BRETT: Let’s find out what’s on Charlie’s mind in Austin, Texas. Welcome to the Rush Limbaugh Show, Charlie.
CALLER: Hello, Brett. Thank you for sitting in for Rush. I just want to get to the point. I want to dedicate a song to Kathryn and to Rush and to the rest of the family, and that song is by Carole King: Now and Forever. I think if everybody listens to those words, they’ll know exactly what I’m saying.
BRETT: You’re very kind to propose that, Charlie. It’s so incredibly important to feel the emotion that is embedded in that song and the lyrics are particularly special, and I certainly appreciate you calling in on the program today. It’s wonderful to speak with you, and I think that’s a tremendous, tremendous recommendation.
Terry in Guilford, Connecticut, is next. Terry, welcome to the program.
CALLER: Watching CPAC on Sunday is exactly what my whole extended family needed. It was so amazing to watch Trump. He was so, like, rested and positive and listing all his accomplishments. It kind of put the last four years in context, which was just beautiful to sit there and watch that. It was a long speech. And then equally as amazing but in a different way and a different style, it was almost like watching… I actually said, “I don’t have to go to church after watching this.”
BRETT: (chuckles)
CALLER: But I was watching Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota —
BRETT: Noem, yes. Mmm-hmm.
CALLER: — who gave a breathtaking speech. I’m sure everybody agrees. I just was blown away by the whole thing and by particularly those two speakers.
BRETT: I agree with you a hundred percent. And I’m so happy you mentioned Kristi Noem, Terri, and I appreciate that call coming into the Rush Limbaugh Show. Kristi Noem told a story that was so incredible, so compelling about when her father passed away — and this was a farming operation, a family farm operation.
Everybody had to kind of pull together and make sure this was going to proceed, and she told the most compelling story about going through his pickup truck and finding one of those small tape-recorders, ’cause there was a lot of doubt and worry about, “Would the farm be able to continue to survive?” She found this small tape recorder like a doctor would you use to make notes on a patient.
In there, she found a series of recordings — many, many, many recordings; hours of recordings — of her father recording for posterity the kinds of corn you need to plant, the sort of deals you have to do, the contingencies if it didn’t work out. It was so compelling and so real and you could feel the love in her voice for her father being guided from heaven above.
That reminded me of Rush Limbaugh.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
BRETT: Let’s go out on the phones and talk to Lawrence in Queens, New York. Lawrence, welcome to the program. What’s on your mind, sir?
CALLER: Yes. I’m a black man who grew up in the projects in Manhattan. I became a letter carrier later on in life, and I’ve listened to Rush since the eighties, late eighties. I was very appreciative as a young man to have been able to have the social services because living in the projects in Manhattan, we were very poor.
BRETT: Sure.
CALLER: But one thing that I always remember was that my parents said, “Go with the civil service because it’s the less discriminatory route to get out of poverty,” and I always remembered that. I went into the post office and started as a letter carrier in Woodside, Queens. I worked my way up through to a tractor-trailer operator for the post office.
I stayed in the post office 15 years. Later on, I left and I went to New York City Transit, and I worked there for 15 years. I love Rush. I became a conservative through listening to Rush, and I’ve always had the religious beliefs of truth, honesty, and the American way. Not American way, but Jehovah’s way, God’s way.
BRETT Mmm-hmm.
CALLER: I just wanted to share that even black people have the same beliefs as conservatives. Most of them are not aware — you know, a lot of ’em are looking for social handouts — but a lot of us are willing to work, want to do the right thing.
And we need to be encouraged to come over to the conservative side at this time, because what we see on the liberal side is headed straight for communism and socialism, which most people don’t truly want. Because once you get under that fist or that foot, it’s really hard to get out from underneath it.
BRETT: It’s so true. Lawrence, I so appreciate you calling in and sharing that story with this audience, because these values are shared values across races, ethnicity, identity, what have you. These are the values of freedom, liberty, hard work — as you said: Truth justice and God’s way.
That is a tremendous testimony to what Rush was able to do with you, listening to the program over the many years. I thank you for your service to the community, to our country in the variety of positions in which you held, the post office and of course the Transit Authority. I appreciate you being out there, my friend.
CALLER: I appreciate it myself. I really… I was listening to you the CPAC yesterday, and it helped to really clarify that I truly believe in the conservative beliefs and rules and laws and things, but most people, I think everybody —
BRETT: Yep.
