RUSH: Earlier in the program, in context, I cited Marlo Thomas’s book that she’s come out with about improving her life at age whatever she is, 90. Going to start over, do it all over again, have a happy life. Yip, yip, yip yahoo. She had Diane Sawyer there and a couple of other Kumbaya buddies, and they’re all doing great things. It was interpreted by a caller that it could be seen as criticism of women and that I might not want women to do well and that the media could once again start harping on me for this. We have a caller here named Pat from Tucson who wants to take me to task for this. I want to get to Pat on the phone now. What was it I said, Pat, that makes you think I have put myself at risk to be criticized by the feminazis and the left here? What did I do?

CALLER: I do believe that you’re being a bit, well, incorrect on this issue, how you’re interpreting it. I think that the left is going to come down on you, and I think that Ms. Thomas’ book might be encouraging to women.

RUSH: Which is fine. What I’m pointing out, maybe you didn’t hear me say this. Maybe you didn’t hear yesterday’s program. We’re living in a moment, Pat, where the president of the United States is unhappy that some people are earning more than other people. In other words, the president’s unhappy that some people are more successful than other people. That isn’t fair. The president is urging income equality. We must all have the same amount of money. Therefore, what is Marlo Thomas doing trying to improve herself? That’s not what the president is all about.

I’m trying to point out the hypocrisy of the left. Marlo Thomas and her buds, they’re all Democrats, they’re all feminists, and they’re all carving out lives for themselves. They’re free to live and free to grow and they’re free to expand, and they’re free to earn more money and grow all they want, but the president is trying to force everybody else into this same mold, the same life, the same income and so forth.

And I said, why isn’t Marlo playing along with it? Why does Marlo need to write a new book? Why isn’t she happy with what she has? Why does Marlo need more? I’m speaking facetiously here. I’m trying to ram it down the throats of the Democrats who are telling us that people like Marlo Thomas, if they’re Republicans, are somehow cheaters, liars, they’re unfair, they’re mean spirited and they’re stealing everybody else’s money. But since Marlo is a Democrat, I guess it’s okay, she can do it.

CALLER: I hope I’m not talking over you this time.

RUSH: No.

CALLER: I understand your point, completely. I’m just asking you to look at the other side of the issue. It’s going to be taken incorrectly that you are attacking women who want other women to succeed.

RUSH: Okay. So how should I have done this, or should I not even have brought it up?

CALLER: Well, it might have been better if you hadn’t brought it up or if you had mentioned the book and said, yes, we, as conservative people, agree that women can and do all the time reinvent themselves and become successful. And most of those women also love their men. So I don’t think it’s an income inequality issue. I just got so uncomfortable my fingers started hitting redial, and here we are.

RUSH: Well, you may not think that it’s X, Y and Z, but the Democrats do and the media does. All I’m trying to point out is the glaring and blatant hypocrisy. Actually, the Marlo Thomas story was ancillary. It was an illustration of what I was talking about in a much larger scheme regarding the Thomas Piketty book. Now, I don’t deny that there are small-minded neophytes who live in a world of utter distortion and liars who try to take things that I don’t say and repackage them and make it look like I am anti-woman. Look at what your solution to that was, “Just don’t talk about it.” I’m sorry, I’m never going to do that. I’m not going to let them shut me up.

I’m not ever going to back down and have these people silence me from expressing what I really think about who they are and what they’re doing. They are the new fascists and that’s how they live. They stifle dissent. They try to intimidate anybody from speaking out of fear that somebody might get offended. And look at you, it’s working on you. You’re worried about me getting in trouble because of what I was going to say here, what I did say, that somebody might mischaracterize it and so forth. Not that they would be right about it, but that they would mischaracterize it and I would be portrayed, once again, as anti-woman.

It bothers you because you know I’m not, but you don’t want other people to think I’m not. I understand. You’re doing this out of a position of total support for me. And I appreciate it. And I love it. And I thank you very much. But I’m going to stand by this. I think the point is worth being made. Although I’m not planting a flag here on Marlo Thomas. She’s just an example here.

Let me try it again. Here we have the Piketty book. The Democrats are eating it up. The president and his treasury secretary are reading it and they’re inviting the guy in for conversations. Policy is going to be made from this book. This book has as its economic theory that social and economic mobility do not exist. And yet, right here is Marlo Thomas who just published a new book and she’s attempting to elevate her social and economic level. She wants more money. She is attempting to upgrade her impact and influence on people. This guy’s got a book that says it’s not possible in capitalism.

So we’ve got a bunch of hypocrites. We’ve got a bunch of liberals writing what isn’t possible in America while they’re out doing it, which is my point. If Marlo Thomas were the true liberal she is she would believe Piketty. She wouldn’t even bother writing the book because she would realize it’s unfair. Not everybody can write a book and it’s not fair because not everybody can upgrade their mobility, and not everybody can afford lunch at Michaels. I mean, if we’re going to have income equality, for crying out loud, are we going to make it so that everybody can afford lunch at Michaels? Because I guarantee you right now not everybody can.

