On the heels of Barack Obama’s “Inauguration Speech from
Hell”, MSNBC talk show host Ed Schultz proclaimed the end of the Conservative
era in American politics over the last 20 years. To drive this point home, Schulz took a copy
of Rush Limbaugh’s first book, “The Way Things Ought To Be”, and emphatically
slammed it into a wastebasket on camera.
This illustration hit quite close to home for me, and I’m
sure for others who came of age politically in the early 1990’s (and I suspect
this was Schultz’ intent). With Ed’s
joyous proclamation of the supposed end of Limbaugh’s style of political
thought and influence, I thought it would be appropriate to review the positive
way that the influence of Limbaugh helped positively shape the politics of my
generation.
When “The Way Things Ought To Be” was first released, in
1992, I was a fresh-faced high school graduate just starting the process of
venturing out into the “real world”. I
was just starting to notice—on the most rudimentary of levels—politics in
America, as well as just beginning to shape my political identity. Despite being raised in a very Conservative,
very Republican, and very rural area, I couldn’t have told you the difference
between Republicans and Democrats, or the difference between Conservatism and
Liberalism at that point in my young political life. I knew that most people around me voted
Republican, but I largely didn’t know why
they did so (with the exception of their opposition to abortion, which even at
that early point in my political development, seemed to be the most obvious and
moral of all political positions to take).
To be sure, my focus was at that point in life was on my upcoming
Freshman year of college, and the consideration of just how many pretty girls
would be roaming around the campus of the University of Missouri. But as far as politics went, I was
essentially a blank slate at that point in life—as I suspect most 18-year old
young men are.
Enter Limbaugh. I had
been vaguely aware of Rush during my Senior year of High School—his short-lived
(but well-done) television show had aired in our market. I watched the show every night, enjoyed the
humor, and noticed that his explanation of the state of American politics at the
time seemed quite sensible. However, I
didn’t initially place any more importance on Rush other than as an interesting
half-hour television show that was a welcome break from the torturous boredom
that was “Wheel of Fortune” (which competed in Rush’s timeslot in Springfield,
MO. Or maybe Rush replaced “Wheel”?…my
memories of the specifics are hazy some 20 years later). But then I began my college matriculation in
the fall of 1992—and once in a while, here and there, I would hear the
occasional person mention Limbaugh, perhaps speaking of an on-air joke or maybe
his take on a current political or cultural event. Sometimes I would hear my fellow students who
worked with me in the dorm cafeteria mention something Rush had said on the air
that day. Or maybe I’d go to the small
barber shop across the street from campus where I would get my hair cut-a
barber shop that always seemed to have Limbaugh’s show playing on the radio when
I would go in (and, I’m pleased to report, a barber shop that is still around
today, as I discovered on a recent trip back to the Mizzou campus). It seemed that Limbaugh was a topical part of
the political environment, though I wasn’t specifically seeking him out myself.
Granted, not every mention
I heard of Limbaugh I heard was a positive one.
It seemed every TV network and talk show of the day was going out of
their way—tripping over each other, even—to do a show on Limbaugh and his
“shocking” brand of radio. And I noticed
that nearly every mention of Rush on network television was quite negative in
nature. But I noticed something
else—nearly every mention of Limbaugh from people that I knew and interacted
with each and every day (many of which actually listened to his radio show) was
quite positive. And to be sure, the Mizzou campus in 1992 was
no hotbed of Conservatism (as few college campuses are, even in the best of
times). But amid the rapturous feelings
that permeated the campus for Bill Clinton, and amid much of the general rebelliousness
against “establishment society” that young people in their late teens and early
twenties invariably grasp onto at any university, and amid the countless
college professors who were doing their dead-level best to convince me and
other Freshman that the America we grew up in was the cause of many of
humanity’s problems instead of the solution,
there still seemed to be quite a
few folks who heard Limbaugh’s message and gravitated towards it, even among
the prevailing political and cultural tides on campus. I suppose I noticed, though perhaps I didn’t
initially realize it.
And then, one day during my Freshman year, I saw a copy of
“The Way Things Ought To Be” on the shelf in the campus bookstore. I purchased the book and quickly read it
cover to cover—the first political book I can remember reading of my own
volition, rather than reading for a class assignment or coursework. And I was stunned. There it was, in plain English…a
down-to-earth, common-sense, humorous at times, explanation of American
Politics—including all of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Instead of speaking in high-minded
theoretical platitudes like my professors did (or like I’d noticed the evening
news anchors or pontificators on the Sunday talk shows of the period did), Rush
wrote in very real terms of America’s problems, it’s challenges, it’s history,
and it’s future. In written form, the
book illustrated why voting
Republican and standing for Conservative values was the most sensible path to
take in America. And there was something
else significant—the confidence and pride that Limbaugh wrote with when
discussing America and Conservatism.
