We have lost an American genius in Limbaugh

RUSH Limbaugh created modern national talk radio as we now know it. For more than three decades he kept at rapt attention — live from noon to 3 p.m. on weekdays — the largest conservative audience in broadcast history. More than 15 million each week.

This month, 32 years and more than 23,000 hours of on-air commentary after he went national in August 1988, Limbaugh died of lung cancer at age 70.

By the 1990s he had become the voice, literally and iconically, of the conservative movement and its hot/ cold liaisons with the Republican Party. Limbaugh was hated by the left because he was deadly effective in fighting them, and he was feared at times by the Republican establishment — because he could also be deadly effective in fighting it.

Limbaugh had an uncanny sense of what conservative populism could do — such as abruptly end Barack Obama’s control of Congress after just two years in the sweeping tea party midterm election of 2010. He also instinctively sensed what it should not do: endorse Ross Perot’s quixotic third-party surge of 1992 that eventually would split the conservative vote and ensure Bill Clinton the presidency with just 43 percent of the popular vote.

Limbaugh was a master comedian. His pauses, intonations and mock tones were far funnier than those of our contemporary regulars on late-night television. He was a gifted mimic, an impersonator, with as wide a repertoire as masters of the past such as Vaughn Meader, David Frye and Rich Little. Yet Limbaugh worked mostly behind the microphone, without the aid of an onstage presence.

During the 2009 Republican depression over the Obama craze, it was a lonely, much caricatured Limbaugh who revived Republicans. He famously announced — to the furor of the left and the chagrin of what within a decade would become the Never Trump right — that he wanted the newly inaugurated president and his agenda to “fail.” At the time of such heresy, a deified Obama was gloating over the Democrats’ “elections have consequences” control over the House and Senate.

Limbaugh was a natural impromptu speaker. He could rev up a crowd in the fashion of a Ronald Reagan or Donald Trump. He was also an actor, but in part because he read widely, prepped constantly and outworked his opponents.

The cheap postmortem attacks on Limbaugh were as expected as they were tasteless. In his thousands of hours of live broadcasting, did he on rare occasions say the wrong things? He admitted that he had, regretted it and often apologized for it.

He certainly never took out progressive insurance — the kind of occasional triangulation with the

left that wins some conservatives exemption from the cancel culture.

Last week, many would have preferred to read less about what Limbaugh had apologized for and more about the apologies Joe Biden never offered for his lifelong compendium of racial insensitivity and prejudicial bombast — all to be contextualized in service to his “correct” thinking.

Limbaugh’s canon was never to talk down to or insult the base. It was natural for him because he grew up with, knew intimately and felt most comfortable with traditional middle America. Deplorables and clingers trusted him to stay Rush. They were assured there would never be a sudden about-face, confessional or sellout. Limbaugh knew how to golf with the rich but also knew what it was like to be fired often and unemployed with the deplorables.

He grew increasingly frustrated that the naive right never fully understood the mind of the left. In “Groundhog Day” fashion, conservatives, he believed, became shocked on cue that any means were not just necessary for the left but ethically justified, given that the ends were global justice delivered by supposed moral superiors.

For someone with a reputation for mockery, I never heard Limbaugh in private or in correspondence fixate on his enemies or blast his former friends. Mostly he laughed them off, and instead turned to what he told hundreds of those who knew him: “How can I help you in any way?”

Limbaugh was confused by the Never Trump Republican virulence. He had dutifully fought for the four Bush election bids. He had loyally supported their three combined terms. And he tried to empower the failed McCain and Romney efforts. His theory was that after the primaries were over, winning 50 percent of what you wanted in a general election was better than nothing.

The amnesiac Never Trumpers didn’t just fail to return the courtesy, he believed, but never even worried that they should have.

Limbaugh’s was a quintessential American success story. It is impossible to imagine any other country producing either him or his career. We are mourning for Rush, but also for ourselves. We are going to miss him and need him more, not less, each day that he is now silent.

