by Virgil H. Huston Jr.
I listened to Rush Limbaugh off and on over his entire syndicated career. I didn’t hate him although I disagreed with him frequently. The only other conservative radio hosts I could ever listen to were Neal Boortz and Austin Rhodes. I listen to Austin almost daily. There is a reason these three were in my rotation. If Mark Steyn gets the golden EIB microphone, I will listen to him.
One of the downsides to being a liberal is my inability to identify with some of the things they do. One is celebrating the death of people they don’t like. I have been disgusted at what I have seen on social media in regard to Rush’s death, and it makes me wonder who some of my friends are. This is something that conservatives rarely do, and they would be pilloried if they did. The media feeds this double standard.
The crux of the matter, and where I completely diverge from mainstream liberal thought these days, is over censorship. The significance of Rush Limbaugh historically is that he opened up an avenue of readily available media for half of our population who had always been shut out of public discourse over the airwaves and in print. I would note that the oft-repeated view that the “mainstream media” and “Hollywood” being in the hands of liberals actually means in the hands of establishment neoliberal Democrats. True leftists are shut out as much as conservative voices.
The fact that Rush Limbaugh and those who came after him opened up the AM and FM radio waves to voices opposing that establishment Democrat view has always angered liberals that want all voices they do not agree with silenced. With the new Democrat-controlled administration and Congress, we are now seeing unprecedented attempts at censorship, including the unconstitutional and undisguised government efforts to pressure tech companies to silence people they disagree with. The banning of a U.S. president from online platforms is something that everyone should be very afraid of. They are not only censoring the right but also the non-establishment left.
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Establishment Democrats own Hollywood, TV, all major newspapers, and are approaching total control of online media. The abrupt switch in how Biden is being covered versus Trump is amazing. Refusing to publish proven negative facts about Biden prior to the election contributed to his win. Even unproven things about Trump being published was the norm his entire term. With the death of Rush Limbaugh, the sharks see an opening to destroy the one outlet for conservative thought, radio. Already the Washington Post and New York Times are making up story lines to “show” that talk radio is in trouble. And, of course it is not. Rush’s death simply opens up jockeying for that 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. slot and whether EIB keeps it or someone like Hannity moves into it.
The question of why this liberal listened to Rush Limbaugh answers the question of why the talk show host was so successful in the first place. First and foremost, he was an entertainer. He admitted it and never took himself as seriously as his critics did. Very few radio talk show hosts have this quality. The lack of it is why Air America, the left’s attempt to compete with conservative talk radio, failed so miserably. For me, most of the other talk radio hosts do not have this essential quality. Neal Boortz and Austin Rhodes have it. Many in Augusta have no idea how lucky we are to have Austin Rhodes in our relatively small market.
I listened to Rush because he was entertaining and intelligent. He made me mad at times and he made me laugh at times. I think he was wrong about a lot of things. Being of an age where we were taught from elementary school that, “I may not agree with what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it,” I always appreciated his right to say what he believed. That quote, that was erroneously attributed to Patrick Henry back then, hasn’t been taught in American schools in 30 to 40 years. People have forgotten what freedom of speech actually is.
RIP Rush from a liberal who rarely agreed with you but who appreciated your talent. Things will never be the same.
Virgil Huston is an old hippie, Iraq/Afghanistan vet and retired from the Army, but old enough to have had a Vietnam draft card. You can reach him at virgil.huston1955@gmail.com.
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