Posted on 02/25/2021 3:41:55 AM PST by Kaslin
Rush Limbaugh created modern national talk radio as we now know it. For over three decades he kept at rapt attention -- live from noon to 3 p.m. on weekdays -- the largest conservative audience in broadcast history. More than 15 million tuned in each week.
Last week, 32 years and more than 23,000 hours of on-air commentary after he went national in August 1988, Limbaugh died of lung cancer at age 70.
By the 1990s he had become the voice, literally and iconically, of the conservative movement and its hot/cold liaisons with the Republican Party. Limbaugh was hated by the left because he was deadly effective in fighting them, and he was feared at times by the Republican establishment -- because he could also be deadly effective in fighting it.
Limbaugh had an uncanny sense of what conservative populism could do -- such as abruptly end Barack Obama's control of Congress after just two years in the sweeping Tea Party midterm election of 2010. He also instinctively sensed what it should not do: endorse Ross Perot's quixotic third-party surge of 1992 that eventually would split the conservative vote and ensure Bill Clinton the presidency with just 43 percent of the popular vote.
Limbaugh was a master comedian. His pauses, intonations and mock tones were far funnier than those of our contemporary regulars on late-night television. He was a gifted mimic, an impersonator, with as wide a repertoire as masters of the past such as Vaughn Meader, David Frye and Rich Little. Yet Limbaugh worked mostly behind the microphone, without the aid of an onstage presence.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
And God bless you VDH.
Rush was of more value to this country than even he could ever imagine. America is a poorer, darker land for his loss.
Pull the plug on AM radio. It’s dead Jim.
What? Rush was the exact opposite of a conservative populist. You couldn't find a more country club repub. Rush was at his very nature a globalist and supporter of outsourcing and global wage arbitrage.
He was the champion of NAFTA against Perot and Buchanan. He didn't get the ramifications of such trade pacts on the US economy and society and didn't understand the onslaught of illegal immigration that would occur and was late to that party as well.
You never listened to Rush, what you said there is a nuch of baloney.
Great article and so true. Every word. Thanks for posting.
He was the champion of NAFTA against Perot and Buchanan. He didn't get the ramifications of such trade pacts on the US economy and society and didn't understand the onslaught of illegal immigration that would occur and was late to that party as well.
Rush was a genius political shapeshifter the everyone on the right could project onto their own desired image of “conservatism”.
I haven’t listened to talk radio in ages. I read Rush on line
I love Rush, and I know he loved America. His positive effect on America was incalculable. But he WAS pro-NAFTA, I remember it. He took a lot of heat from his listeners for that. Did he ever abandon that position or apologize for it? I don’t know.
Rush was a Libertarian pretending to be a Conservative and a Nationalist when it suited him.
God bless Rush and Victor Davis Hanson
Rush’s connection with his audience was a heart connection, much like Reagan and Trump. It cannot be faked, so no secret is being let out. Democrats, who only use words for purposes of deception, can’t understand that and think their connection is only because of the words they speak.
Still hard for me to fathom!
That's fair to say. Rush might have been late to foresee the onslaught of illegal immigration, but he caught up to it. He was almost single handedly responsible for killing W's push for amnesty... and, he wholly supported Trump's call for a crackdown on illegal immigration. And, he supported Trump's trade battles.
bkmk
One libertarians post: A FR libertarian’s accusation against Republicans. Accuses us of:
Pedophilia...
Abortion on demand...
Open borders...
Socialized health care...
2nd largest entitlement program in history...
Fisa program...
Government spying on citizens...
All brought to you by republicans...
Take a good look in the mirror, because you are describing yourself, and most republicans..
"Dittos" to that! With Rush gone, VDH needs to plan to stick around for a while ... hopefully a long while!
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