Are we only going to have certain people be able to go to lunch at Michaels? That’s how silly this is. The idea this can be reduced to me attacking women, I know that’s how the left is going to portray it because that’s the best they’ve got. They can’t deal with me on the substance of what I’m saying on any of this. So they have to mischaracterize me as some brute, predator, misogynist, sexist, bunch of lies.

Anybody who has listened to this program for any length of time knows that I and every one of you in this audience, all we want is the best for everybody. We want the greatest country that’s ever been. We want our kids and grandparents, grandkids, living better than we ever did. We want our own lives to be constantly growing and expanding. We want every day to be a new adventure. We want every day to be an adult Christmas. This is what we want. This is our birth right as Americans and it’s not unjust. This is something that we pursue. It’s called happiness.

The United States of America, the one place on earth which is codified in its founding documents that this is the place this happens; that this is one of the many facets of the purposes of humanity. The pursuit of happiness. And we want it for everybody. I hope Marlo Thomas’s book, she realizes every dream with it she wants. My only point is she’s a hypocrite. If she’s at the same time going to sign up with Obama on this income equality business, then what business does she have improving her own?

I’m trying to persuade people that they’re a bunch of liars, Pat. I’m trying to show people that if you follow them, you’re going to end up miserably unhappy. They’re going to be great. They’re going to be doing fat city. They’re going to be going to Michael’s. They’re going to be writing books, hanging around with each other. And you are going to be eating Skittles bought with food stamps and you’re going to be told to be happy about it. This stuff really concerns me.

I believe everybody in this country is better than they know they are. I think everybody in this country is capable of doing more than they think they can. I believe everybody’s capable of accomplishing more than they think they can. I think everybody in this country is capable of greatness to degrees they can’t even imagine in themselves. Because most people are beat down by life. Most are beat down by family. They’re beat down by peer groups. They’re laughed at, made fun of. People are told jokes about. It’s tough. And you gotta be tough to overcome this stuff and this is the place where it can be done.

You have to have the full access to liberty and freedom and the understanding of what those concepts are to utilize them, to make them work for you. People born to them take them for granted. I’m simply trying to remind people daily here of their value. You see, this is not a country where social and economic mobility don’t exist. The Obama’s would love you to believe that’s true. They would love you to believe the salad days of America are behind us. They would love you to believe that the new normal is a stagnating decline in the American economy. Not unbridled growth.

They would love for you to accept that the idea that you are allowed to have money and property as the state determines is fair to have. They would love for you to accept that notion. They think they’re the arbiters of fair. They’re the arbiters of who needs what, who doesn’t need any more than whatever. It’s been tried, folks. Dismal failure. And these last five years have been so unnecessary. We need not have elected this man. We need not have done it.

I’m eventually going to get to these two stories which got this all started today because we’ve now got two stories from prominent people talking about the failure that is Barack Obama. On January 16, 2009, I said “I hope he fails” in what he wants to do. And everybody knew that I meant that I hoped he failed. Not a soul in the world thought that I was hoping the country failed. Not me. I’m the guy that wants this country to triumph. I’m the guy that wants the people in this country to triumph.

I’m the guy that wants everybody in this country to be happy as they can be, to be as achieved and as accomplished as they can be. I’m the guy that thinks I know how most people will do that: Self-reliance, investing in themselves, finding what they love, going and doing it. Finding what they love and doing it so much that it’s not work to them, it’s their life. And as they go through life and improve their lot in life they bring along a lot of people with them. Their family, per se. Rising tide lifts all boats things, that John F. Kennedy once espoused as a belief that the modern day Democrat Party has long ago thrown away.

Let me put it another way. Why should Marlo Thomas have $30 million for writing a book and some guy who flipped hamburgers all his life doesn’t? Barack Obama, if Marlo Thomas were a Republican or her last name was Koch, she would be on his enemy’s list. Why should Zsa Zsa Huffington have $50 million and some guy who flipped hamburgers all of his life doesn’t? Why should Diane Sawyer have $50 million because she reads a teleprompter and some guy who flips hamburgers all of his life doesn’t? That’s what Obama is asking everybody. That’s income inequality.

Who is more valuable: The guy who flips hamburgers or Diane Sawyer who reads the news. (imitating Sawyer) “Look, recycling!” at the Japanese nuclear plant. Who is more valuable to you? The guy that shows you the video of Obama bowing to a Japanese robot or the guy feeding you at a price you can afford? The point is it’s none of anybody’s business, the market decides that. But no, no, Obama wants to be in charge of that. It’s been tried.