This confidence and pride was the exact opposite of the
people I’d known through the years who seemed to share a Conservative worldview
(a worldview that, instinctive as it was, I was still learning the finer points
of). Many of the adults I’d grown up
around—most of which shared the political attitudes of Limbaugh and other
Conservatives, whether they necessarily realized it or not—were nevertheless of
a generation where speaking publicly about politics or political viewpoints was
frowned upon. “Not wanting to rock the
boat” seemed to be a cultural motif of that generation (not only in politics,
but in their approach to life in general).
In spite of having political and cultural viewpoints in common with
Limbaugh or other Conservatives, it was like pulling teeth to get those adults
to talk about or explain their
viewpoints or publicly advocate for them.
Perhaps they were too polite. Or perhaps they thought of politics as something
deeply personal that really wasn’t the stuff of polite discussion in mixed
company. But whatever the reason, this
generation—though devout in their political viewpoints—were verbally silent
during my youth and adolescence. All
while their political opposites where preaching Liberalism from every news
broadcast, movie, pop song, sitcom, and textbook that my generation was exposed
to. While the previous generation of
Conservatives did their talking at the ballot box (but few other places), the
Liberals of that generation shouted their message from every mountaintop they
could find…and the result was an acceptance (or perhaps even resignation) to
Liberal ideas about culture, wealth, and crime that was the polar opposite of
what my generation, deep down, knew to be “right and wrong”—but we felt that it
was perhaps rude or out of line to question these things. After all, our parents and grandparents knew
differently, but yet they weren’t vocal about these differences. Hence, much of my generation was “politically
confused” when we need not be.
But no teeth-pulling was required with Rush—he was eager to
explain to us, a generation that was ready and willing to become politically
educated—the virtues of Conservatism.
Just as Liberals of the previous 40 years or so hadn’t been afraid to
“rock the boat” and preach their gospel from every platform that they could get
their hands on, Limbaugh wasn’t afraid to confidently and passionately express
a differing viewpoint. Rush was fighting
fire with fire, in a way that people of my generation had never seen
Conservatives attempt to do so before.
No longer did people—the majority of Americans, in fact—have to feel as
though they could only speak in hushed tones about things like traditional
values, hard work, and personal responsibility.
We would no longer allow ourselves to be confined by Liberals to the isolated
corner of the room insomuch as the cocktail party of American political
discussion was concerned. Sure, people
would get offended merely by Conservatives speaking openly about our viewpoints
(just as I suspect our parents and grandparents feared), but Rush showed that
maybe those people needed to be
offended. Perhaps their ideas, at last,
needed to be publicly questioned by those of us who always doubted them, but
were hesitant to speak out publicly in earlier times.
Rush took a lot of bullets publicly for advocating his
political beliefs, just as Conservatives have always taken bullets privately
for doing so. But Limbaugh proved that
you could take those bullets, and emerge stronger, more powerful, with a smile
on your face and a trademark sense of humor, and continue to press on.
It was damn near an inspiration for the rest of us…and
Conservatives are not often a group of people who naturally seek “inspiration”
from anybody.
“The Way Things Ought To Be” proved in written form—just as
Limbaugh’s show proved in verbal form—that common sense and traditional ideas
had a place at the table in American political thought. And the mere fact that we had finally wedged
a seat up to that table—after having been relegated to the “kiddie table” for
so many generations—was then and is now too much for the Left to take. Rush—and countless others that followed in
his footsteps, both publicly and privately—forced the Left to debate issues and
questions that they thought had been put to bed for evermore. Such debate was and is literally the last
thing the modern Left wants to see in American politics, the biggest threat (in
their minds) to their vision of what America should one day become.
So when Schultz threw “The Way Things Ought To Be” in the
wastebasket—both literally and figuratively—I suspect it was with the hope that
Liberals could turn the clock back to the 1960’s and 1970’s—when their ideology
and demands went virtually unchallenged and unquestioned in American
society. Having to defend their ideas in
the public square is something that rarely works to Liberal’s advantage in the
long-term…sure, for short periods of time Liberalism can sound appealing to the
masses (and we may be going through such a brief period in American history
now), but over the long haul, Americans want to make their own decisions, live
their own lives, and take advantage of the Liberty that is endowed to us not by
any government, but by our Creator. Deep
down, Liberals know this, and that’s why they proclaim—and hope—that the era of
Rush Limbaugh…and the era of robust political debate…is over for good.
