Articles

Rush Revered

March 24, 2021

35 views

7 min read

Add comment

“Let me tell you who we conservatives are: We love people. [Applause] When we look out over the United States of America, when we are anywhere, when we see a group of people, such as this or anywhere, we see Americans. We see human beings. We don’t see groups. We don’t see victims. We don’t see people we want to exploit. What we see — what we see is potential. We do not look out across the country and see the average American, the person that makes this country work. We do not see that person with contempt. We don’t think that person doesn’t have what it takes. We believe that person can be the best he or she wants to be if certain things are just removed from their path like onerous taxes, regulations and too much government.” Rush Limbaugh

Each time I have sat to write this I’ve been overwhelmed with tears. Since his passing I’ve sought to fathom the immense poignancy of his loss. A little over a month ago I had written a post on Facebook telling my friends how the impending passing of the legendary Rush Limbaugh would feel like losing my father for the second time. At the time I had no awareness of just how profound the impact would be. Growing up I listened to Rush every day on my way home from school, and my dad would echo his words often. My sister and I would lament the fact that we had to endure car rides with talk radio instead of pop music. In hindsight I’m infinitely grateful to have been privy at such a young age to the wisdom he imparted. Many of us look to Rush as a guiding light and a pioneer of conservative media. While he incontrovertibly paved the way for so many voices and conservative platforms today, his messages were tools that transcended well beyond the scope of politics, and their inculcation is invaluable to success in life!

Overcoming numerous failures personally and professionally, he constituted a warrior mentality, persevering under the guidance of his passions, convictions, and faith, and did it with exuberance and levity. Rush was fighting cancel-culture long before most of us had the wherewithal or courage to do so! He incarnated Churchill’s saying “if you’re going through hell keep going” and proved, “success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”.

Many people live life afraid to chase their dreams or never even dare to discover what they might entail. Most do so out of fear of failure, rejection, or lack of self-awareness. Rush was both revered and loathed because he was audacious enough to be authentic. From the age of 8 he knew in his heart what galvanized him, and never wavered despite discouragement from loved ones and career repudiation. “Perhaps if there was a black sheep in our family, it was me, because I never—I’ve never been a conformist,” Limbaugh later said, adding, “I was hugely rebellious. I hated school because it’s what everybody else had to do. I hated being locked up from the second grade on in a room. … The guy on the radio’s having fun … he’s not going to some room having to learn to paste.” He encouraged others by example to find their fervor, relentlessly pursue it, and promulgated the American tenets that provided the opportunities and liberties for individuals to do so!

Conservatives do a disservice to themselves and the nation when they compromise their values in efforts to ingratiate themselves to be liked. “Everybody wants to be loved by everybody, and they’ll do everything they can to be loved, including not be who they really are, from person to person.” He often talked about how much conservatives are hated by the left. Although censorship is very real and increasingly insidious, many of us are victims of self-censorship, barring ourselves from speaking our truth for fear of being disliked and/or canceled. Rush understood “It’s impossible to go through life, not offending people. All you have to do is basically have an opinion on anything, and you’re gonna offend people.” – Rush Limbaugh

His humor, joie de vivre, courage and logic appealed to the hearts and minds of tens of millions who tuned in three hours a day, five days a week over the course of thirty-three years. Rush gave voice to millions of patriots, who lacked either the megaphone, stoutheartedness, or eloquence to express what they held so dear. He taught us that “conservatism is an active intellectual pursuit; it requires constant vigilance. It has nothing to do with feelings. Liberalism is the most gutless choice you can make. You just see suffering and say, ‘Oh, I feel so horrible!’” Conservatism in America pertains to conserving the inalienable rights, liberties, and freedoms of the individual, and protection of such as outlined by our founders in our framing documents.

Forging ahead it’s incumbent upon patriots to heed his message by encouraging each other, and being steadfast in our beliefs, standing against tyrannical forces and ideology! Rush said “If we feel and learn nothing from the tragedies of the past, then we’ll never know how to truly help avoid those same tragedies in the future. Certainly, we can’t avoid all pain and suffering, but we can and should learn from it.” Policies, ideas and elections like all actions have consequences. It is perhaps the repealing of the Federal Communications Commission’s Fairness Doctrine in 1987 that ultimately paved the way for Limbaugh’s now-distinct, politically conservative radio style to take shape.

As a puissant mouthpiece he instilled the credo of conservatism, patriotism, rugged individualism, and core values imperative to resiliency in life! With 2020 in hindsight, Trump brought clarity, illuminating the work that lies ahead for patriots. Rush was a luminary and buttress facilitating a marketplace of ideas for conservatives. Hopefully his loss will summon the clarion voice and will, of many exceptional patriots to honor his mission. Rush reminds us “it’s never time to panic, folks. It’s never, ever gonna be time to give up on our country. It will never be time to give up on the United States. It will never be time to give up on yourselves.”

We want every American to be the best he or she chooses to be. We recognize that we are all individuals. We love and revere our founding documents, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. [Applause] We believe that the preamble to the Constitution contains an inarguable truth that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life. [Applause] Liberty, Freedom. [Applause] And the pursuit of happiness. [Applause] Those of you watching at home may wonder why this is being applauded. We conservatives think all three are under assault. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you.

We don’t want to tell anybody how to live. That’s up to you. If you want to make the best of yourself, feel free. If you want to ruin your life, we’ll try to stop it, but it’s a waste. We look over the country as it is today, we see so much waste, human potential that’s been destroyed by 50 years of a welfare state. By a failed war on poverty. [Applause]

We love the people of this country. And we want this to be the greatest country it can be, but we do understand, as people created and endowed by our creator, we’re all individuals. We resist the effort to group us. We resist the effort to make us feel that we’re all the same, that we’re no different than anybody else. We’re all different. There are no two things or people in this world who are created in a way that they end up with equal outcomes. That’s up to them. They are created equal, given the chance – -[Applause]

Sources: