Rush Limbaugh and the Problem of the Color Line

"What's next, folks," queried radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh on his October 31, 2011, program. "A cartoon on MSNBC showing Herman Cain with huge lips eating a watermelon?"¹ Limbaugh was incensed over a story published in Politico that recounted how Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain had been accused of sexual harassment in the 1990s when he was chair of the National Restaurant Association. Limbaugh characterized the report as indulging in the "ugliest racial stereotypes" and posited that it "tells us who the real racists are."² In the days to follow, Limbaugh would amplify how the Cain story shed light on the true purveyors of racism in the United States—the liberals and the mainstream media who were conspiring to destroy conservatives of color, the very existence of whom threatens the "plantation" mentality that structures liberal politics.³ Although Limbaugh's response to the sexual harassment charges would circulate in the mainstream press, his charges of racism becoming a key part of the Cain story, for weeks he already had been commenting on Cain's candidacy as evidence of what he had been preaching for twenty years: liberals are the "biggest bigots among us all," and prominent, successful black conservatives are proof positive that conservatism is the best prescription for racial justice in the United States.⁴

Though often dismissed as "racist," and thus unworthy of critical attention, Limbaugh's position on race has been an important part of the reimagining of injury and discrimination, and of the rescripting of the civil rights movement, central to conservative politics since the Reagan era. On his radio program, as well as in his monthly newsletter, Limbaugh has circulated a neoconservative position on race that conflates racism with race consciousness and color blindness with racial progress. Although Limbaugh has been gleefully derisive toward other social movements of the 1960s, especially feminism and environmentalism, he has claimed the mantle of civil rights for conservatives. This assertion has been evinced by his close ties to black conservatives, who at once legitimate his assessment of discrimination and harm; demonstrate through their life stories the interrelationship of conservatism and racial progress; and ostensibly disprove the charge that conservatives in general, and Limbaugh specifically, are racist.

Limbaugh started his career in broadcasting as a Top 40 disc jockey spinning records under the pseudonyms Rusty Sharpe and Jeff Christie.⁵ In 1984, he replaced shock jock Morton Downey Jr. on KFBK in Sacramento, California, where he developed his outspoken conservative views and his bombastic on-air persona; it was at KFBK that he dubbed himself "El Rushbo" and created his Excellence in Broadcasting (EIB) Network.⁶ In 1988, he moved to New York, where he agreed to broadcast a one-hour local show on WABC for free in exchange for a national program carried by the ABC Radio Network. By 1990, Limbaugh had the most-listened-to radio talk show in the United States. His popularity accelerated in the 1990s, when he extended his franchise to include the publication of the monthly magazine The Limbaugh Letter, two best-selling books, and a syndicated half-hour television series produced by Roger Ailes that lasted for four years. Limbaugh's popularity survived a 2003 scandal over his addiction to and alleged illegal acquisition of prescription drugs, and in 2008 he signed an eight-year contract with Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel, for $4 million, for which he received a $1 million signing bonus. As of 2009, he boasted a weekly audience of around twenty million listeners.⁷ Even though Limbaugh's ratings declined in May 2011, he continues to be the top-rated radio talk-show host and to be recognized as a powerful voice within conservative politics.⁸

In 1992, Ronald Reagan dubbed Limbaugh the "No. 1 voice in American conservatism," and Limbaugh himself has not been shy about touting his own importance. Limbaugh defeats liberal arguments with "half [his] brain tied behind [his] back," and he preaches conservatism using his "talent on loan from God."⁹ Since he took to the national airwaves in 1988, "El Rushbo" has...