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Rush Limbaugh: Marconi’s Titan
It may seem like we’re on an express elevator to hell. Maybe we’ve hit a tipping point, maybe we haven’t. But I submit to you, gentle reader, there is one reason we haven’t already slid this great country into a socialist hellscape. One man who stood, initially and literally alone, like Horatio at the bridge and stymied, befuddled and confused–and infuriated–The Left. That man was America’s Anchorman, The Doctor of Democracy, The Last Man Standing: Rush Limbaugh.
For more than 33 years, Rush has fought for truth, justice, and the American way. There were no conservative media when Rush started out. To whatever extent we Americans have a conservative micron of a fraction of a sliver of the media now, we have Rush to thank. Rush, who stood alone, taught us how to fight, stiffened our resolve, and gave us the tools we need to win the ideological conflict and preserve this Republic–if only we would use them.
Know a man’s enemies, you’ll know the man. Rush was hated, despised, and feared by a preening, self-impressed, arrogant press that saw itself as the gatekeeper to what information the American people would have available to them, and to what the narrative would be. Rush was hated, despised, and feared by Democrat politicians, whose rapacious appetite for grift and corruption only Rush had the stones to point out–those Democrat politicians who could not (until recently) honestly articulate their agenda, because said agenda was and is anathema to the founding principles of our Republic. Rush was hated, despised, and feared by squishy, linguine-spined Republicans who only wanted to lose gracefully, gratefully accept crumbs from the table of political power, and in the most craven means imaginable, enrich themselves whilst eschewing promises made to their constituents. And, too, we must never forget that Rush was hated, despised, and feared by plastic banana, phony-baloney, good-time rock’n’rollers from coast to coast.
Rush put the lie to the never-ending quest for bipartisanship with the dishonest, authoritarian Left, as embodied by the Democratic Party. “If someone wants you to drink a cup of poison, and you negotiate so that you only drink half a cup of poison, is that a win?” Amen.
The wise listener pays attention when Rush speaks. It’s imprudent not to listen to the sage advice and counsel of a powerful, influential member of the media who is almost always right 99.8%; of the time–even with half his brain tied behind his back, just to make it fair. When Rush picks up in his formerly nicotine-stained fingers and remarks upon an item from his stack of stuff, one knows that a smackdown on the left is about to occur. Not that Rush was ever purposefully combative or caustic–it’s just that he would wake up, minding his own business, and see the institutions of this great country being run down, and responded.
Rush taught us to reject the premise of Democrat/leftist assertions and arguments. Give them not a fig leaf of credibility or legitimacy when they run down our great country, its institutions, or the people who believe we should be governed by our Constitution, understood as the Founders intended. Reject the premise and assault what they really mean.
Rush taught us to assault the Left’s premises not with rancor and scathing words, but with humor. His nicknames for Democrat politicians helped make them, and thus their insane ideology, objects to laugh at. Who can forget “Dingy” Harry Reid, Patrick “Leaky” Leahy, or Adam “Pencil Neck” Schiff, among a plethora of other appellations? Rush’s sense of humor is always genuine, deceptively subtle (once you think about it for just a moment), and spot-on accurate for perforating Leftist superciliousness. Is there any better way to illustrate absurdity than by being absurd?
Even, maybe especially, when he isn’t eviscerating the Left, he is funny and often hilarious. Usually, listening to Rush in my car, he elicits an “I see what you did there” grin from me. Sometimes, he generates a for real, pull-over-or-you’ll-wreck-or-go-into-the-ditch guffaw from me.
Example: One time before he was going to take a trip, he took an extra day off because he had to pack. Somebody (probably Bo Snerdley) obviously wisecracked on their internal comms something like, “C’mon, man! You don’t pack. You have people for that!”
“What?” said Rush, “Okay, I don’t pack–but I have to point!” And into the ditch I went.
Another time, after Rush was “busted” coming back into the country with a Viagra prescription not in his name (as celebrities often–legally–have for their meds) and suffered the ensuing kerfuffle, he started his next show off with, “Folks, I told my doctor I was worried about the next election!” Annnnd into the ditch I went.
