The Most Hated Man In America

Allow me to introduce you to a close friend of mine. I have known him for many, many years. He is what my grandfather would have called “the salt of the earth” not that anyone today knows what that means. After I introduce him you may find yourself lucky enough to know someone like him. If you find that you do know someone like him count your blessings. So, who is this man? Well…

He is a forty plus year old white male who, like all the other white men he knows, is nowhere near “toxic.”

He works 40 plus hours a week, every week, seldom taking time off.

He pays his bills on time, paying them off early every chance he gets. It’s inconvenient and sometimes he has to put off till later things he or his family really want but he doesn’t want to be saddled with debt.

He saves as much money as he can, which after taxes, bills and groceries, isn’t much.

He has loved and been married to the same women for a substantial period of time. Together they have three children.

He graduated from high school with relatively good grades. His grades could have been better but as a young man full of himself he had a few minor youthful “indiscretions.”

He has some college but didn’t graduate because he started making to much money to qualify for grants and didn’t want to saddle his family with student loans.

He pays his taxes. He believes he pays to much but he doesn’t complain to loudly he just votes for people who promise, but then never deliver, real, substantive change.

He plays by the rules and expects other to do so as well.

He believes in and supports his family, often giving up things he really wants to support them.

He doesn’t understand current popular culture but tries to go along to get along with his family, coworkers and friends, as much as he can.

He knows that there are only two sexes and firmly believes that no amount of pills, creams, surgery or pronouns can change that.

He believes that God is real and while he may not always be an active church goer he has not abandoned God for the “you’re just an animal so get all you can” ideology that so many around him seem to subscribe to.

He doesn’t do much social media. He tried once but quickly tired of the shallow vapidity, anger and flat out stupidity he had to endure during the exercise. He maintains one account so he can share pictures of his kids with his parents in another state.

He is a licensed Concealed Carrier, owns several firearms and is very diligent in teaching and practicing firearm safety with his wife and children. He loves shooting and goes to the range as often as the cost of ammo will allow.

He pushes his children to do well in school although he sees vast areas in the educational system that need dramatic improvement.

He prefers outdoor barbecues with family and friend’s to the booze fests that so many of the people he knows seem to enjoy. Not that he doesn’t enjoy a drink now and then it’s just that he sees no value in being drunk.

He is moderately handy with home and car repairs, farming out to professionals the things he can’t do.

He tries to keep up on the news and current events but realizes that much of what he is exposed to is simple spin. Because of that he will do his own “homework” before he makes major decisions.

I could go on listing attributes about this fellow but I expect I have described someone, maybe more than one someones, that you know. In today’s highly PC culture these guys tend to keep a low profile. The old saying “discretion is the better part of valor” applies to these guys in spades. The fascinating part is that these men outnumber the Soviet style, gulag loving Bernie Bro’s and the republican surrender caucus types by a thousand to one and they know it. Yet they wait patiently for the next opportunity to vote instead of plying the streets with violence and airwaves with calls for revolution.

These men, and the millions of women who share the above mentioned attributes, are the real backbones of their families, communities and country. They are the ones who, by virtue of their reasoned living of life, determined self sufficiency and regular application of common sense to life’s difficulties, appear as the largest threat to liberals, progressives and democrats and their empty and often pointless lifestyles. To put it bluntly, these are Donald Trumps kind of people.

And you thought I was going to talk about Rush Limbaugh.

Mentor, Teacher But Most Of All, Friend

Monday, February 3^rd, 2020, approximately 21:45.

I was listening to the Rush Limbaugh show as I have nearly every day since 1989. When it got to the 12:45 commercial break I almost turned the radio to another station because the last fifteen minutes always seems to be heavily commercially oriented. As I despise commercials intensely I often find myself doing that. That day however, something stayed my hand. As I listened to Rush tell us about his cancer I literally stopped everything to focus on what I was hearing. As he continued I cringed inside and instantly began worrying.

Cancer has struck hard in my family. My grandfather died of prostate cancer. My mom had uterine cancer. My cousin has stage four liver cancer. My sister in law is a breast cancer survivor, My granddaughter has leukemia. The word cancer has a temporarily paralyzing effect on me. I doubt it is as frightening to me as it is now to Rush.

When Ronald Reagan was on the way to the operating room after being shot he famously quipped, “I hope the Doctor is a republican.” For a brief moment we were all republicans.

Rush said yesterday in his announcement that he couldn’t help feeling like he was “letting” everybody down. Sadly it literally only took a few minutes for the petulant little haters to crawl out from under their rocks and begin celebrating Rush’s illness. It seems only Rush’s audience were Dittoheads that day. As a society we have fallen a great deal.

Someone once said, “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.” Rush has a long history of genuine self deprecation. He never developed the sense of ego that his detractors, hell who am I kidding, the haters ascribed to him. Rush couldn’t locate his ego with an army of eager searchers. It is one of the reasons I love and respect him so much.

I remember the first time I heard him on the radio. It was 1989 and I was just a few years out of the Navy, freshly married with two kids and, after putting my political interests on hold for my Naval service, trying out the political waters. I held what many of my friends and coworkers considered to be outdated ideas. While I never questioned my beliefs I began to wonder what had happened to the America I thought I knew. Then I found Rush.

What a breath of fresh air it was. Listening to Rush was like a cool glass of water to a man who had been in the blazing desert for weeks. Listening to the people who called in I quickly learned not only was I not alone, but there were in fact millions of us. It was so wonderful to know that there was a place that I fit in. I listened every chance I got.

Not only did I now have a sense of belonging but I found that, despite my best efforts, I didn’t know as much as I thought I did. Rush’s depth of knowledge both impressed me and encouraged me to study politics and the human condition much more in depth. I soon discovered that the more I learned the more there was to know.

It was comforting to know that Rush would always be there to inform and educate me. It was reassuring to know that there was no issue the two of us couldn’t work out. He is the best friend I ever had that I never actually met.

Despite what the haters will drone on about, Rush has been a Godsend for both his audience and America. He mainstreamed the talk radio format and virtually single-handedly saved AM radio from extinction. His understanding of the founding principles of America would please the founders and should be required teaching in Americas schools. He has set the highest standards of intellectual honesty, decency, charity and integrity. We need him now more than ever.

When it is finally time for him to go to that great studio in the sky he will be missed more than he can know. Until that day comes he will fight valiantly the evil demon cancer. Still, at some point God calls us all home. When it is his turn it is good to know he will be reunited with the family he loves for all eternity. Despite the sadness of our loss there is comfort in that knowledge. Those of us who treasure him will remember the timeless truths he taught for so long and so well. We will do our utmost to continue the traditions of love, responsibility, duty, charity, honor and faith that he worked so hard to instill in a culture that seemed so often bent on self destruction.

Someday I too will be called home. While I rejoice at the prospect of seeing again all my loved ones who have passed I cannot deny the anticipated joy of finally meeting one of my best friends.

Until that moment, Godspeed Rush.