At the end of last October, Rush Limbaugh published his first book in well over a decade.  But it wasn’t a book on political thought, or even a book for adults.  No, what Rush had done was far more interesting and powerful.  You see, Rush Limbaugh wrote a children’s book, which was aimed at a target audience of 8  to 12 year olds.

Limbaugh has now released a second book in his new series, which features Rush Revere, an American history teacher, and his time-traveling horse Liberty, an 18th century steed who inexplicably ended up in the 21st century, and has a range of interesting abilities… not the least of which is talking.  

The first book has proved to be so popular that it ended up on bestseller lists, and now has earned a spot as a finalist in the Children’s Book Council’s Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards.  Cue the predictable outrage that Rush Limbaugh might actually win an award for a children’s book.  The Children’s Book Council had to post an official letter on their website and Facebook page, stating:

The Author of the Year and Illustrator of the Year finalists are determined solely based on titles’ performances on the bestseller lists – all titles in those categories are listed as a result of this protocol. Some of you have voiced concerns over the selection of finalists from bestseller lists, which you feel are potentially-manipulable indications of the success of a title. We can take this into consideration going forward, but cannot change our procedure for selecting finalists after the fact.

So, yes, Rush Limbaugh now has a shot at winning an award for writing a children’s book.  A pretty darn good children’s book, I might add.  I “borrowed” my daughter’s copy and read it for myself.  She is still reading it – she’s one of  those people who can have five books going at once, which drives me crazy because I have never wanted to do that; I always finish a book before starting a new one – but she likes it.  And a lot of other kids have liked it.

This simply continues the trend of conservative books long dominating bestseller lists.  In fact, this has been going on for years – and the left has been whining about it and making excuses for it for years.  It makes the left look bad when conservative books are on bestseller lists.  Liberals want to – nay, need to – believe that conservatives are ignorant and uneducated.  The liberal dominance of academia gives them a sense of superiority – as if they have the corner on the intelligence market.  To have multiple books by multiple conservative (or, as Bill O’Reilly prefers to call himself, “traditional”) authors consistently dominating the non-fiction market is something that can’t be ignored.  If it was just one personality that was selling books, that could be explained away as “just the followers buying it.”  But it’s not just Rush – who hadn’t published a book since 1993 until this one.  It’s Mark Levin.  It’s Charles Krauthammer.  It’s Bill O’Reilly.  And many others.

And now Rush is gaining a foothold in children’s books.  And children are reading his books.  And liking his books.

No wonder the left is freaking out.  Goodness knows, we can’t have a generation of independent readers and thinkers.  Why, that would be… dangerous.