RUSH: Here’s Rachel in Baltimore. Rachel, glad you called. Nice to have you with us at the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Oh, gosh, Rush, what an absolute thrill. I am a reformed liberal, and when I say liberal, I mean, really, like I protested outside of a courthouse to get the Ten Commandments taken down. I think I mouthed off to Newt Gingrich in person once. But I’ve been saved. I guess that would make you my savior. But I’ll get to my point. I’m the mother of five kids, and they all read your books and we listen to you regularly, and I’ve been tempted to send you a video of my 2-year-old boogieing down to your intro music.
But I wanted to talk to you about what I have found to be such a destructive and pervasive message that I think has been going on for a long time, and especially I think to kids, that are just inundated with, and that’s the idea that as long as someone is happy, everything is okay. You know, it doesn’t matter if you abandon your values, it doesn’t matter if you lie, cheat, as long as you’re happy and, you know, it’s in kids’ books, it’s in movies, it’s everywhere, and it’s really hard to shield your kids from it.
You can see it evidenced so clearly, when I see, like, these weak Millennials or, you know, the snowflake college students you guys keep calling them, they can barely function because they’re not happy with the results of the election or they’re not happy with the way someone spoke. They’ve been told their whole lives that their ultimate purpose is just to be happy.
And you referenced, I think it was last week you were talking about why liberalism is so easy and we can’t let our guard down. I think it’s because liberalism feels good and makes you happy —
RUSH: Exactly! Look, I have to take a break here. I thought I had one minute more than I did, although that wouldn’t have mattered because you’re on a roll. If you could hang on through the break, I’d appreciate it. Good, good, good. Don’t go away.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Back now to Rachel in Baltimore. That’s a really good point that you have, that kids today think there’s a guarantee of happiness —
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: — but when they don’t get it is where the problem is. It’s somehow a major, major violation of their rights!
CALLER: Right. Exactly. I mean, I’m telling you, I have five little kids, so I see it. Every Disney movie, every book, everything, they are just inundated with it.
RUSH: Well, they’re not learning how to deal with adversity.
CALLER: No.
RUSH: They are shrinking from it.
CALLER: And that if they’re happy; that’s all that matters. As parents my husband and I have really, really tried to instill in our kids that happiness is not the endgame. There’s no guarantee that that’s gonna be their result. So now I get to the point of my whole reason for calling you was my kids read, Rush, they love your books. The oldest is 11, and they were learning about the founding of the country and she actually recommended to her teacher that she read the books when she found the lesson to be lacking.
RUSH: Ha! I love it!
CALLER: Yeah. Yeah.
RUSH: I love it!
CALLER: I was very careful with her. I told her that she had to be respectful of how she said it to her because I didn’t want to her to have any — you know, to be brazen, but she did want to tell her teacher that. And one of the things that I think is so important in your books is that — and I’m able to point it out to them — is that the founders of our country or the Pilgrims or, you know, whoever it is, you know, the main characters, they didn’t do what was easy, what made them happy. They did what was right. They did what was right and happiness was never a guarantee.
We talked at length with my kids that the Pilgrims could have stayed, you know, in their home country and just gotten by and gone along without being able to follow their belief system, but they felt like it wasn’t right and it wasn’t that they were happy to get on a boat and leave their home.
RUSH: Well, you know, the difference here is that in the declaration, unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit —
CALLER: Pursuit, exactly.
RUSH: — of happiness, not guaranteed, but pursuit of happiness, you talk about the founders —
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: The founders essentially —
CALLER: So I just wanted to thank you for helping us further that message that we feel is just so imperative to our kids and to the youth of this country.
RUSH: Well, look, I thank you, I really do. You have given my books a fabulous endorsement, and I cannot thank you enough. Do you have the latest one, Rush Revere and the Presidency?
CALLER: No, we’re on the waiting list at the library.
RUSH: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I’m gonna send you — how many kids do you have?
CALLER: I have five.
RUSH: Five kids. Well, I’ll send you a whole set.
CALLER: Oh, my gosh. Thank you. I want you to know that every year for the holidays or for birthdays we give a gift to their class, and so each of my kids classes is getting — well, not my littlest — but my older ones, the kids are getting a set so that they have it in their classroom to read.
RUSH: Oh, you’ve already got them.
CALLER: No, so each year at their birthday, they haven’t all had their birthday yet. In addition to whatever they get, you know, for themselves we give a gift to the classroom, and so one of the gifts that we’re gonna give this year to the older kids’ classrooms is a set. We feel like if there’s time to kill in the classroom, indoor recess or whatever, they can pick up a book and I wanted that to be available to them.
RUSH: Okay. Now, don’t say anything because if you interrupt me you’re not able to hear what I’m saying and I need to finish this. It’s our phone system. It’s not you. I’m gonna send you a full set of five. We have a whole package for kids your age that comes from Revere and Liberty, a little Liberty doll — it’s not a little, it’s actually a very, very nice stuffed doll Liberty horse. We’ll send that all out to you. I know Mr. Snerdley’s already got your address and so forth, and he got that during the break. What kind of phone did you choose? I have to know.
CALLER: I’m gonna blow your mind here, Rush, but I’m not gonna take a phone.
RUSH: You’re not gonna take a phone? You don’t even want to give anybody a phone?
CALLER: No. No. We don’t do smart devices in our house. We really try to keep our eye on the ball, which is the kids right now, so one day when I’m not as busy maybe I will, but our focus is on them.
RUSH: That’s perfectly fine. It’s your choice.
CALLER: But someone else can get mine who calls in.
RUSH: You have really learned from being an ex-liberal. You don’t want people to use any smart devices to spy on you or your kids.
CALLER: (laughing) I definitely am a born-again conservative.
RUSH: Well, that’s great to have you in the movement. It really is. Thanks so much for the call. That’s Rachel in Baltimore. That’s the first person in five weeks that has turned down a phone ’cause they don’t want one of those devices in the house.