It doesn’t seem possible that we’ve weathered an entire year since that bleak day last Feb. 17 when at 12:06 p.m. Eastern the inevitable-yet-shocking announcement was broadcast to the world: Rush Limbaugh had passed away. The radio titan, having lived his threescore-and-10 to the absolute fullest, returned his borrowed talent to God.
It was a devastating gut-punch to us, his “highly overrated” staff, and to his vast listening audience. Our beloved friend would no longer be providing his brilliant, inspiring, often-hilarious daily clarity and reassurance we had all come to cherish over more than three decades.
1. Know your enemy. Rush’s core mission (besides attracting an immense audience so he could charge confiscatory advertising rates) was to give his listeners an ideological understanding of our political opponents on the left. The left’s handbook never, ever changes.
Page one of Leftism 101: Silence dissent. Everywhere and always. The left has no interest in engaging in the arena of ideas. Liberals despise the very notion of political opposition; that we have time and space in the United States of America “to say whatever we want,” as Bill Clinton put it in 1994, ticks them off to no end. Freedom is their greatest nemesis; control of speech is the means to all their ends: accruing power.
They try to label all opposing ideas out of bounds, beyond the pale, fringe – so critics are marginalized, scorned and shunned (hence, their laughable “fact checks” and the lame “mis- dis- and mal-information [MDM]” gambit).
Leftism is built on intimidation and a tissue of lies, to which we are the fact check.
2. Reject the premise. Leftist accusations and attacks are based on unstated premises: You are the problem; conservatives are the problem; America is the problem.
Learn to instantly and instinctively turn the tables, as Rush did. Leftists used to call Rush “dangerous.” The unstated premise was that being dangerous to liberalism was bad. They expected the accusation would put Rush on defense. But he embraced that he was indeed a threat – to their dominance: “They call me the most dangerous man in America. Know why? Because I am. Bwahahaha!”
Liberals demanded that radio stations carrying Rush be required to provide “equal time” to ensure “balance” to his supposedly unsafe words – to which Rush correctly responded, “I am equal time!”
3. Use your power. The left may appear invincible, but it exerts control based on a currency of deception, manipulation, corrupt bargains. The power we have is unassailable, and it is built on invisible things: Truth. Joy. Common sense. Humor. Love. Gratitude. Faith. These qualities answer to a Higher Authority, and the left has no counter to them.
Never forget: we are the many. Rush connected us, his most important bequest to us, and we will never again believe the lie that we are weak and scattered and powerless and fringe. They are the few. Flexing our strengths – especially the power of the truth – drives them into hysterics.
4. Have no fear. Leftists are bullies who are terrified of fearless, cheerful people – who know they’re right. Those who, like Rush, truly grasp the pathetic nature of leftism exude confidence, even glee.
Never, ever buy into the temptation to despair that our situation is hopeless. This is the left’s most oft-used deception, wanting you to pre-emptively surrender without a fight (hello, Republicans). Optimism is an intellectual choice, and good cheer is the blessing that follows. Happy warriors never surrender.
5. Stay on offense. Be relentless. Because it is has no moral foundation, the left’s “power” is ephemeral – when fought, it will deflate like a souffle, and come crashing down like the Berlin Wall. Follow Rush’s model and laugh at them every day.
In the same way Rush was “the most dangerous man in America,” embrace the truth that we are the most dangerous people in America – to the left. They may at the moment control the institutions, the levers of power, and much of the media, but we have them surrounded. And they know it.