RUSH: Here’s Jacquelyn in Rochester, New York. Jacquelyn, thank you for calling. Great to have you on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. I’m so honored to speak to you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I’m an English teacher in a suburb of Rochester, and you said something a couple weeks ago that really struck my heart, and it was when you were talking about the smallest minority in our society being the individual. I just wanted to thank you for that, because I’ve been using that in my class as the overlying principle for a lot of the discussions that I’ve been having and I’m just thrilled that you gave me such great fodder.
RUSH: How old are your students?
CALLER: I’m a high school teacher.
RUSH: High school. What’s your students’ reaction when you go through the whole concept of the smallest minority in the world is the individual, and, if you claim to be for minority rights but you care nothing for the individual then you cannot claim you’re for minority rights? What’s the reaction your students have?
CALLER: Well, it’s very interesting to listen to them, because, you know, we’re reading it in the context of a couple books that we’re using in class, and they’re saying it in a different light that, you know, so much is being squandered by looking at people as groups instead of what they can contribute individually. So it’s just been an amazing conversation.
RUSH: Well, you probably can’t get into this in school because of the separation of things, but I think this is a good illustration of the battle we face. Are you familiar with Newsweek magazine’s latest cover, I forget the exact headline, the exact wording, but basically, ‘No longer a Christian nation, United States no longer a Christian nation.’
CALLER: I’ve seen it.
RUSH: Or the United States is not a Christian nation. Now, you’ve got people who want to conform and not cause any ripples, ‘Oh, yeah, yeah, we’re not a Christian nation, Judeo-Christian ethic, we are a lot of different religions here. We’re bound by our common values.’ You can’t read a speech by George Washington, you can’t read his inaugural address, you cannot read them without hearing him reference God, the Almighty, and how this nation owes its existence to God and our thanks to God for the vision in founding this nation with people treated as he made them, the yearning spirit to be free and so forth. There has been a constant attack since to disabuse people of the notion that this nation has a religious founding and from that religion springs morality and our basic understanding of where freedom comes from. It’s got religious roots and people are threatened by religious roots because they’re threatened by religious people.
This all dovetails because the effort is massive to get people, particularly in schools, to conform and to think as a group, to behave as a group, and to look at other people as members of groups. People are easier to manage that way. People are easier to control, they’re easier to program, easier to educate, they’re easier to prepare what you want them to be prepared for if they consider themselves not individuals but rather members of some group, even being an American is a member of a group, but being an American is to be uniquely individual as ordained by God and chronicled in our founding documents. And it is this individuality, this recognition that no two people are the same, that no two people have the same talents, ambitions, or desires, and the notion that self-interest, not selfishness, self-interest propels the individual to do extraordinary things, which, when a whole population of people behave this way, you get a great country.
CALLER: Yeah. I agree with you, I totally agree.
RUSH: I hope your students, I hope bright lightbulbs are going off in their brains when they hear this. I can’t thank you enough for tackling this and trying to teach it to them.
CALLER: Before you switch to another caller, I do have a beef with you, though. Can I bring up my beef?
RUSH: You have a beef with me?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: By all means. It’s beef week, so fire away.
CALLER: You were talking about the electrical meters that were going to be installed that were going to monitor electrical use?
RUSH: Yes, the thermostats, yes.
CALLER: Well, my husband heard that and is not too happy. We were looking at getting either a big screen TV or a Select Comfort bed. And he is trying to put me off of spending that and putting money into the economy because he thinks Obama is going to be looking at our electrical meters and complaining about how much energy we’re spending, and he’s using that —
RUSH: Let me tell you something. I’m glad you brought this up, because I simply listened to what Obama said. He talked in a White House meeting with one of these groups that he then sent off into work groups. He said we’re working on new thermostats that will report your electronic usage and will let you know when you are over your limit. What? Now, a lot of people are saying that talking about this is conspiracy kooks that believe in this. Obama said it. And the first time he said it was not the first time he’s talked about it. He mentioned it in some of his writings and so forth. To discredit something in this country, all you have to do is, ‘Ah, that’s a conspiracy theory,’ ’cause conspiracy theories are only believed by kooks, and nobody wants to be a kook, so you don’t want to be considered a kook just like you don’t want to be falsely accused of being a racist, so you shut up about it. But Obama said it and Google’s working on it. In some states they’ve already got them.
Now, they’re being promoted as a great help to you in using your electric usage so that you can save money. But the individual would say it’s none of their damn business how much electricity I use, as long as I pay for it. It’s none of their danm business how much water I use, as long as I pay for it. If the utility’s providing it and I use it and I pay for it, it’s nobody’s damn business how much. If I want to keep my house at 65 degrees when it’s 95 outside, I’m an American. If I’m willing to pay to do that, fine. But we have the guilt trip. ‘Well, you’re using more than your share. You are causing people in Africa to sweat. You’re causing malaria, and you’re causing people in America not to get their fair share of electricity. It’s just not fair, we’re wasting it, we’re destroying the planet,’ all these pressures are brought to bear on you.
CALLER: It’s stopping me from spending money. It literally is stopping me from spending money. Are you going to start judging my carbon footprint? Should I not have a big screen TV and a Select Comfort bed?
RUSH: See, this is the thing. I’m glad you said this. You are behaving exactly as they want you to. You are living your life in fear. You just said it. Your husband wants a new TV or something, you’re afraid to go get it because you think somewhere down the road this administration is going to be monitoring how much you’re using and you’re going to get a knock on the door from some government official chiding you or you’re going to get a note, a letter and a warning and so forth and so on. The only way this stuff can be beat back is if people behave as individuals and say, ‘Oh, really? I’m not going to let you guilt me from not getting a TV.’ We have an economy that needs recovery. We have an economy that needs people going back to work. What we don’t need — and this is, believe me, not by accident — we don’t need people like you afraid to engage in commerce because you’re afraid of what the government’s going to do. ‘Cause the next thing you know you’re going to be afraid to call here and tell me about it because you’re afraid some government agent’s going to overhear you.
We’re not going to stop this stuff by caving to it. You gotta stand up for your rights as an American, as endowed by our founding documents, and as an individual. If your husband, if you want a Select Comfort — believe me, there’s no energy provided by a utility company that will be used in your Select Comfort bed. All the energy utilized in the Select Comfort bed will be provided by you and your husband. There’s no reason for you not to go out and get a Select Comfort bed. A television is a different thing, but screw ’em! It’s just like ‘Earth Night’ or whatever they did, told everybody to turn the lights out. Turn ’em all on. Resist the tug of popular sentiment.