RUSH: We go to David in Nashville. Welcome, sir. Great to have you here.

CALLER: Dittos, Rush. It’s so nice to have America’s preacher of politics and all things social back on the air.

RUSH: Well, thank you very much, sir. It’s great to be back.

CALLER: I don’t think people realize how tough it is to do your job when you’re at 100 percent, let alone when you’re not really functioning and totally up to par. The energy that it takes to get into the information and to dissect it for us? You have become the sole light in the darkness of our political landscape. You are the sole individual in our media right now.

I am an avid reader of the Wall Street Journal, and they are starting to take on the appearance of the Old Gray Lady, the New York Times. You know, all their headlines on the front page are either about tariffs or about immigration, and then the editorial page seems to back the front page or vice-versa, whatever.

RUSH: Now, the Journal is an open-borders paper.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: Their advertisers, their funders are Chamber of Commerce types. The Journal — the whole paper, editorial page, front page — has always been open borders. The editorial page, those are inside-the-Beltway guys. There’s some really great ones in there. Kimberley Strassel is superb. Henninger has his days when he’s really great.

But, man, I gotta tell you. When I have people say, like you just did, that I’m the only voice, that I stand alone, whatever you said? Man, that’s quite something, ’cause there’s a lot of people that do what I do. I mean, I appreciate that. But there’s a lot of people calling the media out every day — and, you know what? I also appreciate the fact you seem to have an understanding of the rigorous requirements of a job that most people think is done while sitting on your ass.

CALLER: (laughing) No, any time that you get up in front of 20 million listeners, it’s tough. You do it with very little pauses. You’re very well scripted. You bring such great information and such insight, and it’s always “making the complex understandable.” And I don’t need anything from you. I’m not sucking up. I’m just trying to encourage you and, you know, hopefully you’ll continue on beyond the three years I think you have left on your contract.

RUSH: Well, that’s true. But I’ll tell you, these last three days where I was feeling 150 percent, but could not work, I can’t tell you how frustrating it was. So, yeah, you seem to get it. That’s great. I really appreciate it. Your insights here happen to be very, very shrewd, and I dearly thank you for your compliments. I do not take those things lightly or for granted.