From the diaries by Erick

Rush dares to judge all by the content of their character and that threatens the race industry

Raised by parents that were instrumental in integrating the races in my South Carolina hometown in the 60s and 70s, I was receptive in my youth to the Democratic Party’s rhetoric of racial inclusion. I practiced affirmative action in my law firm in the 80s and became a party official; but almost from the beginning of my political activism there was some unease with my liberal associations.

Fellow democrats giggled about an empire Reagan correctly denounced as evil; ignored the success of tax cuts; and hired mostly white paralegals. As a very young county party chairman I was appalled at hostility to people of faith by my party elders, as well as the unfair demonization of Republicans as racist and uncaring for the poor.

I admit at this time that I suffered from extreme, classic Democratic Party class envy and that later on, my reluctance to change parties while still in my hometown was due partly to this and cowardice, but I couldn’t deny that among the legal community and members of my church, it was invariably mostly the Republicans that actually hired blacks.

Then I heard the Wonder of Rush, and Mike Gallagher on 950 WORD-AM. I had already been softened up by the hypocrisy of fellow democrats, but it was a joyous revelation to hear conservative republicans denounce outright racists live on Talk Radio, as Gallagher did almost on a daily basis.

Rush didn’t seem to get many calls from racists, and so didn’t have such opportunities, and most of my democrat friends denounced Rush as a bigot. At this time in the early 90s, I disagreed with Rush on most issues, but simply could not turn the radio away from his show for more than 15 seconds after a fit of anger.

There was something about Rush’s attitude that fascinated me, and it took two incidents that occurred within a single week to open my eyes to a truth that would change my life.

I was a prolific criminal defense trial lawyer and so had a lot of contact with police officers. One day, while at the City Police Department, I made an offhand comment to a black female sergeant that assumed she was a Democrat. I was an official with the county party at the time. The Sergeant rebuked me with a kind of righteous indignation that had never been directed at me by anyone I didn’t call Daddy.

Later that week, I attended an event promoting the Rush Limbaugh Show, with Mike Gallagher hosting a special appearance by Bo Snerdly, Rush Limbaugh’s longtime business partner, silent sidekick on the air, and call screener.

The moment I saw Snerdly, I understood what it was about Rush that so appealed to me. I was already kind of alone among my democrat friends in defending Rush against charges of racism, and wondered why he didn’t defend himself more, and then I saw Snerdly and immediately understood this man called Rush, because I saw something in him that saw in my father and, dare I say, in me.

I never had known that Snerdly was black. Rush never mentioned that fact despite all the libel and slander against him and despite the fact that he regularly spoke back and forth with Snerdly (not heard) about such charges on the air.

Rush was secure in the truth, and looking back on the EIB experience, I realized that what so appealed to me about Rush was that he treated all people the same, no matter the race. Race was irrelevant.

Rush was the embodiment of the character content, color-blind dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. that became my dream in my youth.

So it is with great sadness that I see a man whose complete absence of racism made me receptive to his conservative message, is now vilified by the ignorant and the vile, as the antithesis.

It is with great sadness that I see otherwise brilliant journalists like Jason Whitlock rely upon unreliable sources for despicable false quotes rather than fact-check, or, pray tell, actually call Rush before going to press.

But I also know that it is not the recently released false quotes that are at the heart of the faux uproar attending a possible purchase of the St. Louis Rams. The fake quotes were first posted on line in 2005. Rush has been vilified since 1988 for accurate quotes, either taken out of context, or completely misunderstood. But the main reason for the uproar is that liberals see conservatism itself as racist or, rather, a threat to their own racism cloaked as compassion.

So, it is with even more sadness that I see ignorance and/or political correctness enforced like Stalinism (without the mass murder) among some NFL owners. One nugget from the Colt’s Irsay is a smoking gun to break through the ignorance, and that is his suggestion that Tony Dungy be asked his opinion of Rush.

Dungy appeared twice on Rush’s show last year!

I am thrilled that Rush is fighting back this time, and am already happy that ESPN’s Michael Wilbon has retracted his objections and Colin Cowherd has defended Rush, as have others.

I am saddened that so many are still so fearful of the PC police that they refuse to acknowledge the obvious meaning of the English language when evaluating Rush’s ESPN description of journalist apologists for McNabb; and that the Today Show left his explanations of the Magic Negro parody and the drive-by ignorance of the school children singing the praises of Barack Hussein Obama, umm, umm, umm.

President Obama’s surrender in the Gates-Harvard affair had given me hope that more white Americans were throwing off the false white guilt post-Obama Inauguration, and joining Rush in the post-racial world he has lived in for most if not all of his life.

I just thank God that heard the voice that embodied MLK’s dream and joined that world with Rush and Martin.

God bless you brother Rush. My prayers are always with you.

More DeVine examinations on race.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Examiner.com and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Originally published @ Examiner.com, where all verification links may be accessed.