Civility Watchdog: Limbaugh Says Democrats "Threat to America"

Radio pundit Rush Limbaugh has this to say about the Democratic Party:

"[Senator, D-MA] Ted Kennedy had actually gone to the Soviet Union, talked to the KGB and others to warn them of Ronald Reagan. ... And that's why a lot of us, folks, just will never intellectually understand how it is that there is a major Republican establishment that does not look at the Democrat Party as a threat to this country, not just a political opponent that you face every four years in a presidential race and every two years in congressional races. ... The inside-the-Beltway Republican elites simply don't agree with us about the threat posed to the country as founded by today's Democrats, as led by Barack Hussein Obama".

Limbaugh is referring to Kennedy's attempt at talks with the Soviet President Yuri Andropov in 1983 (not in person, but through former senator John Tunney (D-CA)). But does Kennedy's attempt to talk with Andropov prove that the entire Democratic Party is a threat to America? That all Democrats are not mere political opponents, but something on the order of traitors?

This is the usual name-calling and attempt to demonize opponents. Even if Kennedy's actions were somehow inappropriate -- which is arguable -- how does this undermine the Democratic Party as a whole? It would be easy enough to note the behavior of one Republican and then use that to make the argument that all Republicans are a threat to the nation (which, naturally, Democrats have done in the past), but it's not valid reasoning, it's a hasty generalization.

Would it be fair to take one instance of misbehavior by Limbaugh and use that to denounce all conservatives? No. But if such reasoning is flawed when it's used against Limbaugh, it's also flawed when it's used by Limbaugh.