RUSH: Here is Doug in Fort Collins, Colorado. Great to have you, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. Dittos to you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Yeah, I had family in Cape and Sikeston so we come from the same neck of woods.
RUSH: Wow, that’s only 30 minutes away from where I grew up.
CALLER: Right. Right. Yeah. I’m aware of it. Hey, listen. (sighs) You know, I just can’t help but to remind everybody: The problem with this whole immigration issue is actually down in Mexico and Central America. Conditions are so bad economically speaking that a decent, hardworking family guy can’t support his family. So he’s coming across the border to do that, and I may be a little further to the right than you are on this issue. I think that we ought to voluntarily annex Central America all the way down to Panama.
RUSH: No-o-o, no, no, no, no.
CALLER: (laughing) Well, it would certainly serve strategic and economic interests of the United States.
RUSH: Pshhh! Do you realize if…? You gotta start thinking about the things you say here.
CALLER: (laughing) Yeah.
RUSH: If we annex Central America (snorts), can you say, ‘Democrats winning presidential elections by 80 to 20%’?
CALLER: Well, I don’t believe that would be the case.
RUSH: Well, they’re certainly not gonna move ’em up from the welfare states they’re in.
CALLER: I think that the improvement of the lives of people in Central America… Uh, I think they would come to that realization —
RUSH: Well, wait a minute. How do you know this their lives would improve just because we annexed them?
CALLER: Well, because if they became part of America — if they became part of the United States and all of our laws, our business laws and commercial laws, child worker laws, environmental laws and all the things that would level the playing field — then their opportunities would exist there as they exist here.
RUSH: Ummm.
CALLER: I just believe that many, many people — a lot of the individuals that I speak to who are from Mexico —
RUSH: There is a nation in ancient history that thought the same thing you’re thinking. That civilization is known by the name of Rome. The Romans thought that the more barbarians they made Romans the better off they would be, and it didn’t work out that way because the Romans ended up becoming barbarians. And the barbarians did not want to be Romans.
CALLER: Oh?
RUSH: The barbarians were not illegally emigrating to Rome. They wanted no part of it. The Romans had to go out there and get them, and the Romans then had to try to co-opt them and make them Romans, and they didn’t want to be Romans, and the Romans ended up becoming barbarians. Do you want to become a Central American?
CALLER: No. No. Absolutely not.
RUSH: My gosh, this reminds me! This reminds me. I’ve got something in my briefcase I have been meaning to share with you in this audience for two weeks, and you just reminded me of it.
CALLER: Good!
RUSH: It has nothing to do with what you said. The government of Panama, hearing about the fact that I was no longer going to go to Costa Rica, has asked me to move there. I have a letter from the guy.
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: We checked it out, we legitimized it, it’s for real. Yeah, I’ve got it in my briefcase right behind me. I’ll get to it in the next segment. Look, I understand, Doug, your faith in all this is rooted in your love for country and the greatness of America and you think that if our ways are spread, that it can’t help but lift everybody up.
CALLER: That’s right.
RUSH: Well, I know you think that, but I’m dead serious here. The one major problem with that is that there’s a political party and an ideology that does not want to lift anybody up, and that is the Democrat Party. They want to tear everybody down. They don’t want to lift people into a better life. They want to lower people who have a good life into a less good life — social justice, fairness, what have you. So the current iteration of the Democrat Party, this regime (snorts) given a chance to annex Central America would leave it exactly as it is, except they would increase the welfare payments to keep them there rather than here in the United States. As long as they could vote for Obama down in Ecuador, if they could vote for Obama in El Salvador (groans), man, I mean that would be Christmas morning times ten for these people, except they don’t believe in Christmas so they’d have to come up with another holiday to illustrate the point.
I understand what you’re saying, I really do, and I appreciate it. But I really think the root problem… You say the root problem is economic circumstance, where they’re from and causing poverty. Yeah, I know. I hear this all the time, ‘Rush, they just want a better life.’ Everybody in the world wants a better life! That’s why I wrote in the Wall Street Journal: We are the solution to the world’s problems, our way of doing things, but we cannot allow the whole world who wants a better life to get in here. We can’t support the whole world in the United States. We have to teach them how to do it themselves. That’s why the United States is the solution to the world’s problems, but not with this current regime. This current regime does not represent a solution to anybody’s problem. Glad you called out there, Doug, nevertheless.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: No, ladies and gentlemen, I’m not saying our neighbors to the south are barbarians. You people know better than that. I was talking specifically about the Romans and the people they were conquering and what they became. What I will say is, if we annexed Central America we would automatically in one fell swoop have the permanent underclass that the regime wants. You think this regime is interested in lifting people up? Do you think Obama and the Democrats are interested in lifting people up? Answer me a question. Where does it happen other than with their already rich donors and friends and union people. Among average citizens, where do they raise the tide? Where is the tide lifting all boats? Are they not making squalor for more and more people?
Here’s that letter. It’s dated April 6th. We’re going to put it on the website. I’ve already scanned it up there. They’ve been waiting on me since April 6th to mention this, I just remembered it.
Republica de Panama, Ministerio de Presidencia.
Dear Mr. Limbaugh: We’ve been listening with great interest regarding your recent comments about your possible move to Costa Rica. Though we assumed this comment was tongue-in-cheek, may we take this opportunity to suggest before you decide to slough off the greatest nation on earth, that you might consider visiting us here in Panama. We believe that you will find a country that is hospitable, replete with uncompromising beauty, remote, sandy beaches, world class golf, and a first-world cosmopolitan city. In addition, Panama has many of your like-minded patriotic Americans living here with us, former members of the US military that share your belief in American Exceptionalism, and, just as important, we have a current president that is a free market, free-trading, business minded fan of yours. Perhaps best of all we are a mere two-hour flight from your beloved south Florida. It would be our great privilege to have you and any of your guests visit us at your convenience.
Sincerely… I will not mention the man’s name, but we checked it out, it’s legitimate … the minister of the presidency, Panama.
I guess we need an affiliate there, because if we had an affiliate there I could make a business trip down there. If the affiliate’s down there you have sponsors down there, and sponsors love playing golf. (interruption) You want to go scout it, Snerdley? Snerdley wants to go scout Panama. Anyway, I laughed myself silly. This came in over the transom and we spent about two days trying to verify this. Because of all this misinformation about me and Costa Rica going around, we wanted to make sure that we were not being set up.