Rush Limbaugh complains about nonconsensual sex being called rape

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh had thoughts yesterday on the problems faced by Donald Trump, whose campaign for president is falling apart after a recording emerged of him boasting about sexually assaulting women.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: You know what the magic word, the only thing that matters in American sexual mores today is? One thing. You can do anything, the left will promote and understand and tolerate anything, as long as there is one element. Do you know what it is? Consent. If there is consent on both or all three or all four, however many are involved in the sex act, it’s perfectly fine. Whatever it is. But if the left ever senses and smells that there’s no consent in part of the equation then here come the rape police. But consent is the magic key to the left.

It’s tempting to think that somewhere in Limbaugh is a decent man on the precipice of an epiphany: yes, consent is key to understanding rape. Never has it been made clearer what the barrier is: a conservative moral system in which consent is irrelevant.

As Limbaugh is useless at both decency and conservatism, though, we’re left with the toxic sludge his paragraph represents—and all the men like Trump whose behavior it enables.