If you click through, the misspelling is gone. The obit is headlined: "Rush Limbaugh, Talk Radio’s Conservative Provocateur, Dies at 70/A longtime favorite of the right, he was a furious critic of Barack Obama and a full-throated cheerleader for Donald J. Trump." Excerpt:
His wife, Kathryn, announced the death at the beginning of Mr. Limbaugh’s radio show. “I know that I am most certainly not the Limbaugh that you tuned in to listen to today,” she said. “I, like you, very much wish Rush was behind this golden microphone right now.... It is with profound sadness I must share with you directly that our beloved Rush, my wonderful husband, passed away this morning due to complications from lung cancer.”...
A divisive darling of the right since launching his nationally syndicated program during the presidency of his first hero, Ronald Reagan, Mr. Limbaugh was heard regularly by as many as 15 million Americans. That following, and his drumbeat criticisms of President Barack Obama for eight years, when the Republicans were often seen as rudderless, appeared to elevate him, at least for a time, to de facto leadership among conservative Republicans.
Such talk became obsolete in 2016 with the meteoric rise of Mr. Trump, who, after several flirtations with presidential races that were never taken very seriously, suddenly burst like a supernova on the national political landscape. Mr. Trump became president and Mr. Limbaugh, off the hook, became an ardent supporter.
“This is great,” Mr. Limbaugh, sounding positively giddy, said of his new champion in the White House. “Can we agree that Donald Trump is probably enjoying this more than anybody wants to admit or that anybody knows?” Like dreams coming true, Mr. Limbaugh hailed the president’s efforts to curtail Muslim immigration, cut taxes, promote American jobs, repeal Obamacare, raise military spending and dismantle environmental protections....
The obituary headline at The Washington Post is "Rush Limbaugh, conservative radio provocateur and cultural phenomenon, dies at 70." Very nicely, this begins with a 6-minute clip where we see the great radio performer in his element [ADDED: I was reacting to the first few seconds. Now that I'm watching the whole thing, I can see it's quite clearly the case against Rush. Sorry for the misdirection.]
The text at WaPo is also much better than at the NYT, because it stresses radio performance over political effect, and there's just no question of Rush's greatness in the medium of radio. All can agree:
Rush Limbaugh, who deployed comic bombast and relentless bashing of liberals, feminists and environmentalists to become the nation’s most popular radio talk-show host and lead the Republican Party into a politics of anger and obstruction, died Feb. 17 at 70.
I like that the first adjective there is "comic."
He saw himself as a teacher, polemicist, media critic and GOP strategist, but above all as an entertainer and salesman. Mr. Limbaugh mocked Democrats and liberals, touted a traditional Midwestern, moralistic patriotism and presented himself on the air as a biting but jovial know-it-all who pontificated “with half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair,” as he often said.
WaPo also gets it right that Rush did not support Trump in the 2016 primaries:
A lifelong deficit hawk who supported Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, Mr. Limbaugh often blasted businessman Donald Trump, saying, “Trump is not a conservative.”
Much more at that link.
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252 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 252 of 252Has Biden acknowledged it yet? You know, President Unity?
I am wondering how the show is going to open tomorrow. Will The Pretenders still be playing?
"Dark hills at evening in the west,
Where sunset hovers like a sound
Of golden horns that sang to rest
Old bones of warriors under ground,
Far now from all the bannered ways
Where flash the legions of the sun,
You fade—as if the last of days
Were fading, and all wars were done."
Dark Hills. EA Robinson
@Temujin:
Limbaugh was hardly afraid of strong women. He admired them and was a vocal fan of some of them- Conservatives all. Margaret Thatcher, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Condi Rice, to name three. He just didn't regard women like Molly Yard as strong. Loudmouthed and wrong, maybe. But not someone to be admired. To put him and Howard Stern in the same category, as if they had the same audience is preposterous.