CALLER: — believes in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, but a lot of ’em just haven’t really got it clarified enough. Like I heard that the Republicans need to make more effort to talk the different minorities in a manner that they can better understand that is better for everybody.
BRETT: You’re a hundred percent right. It’s about ideas. It’s about ideas.
CALLER: Yes.
BRETT: It’s not about identity, and that’s the important take-away. Lawrence, bless you. I appreciate you being here, and thank you for calling into the program today. It’s a pleasure to speak with you, and again I applaud your service. Jerry is in Portland, Oregon. Jerry, welcome to the program. How are you?
CALLER: Hi, Brett. Hey, I listened to Rush way back in the late eighties. In 1993, I embarked on starting my own business after working for other people. I was two months behind on my house payment and car payment the day I stepped out the door to start a business. It was a perfect time because failure was not any option.
BRETT: Right.
CALLER: Rush actually taught me that, and I now am in the top 2% of the population as earner.
BRETT: Wow.
CALLER: I’ve had kids… I’ve had kids who are Millennials or younger accuse me of lying about starting my business in the condition I was in financially. I had no credit. I had no investors. I had nobody to do it. I had to make it completely on my own.
BRETT: Wow.
CALLER: It took me three years to be able to have a credit card for a $500 balance.
BRETT: Wow.
CALLER: But I’m literally the poster child against all Democrat policies. I mean, I could go on and on about some of the things that I learned. But I came from a Democrat family, and my family could not get their head wrapped up around me being self-employed, because what you’re supposed to do is go to work for the man —
BRETT: Yes.
CALLER: — and work until you’re ready to retire and then die. My father, you know, God bless his soul, to the very end, he could never get over, you know, “How’s the job going?” you know, rather than, “How’s business going?” ’cause he was a union guy, and, you know, they —
BRETT: Sure.
CALLER: — voted Democrat because they were programmed —
BRETT: Yeah.
CALLER: — to think that the Democrats are for the workingman. And no matter how much they got stabbed in the back they were sticking by their guy. They might be crooks, but by God, they’re their crooks.
BRETT: Sure, Jerry. I get that a hundred percent. But here’s the thing: You’re living testimony to industry, to hard work, to commitment, to stick-to-itiveness, to getting knocked back and you keep pressing forward. That is a tremendous –tremendous — achievement that you were able to get to by your own industry, and that is important.
That is hugely important in that. And that Rush inspired you to get up, stand up, and do that, it means so much. It means so much to me to hear that and millions of people in this audience to hear it as well. Bless you, Jerry. You are an American success story.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
BRETT: Carl in Galena, Illinois. Carl, welcome to the program.
CALLER: When I heard Rush passed away, when I returned home from work, I walked through two feet of snow, put my flag at half-staff, and decided that it was gonna stay there all summer in honor of a great American.
BRETT: Wow. Wow.
CALLER: I challenge all conservatives to do the same. Anything Joe Biden says about half-staff flags, I’m not even pay any attention to.
BRETT: Yeah. (chuckles) What was the first thing that struck you about Rush? When you first heard Rush the first time or when you first realized what he had, what was it that struck you about him?
CALLER: He thought like me.
BRETT: Mmm-hmm.
CALLER: And I started listening after the election in 2000 because I just wasn’t getting answers, and every day I listened.
BRETT: Yep. Probably felt a little bit alone before you tuned into the show, right? You felt like maybe you were the only guy thinking that way, and then you realized you had kindred spirits out there across the fruited plain?
CALLER: Well, my opinions were considered, uh, “out there.”
BRETT: Sure, I got you.
CALLER: (laughing)
BRETT: Hey, listen, I understand what you’re saying there, Carl. I’m so happy you called in. You’re keeping the flag at half-staff through the summer for Rush, for memory for Rush, and we appreciate you checking in on the program today, sir. Thank you so much for being there.
CALLER: You bet. Thanks for taking my call.
BRETT: That’s Carl from Galena, Illinois.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
BRETT: Ray is up next in Miami, Florida. Ray, welcome to the program. What’s on your mind?
CALLER: Hey, how you doing, Brett? Everyone’s calling in. Two biggest influences, biggest — my life, two biggest books was the Bible and The Way Things Ought To Be by Rush Limbaugh —
BRETT: Wow.
