{"id":9643,"date":"2014-04-09T18:44:41","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T18:44:41","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-04-09T18:44:41","modified_gmt":"2014-04-09T18:44:41","slug":"heartbroken_vet_on_the_state_of_his_country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/04\/09\/heartbroken_vet_on_the_state_of_his_country\/","title":{"rendered":"Heartbroken Vet on the State of His Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: To Paris, Kentucky. This is Dennis. Thank you for waiting, sir. Great to have you here on the program.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi, Rush. It\u2019s great to be on air with you. I\u2019ve been listening to you since \u201989. Man, I\u2019ve been through a lot of different things since then.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, you\u2019re almost a lifer.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah, I\u2019m about four years older than you. I had a business, it was a photography business years ago, and I know what being in business is like. But the main reason I called is I had diabetic retinopathy and had to have surgery in 2004 by a retina surgeon. He earned every penny he made \u2019cause I was blind in my right eye and I have 20\/20 vision there now. You can\u2019t do that without spending a lot of money on education, a lot of time, and being very skilled. His charge was $26,000 for about an hour-long surgery, and he told me, “It was equivalent to taking a wet tissue off of a piece of scotch tape, to pull the scar tissue off your retina,” and anybody that has the skill to do that deserves to be paid.<\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: Hang on just a second. Snedley, I want you to go get a piece of scotch tape and wet a piece of toilet tissue and see how long it takes to peal it off, \u2019cause I like the analogy, and I can get 26 grand for that. I\u2019m kidding. I\u2019m just kidding.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I know. I know you are.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019m in kind of a lighthearted, free-spirit mood here today, so don\u2019t misunderstand. Your point is well taken. These people spent a lot of time money being educated. They\u2019ve gone into great debt. They have offices that they have to run and people they have to pay.<\/p>\n

CALLER: What\u2019s your eyesight worth is what I\u2019m saying, you know? Like your hearing. What was your hearing worth?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Exactly. It\u2019s worth it. To you it was worth it, because you\u2019re talking about your eyesight.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Can I say one more thing really quick?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah. Of course.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Real fast. I was in the military for nine years, three years active Army and six years in the Reserves. It was during the early seventies, which wasn\u2019t a good time to be in the military in this country to be honest with you. But I spent a lot of time in the winter of \u201971\/\u201972, standing on the border with East and West Germany. I was at checkpoint Charlie two or three times.<\/p>\n

I saw the difference between what communists do and what capitalists do. That\u2019s when I was changed from a liberal to a conservative. I\u2019m telling you, I saw people come across that border through checkpoint Charlie that were the saddest people in the world. And when they got on the other side, they were happy. But when they\u2019d go to go back at night, they were back sad. Their frowns were down.<\/p>\n

They were making money, but they had to make sure they were back or they would have come and got \u2019em. I\u2019m afraid that we\u2019re in that situation today in this country. We\u2019re getting close to what those people were dealing with, because my heart\u2019s breaking. I\u2019m telling you, my nine years of service changed me. I feel like when I went over there and lost part of the skin on my feet from frostbite from being out on guard duty over and over again.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m hurting. I\u2019ll be honest with you, I\u2019m hurting. I look at our leadership, including the Republicans and our news media, which I call the Joseph Goebbels arm of the liberal party. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s news. They\u2019re propagandists. They don\u2019t care anymore. They don\u2019t care whether we care, whether we are served or not. They\u2019re not statesmen. I\u2019m hurting now; I\u2019ll just be honest with you. This country has gone a long way downhill since I was in the military.<\/p>\n

RUSH: A lot of people agree with you. A lot of people are afraid that it\u2019s headed where you think it\u2019s already gotten to, but there are a lot of people. They feel powerless to do anything about it, because of what you said about the absence of leadership.<\/p>\n

CALLER: You are a beacon.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, you know, one of the big differences, Dennis, is that people don\u2019t fear communism. You\u2019ve seen it. People don\u2019t fear it. I grew up fearing it. I grew up frightened of communism. Today, people grow up afraid of freedom.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I agree with you. I am on Social Security. If I didn\u2019t have to take it, I wouldn\u2019t. I didn\u2019t go to the VA. I could have probably gotten some money there. But I feel like I\u2019m getting enough. Like I said, I had a business. I was a photographer for 11 years, a professional. I was a very good photographer, but I wasn\u2019t a very good businessman. To be honest with you, that\u2019s the reason I lost my business. <\/p>\n