Rush called the shot on Trump being able to win the 2016 election. Rush famously doesn’t get involved with nor supports candidates during the primaries. But listeners with a gimlet ear could tell as Rush’s programs unfolded before their very eyes that DJT had a real shot at both winning the nomination and defeating Hillary Clinton. Once DJT clinched the nomination, Rush was on the bow wave of telling his enormous audience, basically, “this is a guy who says what he means and means what he says.”
I think Rush’s empathy and affinity for Trump stem from the fact that he understood the slings and arrows fired at Trump probably better than anyone could. Who else had spent decades suffering non-stop lies and bilious slander by politicians and the press? Rush knew that our corrupt and effete elite rolled their eyes when talking about either Rush or his audience–you know, the people that make this country work. Rush recognized that same elitist eye-roll when DJT spoke of putting America First or the unwashed, unrefined masses that would vote in support of such a risible concept.
Since he found out that he has advanced lung cancer, Rush has defined and owned being a mensch. Knowing what he’s going through, and the fact that he still comes out and stands astride the AM EM spectrum like a Colossus is both humbling and motivating. Look, I spent the majority of my life as a professional hard guy, and I don’t think I could face the challenges Rush is facing with his calm, grace, and equanimity. It is, simply, inspirational.
Never one to put a religious slant to his program, if you listen to Rush you know he believes. The cover of the most recent edition of his monthly newsletter bears the legend God Is With Me. The Lovely and Talented Mrs. Mongo, AKA Carol Ann (one of Rush’s top ten, all-time favorite female names) read the associated article with tears streaming down her face. “What will we do when he’s gone?”
“We’ll do what he taught us to do.”
Over the years, Rush has advised his audience, “Don’t panic. I’ll tell you when it’s time to panic.” Lately, though, he has adopted a different catchphrase:
Never stop fighting for America.
We won’t. We know how. And we have you to thank for it, brother.
Published in General
The demise of the Fairness Doctrine is what made his success possible, but only he could have done what he did.
I didn’t like Rush early on. He annoyed the heck out of me, because I didn’t understand what he was doing and why he did it the way he did. I started listening more when we came to FL, and I understood his intellect and his sense of humor, both which are wicked sharp. I changed my mind about him then. For some, it takes a while to “get him.”
For a second there when I saw your post I thought he had passed away. Thank God he hasn’t. I dread the day he passes, but until then I pray he pulls through. Rush is the King of Conservative Commentary! May he reign for a long time.
There won’t be a replacement for Rush. That person doesn’t exist. I agree, I think Mark Steyn is the best stand-in, but I don’t think any of the other regulars are lacking at all. But should Rush be replaced? At least by one person? He has spawned many like him. I can’t tell if their influence is growing, in part because of the corrupt MSM. But that’s part of my greatest concern when Rush is gone. Rush can’t be canceled. The MSM knew full well the nature of the revolt that would follow. But the many new “Rush’s” aren’t such big names, don’t have such a widespread audience, on an individual basis. They will be easier to knock off, one at a time.
You know what makes me sick? The number in the MSM who will gleefully celebrate Rush’s demise. Gleefully. The disgusting extent of their hate will be laid bare. And it won’t make any difference.
Yeah, you can just bet CNN and MSNBC will be trying to outdo each other. Some day someone will name a mental illness after them but, for now, they just can’t come up with something that accurately describes their condition. It’ll be something along the lines of “Olbermann’s Disease” and there won’t be a cure…
Maybe shock treatments or something like that…They already appear to be on powerful hallucinogenics…
That is a sickening thought. And probably one that will come be true.
Started listening on the job site in ’89, didn’t know what I believed or understood about politics. I live in an extremely liberal town, but everything I heard seemed dishonest. I knew the things they were saying felt wrong, but I wasn’t smart enough to figure it out.
Then I heard Rush. I resisted for a while, because he was so strident. So brash. So not what I was hearing from everybody in my town (Ithaca, NY).
