Reagan, and retired four-star Army general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
One of them is now a Catholic saint, one of them won the Cold War for the West. And Powell actually received the medal twice — from Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton — the second time “with distinction.”
It’s would be hard for even an occasionally irrational liberal like Goldberg to argue Biden belongs in that company — if he weren’t running for president in 2020, it’s a fair bet he would have been consigned to the history books already as an inconsequential footnote to Obama’s disastrous 8 years in power.
(The fact that Obama has not endorsed Biden for the presidency might be a good indication that the “with distinction” business wasn’t all that sincere.)
Rush Limbaugh, meanwhile, has been a genuine cultural force in the United States for more than 30 years.
As usual on social media, liberals were out in force celebrating “The View’s” liberal party line, but there were quite a few sane users too:
The View is trash.
They just attacked Rush Limbaugh, who was just diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, for receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Whoopi Goldberg should be fired.
— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) February 5, 2020
These people are the ones who call Trump (us) divisive. They have no decency yet criticize everyone else. They have been blinded to their own behaviors.
— Brenda ✝️??⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@CBiggerPic) February 5, 2020
The View has been trash for years. Only time I watch it is when I have no choice, as in waiting room at the doctor, hospital, etc.
— Diana Chelf (@ladyjack82) February 5, 2020
But this one put it perfectly:
He was a trailblazer for the conservative voice in America. Liberals hate that he showed the silent majority how to fight.
— v (@vvt7777) February 5, 2020
It’s a common misconception that the Medal of Freedom is a kind of civilian equivalent to the Medal of Honor, but it’s not even close.
The Medal of Honor is reserved for acts of bravery that are extraordinary even by the extraordinary standards of the U.S. military.
The Medal of Freedom isn’t quite that. Some receive it for genuine meritorious service to the country — like comedy legend Bob Hope getting it in 1963 for his commitment to entertaining American troops abroad.
For others, it’s basically an acknowledgment that Very Important People think they’re very important too.
Rush Limbaugh is one of the ones who earned it.
It’s no exaggeration to say he helped transform the political life of the American Republic, from the 1990s on — earning honorary membership in the congressional class of 1995 after the Gingrich revolution engineered the first Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 40 years. (It must have pained The New York Times to report that.)
Through the Clinton years, through the George W. Bush years, through the Obama years, Rush Limbaugh has been one of the premier spokesmen for the conservative movement — with an impact on American culture few could hope to match.
The women on “The View” will never admit it — along with Wednesday’s guest Alec Baldwin — but it would take Joe Biden winning the presidency to even get close to Limbaugh. (And not to pick on Gloria Estafan or Yo-Yo Ma, but most other recipients of the medal don’t have a prayer.)
Goldberg and her co-hosts are free to disparage their betters like Rush Limbaugh all they want — it’s a free country.
But they could at least keep their ignorance a little more out of view.
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