Trump giving Rush Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom was controversial — and fitting

When President Donald Trump bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on ailing right-wing, talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh at the State of the Union, it wasn’t just a feel-good moment for his conservative base. It was also a gesture of thanks to a (fellow) media personality who helped set the stage for Trump’s astonishing political success. Limbaugh’s brash and boorish persona, and his belief that white, male cultural centrality is, to quote the title of Limbaugh's first book, “the way things ought to be," paved the way for the political rise of the bombastic media performer currently sitting in the Oval Office.