"Afraid" is your word, not mine. And I didn't say they had the same audience. I said they both "gave voice to white middle-class rage" that was in "response to the twin phenomena of urban decay and political correctness." Morning radio and midday radio are different beasts, and Stern was no fan of Limbaugh.
Ash Wednesday - "Remember, man, that thou are dust and unto dust thou shalt return."
Because of Covid, they aren't putting ash on our foreheads but dropping dust in on our heads. In the old days, people threw dust on their heads when a great man passed and, merely coincidently, this is happening today, the day Rush died.
Stern a pretty distant 2nd in terms of influence.
Basically a dude show shit talker.
"And Elton John was a friend. A friend who performed at Rush’s wedding. That is incontrovertible."
Hey Sparky, pay me a cool million and i'll be your friend.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jun/08/elton-john-rush-limbaugh
So Elton just did it for the money.
Sure.
Rush knew Elton is a closet heterosexual.
Listening to Rush Limbaugh proved to be the starting point of my transformation from Kennedy liberal to full-on conservative. It was during the Clinton years and my in-laws, including my wife at the time, were all conservatives. I kept an open mind and listened and he ... made...sense! It was a long trek but I am pleased that I am the only conservative in the family.
Rest in Peace.
THEOLDMAN
Rush was a superior intelligence with a teacher’s brilliance in using teachable moments. He single handedly turned the culture war15 years before the internet guys with blogs joined the fight. What a blessing he was, as his co birth day lady on I-12-51still is.
"The tell is that Rush had no capacity to understand the arguments against his position except in terms of parody and caricature."
A person would not last 30+ years using solely parody and caricature. Recall he was was made an honorary member of the 1994 congress and labelled a majority maker. How did he do that? Must have been the hysterics.
I love some of the commenters here, except for the strands of Anti-Americanism and hatred for Religion and normal sexuality. As someone once said, you can be a leftist, but that doesn't force you to be a 4th rate human being too.
The left-wing reaction on twitter is just what you'd expect. They typical reaction was some guy called the Young Turk, who basically said "Why should I a hypocrite? I hated Rush Limbaugh and I'm happy he died a horrible death". The question then becomes why did he hate Rush Limbaugh? what did Limbaugh ever do to him? And the answer is Limbaugh disagreed with him on political policies, and therefore deserved this crappy response. That's the Leftist mind in action. Something Rush would not have been surprised at. In fact, he was warning us about them before he died.
@walter:
Stern a pretty distant 2nd in terms of influence.
Basically a dude show shit talker.
Whether it's 2nd is debatable. But it is most certainly not "pretty distant." Stern predates Rush, and he was in the much more competitive morning timeslot versus Rush on middays. Rush was syndicated to many more markets than Stern, but much of those were small and medium markets. Stern's show was syndicated to big, competitive FM markets. It's akin to an urban-rural divide.
Rush pointed out how crap the news business was, back when a people thought that they were individually the only ones who thought so. That got a lot of surprised popularity, Rush rooms, and so forth.
That's the framework that kept it all going, whatever the side issue was.
We differed on why the news business is crap; he thought liberals, I think soap opera women being the target audience, so the news is soap opera.
you'll notice that even the most "reasonable" liberal can't simply say "I disagreed with Rush on politics, but he was a nice man, and a worthy opponent". Instead, its "Well, here's another opportunity to hate the Right-wing, and make some political attacks. woo hoo."
Liberals and Democrats love to make Funerals into hate fests and political rallies. wellstone, Lewis, George Floyd - come to mind. And it applies to other situations. I can remember Al Francken's glee when he thought Limbaugh was deaf and wouldn't be able to do his show. Man, was he happy! OR Matt Yglesis doing public "happy dance" when Brietbart died. that's the sort of people they are. As Rush was trying to tell us.
Rush took off right after Jessica in the Well, if I have the dates right. The media discovered ratings gold in soap, and the rest is history and reaction to it.
The left hates Rush because they don't actually listen, so it's all talking points with nothing to like about Rush.
