{"id":21597,"date":"2003-08-06T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T07:20:11","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T07:20:11","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T07:20:11","slug":"my_first_and_last_campaign_speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2003\/08\/06\/my_first_and_last_campaign_speech\/","title":{"rendered":"My First and Last Campaign Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

You see these trucks all over town. I\u2019m sure you do in your own city. But what is this? The reason why people in the AFL-CIO or anybody else, when they\u2019re out of work, turns to the government for jobs is an illustration of exactly what I said yesterday. Liberals have created these circumstances where problems do not get solved, and people keep complaining about them, and the more mucked up these things get the better the liberals like it. Blame it all on the Republicans, spend more money to fix it, it\u2019s still never ending cycle. It never gets fixed. It\u2019s just pathetic. What, I have no compassion? Let me tell you something: this is the epitome of compassion. <\/line>This is one thing that frustrates me beyond all get-out. It is the epitome of compassion to suggest that somebody has the wherewithal, the ability to do things for themselves. To inspire that, to try to motivate that, is the epitome of compassion. What are we going to do? “Oh, I feel so sorry you\u2019re out of work!” and these nine Democratic candidates are supposed to get you a job? The reason they\u2019re running for office is they themselves don\u2019t have jobs, and they\u2019re looking for a job, and they\u2019re depending on everybody else to give them votes to get the job. <\/line>And you turn to these people to help you? I can understand this if we were a socialist, communist country, but we\u2019re a free-market-based economy. I guess the whole concept of self-reliance to some people is just foreign. It\u2019s negative and so forth. That\u2019s why, you know, this guy that called C-SPAN suggested that I should be a candidate. I wouldn\u2019t last after my first speech. My first speech and first campaign appearance, I would be drummed out. Some people would like what I said, but I\u2019d be drummed out as insensitive and, as you said, without compassion. I\u2019ll tell you what my campaign speech would be. Either before I\u2019m elected, or after I\u2019m elected, I would say this or something like this:<\/line>“Okay, folks, listen up. I cannot single-handedly lead this country. I cannot single-handedly make this country work. I am not here to hear and listen to what your complaints are. I am not here to answer individual problems and to be the solution to individual problems. That\u2019s not what I\u2019m here for. What I\u2019m here for is to get obstacles out of your way so that you can use whatever talent and ambition you have to become the best you can be – because if that doesn\u2019t happen, the country doesn\u2019t remain great. It is up to you to make the country work; it\u2019s to you to provide the things that you need and you want. It is not up to me, and that\u2019s not going to be my objective. My objective is going to be making sure this nation is protected from foreign attack. Our national security and our military will be priority #1. I\u2019m going to make sure that we fix the education system and get all the kinks worked out of that.”<\/line><\/p>\n

And I\u2019d go on down the list. But the focal point of it all would be: “It isn\u2019t up to me; it\u2019s up to you, just as it always has been.” Now, you can imagine I would be drummed out of a campaign after that speech. That would be the end of me, simply because of the number of people in this country who think the presidency and all of Washington is about solving their problems – and the sad reality is that most problems that exist that these people have in their lives are the result of some government involvement that need not be. Now, there are certain things government can and should do. You know, to protect the general welfare and all that, and national security is chief among them. <\/line>One thing I would do (and I\u2019d get in big trouble for this) if I nominated great people for the federal judiciary, be it the district judges or the appellate judges, after nominating I would fight for them. I wouldn\u2019t sit there letting them twist in the wind, get 15 or 20 votes each to get confirmed but their nomination is denied because there\u2019s a filibuster. If there\u2019s a filibuster, then, damn it, there\u2019s going to be one. These guys are going to stay on the Senate floor 24\/7; they\u2019re going to have speeches about a bunch of stuff. I\u2019m not going to let them have a filibuster just because they say they\u2019re doing one or just because they threaten one. If they\u2019re going to play around like this, they\u2019re going to have to actually do a filibuster. At the same time: nominate these people, then fight for them. <\/line>I would not nominate people and sit around and let their reputations careers and maybe even lives be destroyed by the likes of a bunch of reprobates like Ted Kennedy and Pat Leahy and Chuck Schumer. And, boy, that\u2019s it for me as a result of that. I mean, I would be called insensitive, cold-hearted, cruel, all of these clich?s that people have. One of the reasons I am eternally optimistic is the answer to the questions, “Why does this country keep working? Why is this country the nation\u2019s loan superpower? Why is this country what it is, and why does it remain so?” It\u2019s not because of government, and it isn\u2019t because of government programs.<\/line>I don\u2019t have an animus toward government as an institution. I\u2019m very aware it\u2019s necessary. But the country is great because of our God-given freedom which allows people to pursue the best in themselves. We\u2019re human beings just like everybody else is in the world. We are human beings no different than people living in Liberia, no different than people living in Iraq, no different than the people that lived in the old Soviet Union, no different than the people living in the socialist bastion of European Union. Why do we run rings around them? They\u2019ve been around as cultures and societies thousands of years longer than we have. In less than 225 years, we ruled the world! <\/line><\/p>\n

