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THE INDOMITABLE RUSH LIMBAUGH. It's no surprise that some major media outlets are reporting on Rush Limbaugh's death with a negative tone and backhanded tributes. The New York Times, which spent decades denouncing Limbaugh, published a headline that read: "Rush Limbaugh Dies at 70; Turned Talk Radio Into a Right-Wing Attack Machine." The Times described Limbaugh's immensely popular radio presence as a "divisive style of mockery, grievance and denigrating language." Some NeverTrumpers, nursing more recent resentments, have pounced as well.
Don't pay any attention. Now is the time to praise Rush Limbaugh.
Start with this question: Who has been the most important conservative in America for the more than 30 years since Ronald Reagan left the White House? The answer is not a president, not a congressional leader, not a Supreme Court justice. It is Limbaugh, whose daily radio program guided millions of listeners through the tangle of American politics in the years of George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Al Gore, George W. Bush, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Charles Schumer, Donald Trump, and now Joe Biden. Leaders came and went; Limbaugh's voice was a steady beacon.
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Limbaugh began in radio in 1971 as a disc jockey at an AM station in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. As an opinionated young man, he soon ran afoul of the Fairness Doctrine, the blatantly unconstitutional Federal Communications Commission requirement for the expression of contrasting views in the discussion of political issues. Limbaugh chafed under the Doctrine's restrictions, but at the same time he perfected the unparalleled skills as a radio personality that would serve him for many years.
Limbaugh's career took off after the Fairness Doctrine was repealed in 1987. By the next year, he was on WABC radio in New York, and a phenomenon was beginning. By 1993, Limbaugh was on the cover of National Review with the headline "The Leader of the Opposition." Limbaugh "may be the most consequential person in political life at the moment," conservative thinker Bill Bennett told writer James Bowman. "He is changing the terms of the debate." With what he humorously called the "Limbaugh Institute for Advance Conservative Studies," Limbaugh made conservative principles appealing to millions of Americans. He built an audience, and a fortune, but the most important thing he built was a conservative movement.
His influence deeply worried many on the left, who tried for years to find and promote a "liberal Limbaugh." In my 2005 book, The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy, I reported on the search. "Liberals cheered when Jim Hightower, the outspoken former Texas agriculture commissioner, got a shot at a national [radio] show," I wrote. "It didn't work. Then they cheered when Mario Cuomo, the former governor of New York whose oratory had thrilled the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, got his shot at a national show. That didn't work either. And then they resumed theorizing about why nothing worked."
In the early 2000s, liberals convinced themselves that Limbaugh's success was due to the network of conservative radio hosts (all empowered by Limbaugh's success) who dominated the airwaves. Their idea was to create a new liberal network with an entire lineup of liberal hosts. Finally, something to take on the Mighty Limbaugh!
So liberals created a new network. Air America went on the air in March, 2004, obsessed with the goal of toppling Limbaugh. The network signed comedian Al Franken, to be its top star. In 1999, Franken had published a book that was popular on the left entitled Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot. So finally, network executives believed, the left had a talent big enough to bring down Limbaugh.
It didn't work. Air America ran into financial problems — its paychecks bounced in its early days. Ratings were low. Franken did not conquer Limbaugh. Instead, Franken stayed on the air just under three years before giving up. (He would later run for and win a Senate seat from Minnesota, only to be forced out in a #MeToo scandal.) The Air America network limped along until 2010 before shutting down altogether.
And through it all, Limbaugh stayed on top of the world. What his enemies never understood was that there was no gimmick to explain Limbaugh's success. Instead, he was a uniquely talented man who early in life found the perfect outlet for those talents. And he embraced, instinctually and intellectually, a conservative philosophy that resonated with millions of Americans, from the Reagan years through the end of the Trump presidency.
"Rush was a patriot, a defender of liberty, and someone who believed in all the greatness our country stands for," former President Trump said Wednesday. "His honor, courage, strength, and loyalty will never be replaced."
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