Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

If anybody told me fifteen years ago that I would be writing something that fell between a tribute and a defense of Rush Limbaugh, I would have told that person that he was full of crap. I am embarrassed to admit it but there was a time when I had the same image that modern leftists have of Rush Limbaugh. For years the left compared Limbaugh’s rhetoric to that of Alex Jones’ rants about black helicopters and chemicals that turn frogs gay, which I believed without actually bothering to listen to a single one of his broadcasts. At the time I was going through a stage where I only wanted to hear the libertarian point of view and conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh just weren’t libertarian enough for my tastes.

Later, I would come to realize that by staying in my own echo chamber, I was missing out on new ideas. When I actually started listening to Limbaugh, I was amazed at how everything that was said about the man seemed utterly false. In the book Righteous Indignation, the late Andrew Breitbart wrote about how his father-in-law had suggested that he take the time to listen to what Limbaugh had to say. At the time Breitbart was a Democrat that believed that Limbaugh was an evil racist and anti-Semite who was opposed to all forms of human decency, even though Breitbart admitted that he hadn’t listen to a single one of his broadcasts. Once he started to listen Rush’s show, he not only found that all of his preconceived notions were false, but he found himself questioning his beliefs as a modern liberal. This is how he made his transition from a raging leftist to a Reagan conservative with a few libertarian leanings. I can’t say that Limbaugh has actually altered any of my beliefs as a libertarian, but I found that most of what was said about him by the left was complete and utter hogwash. I didn’t hear anything in his broadcasts that even bared the slightest resemblance to Alex Jones or any of his crew at his Infowars headquarters. While I did have a few disagreements with Rush here and there, I actually found myself agreeing with him more often than not.

Recently Rush Limbaugh announced that he had Stage Four Lung Cancer, which meant that he was going to be taking time off from the show for his treatments. He would later receive the Medal of Freedom from President Trump, which caused controversy among the left. Of course, that is not that big of a surprise, since the left considers Rush’s very existence to be controversial. On the View, Whoopie Goldberg said that the award should be given to somebody who has actually done something. First of all, it is the president who decides who gets the Medal of Freedom and not talk show hosts. Second, I don’t remember hearing Whoopie complain when the medal was given to Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep. I can honestly say that a man who pioneered a new form of media, which helped give public exposure to alternative points of view not covered by the mainstream media is much more deserving of this award than somebody who stared in Taxi Driver or The Devil Wears Prada. Then they brought up the whole “Obama: The Magic Negro” debacle when Limbaugh played a song parodying the people who supported Obama because of white guilt. Rush’s detractors tried to brand him as a racist, though the term “Obama: The Magic Negro” actually came from a left-wing critic from the LA Times.

I am sure that if you asked certain leftists why they hate Limbaugh, they will point to a few instances such as the “The Magic Negro” fiasco or when he compared left-wing activist, Sandra Fluke to a prostitute when she claimed that she was having to pay two thousand dollars a semester for birth control because her university’s insurance didn’t cover it. Granted, Limbaugh can certainly be a little too blunt at times, but that is not the real reason why the left hates him so much. They hate him because he created a form of media that no one on the left has been able to control. Just as they have shown us time and time again on college campuses, they want to have a complete monopoly in the market place of ideas. Talk Radio represents the one outlet that the left hasn’t been able to sink their hooks into. They have tried to take down Rush Limbaugh by blaming him for everything from the Oklahoma City Bombing to various mass shootings. They have tried attacking the sponsors of his show, to no avail. The left even tried breaking into the talk radio markets with the disastrous Air America radio station. When that failed the left whined about how unfair it was that they weren’t able to get the corporate sponsors that their conservative competitors were able to get. Of course, it never occurred to the left that the reason why they couldn’t get sponsors was because they were offering a product that nobody wanted. Instead of trying new ways to improve that product or possibly come up with an entirely new one, the left tried to reintroduce The Fairness Doctrine, which made it difficult for conservative talk radio to prosper, was then repealed in the late eighties. So far, the left has failed in silencing Rush Limbaugh or the talk radio movement that he had created.

Rush Limbaugh whether you agree with him or not, you still have to give him credit for creating a platform that has broken through the virtual monopoly that the left has had on most of the major news outlets. I don’t think libertarians have given Limbaugh enough credit for this, since he is a conservative and not a libertarian. What many libertarians don’t realize is that conservatives, whether you love them or hate them, they are the best counter-balance that we have to the left. If we didn’t have such a large conservative movement to keep the left in-check, we probably wouldn’t have any kind of a libertarian movement.

I want to conclude this article by wishing Rush Limbaugh luck for the uphill battle that he is going to have to face. For all the haters who are wishing death on Limbaugh and believe that he deserves to have lung cancer, I have nothing but absolute disgust and contempt for you. Whether you love or hate what the talk radio host has to say, to wish cancer on someone shows that you have the blackest of souls. I have lost two loved ones to cancer and I can certainly tell you that I wouldn’t want to wish it on my worst enemies. It reminds me of all the leftists who practically celebrated the death of Andrew Breitbart by spewing all kinds of vile and mean-spirted things about the man’s character before his body was even cold. That is why I always find it telling that the left likes to pretend that they are the ones who have the market cornered on compassion. Once again, I wish Rush, the best of luck in the fight of his life.