{"id":22048,"date":"2004-07-01T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T07:05:37","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-02-23T14:04:03","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T19:04:03","slug":"optimism_beats_pessimism_always","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/07\/01\/optimism_beats_pessimism_always\/","title":{"rendered":"Optimism Beats Pessimism Always"},"content":{"rendered":"
RUSH: My optimism here is based on, look it, I\u2019m mostly this way in life. I mean, anybody can be negative. I mean that\u2019s easy to do and it\u2019s no different than what most people are doing, and I\u2019m like everybody else, I have to fight negativism. I have to fight pessimism because, you know, people have it as a natural tendency. Optimism is tough. As I said before, there wouldn\u2019t have been guys making millions of dollars selling books on how to be optimistic. But at the same time, you know, I\u2019m not making it up. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen in the election. I have no idea who\u2019s going to win. Nobody knows. I don\u2019t care what they tell you. Pollsters don\u2019t know, nobody knows, nobody can know because it\u2019s not today. It\u2019s months away from now. So my assessment of things is an honest assessment. I think the Democrats are making jackasses of themselves.<\/section>\n
They may be angry and they may appear to be unified, but what is unifying them?I don\u2019t know about you, but the times in my life that I have been filled with pessimism and anger and rage, I have accomplished nothing. All I\u2019ve done is destroy a little bit of myself. I have certainly not made friends and I have not won converts and I have not influenced anybody other than those who are already pessimistic and angry and all it does is make them more pessimistic, but it doesn\u2019t win anything, it never, ever has. I don\u2019t think you can go back in history and look at ex-presidents and see when they died and if we honored them because of their pessimism. Do we celebrate people because of their pessimism? “He was a great pessimist. He warned us of all the pitfalls out there.” No, that\u2019s not what happens and I\u2019m not going to fall into it. It\u2019s too destructive. It doesn\u2019t accomplish anything, and if you\u2019re pessimistic about the election, go ahead, but try not to let it infect your life.<\/section>\n
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BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/section>\n
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RUSH: Just as you will not find in your library Great Moderates in American History, you will not find Great Pessimists in American Life. So I mean you go ahead and be pessimistic if you want, and, by the way, those of you who think that optimists are phony (whistling) that\u2019s a shame. That is a shame. Let me just open up here for just a second. Routinely in my e-mail, people being nice — and I\u2019m sure it\u2019s nothing else, don\u2019t misunderstand — being nice. “We\u2019re praying for you during this terrible time. Praying for you during these tough times you\u2019re going through, all these dogs yapping at you.” I appreciate the sentiment, but the fact of the matter is, how do I say this? Well, [talking to program observer] yes, but I\u2019m trying to say it a different way than that, Mr. Snerdley. Snerdley came up with some street lingo.On balance, my life is blessed. I mean, sure there are things going on, but everybody has things going on. It\u2019s not something really, really new, but there have been times of my life I\u2019ve been obsessed with pessimism, for no reason just because it was easy. I\u2019ve been through times where I\u2019d tell myself stories, the worst thing that could happen is going to happen, when I couldn\u2019t possibly know what was going to happen. And, you know, this is a common thing, most people don\u2019t get everything they want and that leads to pessimism or defeatism or feeling sorry for yourself or what have you. That\u2019s why optimism takes some effort. But when I say that my life is blessed, that\u2019s based on an assessment, not a feeling. I\u2019m a happy guy, yeah. I\u2019m the happiest and most optimistic figure in American media today. And there\u2019s no question about it as I watch other American media figures, I\u2019m not the happiest and most optimistic about it. But if you sit back and assess things, we\u2019re all blessed. But I really have been.I don\u2019t want to get too deep into this. I just wanted to pass that on because the whole point is it\u2019s so easy to be possessed with pessimism, and you do have to fight it, and you have to fight it with reason. You can\u2019t fight it with pretending. Well, you can\u2019t pretend that what\u2019s happening isn\u2019t happening so you feel good. You can\u2019t pretend that we might lose the election, can\u2019t pretend that we\u2019re gonna automatically win it just to make yourself feel good, can\u2019t do that, that\u2019s not going to get you anywhere. But you can assess reality as it\u2019s happening and you have to be honest with yourself about it. I bet most of you, there are going to be exceptions, but I will bet that most of you who are pessimistic are really not.You are pessimistic because you think other people are going to be negatively affected by all this propaganda that\u2019s out there or all of this assault that\u2019s taking place on conservatism and Republicanism and Bush. You think other people are going to be affected.