ACROSS

1 Short-legged hopper 5 Untidy types

10 25% of doce

14 Period

18 River in Tuscany

19 Tiny island nation near the equator

20 Slew 21 Mom-and-pop business 22 Fallon predecessor 23 Became aware of, with “to”

24 Victor’s wife in “Casablanca” 25 Cobbler fruit 26 Summer cottage, perhaps 29 Emotive speaker

30 Fell in pellets

31 Result 33 Musician’s gift 34 Fitness ratio: Abbr. 36 Lake south of London 37 Have something 40 Oklahoma’s top crop 44 Handle 46 Dairy-based quaff 47 Phobia lead-in

48 Prior conviction, e.g. 52 One of the ones that “say so much,” in an Elton John hit

54 Brewpub choices 55 Pitchers that can’t throw? 56 Peachy-keen 58 Coronary chambers 59 Name of the Baltimore Ravens’ mascot 60 Programmer’s problem, perhaps

61 Drinking noise 63 Facebook count 64 Iberian landmark that’s an insurance company logo

68 Put back to zero 71 Villainous look

72 Half a game fish 73 Reverence

76 Unfitting

77 Dusk, poetically

78 Not treating nicely 80 Fussbudget

81 Some fort components 84 Personal exam?

87 One way to rest 88 Zugspitze, e.g.

90 With full force

91 Senate staffers 92 Pioneering TV brand 93 One covering the bases 95 Online notes

96 Symbolic uncle

98 The other way around 102 Port alternative

106 Bar accessory

108 Commonsense approach

to behavior analysis 112 Showed the courage 113 Credit union seizure 114 Carpenter’s machine

115 Concerning

116 “Let Me Ride” Grammy winner 117 Champagne spec 118 One who shows the way 119 Yemeni city

120 Leave in

121 AOL and Comcast 122 “Beau __”

123 Moms in a glade DOWN

1 Barber’s powder 2 Lunch box treats

3 Set aside

4 Lorna of Brit Lit 5 Peloponnesian city-state 6 Many a Grisham hero 7 Prayer opening 8 Whip up a cake

9 Bird feeder cake 10 Heist figure 11 Be empathetic 12 NBA’s __ Conference 13 Cruise ship feature 14 Mar. honoree

15 Start celebrating 16 1968 album containing “The Motorcycle Song” 17 At no time, in old times 21 __ Lee

27 Saw things

28 Bonnie with 10 Grammys 29 Luxury watch

32 Jamaica’s Ocho __ 34 Bud, for one

35 __ wear 38 Immortal army leader 39 Draped garments 40 Sub alternative 41 Image in a religious painting

42 Foil alternative 43 Pack animal 44 Starting point 45 Colgate rival 47 Moving around 49 1964 Civil Rts. Act creation

50 “Return of the Jedi” beings

51 MYOB word

53 __ Lama

57 “The Honeymooners” surname

60 Popular long shot 61 Title for Richard Starkey 62 Montana motto metal 64 Email option 65 Professional charges 66 Piazza de Ferrari city 67 God with a hammer 68 Redder, perhaps 69 Computer that was retired in 1955 70 Topping for chicken enchiladas

73 Quite dry

74 Half of a dinner pairing 75 Poaching targets 78 Cartoon explosion sound 79 With no changes

80 Key letter

82 Do a garden chore 83 Czech or Serb

85 Inuit craft 86 Stephen King’s role as the minister in “Pet Sematary,” e.g.

89 Would rather have 94 Support 96 Sweet-smelling pouch 97 Hold fast

99 Unmoving

100 Give up

101 Places to put coins 102 Enduring legends 103 It ends with the burial of

Hector

104 Last movement of Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata, e.g.

105 Come to terms

106 Santa Anita numbers 107 86-Down, for one 109 Connect, in a way, with

“in”

110 RSVP convenience 111 Strong desires

113 MLB stat

Rush Limbaugh