CALLER: Rush.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: Oh, my dad, he passed away March 15th, at nine o’clock p.m. He was 85 years old and a great conservative. He left me these words on his dying bed. He said, ‘I love you. I love your family.’ I have four children. ‘I love Ronald Reagan, and keep listening to Rush.’
RUSH: No. He really said that?
CALLER: So there you go.
RUSH: Your dad —
CALLER: My dad.
RUSH: — on his dying bed said —
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: — ‘Keep listening to Rush?’
CALLER: Yes. He was a great American and a staunch Republican. He did really well during the Ronald Reagan years financially, and he and I talked about once a week. I live in Nashville. He lived in Charlotte, North Carolina.
RUSH: How old was your dad when he died?
CALLER: 85.
RUSH: Now, you know, this is very humbling to me. I hope you understand, Kay, what I mean. These kinds of things when people say them to me, I’m really as close to speechless as I get — other than to say I’m grateful that you called and you got through to be able to tell me this. But one of the things that I’ve always noticed, when I talk to elderly people — I ran into a couple recently on the golf course. They’re in their eighties, and they care as much about the future of the country now as they did when they were younger, and I’ve often marveled as that, because I would think when you get to be a certain age and know that you’ve got many fewer years ahead of you than you have behind you, that you might just take a break from it and say, ‘Why should I care about this? I’m not going to be around to see if any of this happens,’ but then the reality sets in: They’ve got kids, and they are true patriots, and they do care about the future of the country long beyond their time as citizens in this country. That is irreplaceable. That is the kind of thing that keeps this country going, that people care about it and have great concern beyond their own time on earth as Americans.
I don’t know how common that is with citizens of other countries around the planet. I really don’t. I’m not saying that we’re exclusive in this regard, don’t misunderstand, but it is this desire to pass along and pass down values, traditions, respect for the institutions that defined and made this a great country and the desire for them to continue. It just awes me. I’m overawed by all of this and the fact that there are so many millions of Americans who have this concern. Do you realize how easy it would be for people to say, ‘You know, I don’t care. I’m not going to be around much longer. I really don’t care. I’m going to stop being upset about this. I’m going to stop caring about it. I’m going to stop giving myself heartache, anger, whatever. The hell with it. I’ve done all I could,’ but that’s not the way people look at it, because there’s such a profound appreciation and love and respect for this country among people who appreciate it and have taken the time to understand what the reasons for this country’s greatness are.
So I’m really appreciative of that, Kay. Well, it’s a love of the country that all these people have, and it’s just heartwarming. This is the kind of thing that all of you, if you ever get so frustrated or depressed that you think, ‘To hell with this, Rush. Nothing ever changes. I don’t care anymore! I voted for this and I voted for that, and it doesn’t happen and we still got earmarks. We still got illegal immigration. I don’t care. We can’t get rid of the Clintons.’ Go talk to somebody who is not very many years away from death, and they still care about it. They’re not giving up. They have no intention of giving up, even after their deaths because they’re hoping that the influence that they brought to their families and friends during the course of their lives will continue on. You can never give up. You can’t quit. Even after you die. That’s part of the uniqueness of being an American, is that you survive as an American citizen because of the people that you’ve loved and you’ve come in contact with that have been inspired by you. And it’s more people than you will ever know, by the way, even in your own personal circle.