It appears to be an academic debate as much as anything else. But given what I know of both parties, I’ll put my money on Rush just about every time. Over the years he has shown himself to be a very astute observer of the political scene, not to mention an accomplished wordsmith, no?
It’s not even debatable. Rush and others failed to recognize correct usage of the term. They heard negative and thought “bad.” When it doesn’t mean that. Obama was lamenting a lack of “positive” rights, which is fine to criticize. Those are socialist rights—benefits. Right to a living wage, etc. But the rights in the bill of rights, many of them anyway, are properly described as negative rights. I assume Rush was just ignorant.