In his State of the Union address in February 2020 Donald Trump introduced a man he called “Beloved by millions of Americans, the greatest fighter and winner you’ll ever meet.” That is a pretty big endorsement from the President of the United States.

That man was Rush Limbaugh. He awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  The Republicans in the Congress that day jumped up for joy. The Democrats were horrified.  To Republicans, he was one of theirs.  He was one of their heroes and he was being rewarded by their President.  But who was Rush Limbaugh?

Limbaugh was the guy who helped propel Donald Trump to the US presidency. According to Justin Ling in his CBC podcast on Right-wing radio in the US, Limbaugh was the guy whose followers stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in part due to conditioning from Limbaugh.

Here is something Limbaugh said, “If any race should not have any guilt about slavery its Caucasians.”

Or this, “How many of you guys with your own experience with women, know that that ‘No” means ‘Yes” if you know how to spot it?”

According to Ling, “He is the guy who made the modern Conservative movement into what it is.” His great talent was to supercharge hate.  Sort of like modern owners of social media. Both knew that hate sells.

The moment Limbaugh was crowned, according to Ling, was “the moment right-wing politics cemented its central role in American politic.  And the role was the production of hate.  Right-wing radio shows were hate farms!