RUSH: To Paris, Kentucky. This is Dennis. Thank you for waiting, sir. Great to have you here on the program.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. It’s great to be on air with you. I’ve been listening to you since ’89. Man, I’ve been through a lot of different things since then.
RUSH: Well, you’re almost a lifer.
CALLER: Yeah, I’m 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 ’cause I was blind in my right eye and I have 20/20 vision there now. You can’t 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.
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, ’cause I like the analogy, and I can get 26 grand for that. I’m kidding. I’m just kidding.
CALLER: I know. I know you are.
RUSH: I’m in kind of a lighthearted, free-spirit mood here today, so don’t misunderstand. Your point is well taken. These people spent a lot of time money being educated. They’ve gone into great debt. They have offices that they have to run and people they have to pay.
CALLER: What’s your eyesight worth is what I’m saying, you know? Like your hearing. What was your hearing worth?
RUSH: Exactly. It’s worth it. To you it was worth it, because you’re talking about your eyesight.
CALLER: Can I say one more thing really quick?
RUSH: Yeah. Of course.
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’t 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 ’71/’72, standing on the border with East and West Germany. I was at checkpoint Charlie two or three times.
I saw the difference between what communists do and what capitalists do. That’s when I was changed from a liberal to a conservative. I’m 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’d go to go back at night, they were back sad. Their frowns were down.
They were making money, but they had to make sure they were back or they would have come and got ’em. I’m afraid that we’re in that situation today in this country. We’re getting close to what those people were dealing with, because my heart’s breaking. I’m 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.
I’m hurting. I’ll be honest with you, I’m 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’t think it’s news. They’re propagandists. They don’t care anymore. They don’t care whether we care, whether we are served or not. They’re not statesmen. I’m hurting now; I’ll just be honest with you. This country has gone a long way downhill since I was in the military.
RUSH: A lot of people agree with you. A lot of people are afraid that it’s headed where you think it’s 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.
CALLER: You are a beacon.
RUSH: Well, you know, one of the big differences, Dennis, is that people don’t fear communism. You’ve seen it. People don’t fear it. I grew up fearing it. I grew up frightened of communism. Today, people grow up afraid of freedom.
CALLER: I agree with you. I am on Social Security. If I didn’t have to take it, I wouldn’t. I didn’t go to the VA. I could have probably gotten some money there. But I feel like I’m 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’t a very good businessman. To be honest with you, that’s the reason I lost my business.
But I started over at 53. I went to work in something I knew, working in steel, and I’ve worked there for 10 years and then I retired. But it’s just… You know, it’s heartbreaking now that I’m retired and I’ve saved some toward my retirement so that Social Security isn’t all I have. I won’t starve to death without it, but they’re taxing that money again because it was an annuity.
RUSH: Look, I know how you feel. You’ve worked hard. You’ve 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’d like, you’re doing okay. But you’re not enjoying it as much because you don’t 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’ve reached a tipping point?
CALLER: It was 2012. It bothers me a lot.
RUSH: So it’s the people? It’s not Obama, it’s not the Democrats?
CALLER: No, no, no.
RUSH: It’s the people.
CALLER: It’s how he got so many votes. Sometimes I wonder… Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I wonder about Cleveland and Philadelphia where there were precincts and places up there that Romney didn’t get one vote. That goes against logic. I’m sorry; it just does. There’s 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.
In Kentucky, eastern Kentucky? (chuckling) You know, you watch Justified. I’m not Boyd Crowder or anybody like that, but I’m telling you: There are people here who will do whatever they have to do to win, and it bothers me. You know, I’m not just picking on Democrats, but really, I am, ’cause my whole family are Democrats. I can’t go to Thanksgiving at all now.
RUSH: Well, the thing about the Democrats is… It took me a long time to understand, ’cause I’m naive. Even now, at my age, I’m still naive. I still am. My instinct is to assume the best of everybody — and if I don’t get it, I assume they’re making a mistake. But I’ve had to learn that that’s not true when talking about the current Democrat Party. They are perfectly content.
As long as it will mean they have power over it, they are perfectly content for the country to be in the condition it’s in. As long as they’ve got power over it, that’s what matters most to them. If people’s job prospects are dismal and if they can’t really explore a career, and if their college degrees are worthless, that’s fine, as long as the Democrats have power to deal with it. The more people miserable, the better off the Democrats are.
The more they like it.
That’s more people in need. It’s really hideous, and for the longest time I beat my head against the wall saying, “Why doesn’t this party care about what’s happening the country?” ‘Cause I can’t imagine not caring about what’s happening to the country. I can’t imagine not caring about how lives are being destroyed, families being split up. I can’t imagine not caring about that, and they tell us, “Eh, it’s a new normal.
“Ninety-two million Americans not working, it’s the new norm. It’s the price you gotta pay ’cause 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’s about time we found out what it’s really like to be a citizen of the world,” and that’s what’s happening here.
There’s no exceptionalism in America. There’s nothing special about it. That’s why, again, folks, I have embarked on children’s book effort of mine ’cause I think they have succeeded by propagandizing young people, particularly at an age when they have no way of knowing any better. If they’re in school being taught how this country’s 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.
So that’s why I have my little mission with the Rush Revere’s time travel adventures in these American history books. It’s rewarding to do it. It’s rewarding to get the feedback. On one hand, it’s depressing to know that it’s needed. But it is. I understand exactly how you feel and where you’re coming from. I’m a little bit more optimistic than you are, but I understand. You’ve lived it, you’ve seen it, and you say you’re four years older than I am. I’m not gonna try to disagree with you, but I think there’s still time to reverse all this.
At least we’re trying.
I appreciate the call, Dennis. Thanks much. And no way — no way — are you Boyd Crowder. I know your wife’s not in prison. No way.