Posted on 02/21/2021 6:11:05 AM PST by Kaslin
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Barry Goldwater, William F Buckley Jr., Ronald Reagan, Milton Friedman, and now, Rush Limbaugh. With Limbaugh’s passing, his name and legacy are indelibly etched among the great modern conservative icons.
He was a radio pioneer that single-handedly created conservative talk radio which he dominated for 30 years. An astounding accomplishment since the medium itself dates back to 1920 when the first known radio news program was broadcast. That means, Limbaugh was at the top of his game for a third of the radio industry’s entire lifespan. A true G.O.A.T. who carved a path and spawned a progeny of those who followed in his footsteps: Bill Bennett, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt, and others.
Why was Limbaugh so popular? Why did he have millions of listeners and followers? Was it his voice? Was it his gold microphone? In its simplest terms, Limbaugh told the truth. Unlike today’s left-wing, celebrity, media darlings, he lived his life not by lies. He clearly, concisely, and cogently articulated what conservative, patriotic Americans were thinking but didn’t hear from the drive-by media. He was the original deplorable. His Missouri mid-western roots, values, and common sense resonated with the forgotten man. He listened to his audience. He educated his audience. He had an intimate connection and mutual respect for his audience. He brought insight to the news cycle that other political commentators missed. He connected the cultural mosaic dots of the ascendant Left. Limbaugh created a grassroots bulwark against the Left. He painstakingly studied the Left. He knew what they thought. He knew what they were going to say before they said it. He explained their actions, motivations, and agendas. Limbaugh was the counter-balance to the Left. He astutely shifted the fulcrum in favor of the Right and was a force of nature. With his incredible memory, sense of humor, and distilled mountains of facts, he cut to the heart of an issue and eviscerated the Left. He told the truth and exposed the lies of the Left. With the deft of a high-powered prosecuting trial lawyer but with the authentic delivery and simplified language of Atticus Finch, he convicted the Left, Democrats and the Big Media of lying about themselves, their political opponents, conservatives, Republicans, the news and their narrative du jour.
In his most recent novel, Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents, Rob Dreher describes the heroism of the Christian underground in former Soviet bloc countries that fought against the onslaught of totalitarian regimes when post WWII communism ravaged through eastern Europe. In speaking with Soviet bloc emigres, Dreher heeds their warning that soft totalitarianism and its telltale signs are cropping up in America. Limbaugh saw this a mile away and was ahead of his time. He started in the late 1980s as an underground hero on KFBK in Sacramento and transformed his platform to become a national symbol of conservatives by telling the truth about the Democrats, their desire for single-party, hegemonic rule, and their insatiable quest for power at the expense of everyday Americans.
Limbaugh presciently knew that Republicans would not have any chance of winning future presidential elections if the party continued its Chamber of Commerce support for globalism and open borders. Limbaugh’s seminal 2009 CPAC speech created a movement culminating in the election of a populist conservative president. Limbaugh influenced the redefinition of the Republican Party to put Americans first and return the Party to its conservative roots. Consistent with his 30 years on the airwaves, in his 90-minute speech, Limbaugh discussed his love for his fellow Americans, as individuals, and their unlimited potential. He voiced his disdain for regulations, taxes, and big government. He reiterated conservatives’ reverence for the transcendent principles of America’s founding documents: the Declaration of Independence and Constitution with its preamble for the equality of men, endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He knew these conservative principles were under assault by the Left. He saw the failure and destruction wrought by the welfare state, Democrat’s War on Poverty, and their one-size-fits-all centralized policy prescriptions emphasizing equality of outcomes instead of equality of opportunity. He highlighted Democrats’ soft bigotry of low expectations for African-Americans and other minorities. He exposed the racist lies Democrats told about Republicans, which was merely a projection of their own history.
Limbaugh was successful because he told the truth. The editorial staff at the Federalist have catalogued Biden’s lies since taking office. In the past four years, we have witnessed the lies of Democrats: Russian collusion and the fake Steel Dossier, Charlottesville hoax, Ukraine impeachment, and, most recently, the Capitol Hill impeachment. This dangerous and reckless impeachment was pushed by Nancy Pelosi without an investigation, without due process, and without evidence. Limbaugh saw all of these efforts for what they were: a transparent and naked attempt by Democrats to ignore America’s ideals, our constitution, and the truth to seize power for the benefit of themselves and their party. Limbaugh inoculated his audience with the greatest of all disinfectants, sunshine.
A deserving recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he lived a life not by lies and we shall miss him dearly. Rush Limbaugh, RIP.
Yes sir, that's it.
I can imagine the shock the events of Black November must have been on Rush’s health.
I thought he would slowly recover and go into quiet semi-retirement.
Thanks GOP
Later.
A “friend” challenged me as to why I listened to Rush daily and often echoed what I’d heard. He pushed for an answer so I told him, “I listen to Rush Limbaugh because he is brilliant enough TO AGREE WITH ME, but he articulates his beliefs far better than I do!!”
NO counter-statement was spoken.
RIP Rush
“”I listen to Rush Limbaugh because he is brilliant enough TO AGREE WITH ME, but he articulates his beliefs far better than I do!!””
That certainly fits me and probably most others also.
Thanks.
I think that his greatest contribution to Conservatism was that he reminded all American Conservatives that, ‘NO’ ... we were not alone and we were perfectly entitled to our own perception of things.
Lots of people who kept their ideas to themselves and who endured Liberal tyranny in silence, found that they could hold, discuss and VOTE their views with an absolute right to do so
It makes me even sadder that in his last days, he saw the R’s loose, and the Dems getting away with stealing and then an impeachment with two hours of debate? He forced himself to stay alive to work his very hardest to get Trump over the finish line, he was not supposed to live that long.
Then to see R leadership stabbing their own base in the back. Not a good scenario to witness right before you die, how awful. And yet, his final encouragement to us, “do not give up on your country or yourselves, trust me”.
I half expected Rush to come back on the air and give us a full report of what heaven was like as he often did after he spoke at some event. It’s a lot harder to go without Rush than I thought.
An amazing man.
The only person that matches the Great Rushbo IMO is Dr. Thomas Sowell. He has the ability to capture and articulate complex ideas and thoughts in an encapsulated manner.
Exactly. Excellent reply.
Yup!
He was enduring the ravages of chemo and the agony of tumors while facing the soul grinding possibility of death.
I can imagine the impact GOP whoring had on him after he pledged so much of himself to their benefit.
My once bemused contempt for the gumballs of the GOP has become cold hatred.
Rush TOLD THE TRUTH, AND IT MADE him successful in the long run.
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.
READ later.
His claim of being for and about ‘original intent’ fell into the GOPe swamp... and he totally ignored what the founders intent with ‘natural born citizenship’...
I find President Trump quite gracious to bestow Rush with a honor. Especially after Rush labeled Trump supporters Trumpists.
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