Thread by @TerryBoutonHist

A thread on Rush Limbaugh and a wildly inaccurate zombie essay on the Declaration of Independence he claimed his father wrote. Although Rush is gone, I have no doubt this viral essay about the alleged sacrifices by the Declaration Signers will endure. 1/13

This essay symbolizes much of what Rush Limbaugh came to represent: lies, exaggerations, a patriotism based on idealized and phony representations of the past, and a veneration of the wealthy and powerful whose financial plunder he recast as sacrifice. 2/13

The essay, "Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor," offers a GREATLY exaggerated account of the Signers' sacrifices. It is so inaccurate that nearly every claim in it contains some misleading statement, mistruth, or made-up "fact." 3/13
rushlimbaugh.com/my-fathers-spe…

The essay contends the Signers were hounded by the British and persecuted for putting their quills to the Declaration. "All of them became the objects of vicious manhunts," Sr. Limbaugh writes. They were beaten, starved, imprisoned, and impoverished for their "treason." 4/13

In this essay, everything bad that ever happened to the Signers at whatever point in their life it happened is attributed to having signed the Declaration. Every Signer is victim, even if they barely suffered--or even profited--from their patriotism. 5/13

Consider how Rush, Sr. re-told the story of Robert Morris, the most important Founder you've never heard of. Morris signed the Declaration, controlled Congressional wartime spending, started the first private bank in the US, and sat at the Constitutional Convention. 6/13

During the war, Morris used his government power to direct a big chunk of Congressional spending through his own businesses. Lots of money went missing under his direction (he was acquitted of embezzling charges). Morris exited the war likely the wealthiest man in America. 7/13

Not according Rush, Sr., who portrays Morris as being impoverished by the war. "He lost 150 ships at sea, bleeding his own fortune and credit almost dry," says the elder Limbaugh, who likely included Morris among the unnamed 17 Signers who "lost everything they owned." 8/13

Just the opposite was true. Morris did most of his shipping for Congress and, as a result, most of those wartime losses were covered by the government. (Just the kind of "socialize risk/privatize profit" trickle-down scheme that Rush, Jr. often lauded on his show). 9/13

Morris eventually went broke from greed, not because he signed the Declaration. Morris was the largest land speculator in the US and in the 1790s he over-extended himself buying up lots in Washington DC and Seneca Indian lands (his son was the US negotiator). 10/13

Rush, Sr. also tries to draw a straight line from the Signers to modern Conservativism. Rush, Sr. pits this "freedom, tested by blood, and watered with tears" against the heresies of the new left, antiwar movement, and student radicals of the 1960s that he detested. 11/13

As Rush's dad puts it:
"There were no dreamy-eyed intellectuals or draft card burners here. They were far from hot-eyed fanatics yammering for an explosion. They simply asked for the status quo. It was change they resisted...They were all conservatives, yet they rebelled." 12/13

Gaslighting both past and present like this is, as much as anything, the legacy of Rush and his father alike.

(Added bonus: Rush's dad undoubtedly plagiarized the essay.)
See @Boston1775's excellent fact-check from 2008:
boston1775.blogspot.com/2008/08/where-… 13/13