100-year-old Tuskegee Airman, Charles McGee, getting passed over as Rush Limbaugh receives the Congressional Medal of Honor has me remembering some things....
I remember REALLY ENJOYING listening to Rush Limbaugh on my AM-only car radio on my way to philosophy class. He made this Tennesseean feel strong whenever I felt belittled by history, other people's thoughtfulness, & other forms of available data.
I remember David Letterman concluding a show by announcing that Rush Limbaugh was going to be his guest the next evening. His studio audience erupted with cheers AND boos and Dave looked flustered and made a joke of how unexpected that was.
This was exciting. Here was a novum who didn't fit available categories. Rush was entering the mainstream. Maybe my own perceived quirkiness would also find a home. From here, Rush eventually got his own television show and....this was the beginning of the end.
I'd felt energized by the sound of his voice, his language, his quick wittedness, & the way he made short-work of other people's ideas, but watching him do his thing, the derision, the mockery, the contempt, the bullying, made me ashamed 2B associated w/ him. It no longer worked.
He did, however, teach me that I own the White House, that I'm responsible for what my taxes pay for (drone strikes, golf trips, Congressional Medals of Honor) & all that my government does with my presumed consent. He also turned me on to Snapple.
Media pundits (like Letterman then & now) still don't know what do with him even though he's been, for three decades, the de facto head of @GOP. I think many avoid acknowledging or analyzing what he's cultivated among us, but maybe now's a time to think this & related mattrs thru
I try to do that here as I recall the space Rush Limbaugh used to take up in my bandwidth and how I eventually ceded it to others with a lot of help. We emit what we admit. Peer pressure is forever. americamagazine.org/politics-socie…