I remember where I was when I heard Challenger had blown up. I remember where I was when I heard an airplane had flown into the World Trade Center. And I remember where I was the first time I heard Rush Limbaugh.
Stern has an audience of 14 year old boys and people who like trashy entertainment. Lets listen to Madonna talk about Men's penises. Hey, Mr. Entertainment, how many chicks have you nailed and what did you do with the condom afterwards? har-har. Quantity doesn't equal quality in Stern's case.
"The left hates Rush because they don't actually listen, so it's all talking points with nothing to like about Rush."
The ones who set the Leftist party line hated Rush because of who is was. The rest just followed along & clapped for Comrade Stalin. Like they always do.
@rcocean:
The question then becomes why did he hate Rush Limbaugh? what did Limbaugh ever do to him? And the answer is Limbaugh disagreed with him on political policies, and therefore deserved this crappy response. That's the Leftist mind in action. Something Rush would not have been surprised at. In fact, he was warning us about them before he died.
I think the dynamic you describe is absolutely true, but it's incredible to me that you think this is a "Leftist mind in action," given that he also applies to Rush. He trashed the character and motives of people because he disagreed with them politically. It's the encapsulation of the partisan view: it's okay when we do it and it's bad when they do it. It says that the only proper response to thesis is antithesis.
The left depends on soap opera. Everything comes from that. Rush is the bad guy tying Nell to the railroad tracks.
Bob Boyd said...
I remember where I was when I heard Challenger had blown up. I remember where I was when I heard an airplane had flown into the World Trade Center. And I remember where I was the first time I heard Rush Limbaugh.
Same.
Biden, the news reports, extended his sympathy to the fans and family. A good advisor somewhere.
You catch more butterflies with milk than with honey.
Stern has an audience of 14 year old boys and people who like trashy entertainment. Lets listen to Madonna talk about Men's penises. Hey, Mr. Entertainment, how many chicks have you nailed and what did you do with the condom afterwards? har-har. Quantity doesn't equal quality in Stern's case.
You're exemplifying the exact dynamic you were just complaining about and denouncing as a "Leftist mind in action." You're making moral judgments about people you don't know on the basis that they have a different than you.
If tolerance of ideas is an idea you truly value, try exhibiting it rather than simply using it as a cudgel against enemies.
“We differed on why the news business is crap; he thought liberals, I think soap opera women being the target audience, so the news is soap opera.”
Stop! You’re BOTH right!
"Rush Limbaugh's talent and influence as a broadcaster is undeniable. He really only has one contemporary in that sense, and it's Howard Stern."
Howard Stern had a huge reach and influence as Rush did, but it had nothing to do with rage, and more to do with topless lesbian strippers making out in blow-up pools filled with jello...
I think Rush was a much nicer guy than liberals and other haters will ever give him credit for.
I turned on the radio this morning and Rush was talking. I thought, 'Great! Rush is back.' He hadn't been on all last week and Mark Stein had filled in Monday and Tuesday. Then I glanced at my open laptop on the table and saw, "Rush Limbaugh, Dead at 70." I realized I was hearing a clip from a past show. What a shock.
I thought of my 96 year old mom, who lives in another town. She's still in good health and mentally sharp and she loves Rush, so I called her. As soon as she heard my voice she started to cry and said, "Oh Robert. I feel so bad. We've lost Rush."
Back during the Sandra Fluke incident, I was interviewed (in my capacity as editor/publisher of a relatively prominent website about standup comedy) on the radio by a young lady from Russia Today.
At the time, folks were up in arms about Limbaugh's statements regarding Fluke's testimony before members of Congress, when she said that birth control costs $3,000/month. Many were calling for him to be silenced, thrown off the air.
I viewed his statements as humor. I argued that he was, first and foremost, an entertainer and that his show offered a lot of comedy-- parodies, fake commercials, impressions, etc.-- and, as such, his statements should be viewed as such.
