RUSH: Here’s John in Naples, Florida. John, great to have you on the program. Hello, sir.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. Thanks for taking my call. How are you today?
RUSH: I’m great. Thank you.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, first of all, I just wanted to tell you that, you know, I absolutely hated you for years.
RUSH: Oh. Well, that’s nice.
CALLER: I mean, for years. But, listen to this. I want to take this time to give you accolades, and I want you to understand why. I’m a 47-year-old African-American, and the majority of my life I was and voted as a far to the left liberal Democrat.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: Okay? I didn’t realize that I was living in a nightmare. However, during that period of my life I was listening to you, but I didn’t like you, period, but I kept listening to you. However, recently I woke up out of this nightmare and was reborn into conservatism. Actually, now I’m a Tea Party patriot. So I want to give you accolades, Rush, for shining that light through a dark tunnel that I was in.
RUSH: This is why I have such great appreciation for the people in this audience. This is exactly why I said what I said when I opened this hour. John, I thought I had an additional minute. I misread the clock. Can you hang on for just a little longer during the next break and then I want to ask you a couple questions when we come back. Do you have time?
CALLER: Absolutely, yes, sir, I do.
RUSH: Terrific. Don’t hang up. The Orlons, 1965, “Don’t Hang Up,” no, no.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: John in Naples, I’m glad you held on. You know what intrigues me about you is that you kept listening to me even though you said you hated me. You listened all the time.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: What was it that kept you listening if you did not like me or like what you were hearing?
CALLER: Well, Rush, you know, you always told the truth. It doesn’t matter what anyone thought about you, you just kept the faith. You kept telling the truth. You believe in what I call principles, Constitution, liberty, the government, you know, all the things that this government —
RUSH: Okay, so if I understand you correctly, I’m gonna take this as a big compliment. You sat out there, you’re listening to me, and you know that I’m being ripped to shreds everywhere left and right, and you think I’m kind —
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: And I still stick to what I believe, and you ended up thinking that was noteworthy?
CALLER: Absolutely. Absolutely. So for that main reason, I just kept listening to you. Rush, you take the blows from the left and right, and you’re still standing, and, you know, you believe in what I believe in, you know, us Tea Party Patriots believe in. We have our core values. We believe in the American dream. This economy is a mess, Rush. Our borders are not secured. We have big government. We’re becoming a welfare and a lazy nation, is what I believe. You know, I believe we have to be a nation of hard workers. Not a nation of “you owe me, so I’ll just sit home and where are my food stamps and welfare?” This is not what the United States is all about.
RUSH: Now, this is obviously a huge — this is a 180 degree change for you that happened. I mean, what was that like? I mean, I can’t imagine. The reason I’m asking this, John, and I appreciate it, don’t misunderstand, but I can’t imagine one day having a so-called awakening and becoming a liberal. I just can’t imagine, but that happened to you one day. Maybe not in one day, but you continued listening to this program even though you didn’t like what you were hearing, and one day it all clicked and you rejected all of what you’d believed for all of your life. What was that like?
CALLER: (laughing) Oh, it was a two blessing, Rush. I only can say that, you know, I wish that it would have been happened earlier in my life, you know, and then I can be talking to family, you know, friends, getting out there, you know, just getting on a beat. Letting everybody know, hey, conservatism is the way to go, you know. With these liberal Democrats, I mean, we have been robbed of our personal freedom, economic freedom, you know, we’re —
RUSH: You know, that is a great way to characterize it. We’ve been robbed.
CALLER: Absolutely. We’ve been robbed and we’re still being robbed as we speak, Rush. And folks need to wake up as I did, so I just want to give you accolades. Keep shining that light.
RUSH: I love you, John, I appreciate it. What about your buddies, though? You had to have your family, your friends that were shocked at your change of opinion here.
CALLER: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, right now they’re mostly kind of separating themselves, you know, but I’m gonna shine that light as you did, Rush, and we’re gonna get them to finally open up their eyes as well.
RUSH: Well, John, hang in there, ’cause I can tell you it’s worth it. You said you wish it would have happened earlier, and I understand that. You know, there are days I wish I was gonna live a lot longer than I’m gonna live because of some of the great fun things happening in this country. I mean, if we beat back the left, some of the things happening, you know, my hobby is tech, and it’s a hobby. I’m by no means an expert. But we’re still in the infancy of what’s gonna happen here tech-wise. And, you know, all the people that I love, I wish I was gonna live a lot longer than I am.
So, John, since I know I’m not gonna live longer than I’m gonna live, whatever that is, what I’ve decided to do — and I did this long ago — is to get as much out of every day the things that I love and enjoy as I can. So, okay, you wish this conversion, this awakening, this enlightenment had happened to you sooner, but it didn’t, but it has, and so run with it, man. You sound like you have the ability to persuade some others. So we’re all happy to have you here back home. It’s great that you called. I appreciate it.