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Had the New York Times opened its op-ed pages to Mikhail Gorbachev to lecture the United States and lecture the president of the United States, had they given him a forum to basically say, “There\u2019s nothing special about you people, and the quicker you realize it, the better off the world\u2019s gonna be,” there would have been outrage, bipartisan outrage all over this country. Now it barely even registers with people. It\u2019s just a ho-hummer. It doesn\u2019t really matter. And, in fact, if I may be so bold, ladies and gentlemen, Vladimir Putin in his op-ed in the New York Times basically said we\u2019re not exceptional. You shouldn\u2019t talk about being exceptional and there\u2019s no such thing as exceptional and you\u2019re bad people when you start talking about that.<\/p>\n
Nobody\u2019s supposed to talk that way. We\u2019re all equal, nothing special, and if you run around and start talking about yourselves as exceptional, then you\u2019re not a nice guy, you\u2019re wrong, you\u2019re a bad person and all of that. I thought I had the piece here, and I don\u2019t. I\u2019ve got some idiot\u2019s analysis of it, which is the last thing that I need. At any rate, I\u2019m gonna find it. I thought I had it here at the top. My bad, folks. At any rate, it\u2019s an outrage. It\u2019s a simple outrage on so many levels. But it\u2019s also scary, because Vladimir Putin basically echoes our own president on the concept of American exceptionalism.<\/p>\n
Grab audio sound bite number three. This is Obama back in 2009 in Strasbourg, France, at the conclusion of a NATO summit. He held a press conference, and there was a Q&A. The Financial Times correspondent by the name of Ed Luce says, “Could I ask you whether you subscribe as many of your predecessors have to the school of American exceptionalism that sees America as uniquely qualified to lead the world, or do you have a slightly different philosophy, and if so, would you be able to elaborate on it?”<\/p>\n
OBAMA: I believe in American exceptionalism just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.<\/p>\n
RUSH: The fact is, they don\u2019t. They don\u2019t believe in it. Not the way we believe it, and not the way we mean it. And this kind of cuts to the quick for me, because I\u2019ve gone to great lengths to properly define what American exceptionalism means. And it does not mean that we\u2019re better people. And it does not mean that we\u2019re special, more qualified, smarter, any of that, than anybody else in the world. It doesn\u2019t mean that at all. But most half-thinkers, surface individuals, hear the phrase and they think it equals bragging. And that\u2019s what Obama thought it meant. I\u2019m sure he thinks it means bragging and that\u2019s why, “Well, you know, the British they think they\u2019re exceptional and Greeks and so forth.”<\/p>\n
What he was saying in that quote is, “Look, yeah, there\u2019s nothing special about us.” And I know that Obama thinks that. Why else would he want to transform this country? He thinks this country\u2019s flawed. He thinks this country was founded in error. And he is about transforming it. He doesn\u2019t even use the phrase, so I don\u2019t know what Putin is responding to. The only person in this country that talks about American exceptionalism anymore is me, on a routine basis.<\/p>\n
Here is Putin\u2019s reference to it in his op-ed in the New York Times today. “I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States\u2019 policy is ‘what makes America different. It\u2019s what makes us exceptional.\u2019 It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.” Of course he would say that. He\u2019s a communist! He has always been a communist. The White House doesn\u2019t disagree with much of this, I\u2019m sure. The American left doesn\u2019t disagree with much of what Putin said. In fact, the White House is happily accepting that Putin wrote this. Obama and the White House today are happily dumping Syria into Putin\u2019s lap, and now they\u2019re running around saying, “Hey, he owns it.”<\/p>\n
Folks, those of you of a certain age will understand my grave concern here. Vladimir Putin has just asserted that he has a moral superiority to the president of the United States, and the president of the United States apparently is willing to allow that perception because the White House is out saying, “Well, Putin, he owns it, it\u2019s his policy,” and Obama\u2019s happy to dump this, he thinks. I thought it was a brilliant plan. I thought he and Putin talked about it last week. If it\u2019s such a great plan, why didn\u2019t Obama want credit for it? Why is he happily dumping it off on Putin? And the better question than that, why does Putin want it? And there are answers to these, and they\u2019re not good.<\/p>\n
But let me finish the paragraph here that Putin wrote on American exceptionalism. And, by the way, he\u2019s right; Obama did talk about it in his little 15-minute speech. But because Obama doesn\u2019t know what it is and doesn\u2019t have a proper understanding of it, he misused it. “I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States\u2019 policy is ‘what makes America different. It\u2019s what makes us exceptional.'” And, folks, it doesn\u2019t. Not in and of itself. Out of context, our policies are not what make us exceptional. It is, in the past anyway, it is the foundation and the basis for those policies where you\u2019ll find the exceptionalism. And I\u2019ll explain this in a minute.<\/p>\n
Putin writes, “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor,” those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy,” written as only a good communist can. “Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord\u2019s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”<\/p>\n
My God, we have the communist leader of Russia more proudly quoting the Declaration of Independence than our own president does! We got Vladimir Putin asserting a “moral superiority” to the president of the United States. Vladimir Putin! Do you people in the White House not know what\u2019s happened here? Vladimir Putin has positioned himself as a mature adult who stopped your immature child from messing around in somebody else\u2019s sandbox that he had no right being in and didn\u2019t know what he was doing.<\/p>\n
Vladimir Putin is the guy who\u2019s gonna stop the killing, it is not Barack Obama. Vladimir Putin is the guy who\u2019s gonna get rid of these evil chemical weapons — except, he\u2019s not. He\u2019s gonna make sure they\u2019re in a safe place for his buddy Assad, and they\u2019ll be in the hands of other anti-American forces somewhere in the Middle East. And Obama happily washes his hands of it. We\u2019ve got the leader of the Russian Federation, a former KGB agent! This is what…<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re under 35, maybe even 40, what I\u2019m saying sounds Greek to you, and I\u2019m sorry. You just don\u2019t know. In your world, the Berlin Wall came down and the Russians have been one of our allies and the Soviet Union, that\u2019s old. That\u2019s old-style communism. It doesn\u2019t exist anymore. That\u2019s for the grand folks to be concerned about. But this is a profound thing that happened today. “It\u2019s extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional.”<\/p>\n
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Well, that must be why I am the most dangerous man in America, because I do that every day. I want everybody in this country to think of themselves as exceptional in the sense that they are capable of far more than they know. What is “ordinary people doing extraordinary things”? It\u2019s exceptionalism. Let me give you this once again, since I have your attention. Let me tell you what American exceptionalism is — and please bear with me, those of you who\u2019ve heard this, because it needs to be repeated, particularly now.<\/p>\n
Our president doesn\u2019t understand what it is. Vladimir Putin may know what it really is but he\u2019s taking the occasion of Obama\u2019s lack understanding to use Obama\u2019s definition and then spank Obama with it. The fact that the New York Times would give Putin space, that\u2019s not the surprise here. That\u2019s not something that surprises me at all. No. The New York Times will do anything they can here to advance an agenda that might in their minds save Obama.<\/p>\n
Remember, the Soviet Union has had dramas about Russia and the US being in a permanent embrace, sharing bedrooms and so forth. Anyway, what American exceptionalism is not: It is not that we are better people. It is not that we are superior people. It is not that we are smarter people. It is not that God loves us and hates everybody else. It is not that God prefers us. It is not that God doesn\u2019t prefer anybody else.<\/p>\n
American exceptionalism has nothing to do with anything but freedom and liberty. Here is what American exceptionalism is. By the way, this is one of the fundamental reasons why I got so excited when presented with the idea of writing a book about the truth of American history (in stages and various elements) for young people. My book, Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims, is all about the exceptionalism of those people.<\/p>\n
So what is it? Well, if you know the history of the world… Read your Bible, read whatever historical account of humanity you hold dear, and what you\u2019ll read about is human tyranny. You\u2019ll read of bondage. You\u2019ll read of slavery. The vast majority of the people, the vast majority of the human beings who have lived and breathed and walked this planet have lived under the tyranny of despots, the vast majority.<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t even close.<\/p>\n
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The vast majority of the people of this world since the beginning of time have never known the kind of liberty and freedom that\u2019s taken for granted every day in this country. Most people have lived in abject fear of their leaders. Most people have lived in abject fear of whoever held power over them. Most people in the world have not had plentiful access to food and clean water. It was a major daily undertaking for most people to come up with just those two basic things.<\/p>\n
Just surviving was the primary occupation of most people in the world. The history of the world is dictatorship, tyranny, subjugation, whatever you want to call it of populations — and then along came the United States of America. Pilgrims were the first to come here seeking freedom from all of that. They were oppressed because of their religion. They were told they had to believe in the king and his god, whatever it was, or they would be imprisoned.<\/p>\n
They led an exodus from Europe to this country, people of the same mind-set. They simply wanted to escape the tyranny of their ordinary lives. This country was founded that way. For the first time in human history, a government and country was founded on the belief that leaders serve the population. This country was the first in history, the EXCEPTION — e-x-c-e-p-t, except. The exception to the rule is what American exceptionalism is.<\/p>\n
It is because of this liberty and freedom that our country exists, because the founders recognized it comes from God. It\u2019s part of the natural yearning of the human spirit. It is not granted by a government. It\u2019s not granted by Putin. It\u2019s not granted by Obama or any other human being. We are created with the natural yearning to be free, and it is other men and leaders throughout human history who have suppressed that and imprisoned people for seeking it.<\/p>\n
The US is the first time in the history of the world where a government was organized with a Constitution laying out the rules, that the individual was supreme and dominant, and that is what led to the US becoming the greatest country ever because it unleashed people to be the best they could be. Nothing like it had ever happened. That\u2019s American exceptionalism. Putin doesn\u2019t know what it is, Obama doesn\u2019t know what it is, and it just got trashed in the New York Times. It\u2019s just unacceptable.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
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\nRUSH: Millions of Americans understand exactly and precisely what American exceptionalism is, and that is why they are so appalled about this administration. That is why they are so appalled and opposed to Obamacare, Obama\u2019s economic policies, amnesty, illegal immigration with impunity. It\u2019s because it is a direct assault on the very foundation and fundamentals of the creation and the founding of this country. That is why there\u2019s such opposition to Obama. It has nothing to do with he\u2019s black and nothing to do with he\u2019s inexperienced. It\u2019s because he is conducting an assault on the founding of this country for the purposes of transforming it in ways that would turn us into subjects to government, just like every other person in this planet.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: An e-mail that I received during the break, “Dear Rush: Were you taught American exceptionalism as you explained it when you were in school?” No. No. I never heard of the phrase \u2019til much later in life, and when I first heard the phrase, I misunderstood it, the way it was being used. Now, it was being used by people I admired and respected. But it\u2019s natural to assume when you hear American exceptionalism that you\u2019re hearing people say that we\u2019re better than other people.<\/p>\n
It took me a little while to figure it out, but I was able to… This is the key: I was able to figure it because of the grounded education I did get. When I was in junior high, when I was in grade school, I was not propagandized with lies about the greatness of the country. I was told the truth about it. I was taught the history of the founding. I was taught the history of George Washington and Paul Revere and Jefferson and so forth.<\/p>\n
I absorbed it and I learned.<\/p>\n
Now, I didn\u2019t associate any of that with something called American exceptionalism. But I was able to explain it to myself that way because of the foundational education I had gotten. That\u2019s not out there today, folks; this is what troubles me. Somebody the product of the public education system today will never, ever, figure out what American exceptionalism means on their own. They will go through life thinking it means that we\u2019re a bunch of braggarts, and then they will think that\u2019s bad and that our country is bad.<\/p>\n
Liberalism takes over, and they think we\u2019re no better than anybody else. We\u2019re no smarter. It\u2019s what Putin said: “You\u2019re no smarter, you\u2019re not better, you shouldn\u2019t brag like that, that\u2019s not nice, that\u2019s not cool.” So we have a bunch of people running around who think that it is virtuous to think there is nothing special about this country, and what\u2019s special about it is the liberty and freedom with which we had acknowledged in our founding documents.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve told the story of my first trips to Europe, to Italy and Great Britain. If I can just be basic about it — and I don\u2019t mean to be insulting anybody, but this is my learning process. I\u2019m making my first trips to Europe and Hong Kong, China. I\u2019m late twenties, early thirties. I\u2019m aware that the United States is young compared to countries in Europe and Asia that have been around for hundreds of years. They\u2019re thousand-year-old civilizations.<\/p>\n
“So I go to Europe and say, “Wait a minute. Why is this bedroom so damned old fashion and doesn\u2019t work? What the hell is this? They call this a toilet?” So I started asking myself: “How is it that we, who have only been around 200 years, are light-years ahead of people that have been alive a thousand?” So I started thinking this. It was a matter of genuine curiosity to me, and not from a braggadocios standpoint.<\/p>\n
I was literally interested in how that happened, and then I started to think about all the other things that we led the world in: Manufacturing, technology, innovation, invention, creation, and it all led back to liberty and freedom and the pursuit of happiness and dreams coming true and working hard for whatever you want and being able to do what you love, not just have to dream about it.<\/p>\n
But that wouldn\u2019ta been possible if I had not been inculcated, if I may say, educated with a basic foundational, truthful understanding of this country\u2019s founding. It\u2019s just not there today. Instead, what\u2019s being taught is, “We are nothing special, and it\u2019s wrong to think that,” just exactly what Putin said, “and there\u2019s virtue in understanding that we\u2019re all the same.” That\u2019s why I get so frustrated at the definition of American exceptionalism being misunderstood, \u2019cause nobody\u2019s saying we\u2019re better than anybody else.<\/p>\n
Our DNA is identical.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s what we\u2019ve been able to do!<\/p>\n
To me, it\u2019s just as simple as pie. It\u2019s just simple logic. But you have to have the building blocks for the logic to come from. Logic is based only on your skills, your knowledge set, knowledge base. So I put it right here on the title of the book: “Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans,” and what made \u2019em exceptional is liberty. This book is still number one in Amazon in pre-orders, Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims<\/a>. There, again, is the cover. I want to play an audio sound bite for you. It\u2019s Barack Obama during his speech to the nation on Tuesday night, and here he is with just a really sad, quasi-definition of American exceptionalism.<\/p>\n
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