Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Rush Limbaugh is dead.

I have always detested squishy euphemisms like “passed away” or “went to meet his maker” or even just “gone”. A great man, one of the greatest the United States of America has ever known, fully equal to the Founding Fathers in his own way, has just died, and all of us are, each and every one of us, the poorer for it.

I began listening to Rush in what seemed a terrible moment, early during the first Clinton Administration. In those days, radio talk-show hosts—Joe Pine comes to mind—were malign trolls, morally crippled flying monkeys who routinely ridiculed, savaged, and insulted their guests, and were even uglier to their callers. Only reluctantly, after hearing about what a terrible creature he was, from public figures I despised, did I give this gravel-voiced Limbaugh guy a listen. And he was none of the things I expected.

Rush brought conviction and integrity to talk radio, when everybody who thought they knew better told him that was impossible. He was also informed, by “older, wiser heads” that nobody could get and hold an audience simply by talking to himself for three hours every day. I was always surprised and sad each day when it was over.

Critics tried to dismiss Rush as a clown, a fraud, a cynical huckster. Yet his massive following—remember “Rush Rooms” in restaurants?—soon became a culture unto itself of warm, kindly, welcoming individuals and individualists. They were the precursors of the historic Tea Party movement and of the teaming masses who joyfully elected Donald Trump. I bought myself a little radio—this was before cell-phones and all their apps—to carry in my pocket, so I would never miss a broadcast.

Rush always maintained that this is basically a conservative country at heart—I would prefer “freedom-loving”—and the Democrats’ blatant, outright theft of a national election hasn’t proven him wrong. 2020 isn’t over yet, and it won’t be over for decades, if need be, for centuries, until justice is finally done. The War Between the States—how’s that workin’ for ya?

Back when a horde of mutant monsters were making evil plans for our beloved country, Rush came to the rescue with his analyses, a barrage of jokes, song parodies, and so many other delightful things that he reduced their vile ambitions to an international laughing-stock. Rush almost single-handedly saved America from the Clintons at a time when Republican politicians stood, as most of the useless, cowardly buggers stand right now, confused, stupefied, paralyzed, and pathetically helpless. Today, three decades later, Bill Clinton is little more than a feeble, fading memory, and the merest mention of Hillary Clinton’s name is a punchline.

Rush was a great leader who led by the example of his completely human character. He was born into a family of lawyers—although his mother was a glamorous nightclub singer whose heart was won by a valiant war hero—but he wanted to be something else, beginning (I’m sure to his family’s chagrin) as a radio disc jockey. Still fourteen somewhere inside his head, he told wonderful stories about he and his brother Dave, playing hilarious boyhood telephone pranks.

We suffered with Rush when we learned of his humiliating addiction—just like that of many Americans—to painkilling drugs, which seemed to have cost him a marriage, and a lot of fair-weather fans. And we celebrated his triumphant return from the abyss. That kind of phenomenon became a major concern to President Donald Trump, who sees the massive amounts of opioid poison flowing into this country as an act of war, a Chinese communist stratagem.

And now, another administration, of the criminals, by the criminals, and for the criminals, has America—and Lady Liberty—in its filthy, murderous clutches. I refrained from calling this essay, “Rush Limbaugh, Rest In Peace”, because Rush can’t rest in peace. It must have been particularly painful for him to die in this ugliest of times, when a gang of illegitimate thugs has destroyed the healthiest economy in the history of the world, now gloats about seizing power fraudulently, is crushing individual freedom every way it can imagine, and delivering us into the slimy corrupted tentacles of crooked billionaires and international Marxism.

Claiming to speak for nobody but myself, I will sorely miss you, Rush. I know I took issue with you occasionally, but you were absolutely unique, and uniquely accomplished. There is no one, anywhere, who can replace you, not even with the best of intentions. And we are forced to keep marching forward, without you.

Nonetheless, Where We Go 1, We Go All.