Posted on 02/06/2020 5:25:27 AM PST by gattaca
I grew up in Minnesota, the heart of the Midwest: a blue state of really nice, hard-working people who love winter, lefse, and Al Franken. Starting at about 13 years old until college, I worked for my dad, a successful remodeling contractor, over school breaks.
I hated the work. Often the only female on a construction site or a hotel in the midst of remodeling, I felt awkward. I got dirty. I wasn’t good at painting or wallpapering. The hours were longer than anything I’d ever experienced, and we rarely ate out during the day. (Somehow cold granola bars just added to the laboriousness.)
I know, I sound like a wimp. I was. I gained great respect for hard-working men and blue-collar workers during that period. The only glimmer of happiness in the job was that I got quality time with my dad and this other guy: Rush Limbaugh, who recently announced he has been diagnosed with “advanced lung cancer.”
At every job site, the routine was the same: I’d dress in painters’ clothes, drive to the site with my dad, and along with all the tools we set up, we plugged in the radio set to AM 1500 KSTP. If memory serves, Limbaugh didn’t come on until 11 a.m. The next three hours were a respite of opinion, intellectual stimulation, and philosophical and political concepts I’d barely thought of yet.
As other workers labored nearby, I forgot the sounds of construction and my self-pity faded. Over time I started looking forward to this part of the day more than anything else. Along with the one-on-one time I had with my dad, three hours of Rush Limbaugh’s ideas, observations, wit, and humor provided everything I needed for a foundation in conservative thought.
Limbaugh’s quirks grew on me until they became inside jokes with my dad. The golden microphone. The dramatic paper shuffling. The cigar smoking. I wondered: When Limbaugh did that sneezing-squeal, was he laughing, crying, or just old?
Talking from the “Southern Command,” Limbaugh seemed untouchable, yet so in touch with politics, culture, and what the Everyman needed to know. His arrogance, sardonic jokes, and disdain for the media coupled with his cigar smoking had a jerkboy-fraternity-meets-William F. Buckley appeal.
I couldn’t get enough of how he stripped bare the ideas Buckley wrote about so that even a young teenager could understand. Between commercial breaks or callers, I would ask my dad what Limbaugh meant about the topics he was covering that day: welfare, the media, and liberal ideology.
I’m not exaggerating when I say I learned about core conservative principles through my dad’s interpretations of Limbaugh’s monologues and observations of critical news of the day. Later, I developed these ideas into a more cohesive political philosophy through the influence of other teachers and reading iconic authors. In college, I minored in political science—an homage to the “Rush baby” inside.
Limbaugh Created Comraderie Among Those He Influenced I began an “adult” life: graduated from college, worked in politics, started a family, and moved to Northern Virginia, where I met some of the most influential members of the media and politics working today. I wrote for The Atlantic, Politico, The New York Times, National Review Online. I observed something incredible: Limbaugh was right.
He was right about the MSM (“the mainstream media”) he loathed, elitists, and liberals. While living nearly ten years outside DC, I observed how mainstream media skewed to the left and that Limbaugh’s observations were spot-on. One only needs to spend a little time in D.C. or New York City to see how pervasive leftist rot has become.
Limbaugh’s talking points became my talking points, and I discovered I could talk to painters or attorneys equally about conservative ideas. Even if I ended up talking with lawyers who tried cases at the Supreme Court, I could sort of keep up. Countless hours of Limbaugh’s history lessons, sharp media analysis, and relentless commitment to conservative ideals—free market, individualism, religious liberty, small government—were embedded in my mind.
Whether I met media icons, politicians, lobbyists, lawyers, or Supreme Court justices, and whether I met them at fancy galas, fundraisers, the Federalist Society, or Fox News, Limbaugh’s Buckley meets the common man conservatism proved true over and over. My dad wasn’t the only one. I wasn’t the only one. There were throngs of us with various skill sets, different values, and changing priorities, but we all had the same purpose: we were lovers of liberty.
A Steady Influence for Decades A cursory glance at Limbaugh’s career shows how he touched someone like me as a teenager, along with the likes of Ben Shapiro and countless others. In 2018, Limbaugh was America’s most-listened-to radio host and reached a monthly audience of 25 million on more than 650 stations. That year he was the world’s second highest-paid radio host, reportedly earning $84.5 million, just behind Howard Stern.
