2/8/2020, 8:01 pm
OUTTA CHARACTER - PROG-OFF
A Premature Eulogy For Rush Limbaugh re Equal Time and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
I stumbled upon Rush Limbaugh's talk radio program while driving my Suburban way back in the late 1980s, when liberal* politicians (and the uniformly lockstep-liberal media -- ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, PBS, NYT, WaPO, LaT, etc.) were relentlessly trashing Ronald Reagan. They said Reagan was a bigoted cowboy war-monger who had dared to insist on deploying intermediate nuclear missiles in Europe to counter Soviet missiles, dared to call the Soviet Union an "evil empire," and dared to walk away from a nuclear arms treaty proposed by Mikhail Gorbachev at Reykjavik that would have prohibited Reagan's proposal for a high-tech missile-defense system.
In contrast, Rush Limbaugh used clever and often hilarious satire and parody to mock liberals and proudly tout Reagan's political philosophy.
It was a breath of fresh air -- but not for liberals. As Limbaugh's popularity and influence grew, liberals began demanding reinstatement of the FCC regulation purporting to require "equal time" for opposing political views (which regulation the Reagan Administration had presciently repealed). Without a doubt, Limbaugh's program did not include "equal time" for liberals to express opposing views, but he brilliantly responded to it by saying, "I am 'equal time'" - because his entire program constituted "equal time" to the uniformly liberal echo-chamber of the rest of the media.
Most Americans sided with Limbaugh on the equal time issue in spite of the media's efforts to demonize him as a bigoted warmonger. Such demonization never stopped and has only increased. Of course, liberal Americans, who glean their news entirely from their media echo-chambers, accept such propagandistic demonization as gospel truth, even though few of them ever listened to his program and only heard excerpts that had been contextually distorted by his bête noire.
I never listened to Limbaugh every day, but I always tuned in when he was on while I was driving. I didn't agree with him on everything, but I thought he was right most of the time. That's because I heard his views in contexts rather than reading deliberately misleading excerpts.
Thus, I wasn't surprised when President Trump's award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Limbaugh during his State of the Union Address sent liberals and their legacy media into apoplexy. They harbor intense disdain for Limbaugh and anyone else who refuses to fully embrace liberal orthodoxy, but they remain blind to the fact that many (perhaps most) Americans who are not part of the liberal echo-chamber are just as critical (but non-apoplectic) about President Obama's award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to such leftist activists as Robert De Niro and Robert Redford.
Liberals and their media think most Americans are in the same state of apoplexy and denial as they are about Trump giving the Medal to Limbaugh, but they are wrong.
Why am I calling this a "Premature Eulogy" for Limbaugh? First, it's a hope that a eulogy is waaaaay too premature. Second, it's a wish -- as we often wish our deceased loved ones could have heard the eulogy before dying -- for Limbaugh to have an opportunity to enjoy knowing that countless Americans who would not describe themselves as "Ditto Heads" still recognize him as an advocate for Liberty, and appreciate his historic role in helping post-Eisenhower America to resist the cultural trend towards the gray, bureaucratic mediocrity of statism.
So, to you, Rush Limbaugh, I say, "I hope you overcome cancer and I thank you for your incalculable contribution to liberty, for which the Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award you richly deserve."
--KOOK
* When I use the term "liberal," I am not referring to what reasonably well-informed people call "classical Western liberalism" - a set of ideas for which modern liberals seem to have almost as much disdain as they have for Limbaugh's views.
A Premature Eulogy For Rush Limbaugh re Equal Time and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
I stumbled upon Rush Limbaugh's talk radio program while driving my Suburban way back in the late 1980s, when liberal* politicians (and the uniformly lockstep-liberal media -- ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, PBS, NYT, WaPO, LaT, etc.) were relentlessly trashing Ronald Reagan. They said Reagan was a bigoted cowboy war-monger who had dared to insist on deploying intermediate nuclear missiles in Europe to counter Soviet missiles, dared to call the Soviet Union an "evil empire," and dared to walk away from a nuclear arms treaty proposed by Mikhail Gorbachev at Reykjavik that would have prohibited Reagan's proposal for a high-tech missile-defense system.
In contrast, Rush Limbaugh used clever and often hilarious satire and parody to mock liberals and proudly tout Reagan's political philosophy.
It was a breath of fresh air -- but not for liberals. As Limbaugh's popularity and influence grew, liberals began demanding reinstatement of the FCC regulation purporting to require "equal time" for opposing political views (which regulation the Reagan Administration had presciently repealed). Without a doubt, Limbaugh's program did not include "equal time" for liberals to express opposing views, but he brilliantly responded to it by saying, "I am 'equal time'" - because his entire program constituted "equal time" to the uniformly liberal echo-chamber of the rest of the media.
Most Americans sided with Limbaugh on the equal time issue in spite of the media's efforts to demonize him as a bigoted warmonger. Such demonization never stopped and has only increased. Of course, liberal Americans, who glean their news entirely from their media echo-chambers, accept such propagandistic demonization as gospel truth, even though few of them ever listened to his program and only heard excerpts that had been contextually distorted by his bête noire.
I never listened to Limbaugh every day, but I always tuned in when he was on while I was driving. I didn't agree with him on everything, but I thought he was right most of the time. That's because I heard his views in contexts rather than reading deliberately misleading excerpts.
Thus, I wasn't surprised when President Trump's award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Limbaugh during his State of the Union Address sent liberals and their legacy media into apoplexy. They harbor intense disdain for Limbaugh and anyone else who refuses to fully embrace liberal orthodoxy, but they remain blind to the fact that many (perhaps most) Americans who are not part of the liberal echo-chamber are just as critical (but non-apoplectic) about President Obama's award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to such leftist activists as Robert De Niro and Robert Redford.
Liberals and their media think most Americans are in the same state of apoplexy and denial as they are about Trump giving the Medal to Limbaugh, but they are wrong.
Why am I calling this a "Premature Eulogy" for Limbaugh? First, it's a hope that a eulogy is waaaaay too premature. Second, it's a wish -- as we often wish our deceased loved ones could have heard the eulogy before dying -- for Limbaugh to have an opportunity to enjoy knowing that countless Americans who would not describe themselves as "Ditto Heads" still recognize him as an advocate for Liberty, and appreciate his historic role in helping post-Eisenhower America to resist the cultural trend towards the gray, bureaucratic mediocrity of statism.
So, to you, Rush Limbaugh, I say, "I hope you overcome cancer and I thank you for your incalculable contribution to liberty, for which the Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award you richly deserve."
--KOOK
* When I use the term "liberal," I am not referring to what reasonably well-informed people call "classical Western liberalism" - a set of ideas for which modern liberals seem to have almost as much disdain as they have for Limbaugh's views.