But the more I listened, the more I heard honesty. And the more I heard my friends deride him, roll their eyes about him, call him Nazi and all the rest – but never be able to back it up – the more they sounded like exactly what he was talking about.
I spent a few years discussing what I heard from his show at parties or wherever, trying to work through this or that political event. My experience was that approximately 100% of the time Rush was willing and eager to work through the argument with friendliness and facts, and passion. And approximately 100% of the time my friends had nothing but talking points and name-calling. And extreme passion.
It was with great reluctance that I finally concluded several years later that Rush was indeed right – Liberals cannot be reasoned with. They must simply be defeated.
So far it looks like we didn’t do so well.
From the beginning, whenever I heard a mention of Air America, in my mind I thought “err America.” That would be the word, not the mumbling sound.
I agree with everyone else. A great post, Boss!
Yes. This is what I do not even want to see. Those haters will be so awful in their joy. I actually have a daughter-in-law who will probably say something on Facebook that will cause me a lot of heartburn. She doesn’t have a filter. But, I’m pretty good at ignoring it.
That is the thing about Rush. He is always cheerful, friendly, full of facts. And it seems that the more he reacts that way to the vitriol, the more the Left foams at the mouth over him. He is accused of so much that just isn’t true!
I sent Rush the link through his Web site (24/7 Member). It’s cool to be able to send him email any time.
It’s so unfortunate when Republicans are stupid about this.
Weirdly enough, it was NPR’s Nina Totenberg (what a great last name for a prog) who got me to listen to Rush back during the early 90s. She gave a speech at Indiana University Bloomington and during the Q&A some skinny soy-boy undergrad asked her about how to deal with “Rush Limbaugh’s lies”. To her enormous credit and the astonished gasps of some in the audience, she took soy-boy to task, saying words to the effect of “Limbaugh makes better use of facts than the left does and it is a mistake to dismiss him a just lying”. I stated watching his TV show right after that and was pleased by his take-down of a certain Robert Reich.
Everything Moves Towards Communism All Of The Time™
Rush showed us how to do it. There will be other voices that cry out for these Leftist terrorists to be continually exposed.
Thanks. I saw that already over on someone’s MeWe post but it deserves the wideset possible audience.
Cool post man. I still remember back in the old days when we were building houses and always blasted Rush for 3 hrs on the “boom box” while framing or whatever. Loved hearing his version of Born Free with machine gun fire before animal rights updates! Our favorite line was, “I don’t think this way because I listen to Rush, I listen to Rush because I think this way”. :) I also enjoyed his TV show while it was on. Too much fun in the old days. Really haven’t listened to him in years but his impact cannot be overstated and I was saddened to hear about his illness.
My favorite was the Forester Sisters and “Men.” A close second was Klaus Nomi and “You Don’t Own Me” (I think it was a parody song by Paul Shanklin).
Speaking of Paul Shanklin, whatever happened to him? I got some of his CDs years ago but haven’t found any new ones since around 2010.
Still around.
one of my favorites ….
Listen to what he saying about the operational issues of our government. This is hard data, not vague speculation. If you don’t know what a word means, definitely look it up.
At the top of the main feed, there is a post about Mozart. A little further down, there is this post. There are a lot of similarities between the posts and neither man will ever be replaced.
Fervently praying that Rush has more time.
63 million listeners?
I don’t know how anybody reliably finds this out. They used to talk about two numbers. Average per hour and weekly.
and daily
https://news.iheart.com/featured/rush-limbaugh/content/2020-05-07-pn-rush-limbaugh-eib-audience-models-project-43-million-listeners/
This is from May 2020
And probably millions more like me who agreed with what he said but could not stand his radio style. The voice, the paper rattling, the pounding on the desk drives me bonkers. I preferred Dennis Prager’s style,
what? you don’t like his radio style???
the voice, the papter rattling, the pounding on desk — that’s who he is, that’s part of his appeal
Rush is first and foremost a radio guy
Let’s not forget that many people such as myself catch Rush on podcast.
No commercials
the fastest 3 hours is 1 hour and 48 minutes on spotify or apple podcast
And he definitely has a face made for radio. Which is not necessarily bad…