The last year was rough in many ways, not least in that we lost many conservative heroes — and at least one rogue. It takes many components to build and sustain a movement, and conservatism suffered losses in many disparate categories: communicators, thinkers, politicians, funders, and entertainers. These individuals helped make for a vibrant, if raucous, movement that at times could reach outside of the conservative ghetto and make its points to a broad audience.

A prominent death that occurred early in the year was that of Rush Limbaugh. When he first appeared on the scene in 1988, Limbaugh helped reshape talk radio (and the conservative media landscape in the process). He galvanized opposition to the young presidency of Bill Clinton, so much so that a Democratic congressman ousted in the 1994 “Republican Revolution” congressional elections later told Clinton that “if you made a mistake, it was underestimating Rush.”