It was a lengthy segment (maybe 10 minutes?). At the outset, she seemed very anti-Rush, but, by the end of it, I think my interrogator came around to my way of thinking (or at least I put a lot of doubt in her head).
Maybe it was a Russian psyop? Maybe I got played.
"The tell is that Rush had no capacity to understand the arguments against his position except in terms of parody and caricature."
**********
As opposed to J, Farmer, who is only too happy to remind us again and again that HE---even though he labors in undeserved obscurity---has the capacity to understand all arguments against his positions and to respond with brilliant analysis, scintillating wit and killer political aperçus.
On top of that, Rush's 25 million rubes and bitter-clinger listeners were entirely unaware of Rush's "tell" and thus didn't realize over the years that he offered nothing more than parody and caricature.
But, hey, that's because they are all...rubes and bitter clingers.
Including rubes like Thomas Sowell, Condi Rice, Walter Williams, Robert Bork, Alan Greenspan, Clarence Thomas, Mark Steyn, and some Presidents, VPs, Senators, and Congressmen.
OTOH Farmer would likely argue that *his* audience, fellow commenters on a blog or two, is like the that of the band "Spinal Tap": more selective.
SNORT
As opposed to J, Farmer, who is only too happy to remind us again and again that HE---even though he labors in undeserved obscurity---has the capacity to understand all arguments against his positions and to respond with brilliant analysis, scintillating wit and killer political aperçus.
Not to mention carefully cherry-picked facts.
Rush was totally self-educated and very intelligent. People who didn't listen to him regularly- or in my case, read transcripts of his shows online- consistently underestimated him. I have kept up with him for 32 years and found him to be extremely well informed and his original analyses and observations were consistently spot on. All delivered in an upbeat style with humor. Often he was laugh out loud funny.
J. Farmer said.Whether it's 2nd is debatable. But it is most certainly not "pretty distant."
Depends on the metric.
But you are right in a sense.
Fart jokes and flirting with limits of FCC allowed language can work in the mindless crush of city-zens in traffic jams.
JFarmer. You’ve boiled Rush down to stupid and homophobic. Rush did humor and entertainment. He also did serious commentary. Don’t speak of things you obviously know nothing about.
"The tell is that Rush had no capacity to understand the arguments against his position except in terms of parody and caricature."
**********
The testimony here of many who starting listening to Rush when they were Democrats and then became Republican would disprove this myopic observation. The real reason lefties and Farmer Hate Rush is because he was very logical and successful at destroying their lefty reasoning. As anyone who actually listened to Rush would know, the parody and caricature were just added for very amusing entertainment value.
Robert Cook: "And yet Trump didn't really do much to help working class Americans. As with his predecessors, the primary beneficiaries of his policies were the wealthy."
I am an upper income taxpayer. My taxes went up. But the low marginal rates gave me an incentive to make more money. For example, if the last dollar earned is taxed at a high rate (in the old days 70-90%) you could get to keep ten to thirty cents out of that last dollar. Why bother? I can work on my short game. If the last dollar earned is taxed at 28%, I get to keep 72 cents.
Also, the lowest unemployment rates in history for Americans did a lot to help working class Americans.
Cookie, I don't know where you get your information or how you process it, but your statement above is clearly wrong.
I keep thinking that J Farmer is a very sophisticated troll posing as a principled paleocon.
Dylan Thomas wrote well to describe today:
Do not go gentle into that good night
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/do-not-go-gentle-into-that-good-night-by-dylan-thomas
The tell is that Rush had no capacity to understand the arguments against his position except in terms of parody and caricature. Because of his egotism and self-centeredness, he could only understand the other side as either corrupt or stupid.
He was an entertainer as well as a political commentator. One can't assume the comic performance reflects everything that might happen to be going on in his mind or that his ability to come up with satirical routines limited his ability to react to others with kindness and empathy in personal relationships.
