The author still thinks it’s Democrat versus Republican
Poor Rush
It was clear as he edged closer to the train station that his beloved party had been largely a failure to meet the challenge and had thoroughly betrayed Trump and the voters
He was clearly as close to despondency as ever over it
What did he used to say
“I’ll tell you when it’s time to panic or something like that...or time to worry or when all was lost...”
He indicated his final weeks I think that we had crossed a certain rubicon and had lost his zeal for the Republican Party he once had ....
It was poignant
I had a few points of sharp disagreement with Rush but overall enjoyed him and was a listener forever and a 24/7 member ...I think ten years maybe....or whatever it was called then
For years Rush conflated the GOP with conservatism. Not out of any duplicity IMO, but because when he started he didn’t know any better. He had spent very little time on politics before his show went national around 1988. He had no idea about the already simmering fight between old line conservatives and neocon opportunists and he wouldn’t mention it for years.
When he moved to New York he was befriended and influenced by the crowd up there, which included the likes of Henry Kissinger. It’s why Rush was such an easy mark for the Bush wing to coopt, and he’d remain their waterboy (his word) until late in the worthless Bush junior years.
For me Rush was an amazingly gifted broadcaster and a chance to listen to political scuttlebutt but not someone I found to be a serious political thinker. I think his reading choices ran more along the lines of novels than of history or Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind. But he definitely leaves a void for those of us who enjoyed listening to him.