RUSH: Robert in Norfolk, Virginia. Welcome, sir. Glad you waited. You’re up next on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush.
RUSH: Hey.
CALLER: I’ve been listening for quite a while today and I keep hearing you list the hypocrisies throughout the experts and the president.
RUSH: Yeah.
RUSH: Right. Fewer and fewer people are watching every year anyway, because it’s become formulaic.
CALLER: All right, let’s say Rush Limbaugh — my question, how do you impart the information to the low-information voters, and even the high-information voters, so that it’s memorable so they can repeat it to the next person with some understanding? So if Rush Limbaugh — you took the wind out of my sails when I heard your, “Are you gullible?” while on hold a few minutes ago. And that’s the perfect format for a politician to give something funny and humorous to get people, low-information voters, to understand what the real issues are. I was wondering, if Rush Limbaugh was a politician doing the State of the Union address, not your three years, but if you have that 15 minutes, whatever their window is —
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: — what would you say to get the low-information voters —
RUSH: The first thing I would do, if I were president, and if I were gonna give a real State of the Union, I’d make sure it was covered on TMZ. TMZ would have first dibs on my speech, and then the E! Entertainment network after that, then Entertainment Tonight, and whatever else those 6:30, 7:30 p.m. entertainment shows, I’d make sure that they are in the gallery with their cameras and microphones as well as all the Drive-By Media networks.
CALLER: I’m talking about the response. If you were giving the response what would you say, how would you deliver it, and what would you do?
RUSH: If I were giving the response?
CALLER: Right. What would Rush Limbaugh, the politician, say to the low-information voters talking about it the next day and remember it —
RUSH: I’m telling you. The first thing I’m telling you is how I’d reach ’em. First thing, you gotta go to where they are. The low-information voter is not gonna be watching Fox or NBC. You gotta make sure that TMZ, E! Entertainment network, Entertainment Tonight, they’re all there and covering it as though it’s their biggest story of the day. And then at that point, I don’t know, I would probably take advantage of being able to reach these people by explaining what the country was founded as, what it was intended to be, and how off track we’ve become.
I would found and root my message in freedom and how we’re slowly but surely losing it. And then I would tell people how I think they could best make good on the opportunities this country presents. It would be upbeat and it would be positive, and it would be cheerleaderish. I would tell people that they’re the ones that make this country work, and I would caution them against sitting around waiting for some transfer of income to make the difference in their life ’cause it’s never gonna happen.
If I thought about it, I could come up with a decent response to whatever we’re gonna hear tonight, but that’s the wrong way to do. The response is never gonna be listened to. The response is never gonna have any credibility. The response is never gonna be given any weight whatsoever no matter who does it and no matter what they say. Not in this current formulaic circumstance that’s been set up. But I appreciate the question. It’s an interesting question, a good think piece question, and I’m sure I could shine.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, my good friends, I’ve already done a State of the Union response. I did it. It was a pre-response, and it was the shortest State of the Union response ever. It was four words: “I hope he fails.” And that has been my State of the Union response every year. “I hope he fails.” It is what it is. I can’t get any more clear-cut than that. I mean, that cuts away all the wheat and chaff and gets right down to the nub of it.
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