{"id":22080,"date":"2004-07-18T07:05:30","date_gmt":"2004-07-18T11:05:30","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-03-26T11:43:09","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T15:43:09","slug":"sheets_byrd_kerry_demonstrate_left_s_fear_of_bush_s_faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/07\/18\/sheets_byrd_kerry_demonstrate_left_s_fear_of_bush_s_faith\/","title":{"rendered":"“Sheets” Byrd, Kerry Demonstrate Left\u2019s Fear of Bush\u2019s Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"
RUSH: My friends, I need to translate this answer for you, because there are several code phrases and code words in this. When Byrd says, “He doesn\u2019t like to answer questions,” what that means is: I haven\u2019t been called to the White House and asked my opinion on anything. When Byrd says Bush “doesn\u2019t like to build a consensus,” what he means is: The president\u2019s not letting us run roughshod over him. The president is not letting us make the decisions. Margaret Thatcher once said to me, “Consensus is the absence of leadership.” We don\u2019t have presidents to build consensus. I know a lot of people think that\u2019s what we\u2019re supposed to do. We\u2019re supposed to get together and hammer out all our differences and all get along. The problem is you\u2019ve got core values there, and if consensus leads to somebody compromising their core values, what good is it? That\u2019s what leadership is about. Leadership is getting people to go where they may not want to go but they need to go.<\/p>\n

The next thing is, “He doesn\u2019t like consultation.” Same thing: He hasn\u2019t talked to me, he hasn\u2019t brought me up there to get my expert input as the Dean of the Senate. I\u2019ve seen more than he\u2019s seen. I\u2019ve burned crosses. I wore white sheets. I\u2019ve done things this guy hasn\u2019t even thought about doing and he hasn\u2019t asked my opinion about how to deal with anything. He\u2019s a man governed by his instincts. This is the real code lingo because I\u2019ll tell you something, folks: Instincts are valuable. Do you know what your instincts it are? May I get deeply personal with you for a moment? You know what your instincts are? Instincts are simply your inner voice telling you what\u2019s right and wrong, and most people don\u2019t have the courage to listen to their instincts because doing what\u2019s right is harder than doing what\u2019s wrong. And it\u2019s easier to not make a decision to do what\u2019s right and go out and ask somebody what they think you should do, and then go get a consensus. It takes the heat off you. You make a decision based on your instincts, and you\u2019re out there alone. If you don\u2019t, if you don\u2019t have the courage to do that, then you\u2019re going to go ask people for their opinion and your opinion is going to get watered down — and what good is it? You\u2019re certainly no good as a leader. I mean, instincts are key. If you find people who follow their instincts, you\u2019re going to find successful people.
\nWell, I didn\u2019t want to mention myself, H.R., (talking to staff) but I mean I will since you\u2019ve thrown it out there. I have done nothing my whole career but follow my instincts, and I think I\u2019ve turned out okay. I mean, I have some room to go here, but I\u2019ve just followed my instincts, followed my desires, passions, beliefs and so forth. But there\u2019s another element to this instincts business, I think, I\u2019m pretty sure exists. And I think when certain people — and I don\u2019t know if Sheets Byrd is one of them — but when certain people say, “We shouldn\u2019t have a national leader who\u2019s governed by his instincts” — I don\u2019t know if Byrd means this specifically — but a lot of people actually intend to say, “I don\u2019t like a guy who\u2019s trusting his faith in God to make these decisions,” and if you really want to get down to a source of real anger and acrimony toward Bush, it is his faith and his public display and his public acknowledgment of it. You know, Bush is like Reagan in the sense that Bush believes there\u2019s general plan, that it\u2019s going to turn out well. You\u2019ve got rocky moments in the midst of the plan being executed, but he believes that the best will happen if he sticks to his instincts and his objectives and his core values — and this is what frightens people, too, this invocation of God. Makes \u2019em nervous.<\/p>\n

COMMERCIAL BREAK<\/p>\n

RUSH: I realize that many of you may be out there in mock shrieking or otherwise very exercised over my claim that what many Democrats really fear when they talk about Bush following his instincts is his faith in God. I happen to know this from firsthand experience. I know it petrifies them because God is the final authority for people who accept God. And once there\u2019s a final authority, then there\u2019s black and white. A lot of people just don\u2019t like black and white.<\/p>\n

