In the ’90s, I was a host on a talk radio station in LA, the same that aired Rush. I was president of LA NOW and the liberal weekend host when he visited the station. He was so vilified by my then-crowd, I expected a monster. Instead, I met a remarkable, kind, and encouraging man.
He was gregarious and generous when we met. He shook my hand, and I was shocked that he was nice and genuinely curious about my radio work and activism. I realized I was going to have a fascinating conversation.
There were many events during this time as a radio talk show host that changed me. It was my first job in the medium starting in 1993. My meeting Rush and our conversations made me realize the left had been lying to me about many things.
Rush was not a monster, he wasn’t evil, he did not mean people harm, he wasn’t a bigot, or any of the other smears lobbed against him by my leftist associates. I liked him very much and, while we disagreed on many things (then), he was nothing as he had been painted.
In my conversations with him, we talked about the issues and, despite the disagreements, he also took time to give me advice about hosting, style, connecting with the audience, etc. He encouraged me and gave me advice that made a huge difference in my career.
He approached me and everyone else as separate individuals worthy of respect and with a desire to help and inspire—regardless of the fact that I stood for everything he stood against. It was a generosity of spirit you would never see on the left.
The impact of realizing that I’d been lied to about Rush was significant; but that, as a conservative, he represented more of what I felt was valuable and important was a revelation. He made it possible to even consider that, which is what made him so dangerous to the left.
During this time as an activist leftist, it was talk radio, the audience, and meeting Rush Limbaugh that was the undeniable trigger making it possible for me to rethink my alliances and eventually leave the leftist establishment.
It wasn’t just Rush, but I’d also been lied to about conservatives in general, realizing that by speaking with callers every day who were conservative and responding fairly and with curiosity to my arguments on the air. Rush made that medium, and experience, possible.
My leftist associates begged me not to go into talk radio. I eventually realized they were so opposed because of what I would learn. That leftist effort to deny access to ideas and info continues with even more vitriol and punishment for those who dare to challenge leftist lies.
Rush created the potential of the medium and set the tone for entertainment, analysis, and education. Honest conversations open to everyone are anathema to the left, which is why they’re obsessed with creating fear and the cancel culture.
The ugliness of the left will be seen throughout today and the days to come in response to the death of Rush, an American titan, and defender of conservative values. The left is ugly and horrible, but it is exactly their nature and should serve to remind you of the importance of our fight.
The good news is, Rush not only changed our lives by helping us understand the imperative of freedom and generosity, but he now serves as an even more essential example for all of us.
Rush may be gone, but now it’s up to all of us to continue his commitment to our great nation. Thank you, sir, for the time you took with an arrogant and smug LA leftist feminist, one of the millions of lives you changed for the better.
source: @heytammybruce Twitter, lightly edited