There\u2019s one reason, and it is the fact that we have enshrined in our founding documents the root of our freedom, and we have enshrined the fact that the yearning to be free is part of the human spirit as created. As such it is acknowledged, it is promoted, it\u2019s triumphed. The problem with government is it gets in the way of this. It assumes that people don\u2019t know what to do with their freedom. “Most people don\u2019t have the wherewithal to make the right decisions in life.” That\u2019s the liberal belief. But my belief is that you never hear about the people that make this country work. They\u2019re not the famous. They\u2019re not the notorious. <\/line>They\u2019re not the people that fill gossip columns and Page 6. They\u2019re simply good old, down-to-earth people who are simply using the greatest opportunity they\u2019ve ever been given any human being has – and that\u2019s to be an American. And if it weren\u2019t for the individuals who are doing whatever it is they do to be the best to whatever degree – the best they can be for their families, for themselves, whatever – then the country wouldn\u2019t be what it is. There\u2019s not one government program that has made this the greatest country in the world other than the defense program, the military, and so forth. That enshrines us, that protects us, and that provides a deterrent to anybody who might want to take action against us. <\/line>But it\u2019s the people of this country who make it work. When I hear more and more people fail to understand that, fail to understand their own potential, fail to understand what it is that they have at their fingertips, at of their disposal, to fix whatever problems exist in their lives and instead turn to some person they don\u2019t even know? Most limitations are self-imposed! Why turn to some person who\u2019s been making promises to fix all these things for years? The problems never get fixed. They never get solved. Why yellow light the same people? Why keep turning to and voting for the same people and keep complaining about the same things? It becomes very frustrating after a while, because it\u2019s wholly unnecessary. <\/line>At the same time, these very people can look around and see that there are people in their neighborhoods and their towns or communities who are running rings around everybody else. Why not emulate them, instead of turning your life over to some nameless, faceless politician who doesn\u2019t know you and doesn\u2019t really care about you other than your vote? It has long befuddled me. Well, it actually doesn\u2019t befuddle me. I understand the psychology of the whole liberal movement. But it\u2019s frustrating nevertheless, because the role models, the people that are out there who can provide the motivation and the inspiration are in the process of being denigrated and impugned. <\/line>Their achievements are punished, criticized, cheapened and so forth. On the other hand, do things the wrong way in way too many instances? Why, we\u2019re making virtue out of failure or making virtue out of victimology! We\u2019re making virtue out of the wrong things – which is encouraging people to join groups that are in essence victim groups. They want to be virtuous and they want to be thought of as people who gave it their best shot, but because of the obstacles of the rich and whoever else, they just couldn\u2019t get where they want to go and now need assistance. It\u2019s a shame, because it\u2019s just wholly unnecessary. We could be an even greater country than we are, but before we get there we have to remain as great as we are. The education system is a problem. <\/line><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You see these trucks all over town. I\u2019m sure you do in your own city. But what is this? The reason why people in the AFL-CIO or anybody else, when they\u2019re out of work, turns to the government for jobs is an illustration of exactly what I said yesterday. Liberals have created these circumstances where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nMy First and Last Campaign Speech - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2003\/08\/06\/my_first_and_last_campaign_speech\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"My First and Last Campaign Speech - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"You see these trucks all over town. I\u2019m sure you do in your own city. But what is this? 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