RUSH: Here is Dewayne. He’s seventeen years old in northeast Ohio. It’s nice to have you on the program, ‘Wayne.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. I’d like to start off by saying I’ve been listening to you since I was three years old. I’m quite the veteran here.
RUSH: A Rush baby!
CALLER: Yeah. How about that, huh? I’m calling to… I’d like to note the liberal influence on teenagers now, because I watch MTV for the music, okay? And they’re all about, ‘Well, we need teenagers to vote,’ and we need this, that, and the other thing. ‘We need young people to vote and be politically active,’ but there’s no conservative influence. There’s no balance about it. Nobody wants to say the conservatives have some good ideas.
RUSH: Hey, Dewayne? You are 17?
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: I want to applaud you at your age noticing this. What I also want to tell you is, I’m 56. I remember when MTV started back in 1980 or something —
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: — and it’s always been what it is. These get-out-the-vote efforts, these Rock the Votes and all, they’ve been doing this probably since Clinton, in ’92.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: I’m glad you noticed it. What you need to learn is: That’s who they are, and that’s what it is, and it isn’t going to change. Did you happen to see the story yesterday that some people went out and talked to some students at New York University and asked them what they would take to give up the right to vote forever?
CALLER: I heard about that. An iPod Touch or a free ride to college.
RUSH: Okay. Well, what was interesting about that, an iPod Touch or for a free ride to college, I think any number of things to give up the right to vote.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: The way to look at that is it’s why these MTV Rock the Vote things never work. They may register these young kids, but they don’t go out and vote. When you turn 18 and register to vote, you’re going to be among the exceptions. They get all excited about the civics of registering and so forth, but Election Day, they don’t show up in the same numbers that they have registered. It always is a bust. Last year, or 2004, the Democrat convention, Sean Ditty Combs, whatever, had a voter registration. ‘Vote or Die’ was on the T-shirt, and these guys do it again just to get great press, and, ‘Look how much they care about the country!’ But the young demographic doesn’t show up, at least the Democrat side doesn’t. You’ll be unique. Thanks for the call.