CALLER: — and how, you know, my grandfather was a fan and self-educated guy much like Rush, probably wisest man I’ve ever known, and it’s great in a some of you are trying to keep his legacy and everything going. I mean, he’s just a remarkable man — — and that book just… I was like, “Wow” like the previous caller, I’m not alone.
BRETT: Right. Right. You get that lightbulb moment you’re reading it. You’re reading it and you’re saying, “This guy gets me, I get this, this is what I’m about, this is what I believe.”
CALLER: Exactly.
BRETT: He’s put it into words in that book.
CALLER: And I, you know, became a Dittohead and then follow him every day at noon we listen to him. It was like it was, and like a lot of people, I’m like, “Huh?” This next political cycle is gonna be tough (chuckles), you know? ‘Cause we always had Rush. You know, I’m thinking this way, and if Rush says that’s a good way to think, you know, you’re on point.
BRETT: Well, look, Rush is still here because you’re gonna hear him on the program. He’s still here in his books. He’s still here in the website. So you can apply the lessons you’ve already learned over all these years of listening to the program — and you’ll know in your gut. You’re gonna know in your gut, you’re gonna say, “Okay, wait.
“This is what he’d stand for because his this is what he stood for, right, in The Way Things Ought to Be,” and in his daily program for all the years he was on, 32 years. You’re gonna get that sense, trust me, Ray, I think you’ll call me back at some point down the road when I’m sitting in here.
And I think you’re gonna get that sense in the gut that you’re gonna say, “Okay, I get it. I get it.” “He’s oriented toward conservatism, liberty, and protecting this country as the greatest country in the world.” Wade is gonna be up next. Wade in North Carolina. Welcome to the program, sir. How are you today?
CALLER: I’m on a time delay, so I’m gonna try to make it as fast as I can. And you being in Charlotte, you should know Southern folks, they don’t talk very fast.
BRETT: Sure.
CALLER: But I’m gonna tell you this: In 2020, when we thought that the election was stolen and everything (chokes up), Rush kept saying, “Keep the faith. Keep the faith.” I’m a bad alcoholic and I’ve been trying to quit drinking. I was at that point in my life where I didn’t know what the heck to do.
But I just kept hearing Rush multiple times a day and over a period of several days say, “Keep the faith, keep the faith, keep the faith.” It really helped me, because I know that you’re not gonna fall in the mud without getting’ dirty, but you can still get out of the mud. You might still be dirty when you get out of the mud, but you don’t have to stay there.
BRETT: Sure.
CALLER: That’s all I could hear a lot of times was, “Keep the faith, keep the faith. Everything’s going crazy right now, but just keep the faith.” Really that’s all I wanted to say to Rush. (chokes up) I’ve listened to him since 2005, and losing him was like losing my grandfather (chokes up), and I only lost my grandfather a few months before we lost Rush, and so… (choking up) I’m sorry I’m so emotional.
BRETT: No, no. You’re… It’s okay.
CALLER: But I just want to tell you that.. (chokes up) that all these years for almost 16 years he’s really helped me. But it was always his “keep the faith” speech just from a few months ago that really was an inspiration to me. I’m gonna let you know ’cause I know you’re hard on time. So I’ll talk to you.
BRETT: Wade, I appreciate you being there. Do what he said. Just keep faith. That’s what it comes down to. Keep the faith. Mac in Broomall, Pennsylvania. Go ahead, Mac.
CALLER: Hey, I’m a retired Navy special operative. I was stationed in Spain and direct support, SEALs and mobile communication. I found about Rush through a missionary pastor named John Hilton, who had known about Rush when he was in the Silicon Valley, and he used to tell me about when he was getting set up, people told Rush, “Don’t go to Carl’s Jr.! They’re conservative.”
So as soon as he found that out, he started buying Carl’s Jr. for everybody, the staff and everything, and he prefaced it by saying, “What do you listen to?” And I said, “Well, NPR.” He said, “What are you listening to that for?” And he told me about the alternative.
And, like a good pastor, he educated me about the other side of news, that we don’t have to let the mainstream media tell us what to think. Once I started finding out the alternative, I was hooked, because here’s a guy who dared to step out against the herd, didn’t go into herding, didn’t follow the crowd.
BRETT: That’s right.
CALLER: He made a bold stand why he has bedrock convictions, knew he was right and stood by it, and how can that not be a good step up? His position behind the Golden Mic at EIB is similar to what I was doing and my comrades.
BRETT: Amen. Mac, amen. Well said. Absolutely. And thank you for your service. Without you, we could not do this.