The Rush Impediment
19th February 2021
The most frustrating argument is the one you agree with but is made badly. With the death yesterday of Rush Limbaugh, NRO’s Michael Brendan Dougherty reflected on the division between the Rush Limbaugh-wing of conservatism and Roger Scruton-wing; and how they will always have an uneasy alliance. He also laments, “If anything, considering the place of Rush Limbaugh in his nation’s political life is to realize that conservatism has been late to develop a voice that cuts in somewhere between its aloof intellectuals and aggro broadcasters. Conservatism is still searching for a middlebrow voice.” Alas, he fails to see his own role in finding the middlebrow voice, and blames Rush Limbaugh for the failings of institutional conservatism, Michael Brendan Dougherty very much included. Rush Limbaugh fulfilled a specific role in conservatism, and he fulfilled it very well. Scruton, likewise, fulfilled a specific role, and did so very well. Leftists are well aware of the idea of “Diversity of Tactics,” and letting different people use their talents in different ways to get effect. The failure on the right was of those who thought there was only one way to do things -and refused to adapt either to the success of Limbaugh, the critiques of Scruton, or the manifest failures of conservatism.