Rush Limbaugh, conservative radio talk show legend, dies at 70

Chicago Sun Times ^ | 17/2/21 | Matt Sedensky

[Eleutheria5]

PALM BEACH, Fla. — Rush Limbaugh, the talk radio host who ripped into liberals and laid waste to political correctness with a merry brand of malice that made him one of the most powerful voices on the American right, influencing the rightward push of conservatism and the rise of Donald Trump, died Wednesday. He was 70.

Limbaugh said a year ago that he had lung cancer. His death was announced on his show by his wife, Kathryn.

Unflinchingly conservative, wildly partisan, bombastically self-promoting and larger than life, Limbaugh galvanized listeners for more than 30 years with his talent for vituperation and sarcasm.

He called himself an entertainer, but his rants during his three-hour weekday radio show broadcast on nearly 600 U.S. stations shaped the national political conversation, swaying ordinary Republicans and the direction of their party.

Blessed with a made-for-broadcasting voice, he delivered his opinions with such certainty that his followers, or “Ditto-heads,” as he dubbed them, took his words as sacred truth.

“In my heart and soul, I know I have become the intellectual engine of the conservative movement,” Limbaugh, with typical immodesty, told author Zev Chafets in the 2010 book “Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One.”

Forbes magazine estimated his 2018 income at $84 million, ranking him behind only Howard Stern among radio personalities.

Limbaugh took as a badge of honor the title “most dangerous man in America.” He said he was the “truth detector,” the “doctor of democracy,” a “lover of mankind,” a “harmless, lovable little fuzz ball” and an “all-around good guy.” He claimed he had “talent on loan from God.”

Long before Trump’s rise in politics, Limbaugh was pinning insulting names on his enemies and raging against the mainstream media, accusing it of feeding the public lies....

.....

[ridesthemiles]

I saw/heard NOTHING on local Reno media.

[ETL]

[Zionist Conspirator]

Barukh Dayyan ha’Emet.

[jazminerose]

I think the relentless rabid feral attacks on President Trump are more reminiscent of what was done to Senator McCarthy aka Tail Gunner Joe.

*Anyone* calling themself a conservative knows that the Senator nailed it. (If you don’t, read *Blacklisted by History* NOW. Stop typing. Go buy it.)

You know what was really fun during the Reagan years? Star Wars. Remember how berserk the useful idiots got over VP Quayle?

[fhayek]

It is never ending with attacks. Reagan, W, Quayle, Sarah Palin, Trump, Nixon to a large degree. If you run as a Republican, the object of their game is to destroy you. They never debate anything, though.

[OrangeHoof]

I had been praying early on that Rush would outlive the Trump presidency. I didn’t think then that Trump wouldn’t get a second term.

To be honest, I’m not as shocked at his passing as I was when he was diagnosed. Given some of his other health issues (obesity, smoking, back pain, etc), living to 70 seems about right.

I am sorry to see him leave us but God may be sparing him from the evil that will visit his beloved America with Democrats/China in control of our country.

Saw a great sweatshirt the other day which said “Make Orwell Fiction Again”. That about sums up where we are today.

[cherry]

I had a friend who fought tooth and nail thru her lung cancer...radiated,chemoed,small surgeries, the whole nine yards...

throughout she carried on...taking her oxygen tanks with her to a big basketball tournament and renting a scooter, with a horn, so she could traverse the lengthy halls to get to the arena....drinking and eating and laughing...

all the while struggling to breathe....

she didn't have to go thru all this....either did Rush....

Thankyou Rush....you've filled our minds with thought and laughter for so many,many years...

we will never forget....

[OrangeHoof]

About eight years ago, I had a cousin that was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. She was one of those vivacious ladies who seemed to never be sick a day in her life so the news was a major shock. When she asked the doctors, straight up, “how much longer do you think I’ll live?” they told her only 5% live beyond three months.

“So, you’re telling me I have a chance?”, was her reply.

She went through chemo and radiation at the same time, watched her hair fall out then return as kinky black hair instead of her usual straight blond hair. She used carts in public with a little horn and sometimes crashed into things or fell over.

She and her husband made a bucket list, including cruises, and she got to live through all of it, passing away 18 months after the initial diagnosis.

Her husband, an avid traveler, died a few years later while swimming with whales off the coast of the Dominican Republic from a massive heart attack. They were a truly fun and giving couple.

I wonder how much the stolen election and the second impeachment drained Rush in his final weeks?

[cherry]

I hope Rush realized that even with the false so called election, our eyes are WIDE OPEN now....no going back....its a good feeling and a bad feeling, but it means we're alive....

the good fight continues...

[al baby]

I have only welled up twice for non family related passings Reagan and Rush I will miss that ol windbag RIP Rush you taught me more stuff than anyone else on the planet

[Eleutheria5]

I shed not one tear for my father. He was miserable, trapped in a body that no longer cared what he wanted or thought, his mind clouded, humiliated by his own helplessness. His death was a liberation from this prison, and I was happy for him.

Rush, however, was still a firebrand, capable of brilliant insights and powerful arguments, a freedom fighter ‘til the end. Kosciusko (sp?) keeps coming to mind. The cheap gloating of the leftards reminds me of the Cossacks’ loud reveling of Thadeus’ downfall in battle.