You've probably heard that Rush Limbaugh has died, following a struggle with lung cancer (possibly related to his unabashed love of cigars, and bragging about his "nicotine-stained fingers" on the air for years).

I recall when he first began to air on the radio; he seemed an interesting voice for traditional conservative values, which I respect: sometimes funny, sometimes extreme, always a critic of Democrats and something he and others began to call "liberals" (destroying a perfectly good word that'd had a whole different meaning for centuries).

The past two decades, he's seemed to drift into right-wing extremism, even belittling the Trumpists' January 6th invasion of the Capitol. For Rush, Trump could do no wrong, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know about where he ended up. He claimed Covid-19 was "just the common cold, folks" (after all, it's a coronavirus), and, with Trump, undermined the country's response to the pandemic. And climate change: a hoax, of course. He, after all, would know!

I've tuned in to Limbaugh every now and then while driving around during the past four years, turning him off whenever he lied or used a logical fallacy to make his point. Longest period of listening was around three and a half minutes.

All in all, I think this man has done great harm to the country! Many will miss him; I will not. He leaves behind a large number of imitators (Hannity, Levin, Ingraham, Beck) who aren't in his class, but are just as histrionic, misinformed, and demagogic. But, of course, he knows all about that now in the great beyond. . .

What was your impression of Rush Limbaugh?