Random Samplings 15: What Rush Limbaugh Meant to Me
Random Samplings of a Logical Mind 15
ISSUE ONE: The on-hold phone call.
With the exception of my father, Rush Limbaugh is the man who had the most impact on my life. If there had never been a Rush Limbaugh, I have no idea where I’d be today. I know this: I would not be in radio. I had given up on radio as a way to make a living – especially AM radio as music migrated to FM.
One day while driving down a country road, I found Rush on 1370. He was talking about the potential of a phone he had on hold. He didn’t want to take the call. It would be inconvenient. But if he didn’t take it, he’d never know what that call might have been. The on-hold phone call was, of course, a stand-in for an unborn child.
I was hooked for the same reason that the Left hated him. He made his points in such an entertaining and informative way that the Left never knew what hit them. And I wanted to try it.
Rush Limbaugh booking photo from his arrest in 2006. These charges were eventually dropped by the local prosecutor. (We used this photo because it was created by a governmental agency and therefore is in public domain.)
ISSUE TWO: Defining conservatives.
In March 2009, Rush Limbaugh gave a speech at CPAC in which he explained in one short minute what a conservative is. By default, he was also saying what a liberal is not.
Rush made the complex simple.
He said conservatives love people. When we look over the United States of America, when we see a group of people, we see Americans. We see human beings. We don’t see groups. We don’t see victims. We don’t see people we want to exploit. We do not see that person with contempt. We don’t think that person doesn’t have what it takes. We believe that person can be the best he or she wants to be if certain things are removed from their path – like onerous taxes, regulations, and too much government.
His fans exploded with applause, but the Left reacted with rage. By defining us, he defined them, and they knew it.
VIdeo: At about the 5:55 mark, Rush explains who conservatives are.
ISSUE THREE: The Death of Talk Radio.
The thing that has confounded liberals the most about the late Rush Limbaugh is that they never could find a “liberal Rush” to counter him. Oh, how they tried. They wanted to put former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo on the air – but that flopped. They tried every left-wing hack they could find – even starting a network called Air America. That died from lack of interest.
The Death of Talk Radio (And note who wrote the introduction!)
In my 2007 book “The Death of Talk Radio” (written with Cliff Kincaid), I posited that the reason there never has been and likely will never be a liberal Limbaugh is that liberalism doesn’t make any sense when you flesh it out. It only works in short bites like “a woman’s right to choose” or “the planet has a fever.” If you discuss this stuff for three hours a day, it collapses of its own illogic.
So Hush Rush became the war cry – since no one would listen to liberal radio.
Stay tuned for more Random Samplings of a Logical Mind. I’m Lynn Woolley.
