Right-wing attack on disabled backfires

The reasons for attacking a disabled person are varied. Sometimes, however, there is a direct political motive.

On Oct. 23, actor Michael J. Fox was viciously slandered and ridiculed by Rush Limbaugh on his radio show. Limbaugh accused Fox, who has Parkinson’s disease, of “faking” his illness in order to score political points. Fox has made several campaign videos on behalf of candidates who favor an expansion of stem cell research.

“He is exaggerating the effects of the disease,” Limbaugh told his listeners. “He’s moving all around and shaking and it’s purely an act. ... This is shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn’t take his medication, or he’s acting.”

During his diatribe, Limbaugh shook his arms and head in a mocking exaggeration of Michael J. Fox’s symptoms. Limbaugh’s radio show has a live video feed to a number of television and online outlets. His syndicated radio program has a weekly audience of about 10 million.

Limbaugh was reacting to Fox’s appearance in a televised campaign spot for Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill, running against Republican Sen. James M. Talent. Debate over stem cell research looms large in Missouri, where voters are considering a ballot measure that would amend the state constitution to protect all federally allowed forms of the research, including embryonic stem cell research.

The scientific study holds promise in the search to cure diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. McCaskill supports the measure; Talent opposes it.

The electoral battle in Missouri and several other states reflects a division within ruling class circles over embryonic stem cell research. On one side is the religious right, a mainstay of the Republican Party, which opposes the research on religious, anti-scientific grounds. On the other are those who favor the research, including many Republicans, not only for its possible benefits but because the research, dominated by pharmaceutical companies, has a great profit potential.

Response to Limbaugh’s outrageous remarks was swift.

“Anyone who knows the disease well would regard his movement as classic severe Parkinson’s disease,” said Elaine Richman, a neuroscientist in Baltimore who co-wrote “Parkinson’s Disease and the Family.”

“Any other interpretation is misinformed,” she concluded.

Fox defended his appearance in the political campaign ad, saying he wasn’t acting or off his medication. In fact, at the time, he was over-medicated for his Parkinson’s disease, Fox said in an exclusive interview with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric.

“The irony is that I was too medicated. I was dyskinesic,” Fox told Couric. “Because the thing about ... being symptomatic is that it’s not comfortable. No one wants to be symptomatic; it’s like being hit with a hammer.”

Parkinson’s is an extremely debilitating disease, with no known cure. It is progressive, meaning the symptoms, which include violent shaking of the limbs and extremities and lack of control over voluntary movements, worsen at varying rates until the person’s death.

Parkinson’s disease is widespread, with a prevalence estimated between 100 and 250 cases per 100,000 in North America (about 750,000 people in the U.S. alone.) The symptoms of Parkinson’s have been known and noted since ancient times, although often there was a great deal of superstition and social opprobrium associated with the disease.

It was first formally recognized and its symptoms documented by James Parkinson in 1817. At that time it was known as the “shaking palsy.” The underlying chemical changes in the brain that cause the disease were not identified until the 1950s. Only very recently, as a result of stem cell research and the introduction of gene therapy, has there been hope of finding a cure. (Wikipedia)

Limbaugh responded the next day with a weak “apology” that became the springboard for another attack: “Now people are telling me they have seen Michael J. Fox in interviews and he does appear the same way in the interviews as he does in this commercial,” Limbaugh said, according to a transcript on his Web site. “All right then, I stand corrected. ... So I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and I will apologize to Michael J. Fox, if I am wrong in characterizing his behavior on this commercial as an act.”

Then Limbaugh launched another attack: “Michael J. Fox is allowing his illness to be exploited and in the process is shilling for a Democratic politician.”

When a right winger like Rush Limbaugh launches this kind of assault on a disabled person, it is more than just an ad hominem attempt to damage the victim’s credibility. It is, in fact, a warning to the disabled: “Don’t you dare take a public position on issues on your own behalf!”

There may be some, including many within the disabled community, who question the tactic of supporting bourgeois candidates, such as those supported by Fox. What is beyond question, however, is the right of Fox or any other disabled person to choose to advocate such a position.

Clancy is a long-time disabled activist.