RUSH: Here’s John. Let’s head to the phones. Toledo, Ohio. Great to have you with us, John. You’re up first today on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hello.
CALLER: Rush, thank you very much.
RUSH: Yes, sir.
CALLER: My comment is on your opening dialogue on why we listen to Rush, and I am self-employed. I’ve been self-employed for about 15 years now. I work out of my residence, and I’ve got the pleasure of being able to listen to anything that I want to while I’m working. And every day, I look forward to turning on Rush. And over the past seven years, I feel like I’ve developed this bunker mentality that I’m just fearful of everything that’s going on around me in this political environment. And it’s like listening to Rush feels like back in World War II where the Britons would pack around the radio and listen for transmissions that would give them some little credible piece of hope that something good or something of a good nature is happening around us, and that’s why I listen to Rush.
RUSH: Wow. Well, that is very… That’s deep. I appreciate that. I really do. What he’s talking about… Folks, John, excuse me just a second. If you just tuned in, I opened the program talking about this huge disconnect that’s bigger than I’ve ever seen between people that govern us and rule us in Washington versus us out here. They really have no idea. They don’t have any idea who we are anymore. They don’t know what inspires us, what scares us, what warms our hearts, they don’t know anything about us. They’re too distant, and they don’t care to know now.
All they do is impugn, diminish, and relegate us to irrelevant status.
And I made the point that here they are sitting there saying all this with their audiences of 80,000, 150,000 and trying to shove us in some little shoebox out here when the audience of this program and others like it, we’re 12 million to 20 million people during the day or week here. And I just found it fascinating. These people that nobody watches, nobody listens to, claim this superiority mantle. So John here is calling to explain what it is about this program that he finds enjoyable and inspiring and worthwhile. I really appreciate that. I always am excited to learn why people listen. I never take it for granted that I know why people do. When I hear it, as you’ve expressed it, I deeply appreciate it.
CALLER: Thank you for your comments. I appreciate that.
RUSH: Thank you, John. All right. So he’s self-employed, working at home. Obviously… Would we agree the man sounds extremely intelligent, accomplished? He is obviously refined, sophisticated. You can tell it by the way people speak. I’m sure if I could see the crease in his slacks, I would have no doubt about his superior intelligence. You could just tell the way people sound. And people like him, I’m telling you… The Halperins and these other people that listen and judge this program, they don’t think people like him would ever listen to this program. People listen to this program… Well, I’m not gonna insult you by even characterizing the way they think of up. Already done that.
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RUSH: Patty in Biloxi, Mississippi. I’ve been there. It’s great to have you with us. Hi.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush. I’m gonna try to do my best to make the host look good. The whole concept you went through at the top of the first hour, TIME Magazine putting Angela Merkel up as a Person of the Year for basically going against the will of the German people and taking all these refugees in. And it’s like the German people — the people that make the German country work, you know — that are the ones that are gonna have to suffer the consequences of all these refugees coming in and Angela Merkel and all the other ruling elites are gonna be insulated from all that.
RUSH: You know, that’s a very shrewd observation you have made here, Patty, by suggesting that TIME honored Merkel for governing against the will of her people. You know, that’s very shrewd because I think you’ve nailed something here. To the intelligentsia — the great, great superiorist establishment people — we’re the rubes. You know, we don’t know what’s best for us, we don’t know what’s good for us, and Angela Merkel deserves the Person of the Year because she had the presence of mind to ignore the German people and do the right thing and destroy her country.
CALLER: And that’s what makes you dangerous, because you have your finger on the pulse of the American people and what the American people really want and how they really think. And that’s why they keep bringing you up and all these things — talking about, you know, radio being the low rung on the ladder. No, you’re not. You are the most dangerous man in America right now.
RUSH: Well, I know. They tell you they think radio is the lowest rung of the showbiz ladder. I don’t say that. They all wish they were here, actually.
CALLER: Oh, right.
RUSH: And there’s a lot… They’re curious and resentful, they don’t understand. To them, radio is so yesterday. Radio? There’s no pictures, nobody knows what we look like. And then they make fun of the people that listen to it and so forth. But I think you’re… I think you’re very shrewd. But I also —
CALLER: With my Southern accent and all.
RUSH: See? There you go again. Your Southern accent is what tells that you are just nothing more… probably a pro-lifer to boot, certainly a hick.
CALLER: Oh, definitely.
RUSH: Miss’sippi? Come on.
CALLER: Yeah, I got it coming from all angles.
RUSH: You do. Yes, you do. Well, Patty, I’m glad you called. Thank you so much. I’m very flattered by your compliments and your thoughts. If you’re just tuning in, in the early part of the program we played two or three sound bites — Jeffrey Toobin on CNN and a couple other people — using me to tell themselves why Trump is leading. “He’s just doing what Limbaugh does! That’s why it’s working. It’s really nothing to be concerned about. It’s just talk radio. That’s all Trump is.” And she was commenting on that.
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RUSH: Here’s John in Lexington, Kentucky. I’m glad you waited, sir. Great to have you on the program.
CALLER: It’s an honor, Rush. First time ever talking to, but I’ve been following you for years and years, and you’re one of the reasons I went from a Democrat with the whole family growing up to conservative, sir.
RUSH: Wait a minute. You used to be a Democrat?
CALLER: I have to admit it. I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry about that.
RUSH: The Democrats don’t think they have any voters that sound like you sound.
CALLER: (laughing) Well, I got three of my daughters, now I gotta work on the grandchildren, the little grandchildren are coming up, to explain to them. But I want to thank you. This time I wanted to thank you for all you’ve done and 100% you hit it out of the park on predictions. I mean, that’s what I really —
RUSH: Well, that’s true. I mean, I have become uncannily good at that, you’re right.
CALLER: Yes. Yes, sir. Yes, sir, you nail it. With Trump, the reason I believe you relate with him so much so much, you know, all the trouble that you went through, the way they piled on you before. You know you got their number. That’s why they’re scared of you, and you know how it is there.
RUSH: Now —
CALLER: With the administration.
RUSH: I’ll tell you, you know, you know and our last caller, Patty from Biloxi, I mean, she was shrewd, and so are you. You are really insightful, John. That is an intriguing observation. In case you didn’t hear what he said, he thinks that because the media has gone after me for 27 years, the same way —
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: — they’re going after Trump, he thinks that’s why I have, what, a level of understanding about Trump, I think you said.
CALLER: Exactly. You know how wicked they can be, and they’re scared to death of you. That’s why they’re bringing you up so much in the media.
RUSH: Fascinating observation. Not even I had thought of that. Well, you know, John, you’re sitting out there, you’re listening every day. You’re former Democrat. You’ve become a Republican. You’re obviously more than a listener, you’re a student. You have studied what happens here. You’re able to relate what happens to me and this program to everything else happening in the news, and he has concluded here that what the media is doing to Trump is what they have been trying to do to me off and on for all these years. Now, he’s assuming that I am therefore sympathetic to Trump for that reason. That’s a very creative observation. John, I appreciate it. I really do. I’m flattered that you’re out there. I’m really glad that you switched, and I’m glad you got through to tell us about it. Thank you. Thank you so much.