Rush Limbaugh and The Spook Who Sat by the Door
I am right 99.5 % of the time.
–Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh is a media phenomenon whom I’ve known about virtually from his genesis. In Aug. 1988 when his radio show became nationally syndicated I was beginning my graduate studies in history and law at Harvard, ironically during the same time when Barack Obama entered law school at Harvard (although I have no distinct memory of him). Shortly after arriving at Harvard I became a conservative and started listening to Rush regularly on the radio.
After a period as an editor at the Michigan Law Review (1989), in the early 1990s I started writing my first works on constitutional law, political philosophy, culture and race. When I published my first book in 1999, “The Devil is in the Details: Essays on Law, Race, Politics and Religion,” I sent Rush a signed copy with a glowing dedication.
The response from Rush Limbaugh … nothing. This non-response response from Rush even at the later urging of his brother, David Limbaugh, and the fact that we have a mutual friend in Justice Clarence Thomas, would be repeated dozens of times in years to come.
I often wonder what the American political landscape would have been like if Rush Limbaugh used just a measure of his vast powers, skills and money to reach beyond himself, beyond excessive buffoonery, jokes and racist entanglements to help my generation of conservative policy analysts, writers and intellectuals and those who will succeed us get some notoriety?
One of Rush’s competitors, Dr. Michael Savage, host of “The Savage Nation” radio show took an opposite approach than Rush did and in May 2009 after I had written anessay in criticism of Savage being banned in Britain because of his effectiveness, his doctrinaire conservative ideas and being a convenient Jew. Savage thanked me for being one of the few writers in America to champion his cause for justice from Britain and America.
After knowing of my writings for only two months Michael Savage made me his authorized biographer, and over the next six months invited me to do over a dozen and a half radio interviews of my WorldNetDaily articles and also of my latest book on “The Nuremberg Trials.”
I sometimes wonder why Rush didn’t grant me the necessary public exposure 22 years ago when as a young intellectual at Harvard I held him in such high esteem. Paradoxically during that same time an anti-intellectual and Marxist named Barack Obama entered Harvard. Unlike me, Obama had lots of support from his radical associations which eventually gave him entrée to become America’s first black president.
Aside from its racial connotations, a spook is an unjustly ignored person; a human shadow haunting society. Recalling Sam Greenlee’s 1969 provocative book that critiqued the bad faith of liberalism, The Spook Who Sat by the Door, I came across this quote: The purpose of the [1973] film was to encourage blacks to create an action plan to “survive in the belly of the beast” rather than always reacting as victims of a racist society.
Interesting. I wonder who will write the book about the bad faith of conservatism.
While Rush is the most popular figure in talk radio history and has amassed a personal wealth of over a quarter of a billion dollars, there are in my humble opinion several deficiencies in the man:
- Billionaire George Soros got the socialist Obama elected president in 2009. To my knowledge Rush in 22 years on the airwaves has gotten no politician elected? Why not use your vast powers and skills to become a conservative George Soros. Invest $50-$100 million dollars and start 50 new 501(c)(3) or 527 non-profit political organizations and substantively help millions of Americans become educated about the original intent of the Founding Fathers.This money would greatly help people like my friend Josh Price, a very talented conservative blogger who needs business sponsors to keep his important blog going or Simone Perry, a former liberal student of mine at Savannah State University who has recently started a new conservative student organization: Young Black Conservatives of SSU. Rush, will you help these young conservatives and thousands like us positively affect the marketplace of ideas?
- In the Age of Obama fun and games are over! Stop entertaining us and work personally and directly to get conservative Christian politicians elected all over America like Reagan did for 50 years keeping this great country from the abyss. Rush, get off the golf course and become the catalysis to take the Reagan Revolution into the twentieth century rather than being a distraction and a punchline exploited by ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, MSNBC, the New York Times, “The Joe Scarborough Show” or for the ladies on “The View.”
- Rush, you constantly criticize President Obama, and many times I agree with you, but you must also admit that this man has held positions, read books, studied with certain scholars, and has been to places you have never been and perhaps cannot go (Kenya, Indonesia, Pakistan, Columbia, Harvard, University of Chicago, the Oval Office); those accomplishments deserve some respect, don’t they my friend?
Rush, in conclusion study the picture above, a picture of America’s shameful, racist past of de jure and de facto discrimination. Mr. McLaurin was a black professor, a scholar, an intellectual who simply wanted to obtain his Ph.D. Why did he have to fight all the way to the Supreme Court just to pursue his happiness?
Look at the picture, Mr. Limbaugh. Observe that not one of his fellow students showed George McLaurin enough value to even glance his way; to look into his sad eyes, to show him humanity and solidarity of silent support for his heroic cause of equality.
Now Mr. Limbaugh, guess where you sit in that picture and guess where I sit? For I am
… The spook who sat by the door.
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Mr. Washington, you say that you were on the Michigan Law Review in 1989, but looking at the Law Review’s website, there is no record of you being an editor. Why is that?