By  Paul A. Ibbetson

October, 2007

As a growing debate builds over a Democrat inspired push to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine and artificially decrease the market demand for conservative radio, there may be no better time to pay homage to one of the stalwart radio personalities that personifies the conservative dominance of the airwaves. That individual is Rush Limbaugh.

I have been a Rush Limbaugh listener for many years. As my daily schedule has altered, as does often happen in life, I would listen to different segments of the daily program and enjoy the creative educational environment that Rush seems to create with ease and grace. I would always listen to at least an hour of the show, even in the most hectic of daily schedules, until at one point in my life I found myself in the most peculiar of situations. Yes, that is when a strange and powerful set of forces came together that both limited and increased for me the phenomenon that is known as the Rush Limbaugh experience.

Let me quickly set the stage. You see, I am one of America’s more oppressed minority groups today. I am a conservative in academia. I am one of those people that enjoy studying and you will most often find me with my nose in a book or behind a computer terminal. From a pure learning aspect, college is a wonderful place. However, it is from the down sides of college that my story is born.

While I have been fortunate to have studied under several excellent professors, and even a few conservatives in hiding, this is not always the general rule of academia. If you are a conservative and have had the opportunity and privilege to go to college, then you know it to be moreover a liberal horde. With the possible exclusion of my current environment, I have found that it makes little difference if you are attending college in the northeast, the heartland, or in the deep south of the U.S., a great majority of professors in university settings literally drip liberalism.

Of course, the student is a captive of the classroom when instructors decide to stray from teaching to preaching socialistic liberal doctrine. The student learns quickly that the liberal compassion doled out to students by professors who are questioned in the classroom is a tricky and dangerous thing. While some professors are very fair, questioning the liberal spew brought forth by others in the classroom is akin to handling poisonous snakes; that is, inevitably you will get bit and it will cause you pain. So the conservative student picks carefully his battles in the classroom.

I can tell you from experience that curbing ones discontent at the repetitious attempts by some professors to conduct liberal indoctrination in the classroom can at times be draining and stressful. For me, that is where Rush has often come in to save the day. After hours of hearing “America is bad, Reagan was the devil, and Michael Moore is a legitimate research source” nothing was more soothing than a solid hour, if not more, of the “maharishi”. For me, listening to the Rush Limbaugh program serves as a mental detoxification that helps to cleanse the mind and invigorate the body for the rest of what is often a full and taxing day of higher learning.

It was in testing the limits of the “Power of Rush” that I came to analyze, and develop a new understanding of why Rush Limbaugh has remained the most popular conservative radio host in America. My own personal field analysis was not of my own choosing. Some time back, I found myself in a class schedule that all but bypassed the Rush program. What had previously been hours of afternoon study time turned into wall-to-wall classes with only fifteen minutes of freedom. What kind of impact could Rush have on my day in fifteen minutes? If that’s not enough, the challenge would increase.

Due to the fact that most structures within academia are constructed to reject conservative airwaves, I had to descend daily two flights of stairs and exit a building to listen to the program. Furthermore, after subtracting periodic profit center announcements, I found myself with a narrow window of seven minutes of pure Limbaugh. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and that may be true. However, I found in my daily seven minute meeting with the man behind the golden EIB microphone some fundamental aspects that embody the entire program. I also believe that they are the keys to the Limbaugh success story.

Within seven minutes, Rush will forward several timely issues of the day, raise my blood pressure, and then bring me back down by making me laugh. Make no doubt about it, Rush is a conservative warrior who is out to win the battle of ideologies by serving up the truth whether you agree with him or not; however, his ability to periodically make fun of the issues we all tend to stress out over not only refocuses the mind, but tends to build a level of endearment for the messenger. With all the pessimism that is strategically forced on the public by the liberal media today, Rush is a breath of fresh air.

For me, Rush’s entire program is centered on the idea that there is an important battle being fought in America, a battle for the hearts and minds of Americans. The future of this country depends on the victory of traditional conservative values over the liberal socialistic ideals that challenge for supremacy. Rush does more than articulate his optimistic belief that conservatives will win the day, he literally exudes optimism. In my opinion, this is Rush Limbaugh’s strongest attribute. What might be as interesting as the existence of all these qualities is that Rush can demonstrate them all with flare and grace in seven minutes flat. So, while Democrats once again strategize to gain ground they can’t earn with a rebirth of the Fairness Doctrine, it seems only fitting to recognize a true victorious warrior of the airwaves and that warrior is Rush Limbaugh. 

Paul A. Ibbetson is a published author and lecturer on the Patriot Act. He is a former Chief of Police of Cherryvale, Kansas, and member of the Montgomery County Drug Task Force. Paul received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Criminal Justice at Wichita State University, and is currently completing his PhD. in Sociology at Kansas State University. Paul is the author of the book “Living Under The Patriot Act: Educating A Society” that is available for purchase at www.patriotactresearch.com, amazon.com, as well as other major book outlets. Paul is a regular writer for the Conservative Crusader as well as several other online websites.