We were in the presence of greatness, we will not come this way again

 Rush Limbaugh died today. I know there are legions of pieces of shit out there rejoicing in this news. These"people" are dead to me. They are dead to millions of Americans. And tomorrow when they gaslight us with calls for unity the knives will just get sharper. But this post isn't about those pieces of shit.

I know that there is plenty of anger here, and elsewhere on the internet. It is my reaction to being gaslit. I struggle with responding any other way. But there was a place that one could go to where you could see another way. I won't sully it by calling it a "safe space". That term is forever sullied. But for three hours a day, Monday through Friday, you could hear a joyful warrior. You could hear someone repeat what you told yourself when no one was listening. And that made it alright. The Rush Limbaugh show was our window into the best of us. We mentored, we learned, we held bake sales, we got "our talking points" each and every day. What he said wasn't right because he said it, he said it because it was right. 

I was educated by Rush, mentored by him, and even though I never met him, I would consider him my friend. And there are millions who have the same experience. And for touching and teaching all of those people, in Rush's own words, he considered for a moment that his work was a failure. Rush for many years often stated that he wouldn't retire until every person in America agreed with him. It was this moment of human weakness that we so rarely get to see in our heroes that made Rush even more special to us. The spread of communism and leftism that had poisoned our nation was what he worked against remains strong and in control of so much of our country. I remember listening to him tell us that he felt like a failure because he wasn't able to defeat it.

Now, I know that I felt what so many others did when Rush spoke those words. Rush had touched our lives, was THE pioneer for conservative and alternative media which is our tool to claw back our country and civilization from these forces of evil. He had done so much, fought so hard, and accomplished things at such a lofty heights that no one would have believed him if they told him at 18 years old that he would do them all. This is a man who will have former (and quite possibly current) heads of state of the most powerful nations on planet Earth come to pay their respects at his funeral, who in a moment of weakness in front of nearly 40 million people considered what he had done wasn't enough. But the joyful warrior returned, when one of us ditto heads brought him back to see how we saw him. 

That moment was the core of his humility. That was something that the leftist fuckheads never understood, since that truly among the virtues is truly foreign to them. Its a big part of the reason why they could (and never will) have a Rush of the left, that has such a connection to his audience. Rush was a complicated man, that we all knew. He often said that you couldn't lie on the radio, not for three hours a day, five days a week, for 30 years. When his wife came onto his show today to tell us our Rush had died, a moment that we all knew was coming but remained unprepared for happened, and many of us openly weeped.

I listened to Rush and read his Limbaugh Letter from the beginning of my formative years. I listened to him, like so many others, in the car with my old man, then on my radio during college, and through the internet when I couldn't listen during his broadcast hours. There were years when my listening was lean, others when I wouldn't miss an episode. And each time I left, when I returned it was as though I was coming home. I was listening when many of Rush's "controversies" occurred, and knew instantly that the media lied about them, since I listened firsthand when they occurred. I bought the tea, the children's books, his first books from the 90's (one of which I first borrowed from my Grandpa and never returned), and watched his TV show. While I would thank Rush for everything that he has done for me if I had ever met him in person, he would beat me to the punch in thanking me for just being part of his audience.

I know that Rush will never see this. I am relatively certain that no member of his family will as well. I'm not the joyful warrior that Rush taught us to be. Sometime I wish that I was, especially now since we have a giant Rush sized hole in ourselves now. I am listening to the in memory show right now as I right this, remember many of the clips when I listened to them the first time. I have my spatula city spatula ready to go. There are many tributes to Rush out there right now, and hopefully Mr Snerdly will provide his Black Enough to Criticize translation for his people in the hood tribute. I could write this till my fingers fell off, but I won't.

I'll finish with this. Rush was always optimistic. In his book, See I Told You So, Rush's third chapter was titled America's Not Over. The chapter could be written today. Many, myself included, still need that message in these dark times. He spoke that our best days were in front of us, and that America was the shining city on the hill. He spoke of being a recent convert to optimism, and that our attitude can shape the world. Rush's wit and optimism was made him truly great, and this paraphrase from his book should be our guide going forward:

This is still Rush's America. And Rush's America isn't over.