Last Thursday and Friday, I was listening to the Rush Limbaugh program live, as I typically do several days a week when I’m in my car during my lunch break or running an afternoon errand. It was during those days that this whole Sandra Fluke controversy erupted. While listening, I found nothing he said offensive. In fact, my emotions swung from on the one hand, laughing out loud hysterically, and on the other hand, pumping my fist in the air saying “right on,” “take it to them!” That’s typical of any given day I listen to his program.
For those that don’t regularly listen to Rush Limbaugh, they often don’t get his humor, his point of view, or the very point he is trying to make – but his 20 million regular listeners do. Time and time again – liberal demagogues and neo-cons in their Ivory Tower who want to fit in with our Ruling Class – will thumb through Rush’s archives and pull out some sound bites and something that comes across as “offensive.” Remember the whole Donovan McNabb controversy some years ago that got him booted from ESPN? Remember just a couple years ago Rush getting in “trouble” for saying he hoped Obama would fail? I can go on and on here.
The fact of the matter is – the left combs through anything they can get their hands on – because they continue to want to take down our conservative leaders. Rush is the most effective, successful, and wildly popular conservative leader in this country. But that’s not what makes him get up every morning. His “schtick” is taking on the mainstream media – and their collusion with the Left.
Last week, Rush was rightly outraged that the Left was putting up a 23 (oh woops! 30!) year old woman to make a completely ridiculous argument that somehow not only should taxpayers and employers be funding the cost of birth control for other people – but that a Catholic institution should be doing so too. If you’ve listened to Ms. Fluke’s testimony – which is completely idiotic – you know what kind of stunt was going on. And we have the President of the United States and the former Speaker of the House as part of this scene. And we have the media playing along. This is the left’s game plan for 2012 and Rush called them out on it. And they know it.
Did he use a poor choice of words? Some might argue that. I listened to the program and here’s what I heard: Rush is playing back the tapes and basically says – the President called this woman and told her “your parents should be proud of you.”
Rush chimed in by saying – excuse me? This young lady – a law student – is publicly testifying that she spends $3,000 a year on birth control – and her parents are supposed to be proud of her? When are parents supposed to be proud of their children slutting it up and telling everyone about it? And then if that wasn’t enough – she has the audacity to say that the taxpayers, employers, and her school should be picking up the tab? That’s when he went on and said – ok, fine, we’ll pick up the tab – but (like the government) there are always strings attached. So, (in a joking manner) Rush says, we want access to the videos, to make sure you are really using this birth control we’re paying for.
He goes one further and says – if this young woman is having so much sex with guys – where are these deadbeat guys? Why aren’t they paying for her birth control? for condoms? is it really that much money? Unfortunately – you didn’t hear anyone in the media replay the fact that Rush went after a bunch of dead beat guys (if in fact Ms. Fluke’s testimony is to be believed).
The fact of the matter is – the kind of people that like to criticize Rush are not members of his listening audience and they never will be. We members of his listening audience are still chiming in weekdays from 12 noon – 3pm EST.
Some days I ask myself – what will I do when Rush is off the air? The man is simply brilliant. He not only gets conservative principles, but he knows how to articulate them to the average American – he’s a true blue collar conservative in every sense. I often wonder why elected officials aren’t listening in and taking notes and going out there and articulating them the same way.
Rush also knows what the Left, the media, and squishy Republicans are up to. He calls them out all the time. This is just another example. And I will keep tuning in to hear what he says next because Rush starts what they call the “Limbaugh Echo.” All the great conservative criticisms of the Left/media/Democrat industrial complex start on his program. And that’s why the Left – and squishy Republicans – keep trying to shut him down.
And most Americans have not read from the depths of the conservative canon like I and many others working in the conservative movement have. From Russell Kirk, F.A. Hayek, Goldwater, Buckley, Frank Meyer, you name it. I spent four years working for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, listening to great academic conservatives. Unfortunately, with all due respect, most of them don’t have the ability to communicate to the common man out there working hard for their family and trying to make this the best country it can be. Rush is tuned in to what average Americans think because they call his program every day; he hears their frustrations, and he echoes them loud and clear.
Those like David Frum, who reside in the elite circles of Washington, New York, Boston, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley cannot stand average Americans. And when average Americans have such a voice like Rush Limbaugh articulate their views – the Ruling Class just wants to shut them down. I won’t be floating down that river anytime soon.
Ditto-heads unite.