A 2008 Pew Research survey found that Limbaugh drew a significantly conservative audience, including National Rifle Association supporters and what was known then as “Tea Partiers” and “Christian conservatives.” About 37 percent surveyed said they tune in for opinion, but another 28 percent say they enjoy the blend of news, opinion, and entertainment. According to a 2009 survey, only 28 percent of Limbaugh’s audience is female. Even so, I got a kick out of the male-oriented humor. How not?
Even as Rush spoke to more than 25 million people, it felt like he was just talking to me. Were it not for his daily show, and filtering ideas I heard with my dad, I would not have become a political conservative, a writer, a lover of liberty, and as we say at The Federalist, anxious for the fray—a sentiment I know Limbaugh would appreciate.
I’ve wanted to write this essay for at least a decade, to tell people—or maybe just to tell him— how just one person can so powerfully influence another. Mr. Limbaugh, we the millennial Rush babies thank you. We wish you healing, grace, mega dittos, and many more cigars. You changed everything for us.
very nice.
Bless You Rush.
We need to make many, many more Millenials conservative and fast. If we don’t this country is doomed.
Excellent read.
Eternal Dittos.
As I don’t currently reside in the US, I’m a little out of touch so I truly want to ask if there’s REALLY a strong tide turning in Trump’s favor right now.
From what I see, the democrats still hate Trump with a derangement passion.
I would love to hear some tales of democrats who recently have started to abandon the plantation....even simple things like someone who loved Obama now all of a sudden doesn’t talk politics anymore or they’ve stopped posting occupy-democrat meme’s on Facebook anymore.
Or the co-worker who whispered to you last week that Trump is okay etc....
My Millennial son grew up with Rush. He isn’t as Conservative as I am, but he’s good enough.........
Kudos to Nicole’s Dad for setting her on a great path in life - excellent work ethic, understanding how to make a living, and lover of liberty and Rush! You cannot beat that accomplishment, Dad. Well done!
Beautiful piece.
Too bad more dads aren’t raising their daughters the same way.
As a mom Listening to Rush it made you part of a secret Freedom Club.When you’d go in a neighbors house and you heard Rush in the background. There passed a simple smile that said it all. Contractors working in my house would chuckle and say to each other. “ crank him up she is one of us.”within minutes every radio was blasting Rush’s show,like you were at a Limbugh concert.When The Monica era happened. I greatly appreciated Rush’s filter because I was raising 2 Rush Babies.In a society where our freedoms are being attacked, I thank God My children were blessed with the ability to hear a true patriot and learn from him.
Ditto both my sons.
Whispered? Why would they whisper ?!?
Not many (out) liberals at my workplace !
#ME TOO (from a Gen x’er)
I remember my shock and fascination when I first found Rush. I was from the Blue State Northeast but driving around CA a fair amount for my job in tech, when I’d hear him on the radio. He was so completely different from what was available on radio at the time (e.g., not of the David Brudnoy style out of Boston), that he was especially compelling.
Then of course he moved east and went national. I’m mostly too much of a news hound to listen to him now—I already have seen most of what he covers here, for example, and I have limited tolerance for all the commercials—but I appreciate what he’s done for decades.
Back in the 90’s restaurants would play Rush’s show in what was called Rush rooms.
I used to eat my lunch in my truck in a parking lot where a bunch of us travelling salesmen would meet up. We would roll down the windows and blast Rush’s show from our radios. We called that a Rush lot.
I wish I knew about Rush Lots, I ate many lunches alone in my station wagon.
On the other side of the fence, we have Greta Thunberg ...
Brandon was a gay Democrat who voted for Obama, and Hillary Clinton in 2016. When Trump won, he was horrified and afraid. However, as time passed and he discovered the lies he had believed his entire life, he did his own research and left the Democrat Party.
Check out the "Walk Away" movement - https://www.walkawaycampaign.com/ You will discover that many people are abandoning the liberal plantation.
“”””Back in the 90’s restaurants would play Rush’s show in what was called Rush rooms.”””””””””
I remember those.
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