Rush Limbaugh’s legacy
Here’s what I wrote about his life and death two years ago.
Rush Limbaugh’s funeral was today. My take on him and it: yes, he was a pioneer of talk radio who offered a valuable counter to the biased media back when there was no cable, and three networks and a handful of major newspapers had total control over information dissemination in America. On the other hand, he was hands-down the person most responsible for the decline in civility Republicans complain so much about now: he made it normal to see Democrats not just as (mostly) good Americans with different ideas, but as bad people to be mocked and demonized. He famously called 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton the “White House dog.” He issued a half-hearted denial and apology, but the floodgates were open: the era of respectful debate was over, and it was time to let the inner asshole shine! Calling someone ugly, fat, and stupid was okay as long as you could dismiss complaints as “political correctness” and claim you were joking. Rush himself became the target of this, as liberals mocked everything from his weight to his Oxycontin addiction. As horrible as that was, there was definitely a “he started it” component to it — and we’ve been engaged in an endless cycle of what-aboutism ever since. He also made it popular and acceptable to belch out idiotic statements — like saying Sandra Fluke “had so much sex she can’t afford the birth control” even though…
