There are many reasons for Limbaugh’s overwhelming success. And there isn’t a one of them that his opponents understand.
However, the largest degree of success came from the fact that he correctly identified the mood of the rank-and-file American, and gave voice to it.
And then, encouraged those rank-and-file Americans to take on the sacrosanct status of big government, which the rank-and-file has never trusted but never had the voice, in majority, to fight against.
Even the GOP leadership was going along to get along and frankly they found that they loved the power of government too much to actually fight for what the people wanted.
In my view, Limbaugh’s greatest contribution was dismantling the inbred fear of another 1964 election. The fear of consequences for taking the liberal Democrats head on, and defeating them.
He also, (and I think this is crucial), pointed out the idea that there is no such thing as the political center and never has been.
I said back in 2015;
“The GOP establishment is deathly afraid of being seen as conservative, because they’re still shooting at the political center. Well, children, the political center is a myth. It does not exist in this country. Never has.
Consider the liberal reaction also to George W Bush, whom they compared to Adolf Hitler. And Bush wasn’t a conservative. Neither was his old man. Both of them wear at best centrists. Trust me when I tell you, that the left isn’t going to like this any less if we actually stand up for our beliefs.
Which brings me to my final point for this lesson. There’s a reason they don’t stand up for our beliefs, the leadership. It’s because they don’t believe in them. I’ll say this again, the GOP leadership needs to be replaced immediately.
We are now seeing indications that the GOP rank and file has had enough and is about to go nuclear on the leadership. 15 years ago I argued against such an eventuality. Its to the point now where I’m actually looking forward to it because I see it as the only way to save the GOP.”
Go nuclear they did, and Limbaugh, as much as any other factor is directly responsible for it, by simply pointing out that the left isn’t going to like us any less if we stand up for our beliefs with courage and conviction.
Freind Billy Beck mentioned the other day that we are looking at a total implosion for the Democrat Party:
Never before in my entire life has the prospect of the complete collapse of the Democratic Party seriously occurred to me.
They are going down to profound, historic defeat in eight months. The only serious question to me is how bad it’s going to be for them.
Do any of you suppose that situation would be coming about absent Rush Limbaugh digging in the Spurs for 30 years?
My largest wish, my strongest hope for this situation is that Limbaugh, if he can’t get his medical problems under control, at least lives long enough to see that implosion happen.
I’m going to make one more suggestion here. I suggested [1] a few weeks ago that the anti-establishment politics that have taken hold so strongly here in the US are actually a worldwide phenomenon now.
We know that politics here in the states tends to affect politics elsewhere in the world. people around the world particularly those longing for freedom from an overbearing government look to the United States for examples on how to deal with things. They see us rejecting big government.
The election of Trump is a symptom of that, as is Boris Johnson winning in the UK… and what else can we call the humiliation French president macron has been suffering in France? What else can we call the protests in Hong Kong? What else can we call the rejection of the politics of Angela Merkel in Germany? I suggest these are all part and parcel of the same thing…
It seems a valid question in me to ask if the snowball that Rush Limbaugh started down the hill, isn’t affecting those situations as well.
With those ideas collectively, it seems to me that the presidential medal of freedom is the least that we can do as a nation to honor this man.