Rush
Limbaugh made a crushing admission for someone in his position as an
opinion-maker on his Wednesday, 23 Dec. 2020, radio show:
"There's a large part of me that feels
like I have failed in such a major way, in a political sense," Limbaugh said Wednesday during his
final broadcast of 2020.
"I've had 30 years here to try to
convince people, to try to persuade people, to try to encourage people to think
-- critically think -- on their own, to realize the difference between
conservatism and liberalism, the difference between the Republican Party and
the Democrat Party as it relates to conservative versus liberal."
"There's still far more people
than should be voting for Democrats, voting for the left. I chalk it up in part
to having failed to convince people, persuade people of the truth," he
said.
"It's a very thin line here because,
look, I'm not trying to evoke any sympathy from anybody. But it just ...
There's a part of me just continually amazed that the Democrat Party that the
left gets even 30% of any vote. But then I have to grab myself and say, 'Rush,
you're missing reality. The reality is the lifelong meaning of the D next to
somebody's name, the unions that they have constant support from, the money and
so forth.'
"I understand all this. It's just that
I've had my opportunities to get into people's minds. I've had the opportunity
to influence the way people think about these things. ... There's so many
things that I look at that I don't understand. If I'm successful here because
of A, B, C, and D, then how in the world is my side losing, especially after
these four years?”
. .
.
"But I've had all of these years to
get to people, to explain the wonders, the beauties of freedom and liberty and
how that is conservatism. And yet despite all that, there are Americans who are
willing, eagerly voting to lose their freedom, to give it over to politicians
that want to control 'em who don't care about 'em. I wonder, 'How did I miss
'em. How did I not reach 'em?'"
--Joe Kovacs, https://www.wnd.com/2020/12/stunning-admission-limbaugh-part-feels-like-failed/
We have
listened to Rush Limbaugh since 1992 when we were in junior high school. When Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009,
just hearing the theme music of his radio show and his commentary on that day gave
many forlorn people some hope and consolation (us included). While we would later come realize the
shortcomings of Rush Limbaugh’s version of conservatism through Dr Russell Kirk
and other ‘paleocons’, Southern agrarians, etc., and have roundly criticized
some of those shortcomings, we do not write such things simply to trash Mr
Limbaugh. He has become like a familiar
(though misguided!) friend, and when his voice is no longer heard on the radio,
it will leave an emptiness.
Nevertheless,
the reasons for his failure to persuade the ‘Left’ to accept his political
views must be addressed. The main reason
for this failure is that Mr Limbaugh’s ‘Right’ is of the same essence as the
‘Left’: Both are un-Christian ideologies
intent on building the Kingdom of Man rather than the Kingdom of God. Both make a religion of sating the bodily
desires of man while ignoring the soul.
They use different methods to achieve that end: the Right, through acts of the atomized
individual; the Left, through acts of the collective. Both destroy the healthy formation of men and
women through faith, tradition, clan, guild, and other small bodies of people. All of those customs and institutions are
destroyed by the forces unleashed in the dialectic battle between the one and
the many.
When viewed
by the typical post-Christian American, the answer of the Left, the collective,
the forced caring for one another, appears more compassionate than the anarchic
competition of countless self-centered individuals seeking to maximize their
own well-being. This is what likely lies
at the heart of Mr Limbaugh’s failure.
But the Kingdom
of Man won’t be overthrown by devoting oneself to either a Leftist or a
Rightist version of that very same Kingdom; rather, it will only happen if we
establish the Kingdom of God in its place.
And what is the Kingdom of God?
It is the Divine Liturgy, partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ’s
Most Pure Body and Most Precious Blood, pure prayer, hesychia/stillness,
theosis, union with the Uncreated Light and Energies of God, the full
acquisition of the Holy Ghost, acquiring the likeness of God (not resting
content with having the image of God only, Gen. 1:26). It rises far above both Left and Right (Fr
Andrew Phillips); it brings together and harmonizes dialectical opposites (Jay
Dyer).
This Kingdom
of God is precisely what both the Roman Catholics and the Protestants have lost
by denying any possibility of a real union with God since He is in their view a
simple unknowable essence, known only through created intermediaries. This is opposed to the true Orthodox teaching
– that God is both essence and energies, unknowable in His essence but knowable
and participable in His energies. Having
separated themselves from the Truth, both Roman Catholics and Protestants have
decayed into their secular forms, which we have discussed above: the former into collectivism/communism and
the latter into individualism/libertarianism/classical liberalism.
Rush
Limbaugh is to be commended for his lifelong dedication to a cause; unfortunately,
he has sown many tares through those particular labors. But it is never too late to repent and make a
good beginning. Let him even now at this
late hour renounce his idolatrous Americanism and sow the seeds of the Orthodox
Faith of the Holy Apostles with the time he has left. Then he will be able to forget his feelings
of failure and instead will know true blessedness and fulfilment and will be
able to stand unashamed at the Dread Judgment Seat of Christ.
--
Holy Ælfred
the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to
the Union!