But I started over at 53. I went to work in something I knew, working in steel, and I\u2019ve worked there for 10 years and then I retired. But it\u2019s just… You know, it\u2019s heartbreaking now that I\u2019m retired and I\u2019ve saved some toward my retirement so that Social Security isn\u2019t all I have. I won\u2019t starve to death without it, but they\u2019re taxing that money again because it was an annuity.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Look, I know how you feel. You\u2019ve worked hard. You\u2019ve got a little bit there, your retirement nest egg. You want people around you to be happy. You want to be happy. You want the country to be functioning and so forth. Even if you may not be doing as well as you\u2019d like, you\u2019re doing okay. But you\u2019re not enjoying it as much because you don\u2019t see a lot of other people enjoying it. I need to go back and ask you something specific. I forget your exact words, but you think the country is over, finished or what? Why do you say that? What has happened that makes you think we\u2019ve reached a tipping point?<\/line><\/p>\n

CALLER: It was 2012. It bothers me a lot. <\/p>\n

RUSH: So it\u2019s the people? It\u2019s not Obama, it\u2019s not the Democrats?<\/p>\n

CALLER: No, no, no. <\/p>\n

RUSH: It\u2019s the people.<\/p>\n

CALLER: It\u2019s how he got so many votes. Sometimes I wonder… Maybe I shouldn\u2019t say this, but I wonder about Cleveland and Philadelphia where there were precincts and places up there that Romney didn\u2019t get one vote. That goes against logic. I\u2019m sorry; it just does. There\u2019s something funny. It worries me for 2014. I know from having a party boss, a Democratic Party boss as an uncle back in the late sixties, that they will do things to win.<\/p>\n

In Kentucky, eastern Kentucky? (chuckling) You know, you watch Justified<\/a>. I\u2019m not Boyd Crowder or anybody like that, but I\u2019m telling you: There are people here who will do whatever they have to do to win, and it bothers me. You know, I\u2019m not just picking on Democrats, but really, I am, \u2019cause my whole family are Democrats. I can\u2019t go to Thanksgiving at all now.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, the thing about the Democrats is… It took me a long time to understand, \u2019cause I\u2019m naive. Even now, at my age, I\u2019m still naive. I still am. My instinct is to assume the best of everybody — and if I don\u2019t get it, I assume they\u2019re making a mistake. But I\u2019ve had to learn that that\u2019s not true when talking about the current Democrat Party. They are perfectly content.<\/p>\n

As long as it will mean they have power over it, they are perfectly content for the country to be in the condition it\u2019s in. As long as they\u2019ve got power over it, that\u2019s what matters most to them. If people\u2019s job prospects are dismal and if they can\u2019t really explore a career, and if their college degrees are worthless, that\u2019s fine, as long as the Democrats have power to deal with it. The more people miserable, the better off the Democrats are. <\/p>\n

The more they like it. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s more people in need. It\u2019s really hideous, and for the longest time I beat my head against the wall saying, “Why doesn\u2019t this party care about what\u2019s happening the country?” ‘Cause I can\u2019t imagine not caring about what\u2019s happening to the country. I can\u2019t imagine not caring about how lives are being destroyed, families being split up. I can\u2019t imagine not caring about that, and they tell us, “Eh, it\u2019s a new normal. <\/p>\n

“Ninety-two million Americans not working, it\u2019s the new norm. It\u2019s the price you gotta pay \u2019cause the way America was was phony. It never was that good legitimately. It was just a bunch of people who stole things from everybody else around the world and it\u2019s about time we found out what it\u2019s really like to be a citizen of the world,” and that\u2019s what\u2019s happening here. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s no exceptionalism in America. There\u2019s nothing special about it. That\u2019s why, again, folks, I have embarked on children\u2019s book effort of mine \u2019cause I think they have succeeded by propagandizing young people, particularly at an age when they have no way of knowing any better. If they\u2019re in school being taught how this country\u2019s racist and sexist and bigoted and stole things and was mean to the people who were here when we got here, they grow up believing it. <\/p>\n

So that\u2019s why I have my little mission with the Rush Revere\u2019s time travel adventures in these American history books. It\u2019s rewarding to do it. It\u2019s rewarding to get the feedback. On one hand, it\u2019s depressing to know that it\u2019s needed. But it is. I understand exactly how you feel and where you\u2019re coming from. I\u2019m a little bit more optimistic than you are, but I understand. You\u2019ve lived it, you\u2019ve seen it, and you say you\u2019re four years older than I am. I\u2019m not gonna try to disagree with you, but I think there\u2019s still time to reverse all this. <\/p>\n

At least we\u2019re trying.<\/p>\n

I appreciate the call, Dennis. Thanks much. And no way — no way — are you Boyd Crowder. I know your wife\u2019s not in prison. No way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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