And isn't it true about politically opinionated people that they are likely to think that their opponents are either corrupt or mistaken? They think that they are right and that necessitates that others are wrong. Does one have to be egotistical and self-centered to think that way? Read the comments on any blog. Plenty of self-centered egotists out there.
"Mistaken" or "foolish" may be a better word here than stupid. They can amount to much the same thing, but stupid is more of an unambiguous put-down than is really applicable in the situation. One similarity between Limbaugh and Trump is that both were capable of having a playful relationship with their targets, something the targets often didn't realize.
Or maybe besides thinking that those he opposed are corrupt or foolish, he also thought that they could be something else. Egotistical and self-centered perhaps? Which puts you in the same boat. I can understand disliking the man but see plenty of similarities between him and other internet commenters, even those who hated the man.
Strands of misogyny and homophobia run through both. There's something about strong women and sensitive men that seem to make them very uncomfortable.
Strands that run through our whole culture and many other cultures besides. Here again, I don't think you can claim to speak for the private man and how he behaved in personal relations with other people. The guy seemed to have changed over the years (as have we all) and he was able to get along with a variety of people.
"Strong women" and "sensitive men" are after all very large categories, and most actual people react to different women and men based on more specific characteristics rather than accept or reject such groups as a whole. True, the older one is the more likely one is to make absolute or categorical judgements, but people do leave such knee-jerk thinking behind as social attitudes change. Many may have found Rush's "feminazi" caricatures offensive, but one can't assume that they represented all strong women, or even that they represented particularly strong - as opposed to merely strident - women.
A long time ago when I was in grad school, I worked at a commercial news/talk radio station and Rush was on the programming schedule. He was the true tent pole for the station. He was masterful at satire and always had good comic bits that took direct aim at leftist politics. He was an entertainer first who happened to be conservative. As the years passed, his schtick grew old, but he still remained dominant on the dial. Adios, Rush.
People outgrow Stern. Heck, Stern seems exhausted with Stern. They mature into Rush.
If you think the Republican Party is in a good place, credit Rush. If you do not think that ....
"I am an upper income taxpayer. My taxes went up."
Are you wealthy? I don't know what "upper income taxpayer" implies about your income. It could be anything from the upper five figures on up to a six- and seven-figure income and beyond. If you're not wealthy, if your income is primarily from a job salary, then you wouldn't be among those who benefited most (if at all) from Trump's policies.
As for Trump's "miracle" economy, it was simply a continuation of a trend that began during Obama's presidency.
Basically, Trump's policies maintained the job- and economic-growth that was well under way before he took office. Until his mis-management of the pandemic, he didn't fuck up a rising economy he inherited. As to his claims of "the most this" and "the highest that," it's more of his pathologically compulsive boasting.
"I keep thinking that J Farmer is a very sophisticated troll posing as a principled paleocon."
Farmer--who definitely has views I do not agree with--is the single most valuable commenter on this blog (among too few others). Those who assail him as a troll simply resent how easily he pins them to the mat.
Doesn't "furious critic of Obama" insinuate racism?
This is a flaw he shared with his opponents? Beam, meet mote.
Some context on the AIDS update thing: https://books.google.com/books?id=ykKOgDxEClgC&pg=PT156&dq=limbaugh+chafez+army+of+one&hl=en&ei=oxw2TfvBC8OC8gbe3piMCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result#v=snippet&q=aids%20update&f=false
Not excusing it, but then Limbaugh didn't excuse it either. Shock jocks overdo it sometimes.
James Graham said...
"Doesn't "furious critic of Obama" insinuate racism?"
Stupid, as yet, is not a race.
Fine Noonan appraisal.
Anne, you picked the milder headline from the NY Times.
I liked this one: "...Limbaugh ‘Fomented Mistrust, Grievances,' 'Hate'..." Yet, this is exactly the modus operandi of the NY Times and their MSM brethren. Look in the mirror - please NY Times.
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