RUSH: Cat in Santa Cruz, California, great to have you on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hi.
CALLER: Hi. First of all, mega dittos, Rush. What an honor. I’m a 20-year-listener calling you from the sea of crazy radical liberals. (chuckles) I’ve got a brief story I thought you’d enjoy. My son — a Republican, a conservative like his dad and I — got a job here in Santa Cruz in a very popular local health food store. He had a button he wore on his work shirt every day that said, ‘I’m a Republican, bless America.’ Well, he was told by his supervisor he could not wear the button to work. Well, he continued to wear it. All the other employees there have pierced noses, lips, eyebrows, dreadlock down the back, tie-dyed shirts, whatever so he kind of stood out. Well, he continued to wear his button, proudly, and he got fired. And I refuse to leave Santa Cruz because I love the local area. It’s a gorgeous town. But the hate for right-wingers in this town is unbelievable. Please don’t ever stop. Don’t ever stop and don’t forget us out here in Santa Cruz.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: We need you desperately, desperately. Everybody’s in tie-dyed clothing. Oh!
RUSH: Don’t worry, you will never be the forgotten. ‘The forgotten in Santa Cruz ‘will never be a phrase uttered here, you will never be forgotten. Let me ask. These long-haired, maggot-infested, dope-smoking types that work at the health food store.
CALLER: (laughs)
RUSH: Do they wear pro-Obama or pro-left-wing cause buttons?
CALLER: You know, I am not really sure about that, but to just look at them, you know, they might as well.
RUSH: Now, da-da-da-da-da-da! You’re profiling out there. The regime doesn’t like that.
CALLER: Yeah. I don’t like the regime, so we’re even.
RUSH: Look, the guy that owns the health food store can do whatever he wants. I mean, you understand this. He can run his business however he wants, and if he thinks that he is politicizing his health food store by an employee wearing a pro-Republican button — ’cause he’s gotta be saying to himself, ‘Most of my customers here gotta be liberal Democrats.’
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: It’s like Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan is a big Democrat, but he will never say so. He will never get involved publicly in anything political because Republicans, Democrats, communists, Marxists, socialists, they all buy tennis shoes. You know, he doesn’t want to limit. Nike doesn’t only want to market to Democrats. I’m not trying to do anything other than stand up for this guy. It’s his business. He can run it however he wants and if he thinks that the button may be alienating people from coming in the store he may have a point, especially in Santa Cruz.
CALLER: Exactly. So my son left the county. He moved somewhere else, and he’s much better off probably for it.
RUSH: See?
CALLER: Anyway —
RUSH: Things work out. Things work out.
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: Frankly, I wasn’t going to say anything here, but… Uh… I’m just glad to know your son has ambition beyond a health food store in Santa Cruz wearing a Republican button. (interruption) What’s…? Well, nothing’s wrong with working at a health food store. I’m up against it here on time, but… Okay, I’m going to have to clean this mess up somehow when we come back. I didn’t mean it that way!