RUSH: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Jeff, welcome to the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, it’s an honor, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Mega dittos from the golf capital of the world.
RUSH: Yes, sir.
CALLER: I have a prediction. Lookie here. When we start this bailout thing, I believe it’s going to end when we have to start bailing out the states. Down here in the South we’re tired of bailing out Detroit and all these liberal Dems are driving the states right into the ground. I just don’t think we’re going to have — There’s nothing in it for us to bail out any state.
RUSH: Well, yeah, I will believe this when I see it. I know that there are a lot of… Don’t misunderstand. I know there are a lot of Americans just livid about what’s going on, but I’m not so sure they’re the majority right now. If we’re to conduct a genuine, scientific, full-fledged national poll, I’m a little bit alarmed what the results would be. Because we are in a recession and people tend to get very personal in recessions. It’s all about them, and when you’ve lost your job, what else should it be about? If somebody’s coming along is a pied piper and has this flowery tongue lingo who’s gonna make it better… See, the thing about Obama is he’s actually telling people how bad it is and how much worse it’s gonna get — and that’s also scary. Presidents inspire. ‘But, Rush, he’s gotta be honest.’ Yeah, you can be honest, but you can inspire people because it isn’t Obama, and it’s not ‘Bawny Fwenk,’ and it’s none of the other people that they’ve named that are going to bring us out of this recession.
It’s going to be us, and people are not self-starters. People have to be motivated. People have to be inspired. If you can inspire ’em, they’ll do it. You tell people they’re capable of more than they think they can do, and they’ll go about trying to prove it. High expectations is a great motivational tactic. He’s doing the exact opposite. He’s making sure people sit around and do nothing but wait. He’s making it sound hopeless. ‘If we don’t do this instantly, or soon…’ We’ve heard this for the past three months with every damn one of these bailouts. ‘We’ve got to do it now. It’s a crisis! We can’t wait.’ So, we’ll see. Snerdley is in your camp. He thinks that after a while, enough people are going to be affected by this, that they’re gonna turn on Obama and the Democrats. I think that’s going to happen, too, at some point, but, believe me, the media is going to be working against that proposition. They’re going to be trying to convince as many people as possible things are getting better, even if only marginally, while they’re not.
Amanda in Atlanta. Great to have you on Open Line Friday. Welcome.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. You know, your show focuses so heavily on the blunders and hypocrisies of the liberals, and that’s very entertaining. But you know the things that are right with the conservative movement, the rising stars — I grant you there’s not a lot of material there, but — it is still such fear and instills so much rage in the liberals that I would love to see more from that angle. Because, one, I think you can make it terribly entertaining; and two, I can’t believe that everyone with a conservative philosophy in government is just going to sit back and watch all this.
RUSH: Okay, so what is the…? As Larry King would say (angrily), ‘What’s the question?’
CALLER: The question is, I would like to see on your show more about what is right with the conservative movement, as opposed to just what’s wrong with the liberals. Because I can actually, being a longtime listener, I can talk more about what’s wrong with the liberals than talk about what the conservatives are doing right today.
RUSH: Okay. Uh, name me a conservative you think is doing something right, in elective office or in the media.
CALLER: Well, I said —
RUSH: Aside from me.
CALLER: (giggles) I said rising stars. I think Jeb Bush and Sarah Palin.
RUSH: Jeb Bush just took himself out of the running for the Senate seat in Florida, Mel Martinez, that opens up in 2010.
CALLER: He’ll be back.
RUSH: Well, maybe so, but we don’t know when.
CALLER: He’s got the philosophy. He’s got the name. It’s just a matter of timing.
RUSH: The name, right now, is not helpful.
CALLER: Hmm. Well, Palin.
RUSH: She’ll be there. I praise Sarah Palin.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: I do. This is what I don’t understand.
CALLER: Well!
RUSH: This program is an outpost. My newsletter and website are go-to places for the exposure, the explanation, the selling, the love of conservatism. That’s what this program is all about. By criticizing liberalism, by explaining it, I at the same time present the alternative. Right before I took your call, I gave a great illustration of what a conservative mind-set is all about. It’s about inspiring people, motivating them. It’s not about depressing them. It’s not about having them sit on their rear ends.
CALLER: But who are the people besides you?
RUSH: This program’s a one-stop shop. It does all that you would want it to do. This program’s suggestion, my suggestion of Bobby Jindal —
CALLER: Yeah. Okay.
RUSH: — is one of the reasons why he was being touted as a possible VP for McCain back then and why he’s now on the short list for the Republican presidential nomination. So I am somewhat at a loss here.
CALLER: (giggles) But day after day we don’t hear Bobby Jindal’s name. We hear the angle of what’s wrong with them as opposed to what’s right with us —
RUSH: Well, I — (sigh)
CALLER: (interrupting) — and you speak in concepts, but you only talk about the people! I mean, and I rely on your show for education at that, you know, at that level.
RUSH: Then I don’t understand your complaint. This program is better for your education than any college class —
CALLER: I agree.
RUSH: — than any high school four-year class. (sigh)
CALLER: (crosstalk)
RUSH: It just so happens here, it just so happens that our friends, the liberals, happen to be in power. They’re the ones that are the architects of the next two years, or perhaps even more, of the country’s future.
CALLER: Yeah, but you gotta plant the seeds now, and if you plant the seeds by keeping the liberals off balance, by keeping in their face what we’re doing right, and being confident and proud one half we’re doing right… I mean, I’m so — I’m so proud of my —
RUSH: Let me… You know, I’m sorry here, Amanda, but there is a time to be polite and there’s a time to be assertive, and I want to be assertive. I always talk about what’s right about conservatism. I always talk about the conservative principles that are out there. That’s not the same as talking up the GOP, which is still led by moderates and appeasers, and I’m not going to talk up the GOP when it’s not led by conservatives! It’s the party that has to change, Amanda, not me. It’s the party that has to change, not the voters. If they want to win elections, conservatives have to get hold of that party.