Limbaugh

 

I wasn't surprised when I heard of Rush Limbaugh's death. After all, when you hear the words "Stage 4" connected with a cancer,  you know death is around the corner.

From the State Of The Union last year to a few weeks ago, the video we've seen of Limbaugh was that of a frail person. This larger-than-life character (and who was larger than life than Limbaugh) was fading away before our eyes, but he was still wailing away against the elites and the drive-by media.

I looked at Twitter after Limbaugh's death was announced. It was one-half sorrow and the other half glee.  

To say Limbaugh was a controversial character is an understatement. A laundry list of sins has been ascribed to him, and to be fair, they said it while he was alive. Still, there is something ghoulish about people celebrating the death of a disc jockey just eight or so hours after his demise. 

Limbaugh had his fans, too,called "Ditto-heads" because  when they heard one of Limbaugh's patented monologues they said "Ditto."  They copied his phrases like "Femi-nazi," which I thought was sort of clever. 

No matter what you thought about Limbaugh, there is one fact you cannot deny:  Limbaugh saved the AM radio band by changing the radio talk show format. 

Before Limbaugh, most radio talk shows took phone calls from listeners.  The hosts would engage the callers and try to make them look bad or cut them off due to time.  

Limbaugh didn't do that.  He would take maybe one or two calls a show. Except on Fridays, those were "Open Line Friday", in which Limbaugh would go crazy and take maybe three calls.  

In his book, Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot, Al Franken made a big deal that Limbaugh had a call screener.  Every radio talk show in the history of radio talk shows has had a call screener. Even Al Franken had a call screener when he had his radio talk show.

The problem wasn't the lack of callers. The problem was Limbaugh was saying Democrats aren't the cool kids they think they are. Therefore, they deserved to be ridiculed, poked fun at, and at times condemned.

Limbaugh was saying this in his monologues. His monologues had one theme: "Democrats Suck And Here's Why."

Limbaugh became prominent around the same time as two other shock jocks:  Don Imus and Howard Stern.

All three were at legacy New York radio stations. All three had adoring fans. All three had tremendous egos. All three hated the other.

Stern and Imus hated each other from the time they were both on WNBC together.  They both regarded Limbaugh as something odd. Imus would call Limbaugh "pumpkin head".  Stern was simply dismissive.

Limbaugh was going after a different crowd than they were. He wasn't going after the Washington-New York crowd. He was going after the people in the fruited plain. Which is what set him apart.

Limbaugh was Team GOP. He stumped for Dad Bush and supported every GOP ticket, even the squishy ones.

Back in 2016, there was a lot of talk about who could stop Trump.  

The answer was none of the candidates. The only person who could stop Trump was Limbaugh.

Limbaugh was lukewarm to Trump, at first. I'm sure he had some of the same reservations that the rest of us had. But he jumped on the Trump train and Trump became his personal boo.

Look, Limbaugh wasn't everyone's cup of tea. But he used the talent that was "On Loan From God." to change his industry. That's something everyone should applaud even if you are not a Ditto-head.