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RUSH: One thing here, folks. I know that every time there’s a Democrat debate, we tend to laugh about it and joke about it, which is I think a protective measure. It’s scary what these people believe. And that’s my point here. I don’t want anybody to think — and it amazes me that anybody could, after as many years as I’ve been doing this. But I check e-mail during the breaks and there’s some people thinking, “You know, you’re not taking this seriously enough, Rush. These people are really posing a threat.”

I think I, of all people, know that. But it’s a long campaign. People’s emotional reservoirs are only so deep, and they’re gonna empty out long before we get to November. People’s emotional reservoirs are gonna empty and refill and empty and refill numerous times. I don’t think there’s anybody more attuned to the clear and present danger that we face with either of these two, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, because we face it with Barack Obama. And I mean it. I’m not trying to be clever or come up with a sound bite or something somebody finds pithy so they want to repeat.


I believe the Democrat Party is a major destructive force in our country today. And the evidence is just to listen to these two people here. Now, the tendency is to come here and next day report on it and crack jokes and make fun of them. That’s what we’ve always done here. But one of the things that I have learned over all of these years in making fun of some of the really just far out, wacko, insane stuff: My mistake all these years is I failed to comprehend just how many Americans didn’t think it was funny, that believed it.

In large part, students — primarily college students, but high school as well — graduate believing this stuff because they end up having it taught to them. I remember… I’ll give you an illustration of this. Whenever this was (it was sometime back in the nineties), the first week or month or whatever that Media Matters for America went live, I was their click bait. I was who they highlighted because I’m a great fundraiser for the left. That’s why I’m in all their fundraising, ’cause they hate me, and they use me to scare people.

That’s why Howard Dean was out there in the whatever it was, in the 2004 campaign, telling everybody, “The flag doesn’t just belong to Rush Limbaugh; it belongs to all of us.” It’s a badge of honor to be so hated by these people. So Media Matters posted, I think it was, the top 25 most outrageous things I’ve ever said, and I looked at it, and I wanted to thank ’em. It was hilarious. They were some of my greatest lines. It was some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever seen.

Well, lo and behold, what I didn’t get was that the numskulls, the lunatic fringe that reads Media Matters, that just made them outraged and livid. They’re unable to spot satire when they are the targets. They’re unable to laugh at parody or any humor, particularly when they are the targets. But even if they’re not the targets, these are not people that are normal in the sense that they want to enjoy life, because they don’t. Their lives are spent immersed in misery to one degree or another — and practically all of it is self-made, self-imposed, and self-manufactured.

It’s their natural state.

And I’ve gone through this a couple of times, the psychological makeup of your average middle class, lower-middle class Democrat voter. They really are; you can type them. They don’t amount to much. They don’t think they’re gonna amount to much. But it’s because everybody else is discriminating against them or mistreating them or doesn’t realize their value. And so they’re just obsessed and consumed with victim status, victimization. And they lash out at all the people and forces they think are responsible for their failures and for their lack of ability to amount to anything.

And when Democrat politicians come along and start punishing — start talking about how they’re gonna punish powerful employers, CEOs, bosses — these are the people your average middle class, lower-middle class Democrat thinks is responsible for his or her lot in life. They know that they’re abnormal in a whole lot of weird ways, and they just can’t deal with it. So their lives are a quest for normalcy and acceptance, and a desire to get even with all the people who have mistreated ’em, laughed at ’em, made fun of ’em, or otherwise stomped on ’em and kept ’em down.

So there’s no joy.

There is no laughter.

There’s not even any desire for happiness.


When they win, when they get everything they want, it just makes them angrier because victory itself reminds them of their plight. But the worst thing about it for them, is victory does not change their plight. It’s impossible for it to. If you grow up or if you currently exist thinking that your life — which you think is miserable and shrouded in unhappiness — is the fault of others, well, okay. Go out and punish whoever they are. But it’s not gonna change your life any. And that’s what happens to ’em.

So the Democrats come along and either raise taxes or impose regulations or deny them tax-exempt status in the IRS or some other form of punishment meted out from the authoritative branches of government. They revel in this. They love seeing people that they blame suffering. To them, “equality” is misery spread equally. As such, even when they get what they want, even when Democrats come along and politically or culturally punish the people they blame for holding them back, they’re never happy because their lives never change.

How could it?

