RUSH: Stafford, Virginia. Shannon, thank you so much for waiting. Great to have you on the program.
CALLER: Oh, thanks, Rush. I’m actually calling as a small business owner here, partner, B.R.A.T. diet drinks, holding onto the kite strings of the American dream. And probably going back to what you were talking about in the beginning, your hour with, you know, this is a war on small business. And the demonizing of the 1% and their willingness now to invest in the American dream and help others realize it because of the hostile environment of this administration towards the American dream and toward small business.
RUSH: That’s a good point.
CALLER: (laughing) I’m living it. I know it. (laughing)
RUSH: (laughing) It is. It’s a hostility to the American dream. Obama is shredding the American dream.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: He’s campaigning against it. He’s campaigning against capitalism. He’s trying to persuade as many people to abandon the American dream and —
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: — give it all up to the government.
CALLER: You know, I talked to you three years ago —
RUSH: What is your product? You say you’re in a small business. What is your business?
CALLER: It’s B.R.A.T. diet drink, based on the age-old prescription of the BRAT diet: Bananas, Rice, Apples and Toast.
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Wait a minute. Brats? Like bratwurst diet drink?
CALLER: (giggles) No, like B.R.A.T. diet — Bananas, Rice, Apples and Toast — when you’ve got an upset tummy and you need to rehydrate?
RUSH: Oh! Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah. Yeah.
CALLER: Yeah, so it’s a healthy alternative to a sugary drink to hydrate you and settle your stomach. You know, from inception and launching it three years ago, which we did entirely with angel investors, we’re now nationally carried in every major retail market pretty much and we’re ready to hit that next point book. You know, and we’re talking to some big investors who are excited about the product —
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: — excited about what we’ve done, you know, on a kite string. But they’re all telling us, “Hey, you know, let’s just wait ’til after the election.”
RUSH: Well, you know, I have —
CALLER: We’re going, “But we’re running now. We believe in it,” and they’re like, “Oh, absolutely. Your product’s proven itself in the market.”
RUSH: Well —
CALLER: “But we’re gonna wait.
RUSH: Yeah, but for how long?
CALLER: Yeah. Well, you know, and, too: Never in America has small business and the entrepreneur not been the best return to your investment. We show the most promise.
RUSH: You know, Shannon, I myself am in the beverage business: Two If By Tea. I am also Mr. Tea! I am in the beverage business and my objective is to wipe people like you out.
CALLER: No, we need to team up!
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: I’ve got a business plan for you, Rush!
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: I’m a wife of a retired Marine Corps officer. I launched this with my family. You know, we believe in the American dream, and I’m telling you, Rush: Until I know there is no chance for it, we’re gonna keep fighting for it.
RUSH: And people like you are gonna be the reason we triumph. This is what happens. The genuine entrepreneurs and the people that make the country work find ways around people like Barack Obama.
CALLER: Oh, and we are.
RUSH: Everybody tries. Not everybody’s able to succeed, but people try to find their way around Barack Obama, and people like him. Other liberal Democrats.
CALLER: Well, this is when being a scrappy American is really coming into play. (chuckles) I really do. I hope and pray, you know, Mitt Romney gets his message out there for small business, because it’s the American dream that’s under attack. You know, and it’s sad, it’s scary, but in the long run I have to believe in Americans and that they’re gonna want less government.
RUSH: I do, too. I do, too.
CALLER: They’re gonna want a chance to realize the American dream.
RUSH: It’s what keeps me going here. I mentioned the other day that a friend of mine sent me a note. He’s retired. He said, “When you get tired of peeing into the wind, let’s get together and talk about how we can protect our families from what’s avoidably gonna happen to the country.” He thinks it’s a question of math. It’s simple math: The debt, deficits, unfunded entitlements. And I wrote back and I told him, “Well, I don’t look at it as ‘peeing into the wind’ yet. And if I ever do, then maybe I’ll call you, we’ll talk about it, but I don’t look at it that way.”
I have too much faith in the American people. I can’t imagine a bunch of people who didn’t have any idea what he was gonna do is who elected him. It doesn’t matter. They know now. They know now. A bunch of people voted for him because of race. A bunch of people voted for him ’cause of history. A bunch of people voted for him ’cause they thought it would be the end of racial strife. A bunch of people voted for him ’cause they had been told Bush and the Republicans were horrible and rotten.
A bunch of people voted for this guy for reasons that they made up, that they wanted to believe that he was. And everybody that voted for this guy for reasons other than policy has now seen the truth and not going back. They’re not going back. I just refuse to believe that this country’s finished in my lifetime. And I refuse to believe that this country is finished, with me doing this show. I just cannot accept that. I have to look at it the exact opposite way.
I have too much faith in people like Shannon here.
I think there are so many more people like that that we don’t hear about and know about. We know they’re there because the country keeps chugging along, and the country keeps chugging along because of people like her. It’s not ’cause of people like Obama and his czars and his bureaucrats and his health care and his stimulus. That has nothing to do with it. Those are the retardants. Those are the things that are holding everybody back that have to be removed, obstacles that have to be kicked out of the road.