Without Limbaugh, There is no Trump
It was about 14 or 15 years ago when I wandered into the studios of WPEK in Asheville. I wanted to talk about starting my own radio show. I had written an extremely unsuccessful book—A Letter to America, Is Bush Leading Us in the Right Direction?—and my “agent” said that I needed a platform like radio. The station manager said sure, I can have airtime. Bingo, I was on the air. In order to learn the business of talking into a microphone, I decided to study Rush Limbaugh. He had the largest audience. He had dedicated listeners. He was the King of talk radio.
Well, my radio show was modestly successful. I did learn a lot from Rush. Unfortunately, I really didn’t use any of it on the air except for one thing—Rush always used a script. Other than that, he had nothing I could use.
Rush was mean. He was hateful. There wasn’t a minority group that couldn’t be scapegoated. Rush was basically a White Supremist. Also, Rush was always angry from some slight.
Always attack, never retract
He quickly learned that attacking Democrats earned him more listeners. There was no attack that was out of bounds. He had a frequent pattern. He would take something that was factual, then he would conflate it with losing freedom, communism, or the fear that good, God-fearing, patriotic, (White) American men would soon be wearing skirts, changing diapers, and marrying “feminazis” who would crush their genitals for breakfast.
Rush Limbaugh was a very skilled talk radio host. He had a great voice. He was a shameless self-promoter. There was an endless stream of Rush products that his listeners could and did buy. Also, he would lie. There wasn’t a lie that he wouldn’t double down on—the more his “Ditto-head” listeners called in with fake or pumped-up outrage, the happier he was to lie again, and again, and again.
Target women
Almost never would Rush apologize. When a college student who was testifying in front of Congress about the importance of birth control being incorporated in ObamaCare, Rush called her a whore. Did Rush apologize? No! Rush went nuts and attacked her some more.
She was the perfect target. She didn’t have a platform to fight back. She wasn’t a politician. She was simply a smart, brave, knowledgeable college student who was fighting for something that women in the US have been asking for, for decades. Rush stated that this college student wanted nothing more than to have free sex.
Personal attacks were one of Rush’s special “gifts.” He went after any Democratic Congresswoman, but Hillary Clinton was his favorite target. There was nothing that Hillary could do, even salute the flag, that Rush couldn’t twist into something anti-American. (more…)