It’s no different than if you hate the rich ’cause they’ve got more money than you do but they ought not. You deserve it as much as they do. You’re just as smart, you’re just as clever, but the odds were stacked against you. You have something wrong with you that makes you a victim of something. Somebody has stood in your way, or a group of people have stood in your way and have purposefully denied you “access” or whatever. So the Democrats come along and in the economic example, promise to get even with those people.


They’re gonna raise their taxes.

They’re gonna do whatever.

And they applaud, “You go for it!”

Class envy works every time it’s tried on these people. But what happens? Okay, the government, the Democrats raise taxes on the enemies on the middle and lower-middle class, average Democrat American, and they pay more taxes. But it doesn’t change the economic circumstances of these Democrats at all. A rich guy having to forgo an additional $2,000 in taxes does not mean that average, ordinary Democrats get the $2,000. They never see it. So their entire happiness depends on what they perceive to be the misery and defeat of others. And of course, in that circumstance, it’s impossible to ever be happy.

That’s why I’ve never been motivated by a desire to show those people who didn’t think I had what it took when I was younger. We all have that. Every successful person in the world will tell you that there were people along the way who told ’em they never had a chance, they were not good enough. Everybody. It’s a universal truth, because it is true. If your motivation in life is to prove those people wrong, you can make it work if you’re disciplined about it, but if you lose control of that, if that becomes your sole motivation, you’re never gonna be happy. Because they’re never gonna tell you.

They’re never gonna apologize. They’re never gonna call up and say, “You know what, I thought you didn’t have what it took, I thought you were never gonna make it, and you know, I was wrong, congratulations.” It’s never gonna happen. You know what’s gonna happen? They’re gonna continue to deny that you had what it took and they’re gonna claim that whatever success you’ve had is because of some dumb luck. It’s just the way people are.

So if you’re motivated to succeed because you want to show your critics they were wrong, you’re never gonna be happy. ‘Cause you’re never gonna get that satisfaction from them. Your motivations, your inspirations have to be realistic, and they have to be personal. They have to be positive related to you. And that’s who these average Democrat voters are. They’re not capable of that. They’re not capable of self-satisfaction because their happiness, their quasi, their faux happiness depends on them thinking other people are miserable, other people are unhappy like they are. And there are a lot of these people, folks.

My point here is you watch these debates, and as crazy and insane — and I’m telling you, I watch these debates and I think I’m listening to a foreign language. I think I’m listening to people from a different country, certainly a different world. I don’t have anything in common with ’em personally, individually, politically; it’s shocking. So we come in and joke about it, but the fact is, there’s a lot of people who believe that what Bernie Sanders is saying is gospel. Ditto Hillary Clinton.


Like Media Matters, that first piece they posted on me. I guarantee you — Koko, don’t go find it. It’s not worth that. I don’t want to give them the hits. I’m just telling you, when I looked at it, I was thankful. I thought these people are making me — some of my funniest, greatest lines ever. I forgot, these people don’t see anything funny. They thought everything that I was quoted — a lot of it was out-of-context stuff or cherry-pick a line here, but I knew where it came from. And if you just read all 25 of them, they were uproariously funny, like Undeniable Truth of Life Number 24. Feminism — and I challenge anybody to tell me this is wrong. Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream. There’s no question about it. They hate me for that.

You read that, and if you know me and understand the context in which I’ve said it, it’s uproariously funny ’cause it happens to be true, and good comedy requires truth, an element of truth or it isn’t gonna be funny. But they were filled with things like this, that list, and the vitriol and the sheer unmitigated rage people felt over these things, where I thought they were just humorous. These people have no ability to laugh at themselves. They are indoctrinate of satire and jokes or even criticism aimed at them. They can dish it out. They can’t take a whiffle ball’s worth of a hit.

The point is there are a lot of them. And this election coming up is about which vision of America is actually going to have a chance here to thrive. And it’s scary to listen to people like Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders promise what they’re promising, list the problems that they list and realize so many dunderheads in this country agree with it. So I don’t want any of you to think I’m laughing it off. That’s just one way of dealing with it. I even said yesterday that I think more of what these people are saying ought to become part of the Republican primary.

Now, I understand the objective in the Republican primary is intramurals, so to speak. It’s Republicans against Republicans to take each other out, but that would be useful. For example, some of these Republican candidates — they’re gone now — some of them don’t see the Democrats even the way you and I just described them. We know the Republican establishment doesn’t. They just see the Democrats as people — well, I don’t want to go through it again. You get the point. But I just don’t want you to think, based on a couple e-mails I got here, I don’t take these people seriously.

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