Why Do People Listen to Rush Limbaugh? Sex.

There are many reasons why people listen to Rush Limbaugh. His primary demographic of older white men tend to be conservative and enjoy hearing another older white male talk about what is wrong with the country from their perspective. However, there is another unique feature Rush consciously weaves into his show which is this underlying sexual innuendo.

I started listening to Rush Limbaugh when he was on KFBK in Sacramento in the ’80’s. Even then he engendered constant controversy. While I don’t listen to him much today, his mixture of politics and sex is still successful. What is the appeal of Rush Limbaugh? Rush verbalizes the prurient thoughts of his predominantly white male audience.

Even 20 years ago I found his radio show not to be “family friendly”. I actually thought it rather odd that so many Christian fundamentalist like listenting to Rush when talks about taboo topics. Rush often times discusses sexual topics that children, if they are present in the car or house, should not be exposed to. He is actually contributing to the early sexualization of our children.

If there happens to be a sexual scandal involving anyone (atheletes, politicians, entertainers) Rush will talk and giggle about it for days. Rush never misses an opportunty to bring up a local story highlighting the sexual deviation or miscalculation of some poor person caught in his or her own trap. He likes talking about sex (gay, straight, orgies, beastiality) and his audience likes listening to it. Of course, Rush always couches the sex content within the framework of, “This is what’s wrong with America”

In my conversations with other men, they would often chuckle at the topics and the language Rush used. Rush is able to say in public what they can not. He makes it easy for other men to discuss sexual issues under the guise of, “Did you hear what Rush said?” In this manner, Rush is able to legitimize some of their own sexual fantasies.

So it was with no great surprise to me that Rush called Sandra Fluke a slut and a prostitute. It is the fantasy of many of his old white listeners to be with a young woman. However, the pictures and actions of Sandra Fluke clearly contradict Rush’s depiction of her. Even his listeners, or white male advertisers, could not contemplate having sex with someone that looked like their daughter. Hence, he was left to flop like a fish out of water until he issued a statement Saturday saying “… I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation…”

Regardless of how many advertisers Rush Limbaugh loses, he will not stop talking about sex and calling women sluts, prostitutes and for those women who would never have sex with his audience members, Feminazis. That’s what his audience wants to hear: sex.