So they begin to say, “Well, that\u2019s your God, and then there\u2019s my God and then there\u2019s your interpretation of this, interpretation of that. Bush doesn\u2019t get his God is God of Christianity, Judeo-Christian ethic.” I\u2019m just telling you, it very much frightens people, and I think this is one of the hidden reasons why there\u2019s so much venom directed at Bush. You know, any time there has been any discussion of religious people serving in government, we hear others in a cacophonous shriek of outrage. “Oh, got to have separation of church and state. Can\u2019t have people imposing their religious views on the country,” and that really gets to them. Somebody like Bush who claims faith in God and claims that it\u2019s his guiding light in life feel that he\u2019s just imposing a religious view on everybody else. That, of course, just can\u2019t do that. That\u2019s too restrictive. It\u2019s too personal. It\u2019s none of his business and so forth, and so you\u2019ve got all these elements. But for those of you that may think I\u2019m just fabricating this out of whole cloth and making this up, I want to go back to the February 29th debate in New York City. John Kerry talking about God.<\/p>\n

KERRY: God will — look, I think — I believe in God, but I don\u2019t believe the way President Bush does in — in — in invoking it all the time in that way. I think that — we pray that God is on our side and we pray hard, and God has been on our side through most of our existence.<\/p>\n

RUSH: This is somebody who didn\u2019t want to talk about it, somebody who had to appease his base: God is fallible. God is not always with us, meaning we\u2019re not always right. We\u2019re not always best. We\u2019re not the great country. That we are not exceptional and this is one of the things that bothers me most about people in this country who can\u2019t grasp the simple reasons for our greatness — and it is not because we\u2019re special people. It is not because we\u2019re better than anybody else. Of course, the people that have this problem think that\u2019s what it means. They think we\u2019re all equal. We should strive to be nobody better than anybody else. Nobody worse than anybody else, but, of course, there\u2019s no such thing as equality. No two things are equal. It\u2019s a physical — I mean in the science sense — a physical premise it\u2019s not possible. Certainly when it comes to people. No two people are equal. You try to extend equal opportunities to people, but beyond that, when it comes to outcomes, there is no equality. You cannot guarantee equal outcomes, and the way it\u2019s been tried — communism, socialism, you name it — has always failed because it doesn\u2019t take into account individual ambition, talent, makeup, individuality. Period.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s Kerry with this little tiptoe through the tulips answer here. He\u2019s got to make sure that he doesn\u2019t stress that there is an American exceptionalism. You know why we\u2019ve been around less than 250 years and we run rings around any other country that has ever existed? Again, not because of our skin color, religious makeup, any of that. It is because our Founding Fathers saw fit to enshrine in our documents that structure us the source of our freedom. Our creation. We are all “created with certain inalienable rights,” the rights to “life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness,” and that structures the way we exist. We\u2019re not a tyranny. We are not a dictatorship. We are not led by people that don\u2019t believe that people can be their best. We have people among us that think that and they vie for power, but they never keep it if they do get it for a while, because it\u2019s contrary to the way we were set up. This is simply the best place on earth for human potential to be realized, and it has been throughout the years.<\/p>\n

This is why I got so upset last week when Kofi Annan starts bellyaching about the fact that we needed to send him another billion dollars for AIDS. We have spent more on AIDS research than the rest of the world\u2019s nations combined. We feed the world. We clothe the world. We give the world medicine — and it seemingly always comes up short. It\u2019s never is appreciated. We still get ripped, and that\u2019s primarily because of jealousy and envy, and a number of other things as well. This is the American exceptionalism — e-x-c-e-p-t — that I talk about, and it\u2019s simply the truth. We are exceptional because we have the freedom to be. Any other people on the face of the earth, given our circumstances and our history, could probably do the same thing because it\u2019s the human being that matters.<\/p>\n

You know, one of the things that consistently bothers me, and has for the length of time I\u2019ve been hosting this program, is this whole discussion of global warming. Now, stick with me on this. I\u2019ve been through this, but there\u2019s a new development out there. We touched on it a little bit last week, and there\u2019s even more news about it today. We have people who believe in — to me — a very conflicting view that they have. On the one hand, we are awesomely powerful people. Why, just by virtue of our inventions we can destroy the ecosystem, air conditioners, automobiles, jet planes, who knows, that can destroy the ecosystem. We couldn\u2019t create if we wanted to. We couldn\u2019t create this miracle if we had the best minds pooled into one brain, we can\u2019t do it — and yet using the tools we were given as part of creation, we can destroy it? Unh-uh. I don\u2019t buy it. Even nuclear weapons wouldn\u2019t destroy it. It would just redefine it. Might destroy us. But it wouldn\u2019t destroy this — and life would go on, and it would metamorphosis and it would come up in different forms, but it would not be destroyed. Not suggesting we annihilate anybody. I\u2019m just trying to make a point here.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, after they say that, they proclaim us — and, by the way, we\u2019re so powerful we can\u2019t cut down trees, we might be destroying the cure for AIDS in there, but the tree can\u2019t tell us it\u2019s there. We have to find it. Yet we\u2019re incompetent at the same time. We\u2019re incapable; we\u2019re incompetent; we\u2019re just a bunch of boobs; we don\u2019t know what\u2019s best for us, but we can destroy the environment. So we\u2019ve had this global warming argument, going on since 1975. If you go back and look at a Newsweek cover in 1975, there was a panic story on global cooling. We were heading into an ice age in \u201975. Then somebody got hold of the idea that politically that wouldn\u2019t make any sense. “If we say there\u2019s global warming and blame humanity for it, who do we actually blame? Who\u2019s doing all this inventing? Who\u2019s doing all this technological advancement? It\u2019s the United States.” You can\u2019t say, given their theory that anyplace in Africa or central or South America is destroying the environment. They don\u2019t have enough air conditioners. They don\u2019t have enough cars. They don\u2019t have enough factories. No. So what is it? It\u2019s an attack on us. It\u2019s an attack on our exceptionalism. It\u2019s an attack on our abundance, an attack on our prosperity, an attack on our freedom. You look at the Kyoto protocol, it targets us. We\u2019ve got to back down, we are blamed for all this.<\/p>\n

Last week and into the news today comes the news that the sun is hotter and has been hotter than in recent measurements the last 60 years. And guess what? Some people are begrudgingly now, begrudgingly admitting that the sun may actually have more of an impact (story) on temperatures than our cars, and our factories and smokestacks — can you believeit? It might, it\u2019s not proven. We\u2019ve got to investigate, but it is possible the sun could be a factor. (Gasping.) No! Why, that\u2019s as stunning as the fact that somebody just figured out that Iran is involved in terrorism! Man, what are we learning today, folks. You ought to feel really happy. Our information quotient is skyrocketing, the things we\u2019re learning — like the sun! Wouldn\u2019t it be funny if all of this so-called global warming which is a minute increase in overall world temperature anyway, is in fact caused by a hyperactive sun? (Gasping.) What are we going to do? Oh, no! We can\u2019t stop it. We don\u2019t have enough fire trucks to send up there to put it out.<\/p>\n

Well, no, don\u2019t give me this, Mr. Snerdley. (talking to program observer) You know, you can start playing provocateur all you want, Mr. Snerdley, the official program observer. Yes, but Rush, you\u2019re forgetting something: “Why is the sun hotter?” Oh, really? The sun\u2019s hotter because of man. Predominantly American man. The sun is hotter because — really? Is that the length they\u2019re going to have to go to? I just say this, folks. I bring all this up because it offends me to sit here and listen to an attack on the greatness of this country, an unceasing attack. It has been going on for as long as I\u2019ve been paying attention. The attack specifically aimed at what it is that sets us apart, what it is that makes us great, and what it is that allows us to share our bounty with the rest of the world is under assault and it takes many forms and global warming and the blame affixed to us is just but one of those techniques. It boggles the mind. So don\u2019t rule out, to close the loop here, just don\u2019t rule out when you hear Robert Byrd and others distrust Bush\u2019s instincts. Thank God. They\u2019re made uncomfortable and nervous, and here, grab 25 again. Play John Kerry again from the debate, February 29th in 2004 as he really wanders here in vain search of a cogent thought to explain his view of God.<\/p>\n

KERRY: God will — look, I think — I believe in God, but I don\u2019t believe the way President Bush does in — in invoking it all the time in that way. I think it is — we pray that God is on our side, and we pray hard, and God has been on our side through most of our existence.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Most of our existence. Now, he has to say that because some people don\u2019t like this and he would step in it. He has to bring Bush into this. “I believe in God. I just don\u2019t believe in the way President Bush does.” Do you believe in the way the pope does? You\u2019re Catholic. Do you believe in God the way the pope does? Do you believe in God the way your priest does? I mean, why single out Bush? Tell us what your belief in God is, not by defining somebody else\u2019s that you disagreed with. But he can\u2019t do that, because he runs the risk of offending people.<\/p>\n

END TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

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RUSH: My friends, I need to translate this answer for you, because there are several code phrases and code words in this. When Byrd says, “He doesn\u2019t like to answer questions,” what that means is: I haven\u2019t been called to the White House and asked my opinion on anything. 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