How Rush Limbaugh Stole Thanksgiving

Limbaugh has photoshopped himself into American history and claimed our national holiday

When it was released in 2013, Rush Limbaugh’s kids’ book “Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims” (Simon & Schuster) zoomed to the tops of bestseller lists where it remained for months. Indeed, by 2014, Limbaugh’s sales figures were so extraordinary that the Children’s Book Council named him their Author of the Year. That may have been too small an honor. Who knew we should thank Limbaugh for Thanksgiving itself?

In “Brave Pilgrims,” it is difficult to distinguish between the author (Rush Limbaugh) and the story’s hero (Rush Revere). That seems deliberate. Besides sharing a name used throughout the book, whenever an illustration of the story’s hero appears, a photo of Limbaugh’s face is superimposed upon the drawing. Another thing. In an odd anachronism, Rush is pictured in a tricorn hat–referencing either the considerably later period of the American Revolution or our current era and Tea Party politics.

In an event, in this zany novel for adolescents, Rush Revere (the character) is a substitute history teacher at Manchester Middle School and he enlivens his lessons by means of time travel. Making use of a flying horse named Liberty, this educator and two students teleport to the past…