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A great tribute to Rush, from LS:

Other_Walls
@OtherWalls

1) Well, I was debating doing a thread on Rush on the day we celebrate Jesus’s birth.

But as the Greatest Communicator in History, I think He would understand.

2) Rush had four qualities that absolutely no one else has. Some have two, many have one, but no one has all four.

3) First, Rush had a perfect voice for radio. Not strident, not mushy. Like the beds for the three bears, just right.

4) Second, he had a love for the medium of radio. Virtually all of the modern conservative voices, except maybe Hewitt, Prager & Beck came up wanting to do TV.

4) contd . . . Rush loved painting pictures with his voice, and while his brief stint with TV was amazing & presaged much of the comedic television that exists (so little of it that does), he preferred the independence & spontaneity of radio.

5) But the most important qualities for a conservative host were that he firstly understood his own ideology, his own movement when virtually none others did.

Yes, many including Hannity came up through hard knocks-—but few were “small town boys” in the tradition . . .

5) contd . . . of Ronald Reagan or Walt Disney-—people who believed that small-town America truly represented the essence of American values. These included hard work, independence, charity, morality, and the value of human life.

6) Critics would always point to Rush’s multiple divorces-—though he finally found true love-—but Rush was both a hopeless romantic & a workaholic. This often just don’t mix. His line of work required a great deal of alone time, thinking & organizing.

7) Nothing reflected his prefernce for small town more than his personal life, where he really was not at home at big gatherings. Later he blamed this on his hearing, but long before that, he preferred private settings with fewer people to crowds. He admitted how hard it . . .

7) contd . . . was for him to do the “Rush to Excellence” tours. This was not from FEAR of crowds. Just the opposite. It was from an understanding that he simply would not have time to meet & get to know all the people who came.

8) This characterized his show, too, where he took some callers, but few—and if necessary, spent a great deal of time with some of them.

9) His bedrock conservatism-—even in his early days when he was not a committed Christian as he later was-—was grounded on the . . .

9) contd . . . fundamental presupposition that God had founded America and only God could remove America from a position of influence. This he combined with his understanding of the key elements of the Declaration & Constitution. All of you know these so I won’t repeat.

10) These conservative concepts-—God ordained, small-town centered, skepticism/wariness of government at all levels, & most of all the central belief that America was a nation of ordinary people doing extraordinary things defined his political ideology on the right.

11) But to me, the thing that stood out over every other conservative commentator, which NO ONE in media today, not even Tucker, has, was that Trump understood liberals & their motivations “like the back of my hand.”

12) He could “read the stitches on a fastball” of every . . .

12) contd . . . liberal policy or statement within minutes & tell you what they really wanted & what they really meant. Most of all, he could tell you what they really feared.

13) It was this level of insight that drew politicians to him like a moth, but simultaneously . . .

13) contd . . . caused them to try to insulate themselves from him.

14) Not to get too religious here, but it was essentially the same thing with accepting Jesus. Taking Rush’s observations & warnings to heart meant a politician had to give up certain things.

15) In a political sense, they had to quit “sinning,” quit hanging around with lefties whose only objective was to destroy them, quit trying to be both in the world but not of it.

That’s a tough call for a lot of people-—for most in DC in politics in general.

16) Yet everyone from Arnold Schartzenegger to George W. Bush to Dick Cheney would call in to Rush, seeking his approval while continuing to do what they did.

17) He would always politely listen & nod his head, asking tough but not belligerent questions. And as soon as they . .

17) contd . . . hung up he would, respectfully & as sympathetically as possible state what THEY were trying to accomplish, but why it was misguided or flat out wrong.

18) No other hosts did this regularly. But Rush was confident enough in his knowledge of conservatism & his . .

18) contd . . . understanding of liberalism that he wasn’t hesitant to engage with the biggest. I’m confident, if Zero had called in, Rush would have politely taken his call and discussed policies with him cordially.

19) Then destroyed the policy takes later.

20) So when Rush did his final Christmas show a year ago to the beautiful background music of “Silent Night” by the Mannheim Steamroller-—a group he helped make into national stars—in a darkened studio, I think we knew it was his true “last broadcast.”

21) He used that time to say goodbye to all of us, thanking us repeatedly for supporting & loving him.

22) He had to realize that many of us planned our lives around his show. I recall hurrying to my university office for my lunch break to get Rush & being sad that I only . .

22) contd . . . had an hour, wondering what I’d missed in the next hour.

23) And here’s the last thing: almost without exception (perhaps his 9/12 broadcast and a few days after), Rush rarely left you feeling angry, depressed, helpless or hopeless.

24) Because he trusted in God & believed in America’s promise, no matter what happened for Rush the sun would come out tomorrow.

Until it didn’t.

25) And it was a lonelier 2020 without Rush Limbaugh.

GOAT.

One last note on Rush as someone else sparked my memory: He was the only host who, when he had a guest on (even someone I liked or agreed with), I couldn’t wait for the guest to leave.

https://twitter.com/OtherWalls/status/1474747348374851587?s=20