Rush from Reality

By Rick Perlstein

Created 02/26/2009 - 9:25am

I've been listening to Rush Limbaugh for going on twenty years now—since 1989, when my summer job after my first year of college involved driving a daily route which took me from Milwaukee to a little town two hours away. I listened to the whole thing. Every day.

He had been on nationally for only a year [1]. He was not yet a national phenomenon, and when I discovered him, I realized I had stumbled upon something important and extraordinary. I knew about Father Coughlin [2], the para-fascist "radio priest" of the New Deal Years—I'd read about him in history books—and had an inkling that I'd someday be reading about this "Rush Limbo" (as I first misheard his name) in books as well. For as has been frequently remarked, Rush is an astonishingly gifted talent when it comes to filling the air on the radio. Already, in 1989, people were packing auditoriums around the hinterlands to hear him dispense his wisdom on his "Rush to Excellence" tours. Already, he was an exceptionally commanding presence.