It was about 1991 when I first heard the Rush Limbaugh show on KFI AM 640 Los Angeles. At the time I wasn’t much of a political animal. I think it was because the first election I ever voted in, back in 1972, I voted for for George McGovern. I was 19 years old and I was all excited. I was voteing in my first election and I remember watching the results come in that night. McGovern lost to Nixon, 520 to 17 in the Electoral College. The second largest landslide in American history. He didn’t even win his home state of South Dakota. His only electoral vote victories came in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Two area’s of the country that would vote the Devil in if he were Democrat .
I was a little disgruntled after such a crushing defeat and I stayed away from politics for a long time after that. But I remembered something Winston Churchill once said that struck a chord. He said, “If you are not a Liberal when you are young, you have no heart, and if you are not Conservative when old, you have no brain."
Enter, Rush Limbaugh with "talent on loan from God."
Listening to Rush on the radio really worked for me. It sometimes felt like I was back in college listening to one of my professors. His views on small government, trade and the economy were my views. He was engaging and he was entertaining. He was under constant attack from the left which made me think, this guy must really be on to something. Now I have to admit I didn’t always agree with everything he had to say. A yes-man I am not but I am a conservative and for me Rush laid it out plain and simple. He was a constitutionalist to the core and he loved America and everything it stood for.
With 43 million listeners Rush was widely recognized as one of the premiere voices of the conservative movement in the United States. In 1994, Republicans in the in the U.S. House of Representatives made Rush an honorary member.
Rush was awarded the Marconi Radio Award for Syndicated Radio Personality of the Year by the National Association of Broadcasters five times – 1992, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2014.
Rush was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians on May 14, 2012. A bronze bust of Rush is on display at the Missouri State Capitol building in Jefferson City.
And on February 4, 2020 President Donald Trump awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Mark Levin said this, "The left doesn't get to define Rush Limbaugh. We, his listeners and the people who loved him, get to define Rush Limbaugh."Love him or hate him, he was a force and he made a difference.
Rest in Peace Big Guy.
Written by Walt Ryba February 19, 2021
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