\nI was with some friends last night, and we were talking about this Michael Moore movie. And, my friend said, “Oh, of course I don\u2019t need to see that. Of course I know it\u2019s propaganda. But, Rush, don\u2019t understand there are so many people in this country who are so malleable. They\u2019re just going to go see this and they\u2019re just gonna believe it?” I said I don\u2019t know that. I\u2019m not going to allow myself to think that everybody in the country as an idiot.In the first place, everybody is not going to see it. In the first place, a whole bunch of millions of people are not ever going to see this, contrary to the spin that\u2019s out there. But even if they do, go back to the Wellstone memorial, how many of you thought, oh, gee, this is it, we\u2019re dead? I thought the Wellstone memorial was the day that Democrats confirmed their loss of the 2002 elections. And we\u2019re getting a Wellstone memorial every day from these people. Either the 9\/11 commission hearings or all the 60 Minutes Bush bash book club or the Moore movie or the Clinton memoir, whatever, it\u2019s nothing more than this over-the-top, irrational, based-on-nothing hatred. And I just, you know, and your life, too, my own life I can tell you that when I\u2019ve been in the throes of pessimism and anger and rage I never got anything done. I retarded myself in progress, in fact, and most people do.Just to reassert this or remind you, my optimism here is not based on feelings. It\u2019s based on an honest assessment of things. I could be wrong. Okay? But there\u2019s no point in walking around acting defeated now because that certainly isn\u2019t going to help anybody, not going to help you, and it\u2019s not going to alert people, if you run around trying, “Hey, it\u2019s really bad out there,” it\u2019s not going to work. You know, warning people, threatening people that the world is going to end tomorrow if this thing doesn\u2019t happen or that doesn\u2019t happen, because the world is not going to end tomorrow. That doesn\u2019t work. I\u2019ve always found that optimism is far more infectious and happiness is far more infectious and it\u2019s genuine. And so I don\u2019t want anybody to misunderstand this optimism. I\u2019m reacting to this last call we had. I get the impression that he was thinking that this is manufactured for whatever reason, performance reasons on the radio or just to try to keep people bucked up, and that\u2019s not the case at all. I mean when I tell you what I think of the Democrats and their tactics and where they are and what it means for their future, I mean it.When I tell you that I do not understand a political party that has set itself up on purpose to benefit from this country\u2019s demise, from this country\u2019s defeat, from this country\u2019s problems, from economic malaise. When a party sets itself up in such a way that a member of Congress celebrates when the stock market plunges by saying “For every hundred-point drop we get a seat in the House”, I have to say this is not what a successful, victorious leadership movement is based on, it never has been. And you know it as well as I do. And I\u2019m telling you this, I\u2019ll just one more time. You probably know all of this yourself, too. You\u2019re worried about everybody else being affected by it just like when you watch the media, you\u2019re not swayed by the anymore, but you\u2019re worried about all the people that are. And I\u2019m just telling you, there aren\u2019t that many people who are being swayed, at least as there used to be. Things are moving in the right direction. Look it, do you know that thousands of people are still going to the Reagan Library to visit the grave site?We were talking about this last night, too. You look at that week. Here is a man who was a president, won 49 states in his landslide reelection in 1984 and won big in 1980. In fact, in one election, Reagan got more electoral votes than Mondale and Carter combined. They got 60 in two elections, Mondale and Carter. Fifteen years Reagan has not been on the scene. The outpouring of love and affection and respect for Ronald Reagan was not artificial. It was not trumped up. It was not disingenuous, it was real because people understood who he was and what he stood for, was a man of core principles and beliefs and never strayed from them. He was an eternal optimist, too, by the way. He was a leader. And to this day thousands of people have visited his grave site. There are no more cameras showing people this, but it\u2019s still happening.Now. If that\u2019s happening in this current climate — how can that happen in a climate of genuine Bush hatred? How can it happen in a climate where most Americans hate this country and don\u2019t want us to succeed? It can\u2019t! The America that you\u2019re being asked to believe exists by virtue of all these so-called people that support the Democratic Party is a myth. And I\u2019ll tell you another thing. The Democrats look at Bill Clinton at their Reagan. They\u2019re doing everything they can and they have done everything they can to make him their Reagan. And you may think this cynical, but I\u2019m telling you during that week of memorials for Ronald Reagan Democrats went into action planning their own memorial for Clinton to make sure that it\u2019s bigger than anything Reagan got. But if it is, it will be staged, it will be produced, it will be bought and paid for, it will be Hollywood hiring extras to line the streets to stop traffic, and it will be an objective of the left now from this moment forward to make sure that whatever happens that