“If you’re not a liberal at 25 you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative at 35, you have no brain.” That quote, and multiple iterations of it, accurately describes my political path as a young man in search of his political self. While I had been a political junkie for as long as I could remember, I never really knew why, Not in a concrete, easily definable way, that is.

Having grown disillusioned with the Democrat Party, I was on a mission to figure out where I fit. As a pragmatic and I like to think rational thinker, I just knew I was no longer a “liberal.”

Somewhere around 1990, I stumbled across this guy on the radio who talked politics in a way I hadn’t previously heard. He was humorous, persuasive, and he had a gift for breaking down complicated ideas, concepts, and policies into simple, effective, everyday words.

Most of all, he made sense. 

After listening to several shows, I was hooked. Rush Limbaugh and I began a relationship over the air that would last a lifetime. When I first learned of his death this morning, it hit me harder than I expected, as I’m sure was the case for millions of Rushophiles “across the fruited plain,” even though we knew it was coming.

Rush’s relationship with his listeners was like no other. We knew him. And he knew us. From his passion for his craft to the way he skewered the Left — never angry or bitter, but always brutally effective — to the grace in which he handled his death sentence.

We shall not see his like again.

One of the lasting lessons I learned from Rush was the value of allowing liberals to talk, and listening to them. The more they talk, Rush reasoned, the more they show us exactly who they are. From Nancy Pelosi to Maxine Waters, Chuck Schumer, Socialist Barbie Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the whole lot, the more we not only allow them to talk, the better it is for conservatives and the conservative cause.

Where the Left does its damnedest to suppress and censor conservative content, to protesting conservative speakers on college campuses, we do best when we help them get their message out to as many people as possible.

Rush’s final broadcast was on Feb. 2. On December 16, his final show of 2020, Rush paid tribute to his audience, “You are the most selfless, giving audience in the world,” he said. As I listened to the clip later, I thought to myself ‘He knows something we don’t know. He believes he will not be coming back.’ “I wasn’t expected to be alive today,” he said.

“I have very much that I want to say to all of you today, and I’m feeling very pressured. Not pressured. I’m feeling stage fright kind of thing. There’s so much I want to say, and I want to say it correctly.

“I want to convey my feelings, and I want to do it right. I want to do it to the best of my ability. Now, I have found in circumstances like this that the best thing to do is not to think about it.”

“The goodness that is done by all of you is never going to be reported in the mainstream media. And that’s okay. But it’s not. You are some of the most generous, giving, selfless people in the world. And I know that you don’t engage in your generosity and your charitable acts just to get noticed for it. That’s not why you do it. You do it because it’s the right thing to do.”

Incidentally, back to the notion of allowing the bitter Left to spew, and helping them get their hateful messages out, here’s just one example — but nowhere near the really vile behavior happening on social media “as we speak.” Then again, that’s who they are. That’s what they do every time a famous conservative dies. They have no shame, you know.

Rush Limbaugh here, had an awfully warm meetup with some of my buddies today! pic.twitter.com/AT5AXaS4RV

— Rush Limbaugh (@BowserPalestine) February 17, 2021

Steven Crowder summed it up perfectly.

Pretty sure the last thing Rush Limbaugh would have wanted, is for you to be offended at liberals celebrating his death. They hated him because they feared him. Let them show who they really are.

— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) February 17, 2021

Dittos, Steven.

Godspeed, El Rushbo. You will be missed. You made conservatism cool, my friend.