RUSH: Frontenac, Missouri, near St. Louis. This is Barbara. You’re next on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. You are absolutely right to say that our country is in serious trouble and that liberals are trying to destroy it. But the only reason why they are succeeding is that conservatives are allowing it — and there is no way America cannot figure out this problem and fix it. It only requires people who believe it can be done and will do it. You have stated on air before that you, for one, have the power to affect political change in this country, and not through elective office. I want to know when you are going to use that power you have and do something about our situation, other than what you are doing — which, although is valuable, is not going to stop the liberals. We know, for instance, that it didn’t stop the Democrats in our last election.RUSH: You’re like the third caller we’ve had the last two weeks telling me that I’m not doing enough.
CALLER: You’re not. That’s why we’re saying it.
RUSH: Yeah? Well!
CALLER: And the only reason is, Rush, because of the power you have admitted you have.
RUSH: Mmm-hmm. What are you doing?
CALLER: I’m calling you and trying to encourage you to use the power you have that I don’t.
RUSH: Okay. I’ve gotta come up with a response to this. I’ve gotta take a time-out here because it?s time to make profit here on the EIB Network.
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RUSH: All right, so the question is on the table from the last caller, Barbara in Frontenac, Missouri. Barbara is the third call in maybe three weeks, in the recent past, suggesting I should be doing more and demanding to know what I’m going to do using the power that I have. Of course, the implication is I’m not doing enough — and in some minds I might not be doing
What more do you want? Obviously what I have given you is not enough. I have spawned an entire conservative cable news network. I have spawned an entire new media from blogs to talk shows. There are people who have failed in television and radio and stand-up comedy who are now going into radio. Everybody from Whoopi Goldberg to you name it, thinks they have to go into radio in order to have impact and make a difference — and why is that? It is because of me. There is an entire alternative media now that people are able to rally to and get alternative news from, spawned by me. Is it my fault the Republicans who won the House in ’94 didn’t know what to do to keep it? Is it my fault a number of you Republicans wanted to ‘teach Republicans a lesson’ last November and voted for a bunch of Democrats or didn’t go out and vote for Republicans?
It’s my fault?
I have said over and over again on this program that I am a radio host. I am a media figure. I am not an activist. There are many talk show hosts who have tried to be activists and they’ve gotten some publicity out of it so they get even more oriented towards it. Back when I started this program, there were people that were urging you to send in your ExxonMobil credit cards torn up and cut in half to show them a lesson. I have never done that. I have never given out phone numbers to members of Congress or anywhere else. I’ve always thought, ‘If that happens, it should happen genuinely because you have the passion to take the initiative to do it on your own.’ I have not treated you like a bunch of serfs, as if I’m the Pied Piper. I don’t want to turn this program over to activism. You will stop listening to it if I do because it won’t be interesting. Activists have their role, but it’s not in media. I’m talking about the kind of activism you want. Maybe I could write a couple more books, but do you realize how crowded that market is? I did that first, too, and everybody else followed along. I guess I could write a couple more books. Do you realize how crowded that market has been? Everybody and their uncle is writing conservative book after conservative book after conservative book.
Why should I become a follower when I was the
Well, you’re misunderstanding the point. How many of you get up every day because you have to and go to work, versus because you really
But I have some questions for you, who are out there wondering why I’m not ‘doing more.’ Are
One thing that concerns me — and I mentioned it earlier in the program — about my ‘power,’ quote, unquote, that has advanced itself here is influence over a large number of Americans. People who listen to this program had a number of their ideas validated and got active and got invigorated. They listened every day, and some lives changes. Some liberals’ minds have been converted and so forth. There’s no question that there’s a power. But that’s not why this takes place. That’s not the objective. The objective here is just to share my passions and tell people what I think. But I don’t go home every day and say, ‘Gee, did people believe me today?’ or, ‘Did I get so many converts?’ and consider myself a failure if the answer is no.’How well did I do what I’m supposed to do?’ every day, is how I judge myself. But the one thing I’ve always said is I consider myself to be in the arena of ideas. I’m in the arena and I’m competing and there are all kinds of other ideas out there: libs, moderates, communists, socialists. They’re all out there.
