RUSH: There’s more information in the NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll. Fifty-four percent disapprove of the job that Obama is doing. That’s a 40% approval rating. In addition, the poll reveals that an all-time record of 76% of Americans do not believe that their kids’ lives will be better than their own. Almost as many respondents, 71% believe the US is headed in the wrong direction. That was 63% just a month ago. Sixty percent believe the direction is plunging downward. This is stunning. Seventy-six percent of Americans.

I think it’s worse than this because I think there’s something not stated here. Seventy-six percent of Americans do not believe their kids’ lives will be better. And I will bet you that almost every one of those 76% don’t see a solution to this, either. I’ll bet that you there is an abject futility out there. I think people are just at their wits’ end with what to do about this. I’m going to attempt to explain why, and I’m going to do that by sharing with you an e-mail my brother, David, received. He is an essayist. He writes columns and books and so forth.

He had a recent column on something and a woman read the column and responded to it, and she poses some questions that I think demonstrate the utter futility that people feel. It’s a very long letter. I’m gonna have to excerpt it. I do not have permission to mention her name, so I won’t. She signed it, she mentioned her name, but I’ll not mention that ’til I find out it’s okay.

“Dear Mr. Limbaugh.” It’s to my brother. “Your essays are always a joy to read –” almost as fun as listening to your brother’s radio show. She didn’t really say that. I just threw that in ’cause I know she meant it. “– not only for your insight and your conservative views, but also because of your excellent command of the English language,” which I’m sure you learned from your brother, “and which I promote and proudly teach.” She didn’t say that. I just threw that in.

“Those of us who shy away from public forums on current events for fear of retribution — think IRS targeted conservatives, for example — are grateful for your writing and are happy to have you speak for us. Now, in your recent column: ‘Democrats, the Constitution and the Rule of Law,’ you state we have an entire political party in liberal media that grossly under-appreciate our unique constitutional system of government and are so blinded by their ideological goal, that they have no problem virtually conspiring with this lawless president in trampling the Constitution and the rule of law to serve his and their ends.

“As I have observed these abuses, if not outright crimes and misdemeanors, go on with impunity for the past six years, I’m left with questions, simplistic though they may, that I haven’t been able to find adequate answers to. First, are there now or have there ever been provisions in the Constitution for the enforcement of laws? Some laws seem to be strictly enforced, others arbitrarily enforced, and others overlooked completely. Does the fact that no administration before has blatantly disregarded the Constitution as well as some cherished traditions, does that mean that no one else ever tested the waters?

“Have we just been lucky that Idi Amin Dada or Hugo Chavez or the like haven’t been elected here? Or has the country been on the honor system all these years? Although even on the honor system, there are penalties for breaking the rules. If indeed their penalties for breaking the rules, who’s charged with assigning them? Who’s charged with enforcing them? Is there someone or some office derelict in its duty?”

What she’s asking here is, does our Constitution protect us in case we have somebody like Obama elected? She’s experiencing futility here. There is a wanton disregard for the Constitution and she doesn’t know what to do and what anybody else is doing about it. And she’s asking, okay, here we are in 2014, we’re 238 years old. Is it just luck that we haven’t had a blatant Chavez-like dictator take over this country? Or is it something in the Constitution that saves us from this?

She says, “Finally, as admirable as it is to stand by one’s principles and not sink to the opposition’s level, how does one prevent a huge defeat if there are no consequences for wrongful actions? If there are no consequences for breaking the law, if there are no consequences for making the law, if there are no consequences for violating the Constitution, then how do you prevent somebody doing it? After all, if only one team plays by the rules, the other team is sure to lose. The team playing by the rules is always gonna lose to the one ignoring the rules. And without any kind of a deterrent, we know that some teams would take advantage and do whatever they had to do to win. So if neither team would observe the rules, then we have total chaos. The obvious conclusion is the rules must be enforced. The questions are, how and why is it not being done?”

Now, I think this little letter that she sends my brother is indicative of a tremendous amount of futility people feel. When you look at this, 76% of Americans don’t believe their kids’ lives will be better than their own, folks, that’s major. This country has been the American dream, which is rooted in our founding and tradition. I mean, what parents try to do is see that their kids have a better life than they do. This has been an objective since this country began. And it’s something that generation to generation has always happened. It’s always been possible. Not every offspring’s done better than parents, but it’s been possible.