Clinton\u2019s funeral outdoes Reagan\u2019s. Even if a lot of people now who are planning it are not alive when Clinton dies. And I\u2019m just talking about the passage of time here, no particular individual. And the difference is, they\u2019re going to have to stage it, they\u2019re going to have to plan it, they\u2019re going to have to produce it, because it won\u2019t be real.None of the supposed success that we\u2019re being told is accruing to Democrats today is real. I know there are Democrats winning elections, but I\u2019m talking about in the argument over the major things we take. It\u2019s a lot of spin, it\u2019s a lot of buzz, it\u2019s being made to look broader and wider than it is. This lack of support for the war on terror, this lack of support for President Bush, this lack of support for the war in Iraq. It\u2019s probably far deeper, the support for all these things than you\u2019re ever going to be told because there\u2019s a giant spin effort underway with the willing accomplices of the media and the Democratic Party to make it look like something it isn\u2019t. Because that\u2019s the only way. The number of the people in this country who identify themselves as liberals is down to 18%, folks. That\u2019s the number who identify themselves. Now, I know you got some moderates and independents who are afraid to call themselves liberals now, but what does that mean? So they call themselves, you know, some other name, progressives, independents, but they won\u2019t call themselves liberals. Liberals running for office won\u2019t call themselves liberals except in Massachusetts and California. What does that mean? I mean, if you look at this, and we may lose the election, I don\u2019t know, but the rise and fall of movements and so forth is not determined on one election here and there, there are too many vagaries that go into it. But the point is we don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen in November, nobody does, a pollster doesn\u2019t know, there\u2019s not a soul who knows what\u2019s going to happen, there\u2019s not a soul who can tell you what\u2019s going to happen. They can tell you that three states, the latest is, whoever wins two of the following three states\u2019 electoral votes wins the election: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida.What\u2019s that based on? Based on polling. May be true, may be not true. We won\u2019t know till it happens, but all of that is designed to get people in other states thinking their votes don\u2019t count. So just genuinely assess things. You know, use your brain and not just your feelings on this stuff, because your feelings are going to trump your intellect most of the time if they\u2019re negative. And you\u2019ve got a to realize when you\u2019re telling yourself stories and when you are not.<\/p>\n

END TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: My optimism here is based on, look it, I\u2019m mostly this way in life. I mean, anybody can be negative. I mean that\u2019s easy to do and it\u2019s no different than what most people are doing, and I\u2019m like everybody else, I have to fight negativism. I have to fight pessimism because, you know, […]<\/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":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nOptimism Beats Pessimism Always - 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\/2004\/07\/01\/optimism_beats_pessimism_always\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Optimism Beats Pessimism Always - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: My optimism here is based on, look it, I\u2019m mostly this way in life. I mean, anybody can be negative. I mean that\u2019s easy to do and it\u2019s no different than what most people are doing, and I\u2019m like everybody else, I have to fight negativism. I have to fight pessimism because, you know, […]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"11 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/\",\"name\":\"The Rush Limbaugh Show\",\"description\":\"Excellence In Broadcasting\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/07\/01\/optimism_beats_pessimism_always\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/07\/01\/optimism_beats_pessimism_always\/\",\"name\":\"Optimism Beats Pessimism Always - The Rush Limbaugh Show\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-19T07:05:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-23T19:04:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/911066e449df26406b107ca78cbbde0b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/07\/01\/optimism_beats_pessimism_always\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/07\/01\/optimism_beats_pessimism_always\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/07\/01\/optimism_beats_pessimism_always\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Optimism Beats Pessimism Always\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/911066e449df26406b107ca78cbbde0b\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18195e0073013fa0e16b040686c2924?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18195e0073013fa0e16b040686c2924?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Optimism Beats Pessimism Always - The Rush Limbaugh Show","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/07\/01\/optimism_beats_pessimism_always\/","twitter_card":"summary","twitter_title":"Optimism Beats Pessimism Always - The Rush Limbaugh Show","twitter_description":"RUSH: My optimism here is based on, look it, I\u2019m mostly this way in life. 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