1) Following Rush's commentary through the past 20 years is reflective of what I think very many of us went through.

He was, like so many of us, trusting of our government, thinking that because HE had an elevated view of America, they would too.

2) You could see it in his defense of the Iraq War, and President Bush. Certainly he has the best of intentions for the US, we all thought.

3) He began a slow change when Donald Trump came on the scene in 2015.

4) While I wouldn't say Rush was on the Trump bandwagon immediately, he came around faster than almost any other major public commentator, to the pint that by early 2016 he was explaining to his audiences why Trump would win the nomination.

5) Like some of us, perhaps not all, Rush was shocked and hugely disappointed that the "traditional" Republicans he had supported and spoke for for so long abandoned Trump and the US.

6) It wasn't until 2020 that Rush would even criticize the other squish Republican neverTrumpers and he never named names.

(I would have: I would have slammed those turdbuckets good---but that was why Rush succeeded. He always took the high road)

7) By 2019 or so, you could hear in Rush's commentary that he had---like so many of us---come to distrust every single institution in our government.

8) It really was a case of "Love my country, but dislike most of my government."

9) Rush's journey in this kept all of us with him. He wasn't just regurgitating things that focus groups or audience surveys told him: he was LEADING much of the audience shift to be suspicious about our corrupt institutions.

10) Most important of all, whereas years ago Rush by his own words had a kind of arms-length relationship with God, in his last four or five years he openly acknowledged his relationship with the Lord Jesus.

11) Rush went from someone who knew about God to someone who knew Jesus personally.

12) There is no question right now where Rush is.

13) The talks you and Bill Buckley and J. R. R. Tolkien must be having right at this moment, Rush . . . .