Conservatism and Good Cheer

RUSH: Here’s Brent in Ohio. I’m glad you waited, sir. You’re next on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. Mega erudite dittos.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: I just want to call and tip my hat to you. I mean, to call the president of the United States to say thank you, and have him return your call, I mean, that puts you in very rarefied air, and it’s a testament to your parents, your upbringing, and your hard work, and, you know, in American history and American folklore, especially the number of times you’ve been mentioned on the congressional floor and in the mainstream media, you’re right up there with Will Rogers, Edward R. Murrow, and so on and so forth. But anyway, the main reason of my call is I’ve had the luxury of time in the last six months to do a lot of reading, and I’ve read a lot about William F. Buckley. And I was thinking back — I’m about seven years younger than you, and I first voted in 1976. From ’76 until ’80 is what I call the wilderness years, because, as conservatives, all we had was the National Review, Firing Line, and the weekly address by Ronald Reagan. And I noticed that some of your younger calls, they sort of don’t appreciate how good we have it now with you, just the mere fact that your name is brought up everywhere. I was just wondering if you’d take some time and sort of tell your younger listeners what those years were like, ’76 ’til 1980.

RUSH: Yeah, you know, that’s a good point. Even before that, I mean, if you go back to 1964, prior to that, the Goldwater election, which really was the birth of Ronald Reagan when you get right down it.

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: Those early years, they were dark but they were exciting because it was new and it was intellectually energetic. I know you’ve heard some of the college students that call here and others who are complaining. Their point of reference, you know, most people’s historical perspective begins with the day they were born, maybe when they’re five years old, their first memory. They have to study to know what happened prior to that.

CALLER: Correct.

RUSH: But they know what happened since they’ve been born, and so they’re comparing what they see as the circumstances into which they’re born, a powerful liberal media, a Democrat Party aligned with the media, they are seeing genuine reprobates attain power in the Democrat Party. They are seeing the American people buy into full-fledged hoaxes, such as global warming, and they’re wondering, how can this be? They’re worried really about the overall intelligence and ability to learn of the American people. They don’t understand how this stuff can so easily be sold, and that’s what they’re complaining about. Every college professor they run into is a socialist who hates the country, and they don’t understand that, and so it would be wise to tell these young people how far we have progressed versus where we were those four years that you mentioned. You left out that Jimmy Carter was the president then, and that didn’t help.

CALLER: Exactly. That was the worst.

RUSH: We had a misery index to tell ourselves how bad it was.

CALLER: Yeah, and he was scolding us for his problems.

RUSH: Precisely.

CALLER: Yeah. It’s just amazing that conservatives tend to be of good cheer. I’ve read about that about William F. Buckley, of you, of course. And the liberals are just so pensive and so angry at everything. Do they ever laugh at a nonpolitical joke?

RUSH: I don’t think they’re ever happy. By definition, they can’t be. The worldview through a pair of eyes in a liberal skull is pretty bad, because they’re seeking perfection, and anything that’s short of perfection makes them mad, it depresses them and so forth, and they see things through a different lens. But by definition, liberals can’t be happy.

CALLER: Yeah. This is not the United States of utopia, it’s the United States of America.

RUSH: No.

CALLER: We try to form a more perfect union.

RUSH: And don’t forget who the primary enemies of liberals are, anybody successful, independent of government.

CALLER: That’s correct.

RUSH: US corporations, individuals who have not used liberal prescriptions in order to attain their success in life. They hate anything like a religion that proscribes boundaries and black and white, look at what’s right and what’s wrong.

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: And of course this week we’ve featured the vicar of Christ in town in the country for a week, and they have seen thousands and thousands show up to worship with the vicar of Christ. That makes ’em mad.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: A couple of military jets flying over the Super Bowl will make ’em mad because that’s the military. They can’t even go to the Super Bowl without being happy.

CALLER: Or the Blue Angels.

RUSH: Oh, that’s just a waste of precious —

CALLER: Yeah. Well, Rush, just so you know, there’s millions of us who consider you part of our family, and thank you for all you’ve done.

RUSH: Thank you, sir. I appreciate your call.