![]() When I moved back home at the turn of the century, that version of liberalism was gone and the current version-with all its meanness, hate, and shut-uppery-was on the rise. This seemed to me the proper liberal point of view. He and others like him should be allowed to have their say. It was voices like Limbaugh’s that were being unfairly silenced and excluded. I wrote her a note telling her I thought she was in the wrong. She said that she would never agree to handle a book by this new radio personality Rush Limbaugh because of the no-good, very-bad conservative things he stood for. One day, for instance, I read a comment in a London paper by a famous New York literary agent, a friend of mine. Distant from day-to-day American politics, I was not even aware that my position on the ideological spectrum had changed. I was out of the country during Rush’s rise to fame, an expatriate in England for most of the nineties. So good even my father who hated him had to admit he was the best in the business. But he’s the best man with a microphone since you.” Rush was not just evil himself, he was the cause of evil in others, an omen of American fascism, a harbinger of the collapse of everything true and beautiful. One day, as we were chatting about the radio business, he unleashed on Limbaugh big time. All conservatives were one step away from Hitler as far as my father was concerned. He was a liberal-of the old style, back when liberals were liberal, not like now. He was good, very good, as good as any broadcaster I’ve ever heard. My father was a famous disc jockey in New York. ![]() ![]() I think back now on our long phone conversation, and I’m glad I got to tell him this story. He was-as anyone who knew him will tell you-quiet, intelligent, self-effacing. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |