Just As Well

In 1992, teaming up with who he dubbed his ”soulmate,” Roger Ailes, Rush Limbaugh was ready to become the next Johnny Carson… or at least the next Phil Donahue. Flush with the hubris a now national radio following provided, El Rushbo was ready to conquer late night television with a mixture of comedy, current events and live audience participation. America was about to get a taste of dittomania; the sky was the limit. At least that’s what Limbaugh thought.

To get a clearer image of what he had in mind, think Steve Colbert’s approach, topicality mixed with a talented comedian’s ability to mine absurdity out of otherwise serious issues, along with the added dimension of direct audience participation. Problem was Limbaugh was no talented comedian. More significantly, Rush would soon find out many in his audience detested him and were unwilling to interact in any civil manner, instead much preferring to convey personal animosity at the top of their lungs.

A classic episode that characterized the show’s hot mess atmosphere began with the host amused, and assuming most others would be as well, by a Mrs. Potato Head he labeled as feminist Molly Yard, a repeated target of misogynist rants on Limbaugh’s radio show. There was a particularly extreme abortion bill that some flyover legislature had passed, but was just that day vetoed by the state’s governor. Rush waded into his studio audience expecting a Phil Donahue type of opinion forum that he would inject his own outspokenness into; what he got was a mob ready to tar and feather him. Most were far more interested in getting into the moderator’s face than simply expressing their thinking on the issue. The audience was packed with the enemy his radio format created, and there was no producer to screen them out. It would be the longest hour of Limbaugh’s life, the whole enterprise destined to wind up a miserable failure.

The fiasco taught both Limbaugh and Ailes the same lesson: control is everything. Moving forward Rush would never again place himself in any situation with unknown variables capable of creating spontaneous circumstances he didn’t have ready talking points available to beat back. Ailes created standard operating procedures for all of his Fox on-air talent that steadily eroded any guise of actually “debating” issues, gradually creating the nihilist echo chamber it is today. Indeed, it is hard to overstate the impact Limbaugh’s late-night humiliations have exerted on the direction of the Fox/AM universe. What started as at least a facade of debating ideas, is now unprecedentedly effective propaganda, primarily responsible for the systemic crisis American governance currently withers under.

When Limbaugh passed last week, a victim of the lung cancer he swore to listeners his cigar consumption couldn’t possibly cause, both sides proceeded on the assumption he welcomed the rancor his often shocking viewpoints created. That’s only half true. For while he surely loved being a polarizing figure, ever promoting extremism wholly at odds with any degree of compromise, always demanding Republicans simply gum up the works for no better reason than to punctuate his grievance and resentments, Limbaugh never really had the stomach for directly debating his cause. Indeed, the blueprint he religiously employed, and all of his imitators adopted fully reflected such cowardice.

The most important people in their studios became the call screeners, and technicians who equipped them to quickly cut the mics of opposing opinions that happened to get through the initial line of defense, daring to confront the host about their repetitious guff. For decades now the Fox/AM universe has been anything but the “competition of ideas” Limbaugh forever claimed to tower over, instead merely cult-of-personality fiefdoms for hucksters peddling niche products to end-of-days survivalists 24 minutes per hour of air time, while accepting homage and servile agreement on whatever parcel of the circular shit river narrative being covered that particular segment. Same thing, day after day, year after year… North Korea on the AM or Fox prime time, nothing new other than perhaps a controversial slur or particularly detestable personal attack.

This is what Limbaugh can take credit for pioneering, a repressive system for the distribution of misinformation packaged as validation for those at odds with their own accountability. A constant distortion of problems without easy solutions to fit a mindset only interested in finding scapegoats to vilify and bully. The Limbaugh legacy has zero to do with any semblance of debate past rigorously creating a daily scrum of those fighting tooth and nail to repeat what the previous caller said after an obligatory ode to Rush’s greatness.

The menu of propositions put forth never served any other purpose than to dredge up the same resentments, the same regurgitated ugly bromides about dystopia “they” are subjecting “us” to at the expense of some nostalgic eden America once thrived in. The media, minorities, gays, liberals, RINOs, academia, Hollywood, “Covid hoax” doctors, maskers, high-tech, etc. etc., virtually anyone not within the thrall of his daily dose of civic pestilence became a target for dittodom’s stochastic terrorism, its seditious virulence toward whoever didn’t agree enough. Hannity, Levin, Beck, O’Reilly, Ingraham, Plante, Savage, the list is now endless. All follow exactly the same process… to the letter. It’s a Big Mac for the American Taliban, every episode served up exactly the same, deja vu over and over again. And they can indeed thank Limbaugh for that.

The Washington Cathedral bell tolled 500 times today, once for every thousand Americans who have perished due to Covid-19. Along with Fox/AM’s first President, an avid listener, Limbaugh bears as much responsibility as anyone for that carnage. It’s not hyperbole to contend that, had he used his platform to vigilantly warn about Covid’s danger and consistently urge best practices, tens if not hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved. Of course what he did, until literally his dying breath, is what he’s always done… pander to our worst inclinations, provide permission to be Karens, know-it-all jerks conflating incredible selfishness with contrarian principle because, hey, megadittos.

Now that he’s joined those he couldn’t have cared less about, his listener base is taking great umbrage many are treating Limbaugh with the same disdain and cruel callousness he laid on any he wasn’t confident received his daily bile with reverent enthusiasm. Fact is, the division on display with his death isn’t any different than the chasm he created for thirty years. It’s his followers celebrating the rancid ugliness he pawned off as keen political insight, lionizing bigoted megalomania, and then whining he’s a victim of the politically correct persecution he constantly harangued about.

What they’ve never understood is why Limbaugh thrived with such a detestable product to sell: hate can only be normalized to haters; the rest will never accept it as anything else. Only bigots can find redeemable ideas in the guff of other bigots; the rest of us perceive only stench. And guess what? Even a Medal of Freedom can’t make it smell any better. BC