Wednesday marked the one-week anniversary of the death of talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh. And yet—seven days later—the ink is still not dry on all the hateful remembrances from the Left. But as all Christians like Rush are keenly aware, the good news is that your detractors do not determine your forwarding address in the afterlife.
While the NFL has slowly squeezed everything American out of our nation’s favorite pastime, a new contact sport has emerged. And its fans are more fiercely competitive and rowdier than even the NFL teams Rush loved so dearly. This new sport can be called Hardship Hockey… where the referees of Left-Wing media get to determine whether one hardship outweighs another on the mere basis of how they respond to your political leanings. This new sport is a real nail-biter.
Hardship Hockey consists of Team Red (the good guys) and Team Blue (the combined thimblefuls of brainpower encompassing Potomac River Democrats, the Media—but I repeat myself—and “woke” college students being indoctrinated on America’s college campuses to loathe this land of their birth.)
In this game, the cancer that claimed Rush Limbaugh’s life was a devastating time of mourning and reflective honor for Team Red, while Rush’s passing marked a time for dancing and spewing hate by members of Team Blue seeking “revenge.” Ironically, weeding through the countless hateful Tweets about Rush Limbaugh by onetime talking head Keith Olbermann or the smarmy articles from critics like Joan Walsh and Peggy Noonan (who referred to the deceased Limbaugh as “the cigar-chomping head of the He-Man Woman Hating Club”) stood in stark contrast to how Republicans and conservatives reacted to, say, the death of civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis. No nasty Tweets, no mean articles, and—unlike Rush’s passing—no suggestions he is now hosting “the first radio talk show in Hell.”
Somehow the Left Wing media and their sycophantic followers (all 12 of them) have anointed themselves as the arbiters of where the deceased shall spend eternity. After thousands of years of theological debate and the salvation message of the gospel, we’re supposed to accept that the Olbermanns and Joy Reeds of secular media are now in possession of the keys to the gates of Heaven and Hell. If you’d like a ticket to enter Heaven, they imply nightly compliance with the New Order of Business is required. Absurd and Biblically offensive, but our culture has sunk to such depths that this kind of rhetorical garbage barely raises an eyebrow anymore. Sad.
This past week literally scores of articles and news segments have been devoted to defaming Rush Limbaugh by recounting (code: weasel-wording and editing out of context) the “hateful” things he said during his more than three decades in talk radio. Some of those remarks included comments he had long-since regretted making and for which he apologized.
In spite of the vicious things most of us have been subjected to regarding the man the Left loved to hate—or as Rush happily described himself, “the most dangerous man in America”—the measure of this outstanding human being will not be defined by his fiercest detractors. His peers and Rush’s legions of listeners offered many sincere, positive outpourings on his behalf which you may have missed in the deluge of criticism and posthumous vitriol.
The frequent themes offered by “Dittoheads” this past week reaffirm that Rush was a lover of liberty, a great American patriot, kind, generous, humble, and in possession of a delicious sense of humor. These are all traits I can personally confirm, having known Rush since his early broadcasts beginning in Kansas City over 35 years ago.
Being in the talk radio business is an awesome responsibility and is not for those with thin skins. Often, “breaking news” gets distilled into soundbites that might lack the finesse or balance one would prefer. Rush Limbaugh uniquely mastered the art of delivering his perspective through entertaining and often bombastic means. But his goal was always to preserve liberty and sound the clarion call awakening Americans to the deterioration of our founding principles as a nation.
While extremists on the Left—and their handmaidens like ersatz “journalists” Chuck Todd and George Stephanopoulos—fill our TV and radio airwaves with spite, hatred, baseless accusations and so-called virtue signaling, Rush Limbaugh will be remembered for striving to give eye-level details on what was happening in American politics and culture. He never gave up striving to inspire listeners to take a stand and make actionable changes.
We could all benefit from a refresher course in the time-tested adage, “If you can’t say something nice—especially about those who have passed away—don’t say anything at all.” Which is precisely why I will remain silent when people who have danced on Rush’s grave one day inevitably draw their final breath.
In my view, if a score is on the board, Team Red wins.
Long after the Noonans and Olbermanns fade from memory, Rush Limbaugh will endure. His is a legacy of patriotism, love of family, and the fact that despite our current difficulties America’s best days lie ahead. Rush Limbaugh laid a firm foundation for the rest of us in American broadcasting to build upon.
And as Ronald Reagan is undoubtedly reminding Rush in Heaven this very day, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
Tom Tradup is V.P./News & Talk Programming for Dallas-based SALEM Radio Network. He can be reached at ttradup@srnradio.com
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