RUSH: This is David in Nashville Tennessee where the big showdown between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Houston Oilers takes place at one eastern on Sunday afternoon. Welcome, David, great to have you here.
CALLER: Thank you very much. Dittos, Rush. I just wanted to compliment you on being one of the sole positive individuals in the media right now. It is so bad, I’m a conservative talk radio junkie, and some of your competitors are out there —
RUSH: I have no competitors. I have colleagues.
CALLER: Colleagues, yes, sir, yes, sir. Number three in the lineup basically has become so much of a, for lack of a better term, drama queen that I can’t even listen to him any more without being depressed, but I am a 24/7 subscriber to your website and —
RUSH: Yes, sir.
CALLER: — I will take your download and replay — I have a 45 commute to work back and forth every day, and I’ll listen to it at work, and then I’ll end up relistening to that same episode on the commute back and forth to work, just to kind of feel a little bit more positive and try to drown out all the negativity.
RUSH: Thank you. Thank you for noticing, sir. Let me tell you why I think this is.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: I once talked to somebody in the financial newsletter business. He said he loved crises. Subscriptions went up. Every time he was able to write a headline about we’re going to hell in a handbasket, but I can keep you from going, subscriptions went through the roof. Also, sir, it’s the natural human tendency, it’s part of the way we’re built, nobody that’s going to convince me otherwise — to be negative. Being positive takes work.
CALLER: Oh, absolutely.
RUSH: It takes application. And it also takes, you know, having your eyes open. I think a lot of these people you’re talking about are simply trying to join the fear brigade because they think it’s going to mean increased listenership for their programs or what have you.
CALLER: Right, if it bleeds, it leads. But, you know, even given all that, given your personal struggles that you’ve had to deal with over the last few years, a lot of people would have taken those struggles and actually become very bitter rather than turning it into a positive and, you know, bouncing back from it and becoming even better.
RUSH: Well, you know, there probably was a time in my life where I probably would have done that, had some of these things happened at that point, but I doubt it, but it’s possible. But I’ve got ten seconds here before I have to go. But amidst all this negativism that is permeating everywhere, I look at my life, and all my friends, and I say, ‘What in the world have I got to be negative about, and why do I want to create a negative future in my mind, when it may not happen?’