Now we have a point in time, 76% of Americans — I can’t tell you the number of people my age who have grandkids who think their grandkids aren’t even gonna have a ghost of a chance to accomplish what they, their grandparents, did. Some people are more worried about their grandkids’ future than their kids’ future, but still there’s concern for both. But when you have an all-time record high of 76%, and it’s a real number, it’s based on real, live, at-present events and attitudes — I also believe that in addition to 76% of Americans not thinking their kids are gonna do better than their own, they also don’t think there’s gonna be any change in that. And I think that is illustrated in this e-mail, “Who enforces the rules when one team is out breaking them? “

Is it the honor system all these years that’s kept people respecting the Constitution? Is it fear of punishment for breaking the law that’s kept people honest? What is it that has made the rule of law triumph for all of these years, all these decades in this country? It’s a great question. I think a lot of people are asking this. I think this comes close to summing up the desperation or futility or just everybody’s hands in the air and saying, “What do we do?”

And part of the problem, obviously, is that the other team, the Republicans, are trying to make everybody think they’re gonna play by the rules, “Oh, yeah, we love you, we’re not what.” And I’ve always said the aggressor in any conflict sets the rules. Whatever the rules are don’t matter. What the aggressor does are the new set of rules. And if you don’t respond to ’em, you’re going to lose.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This Judy in Cincinnati. You’re up first today, and thank you for calling. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I’m calling about the lady’s letter to your brother, David.

RUSH: Yes?

CALLER: There is another example, and that was Andrew Jackson. He disregarded the courts — the Supreme Court — who said he could not move the Indians out of Georgia. But he did it anyway and said, “Let’s see ’em enforce it.” So our Founders counted on people being honorable, and the Constitution has no recourse if they’re not, and Obama is following the Andrew Jackson mode.

RUSH: Well, this is, sadly, folks, closer to true than it isn’t. The honor system — and that may be a strange way to put it. But if you read the Federalist Papers… Not very many people do, and I doubt very many people will. The Federalist Papers were written basically to explain how the Constitution came to be and the thinking behind it and to persuade people to accept it and support it. Throughout the Federalist Papers, you read of the importance of character and honor in the president —

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: — and the character and honor of elected officials as the backbone of the rule of law. The rule of law requires respect for the law. And, you know, it’s kind of scary, Judy, to tell people that the country’s hanging by such a single, narrow thread as the honor system.

CALLER: That’s right.

RUSH: But the only recourse that lawlessness in the executive has is impeachment, which is why I have really spoken out against the Republicans taking it off the table. I’ve not urged them to do it at the moment, but to take it off the table is essentially telling criminals in any endeavor that you’re gonna close down the police department in a town and there’s not gonna be anybody enforcing any law there. It’s a do-what-you-want free ticket.

CALLER: That’s correct. But Republicans see what happened to them after Bill Clinton was impeached, and they’re never gonna try it again unless there is a massive uprising among the people demanding it.

RUSH: Well, what did happen to the Republicans after Clinton was impeached?

CALLER: Well, a lot of them lost their positions, especially the man from California who led the effort. Rogan? I forget what his name was.

RUSH: James Rogan, you’re right. But Lindsey Graham, who was a House manager, is now senator from South Carolina.

CALLER: Well, that’s South Carolina. (laughing)

RUSH: (laughing) Now, come on! That’s typical Ohio hubris.

CALLER: (chuckling)

RUSH: You people think the country revolves around you because of the presidential election every four years.

CALLER: That’s correct! We determine it. (laughing)

RUSH: (laughing) You do. You actually do. Well, no, but that is the answer to the question. So the fact that we have never had… See, a Hugo Chavez could not get elected here. Obama could not have gotten elected in this country if he had campaigned on what he was gonna do. His approval numbers prove it. The polling data that we have now is a great indication that the American people don’t want any part of this.

They don’t want any part of this kind of statism, this type of presidency. But that’s where the futility is. That’s where I think there’s just an incomprehensible amount of futility among people in this country. They don’t know what to do about it. Public opinion doesn’t matter in this case anymore. It seems to always have mattered in the past. It seems public opinion always used to shape events. It doesn’t seem to, anymore.