I wanted to be in the arena of ideas and compete because, I have always said, the American people get the government they want by virtue of the election. If the other side wants it more than we do, they’re going to win it because some of us aren’t going to vote for whatever reasons — and then we sit around and moan and whine and complain. We get what we want for the most part. There are exceptions. Democrats think they never do because when they lose they think they’ve been cheated. When they win they think the American people love them. They misinterpret both. But in the arena of ideas, my objective has been to create as many educated, passionate, and informed voters as possible and get them out there influencing other voters. How many College Republican organizations are there today that would not be there were it not for 1988? How many things have happened on college campuses? The Rush babies, for example. The Rush babes. All these things have happened, and there’s a growing movement of people here who are more active and passionate about conservatism than there ever were before. That’s been positive.
When I hear the question, “How are you going to use your power?” this is the real challenge. One of the things that concerns me is that the left is doing a pretty good job of insulating themselves from election results. They own universities. The faculty, the administration, the curriculum, they own it. They own who gets in through affirmative action, racial preferences, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They pretty much control the judiciary, the legal system. The media is another. In terms of nationwide Big Media, the left has it, and they’re not subject to who wins elections. College campi, faculty and curricula are not subject to who wins elections. The legal system — other than the appointments of certain judges — and lawyers out there, public interest lawyers, ACLU type lawyers, are not subject to who wins elections.
So even when they lose elections, they still control the bureaucracies at state, the CIA, and the Pentagon. These are Clinton holdovers, career liberals who target those jobs for the express purpose of controlling government and amassing power. They’re there regardless who wins elections. If our side wins, they start undermining it. Take a look at the last five, six years of the Bush administration. All of that is
So the real question is:
Every time something comes up, they turn the other cheek. Turn the other cheek. ‘Hit me again! Hit me again! Hit me again! Hit me again!’ (interruption) H.R. is telling me in the IFB that there are more conservative voters ‘checking out,’ meaning staying home, frustrated and so forth — and that, of course is my fault, too. But they are. That’s what happened last November. They just got fed up for a whole bunch of reasons. Hey, it’s reality. People get the government that they want. Anyway, what am I not doing that I could do? The conflict here is that’s always a great question because I am the one saying, ‘There’s always something more you can do.’ No matter what you’re doing, there’s always a little more that you’ve got to give, and that’s why this question gives me pause — and at the same time, insults me.
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RUSH: Mark in York County, Pennsylvania. You are on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Mr. Limbaugh, it’s an honor.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: You know, I’m really listening today and I’m sick and tired of people calling in and passing the buck. You do your job. You do your job every day. You inform us. You keep us informed. You tell us what’s going on — and, you know what? You get the left going. You dig ’em, and they hate it because you stand up to them and they don’t like it. We on the right and all these people calling in there and passing the buck on you, they need to do
RUSH: See, now, that also is very interesting because this is a great way of looking at it, and it allows me, permits me to give you a great definition or explanation of the difference between libs and conservatives. You made the point that the liberals are really committed, and if the conservatives would just be as committed and dedicated as the libs are, then we wouldn’t have this majority. Here’s the difference — one of the differences, at least, and a large one.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: Conservatives are not. Conservatives do not think government should run people. Government should get out of the way as much as possible.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: So for conservatives to battle libs for the government is already a bit a contradiction. When conservatives get hold of the government, the idea is to slow it down.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: The problem is that once you get there, as an elected official and find out the amount of money you get to play with, and all the people coming to you offering you all these things if you’ll spend it on things they care about, it is seductive, and it can soften even the most committed. None of that happens to the left, because that’s the game: to get your hands on that money, to spend it as much and as often as you can in controlling people’s lives with new laws and regulations and dealing with ‘social injustice.’ The liberal view of government is one that’s entirely opposite of the conservative view of government. So conservatives say, “Well, I gotta get hold of this government to restrain it,’ but the bureaucracy is not easily restrained, and it’s populated, as I just said, with leftists.
They are there regardless who wins the elections. Porter Goss is an example, but any number of them are out there. Look at what happened to Condoleezza Rice with those defamatory cartoons and other things when she goes over to secretary of state. They set out to try to
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RUSH: All right. Well, I have to do the video podcast and the Morning Update after the show, and then I’m going to go home, and I’m going to ponder further uses of my power — and yours.