{"id":14160,"date":"2012-10-25T17:49:36","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T17:49:36","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-02-23T16:25:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T21:25:36","slug":"i_m_an_optimist_not_a_fatalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2012\/10\/25\/i_m_an_optimist_not_a_fatalist\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m an Optimist, Not a Fatalist"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: So I took a gander at the Rush 24\/7 e-mail. I\u2019m stunned at how fatalistic people are. I am stunned at how negative, defeatist, and — you wouldn\u2019t believe the number of people, “Rush, she\u2019s right. You don\u2019t have a ground game to keep up with their fraud. You gotta tell people to get out there every day.” What have I been doing?<\/p>\n

You ever heard of FreedomWorks? The Freedom Connector? How many times, I practically say it in my sleep, you want to do more than vote, you want to — people always ask this — how many times have I talked about this? You want to do more than vote, you want to answer phones, you want to get together with people in your neighborhood, in your community, who want to do more, you want to find out who they are, go to the FreedomWorks website, FreedomConnector.com. Largest Tea Party group out there, doing everything they can to get people involved.<\/p>\n

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I have told people repeatedly, when you see somebody standing in line at the grocery store, somebody you don\u2019t know, tell \u2019em to vote, tell \u2019em who to vote for, tell \u2019em why. I just happen to believe that optimism is a much better way to inspire and motivate people than fatalism is. I can just tell you this. When I\u2019m around a bunch of defeated fatalists I turn it off and I run the other way. I don\u2019t want any part of it. I don\u2019t want to even talk to them. I don\u2019t want them dragging me down to wherever it is they live. How did Ronald Reagan motivate? <\/a> Yeah, he was constantly negative, constantly fatalistic, he was always warning people. The thing about Reagan, he was optimistic, he had good cheer.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, well, these are different times, Rush.”<\/p>\n

Yeah, they\u2019re different times, they\u2019re our times. But there are certain aspects of human nature that don\u2019t change. I\u2019m also not gonna look good news in the face and not believe it. I just don\u2019t do this. I\u2019m not a person who is afraid of success. I never have been. I\u2019m not somebody that says that success happening to me is not deserved and then proceed to destroy it. I\u2019m also not dishonest. So I\u2019m not gonna sit here and tell you that I think all is lost until I think it is.<\/p>\n

But I tell you, reading some of the e-mail, I can\u2019t believe how many people think it\u2019s over, we have no choice, because of all the fraud, because of the media, because how much they\u2019re gonna cheat, the Democrats are so much better than we are, the Republican establishment\u2019s not in the game, they don\u2019t care, it\u2019s only the Tea Party. How did 2010 happen? There was nobody organizing anything in 2010. How did it happen? A bunch of people who weren\u2019t gonna put up with it anymore. I think you\u2019d be amazed at the number of self-starters there are in this country.<\/p>\n

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One thing that\u2019s always amazed me about people on our side is they think they\u2019re in a vacuum. They\u2019ll watch the news, they\u2019ll see media bias, think nobody else sees it, think everybody else is fooled by it. They\u2019re out working answering phones or knocking on doors, think nobody else is, they\u2019re the only one doing it. They gotta get everybody else involved. Things are not optimal here. I could list the things that all of us wish we could improve on, but we can\u2019t improve on any of them. There are certain things we\u2019re stuck with here and there are certain things that we have to make the best of. There are other things that can be changed or can be worked on. And those are being worked on.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not in my nature to come in here and start bleeding on all of you and tell you how, “Oh, woe, is us. Oh, geez, they\u2019re better than we are. Oh, I don\u2019t think we have much of a chance, oh, this or that.” It\u2019s just not my nature. I\u2019m not consumed with negativism or fatalism or defeatism. I\u2019m very uncomfortable even faking it to make a point for fear that people are gonna believe me. I don\u2019t even want to go there. One thing I know is, it is easy to be fatalistic. It is easy to be negative. It is easy to be defeatist.<\/p>\n

Nobody has to write a book to tell you how to do any of that. Nobody has to write a book to tell you how to fail. We all know how to do that. But the guys that write books on the power of positive thinking become multimillionaires, because it\u2019s hard. The people that write books on how to be successful and make a lot of money, because it\u2019s hard. It\u2019s not something that apparently comes naturally. Not everybody is oriented towards it. It\u2019s much easier to be pessimistic. When you\u2019re pessimistic you can explain away a lot of things. Being optimistic also requires a commitment. By the same token, people who are falsely optimistic, who refuse to see reality, and there\u2019s a term for people like this: rose-colored glasses. That irritates me just as much as the people on the other side.<\/p>\n

If you want me to tell you that I don\u2019t see how we have a chance here, folks, the deck is so stacked against us, I\u2019m sorry, I can\u2019t do that. That\u2019s not how I feel about this. It\u2019s not what I think about it. This is why I make a big deal out of the fact that I am the mayor of Realville. And that\u2019s also a place with a small population. That\u2019s why I could be elected mayor. There aren\u2019t any other voters. I\u2019m it. But I don\u2019t understand why, when there are reasons for optimism, you want to ignore \u2019em. I totally understand the psychology of, “Well, Rush, it\u2019s better to play from two points behind.”<\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t know anybody who thinks this is in the can. I don\u2019t know anybody who thinks this is in the bag. I don\u2019t know anybody who doesn\u2019t care about it. I don\u2019t know anybody who thinks this is over and that we\u2019re winning it. I don\u2019t know anybody who\u2019s decided to forget it because it\u2019s over, we\u2019re winning. I don\u2019t know anybody. All I know is people who care about this more than anything they\u2019ve ever cared about in their lives. Starting in 2009 when the guy was inaugurated, it peaked in 2010. In fact, I don\u2019t think it has peaked. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s changed from 2010 to today, in terms of the things that turned people out in 2010, the things that scared them, the things they opposed, what\u2019s changed? It\u2019s only gotten worse.<\/p>\n

The architects of the disaster have only kept doing the same things that got everybody scared and angry in the first place. The debt is higher. The number of people in poverty is higher. The number of people on food stamps is higher. Unemployment has not improved. There hasn\u2019t been any improvement. I don\u2019t understand why it\u2019s automatically concluded, then, that people are getting lazy. But I can tell you this. When it comes to motivating and inspiring people, I think optimism does far more than pessimism does. Pessimism, by definition, is defeatism, and with defeatism comes loss and a feeling of there\u2019s nothing you can do, so why do anything? Optimism creates just the exact opposite. It\u2019s gotta be genuine and real. But there are reasons for that. And there are also reasons for concern. And I don\u2019t know anybody who\u2019s taking anything for granted here.<\/p>\n