The Left Hated Rush Limbaugh Because He Had Their Number

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Wonder Land: When progressives single out threats to "our democracy," what they mean is their democracy. Images: Everett Collection/AFP/Getty Images Composite: Mark Kelly By Dennis Prager Feb. 18, 2021 6:25 pm ET

The most powerful conservative medium in America—indeed, in the Western world—is talk radio. Tens of millions of people regularly listen to local and national radio talk hosts. Whenever I have European conservative writers on my own national show, I always note that in terms of conservative influence, the great difference between America and their countries is that we have talk radio and they don't. Every guest has agreed.

This was largely thanks to one man: Rush Limbaugh. There was talk radio before Rush, but he made it into a national force.

Liberals and leftists dismissed him throughout his career, and again in their obituaries this week, as "divisive," as if the left hasn't been the most divisive force in America since the Civil War. This lack of self-awareness on the part of the left is mind-numbing.

Calling America "systemically racist," calling every white American "racist," and separating college dorms and graduating exercises by race—that's not divisive?

Using the New York Times 's demonstrably false "1619 Project" to teach America's schoolchildren that our country wasn't founded in 1776 but in 1619, when the first black slaves arrived in North America, and that the Revolutionary War was fought to preserve slavery—that's not divisive?

Forcing high-school girls to race against biological males who identify as females—that’s not divisive?

The Supreme Court’s ruling that nondenominational prayer in public schools is unconstitutional—that wasn’t divisive?

Yet according to the left, only when conservatives respond to such attacks on America and Americans does divisiveness enter national life. No one responded more forcefully and effectively, and with as large an audience, as Rush did. Hence the hatred of the man.

His detractors respond that he was also mean-spirited. On very few occasions, he was. The most publicized example took place in 2012, when he called Sandra Fluke, a 30-year-old law student at Georgetown, a “slut” and “prostitute,” among other derisive things. She had testified in Congress on behalf of government-mandated free birth control for students (even though Georgetown is affiliated with the Catholic Church, which opposes birth control). Rush argued that taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for students’ sex lives.

Though all who knew him knew he wasn’t a mean-spirited man, his remarks about Ms. Fluke were over the top and wrong. Three days later he admitted as much and apologized. But such lapses in decency were extremely rare. Rush was nationally syndicated in 1988, meaning that he broadcast approximately 24,000 hours. How many mortals could speak that many hours—extemporaneously—about the most controversial issues of the day and never say anything they later regretted?

Moreover, it is the left that has made an art form out of shaming innocent people, not to mention ruining their reputations and, increasingly, depriving them of their livelihoods. Nor is this done only on rare occasions. It is the modus operandi of the left.

Rush’s gifts were prodigious. His mind worked amazingly fast. His fluency with language was extraordinary. Virtually never did one hear hesitation or so much as an “um” or “uh.” He was also relentlessly interesting. As a talk-show host, I have come to realize that being interesting is the single most important trait in all communication, from teaching and writing to conducting symphonies.

With regard to politics, Rush had perfect pitch. I can’t name an American who understood, let alone explained, what was happening politically at any given moment better than he did. That’s another reason so many people listened to him: They wanted to understand what was happening that day. He did it with cheer and often with humor. However bad the situation, he never left his listeners despondent or without hope.

Amazingly, he did all this while going deaf. For a talk-show host, hearing is almost as important as speaking, and far more important than seeing. You not only have to hear your callers, you have to hear yourself. I don’t know how he did it.

Rush Limbaugh earned the Medal of Freedom that President Trump awarded him last year. Freedom was his passion. Preserving America as the land of liberty was his mission. He died just when freedom—especially the most important kind, freedom of speech—is being threatened more than ever before in American history.

He died just when we needed him most.

Mr. Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host, founder of Prager University, and author of the five-volume “The Rational Bible,” the third of which will appear in October.