I first head about Rush Limbaugh from a truck driver friend of mine who said he listened to him every day while driving across North America.  He found his show immensely entertaining. “Never a dull moment”, he said

Rush Limbaugh launched his incredible radio career in Sacramento California. He came from an affluent family. He had already been fired from 3 jobs in talk radio, but in California he developed a formula that would prove very successful. He appeared every day in the studio with newspaper clippings that were the raw material for his show.  And he knew the good stuff; the stuff that would get his audience worked up. “Engaged,” is what modern social media moguls would call it. Much of it was not overtly political. It was topical but focused more on entertainment.

At first Rush was not very political. He wanted to be like Larry King putting on a fun and zany show. It was conservative, but conservative light. He was a rule breaker. But as he because successful his politics defined the show. “People loved him and absolutely hated him,” as Justin Ling said in his podcast series The Flamethrowers.

Limbaugh was made the subject of “one of the greatest billboards in the history of billboards.” It showed a car radio with push buttons on the AM dial. The caption was brilliant: “Don’t you just want to punch Rush Limbaugh?” That is exactly what a lot of Americans wanted to do. As Ling said, “For Limbaugh, this was the sweet spot. Being loved and hated is his rocket fuel.”That is what liberals just don’t get.  Limbaugh loved the extremes. There was nothing Caspar Milquetoast about him.  Milquetoast was the character in a cartoon Timid Soul, and there was nothing timid about Rush. “the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick.” He was light and easy to digest, the exact opposite of Limbaugh. Limbaugh was the one who hit with a big stick.

In 4 years in Sacramento Rush tripled his audience. He was off and the world of politics in America would never be the same again. No more milquetoast. No more mush. It was time for real men. Listeners wanted something visceral. They want something reactionary. They had been looking for someone to say what they’ve been thinking. And there was an audience that had been waiting for this kind of show.”

He caught fire across America. He took his show to New York City where it was nationally syndicated. It was 1988. If callers were dull, he cut them off in mid-sentence and called it “caller abortion.”  He was definitely not polite or mild mannered. He called feminists “Feminazis.” He called the NAACP the National Association for the advancement of liberal colored people. It should be called NAALCP.”  He called liberals by nicknames like “the philanderer” for Ted Kennedy.  A man who later became president took up a lot of Rush’s techniques, tricks, and causes. Donald Trump learned a lot from Limbaugh.

Limbaugh combined the sermonizing of Father Coughlin with conservative interactive talk. He offended a lot of people, but as Ling said, “For Limbaugh, offending people was the whole point. He is saying the quiet parts out loud.” Many found it horrifying; others considered it a breath of fresh air. Some loved talk that went to edge, or sometimes over the edge, into racism, misogyny, homophobia and mockery of ethnic groups. He said what others were too timid to say. He lost a lot of listeners and he gained a lot of listeners. Those who stayed loved him. They were there for the duration. No mealy-mouthed liberals for Rush. He definitely was not politically correct!