RUSH: So just to review, what is American exceptionalism? The core of American exceptionalism is that we are the first country to enshrine in law, via our founding documents, that the individual has rights and liberties that cannot be taken away from them, especially by government. And it is this that has helped us otherwise ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things, because it has resulted in the removal of shackles that allow everybody in this country, whether they know it or not — it’s a shame that too many don’t — to set out on a path to get whatever they want. It’s nothing more complicated than that. To be whatever they want, to do whatever they want.
Now, we understand there’s a common morality and framework of law within these behaviors that take place. I don’t need to specify. It doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want outside the law. You know what I’m talking about here. Any normal, sensible person does. American exceptionalism. America, the first country to enshrine in law that the individual has rights, liberties, and freedom that cannot be taken away, because we are born with them. They are part of our creation. They cannot be taken away even by the government. It’s written. And that’s what the Democrat Party objects to and doesn’t like. And it is this primarily that has allowed everybody in this country to do what they want, to get what they want, to be what they want, applying themselves to whatever degree they wish.
Today we live in a world where the achievers are suspects. They are not role models. The achievers are criminals. They’re not role models. And the achievers need to be punished. Those who are exceptional in their education, their grades, not fair. That humiliates those who don’t do as well. We must punish. The greatness of America has always been that those at the bottom, be it in income, be it in education, whatever category, had upward mobility totally rooted in their own ambition and desire. There might have been things holding them back, but it wasn’t gonna be their government. The main thing holding most people back is themselves, but some people have bad parents, and some people have rotten schools. It’s not perfect.
Upward mobility is frowned on now. That’s not fair because not everybody can do it and so we shouldn’t have anybody be allowed to do it. That’s the prevailing opinion from the White House on down, in the Democrat Party and the American left. And so they seek fairness. The way they attempt their fairness is to equalize everybody with downward mobility. Take the achievers to whatever degree they achieve and take it away from ’em so that they end up with no more than what everybody else has, so that everybody is equal. Flawed premise; it’s impossible with two human beings or 200 million human beings. It’s an impossible premise, it’s an impossible outcome, it’s an impossible objective. And it is not worthy.
It’s an insult to individuality and humanity to demand that everybody be the same. But today that’s called fairness and compassion, and it’s destroying us. It’s destroying individuals. And not teaching them the truth about the founding of this country is taking away the primary tool that every human being in this country has to simply be the best they can be, whatever that is. It’s up to you. Wanna be a slacker, be one. Wanna be the best at what you do, go for it. If you want to be an average American, you can do that, too.
The American left is not content with you deciding what you want for yourself, because you don’t have the intelligence or the ability to know what’s best for yourself. You need them. You need them planning it all for you. You need them making sure that bad things don’t happen to you. You need them to make sure that no risks are taken. You need them to protect you, to guide you. The thing is, they don’t care about you anywhere near as much as you do, and they never will. They can’t. They care about them and what they want. And what they want is you needing them. That’s the sole source of their power. And if you don’t acquiesce to that, they’ll punish you until you give in, cave in, say, “Oh, the hell with it,” and take your 99 weeks of unemployment and feel lucky about it.
But this is not a chauvinistic attitude, this notion of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. There’s nothing chauvinistic about it. There’s nothing braggadocios about it. What it is, is special. The Founders of this country hoped to be a model for the world. They knew what they were doing. This country is miraculous. This country’s a miracle. The intelligence and the foresight, the prescience that our Founders had, just incomprehensible to me. It’s almost so miraculous and big, I’m not able to totally conceive it. But I believe in it. I have lived it, and I know millions of others have. Therefore I know what’s possible.
I have yet to see Obama’s recipe work anywhere in the world. I’ve yet to see the Democrat Party’s recipe work anywhere in the world. Mao didn’t work. Fidel didn’t work. Soviet Union didn’t work. It never works. Vietnam didn’t work. It just doesn’t work. Not for the people, it doesn’t work. Now, it worked for Mao. He was fine. He could kill anybody he wanted. He could steal anything he wanted, and he was applauded for doing it ’cause — (interruption) No, it didn’t work for his people, that’s my point. It didn’t work for them, but it worked for him.
It’s working for Obama. He’s got Air Force One. Michelle’s got a 757. Everything’s fine for them. I mean, they’re living way beyond their means. You can’t do that. So basically, folks, this is the way I look at it. I throw it out there, and you can reject it or what have you. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, our founding, were an attempt by the people who founded this country to provide a political framework to facilitate God’s creation of human beings, that each of us be and remain free. That’s God’s will. We’re born that way. We’re born wanting to be free.
Now, we’re also born dependent. That’s why education, parenting, is so important. We’re born dependent. Nothing we can do about that, but we’re born to be free. We want to break away. Normal people want their own apartment at age 16. They want to get away. They want to strike out, go for it. And the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are a profound attempt by our Founders to codify in law a political framework that acknowledges God’s creation. And right there you have one of the fundamental roots of the disagreement in this country because there are people that do not want God to have anything to do with anybody or anything in this country.
They want to be God, or they want their tree to be God, or whatever. And so built-in partisanship from the founding has been part of our existence, and the ongoing battle has been one of freedom and liberty versus oppression, to one degree or another. And that’s what so many people in this country think we’re losing. We’re losing that battle. Liberty and freedom are losing. And the scary thing is to look out and see so many low-information people not even aware of it, giving it away, just letting it be taken from them. So there are those of you who want to do what we can to change that, stop it, roll it back, ’cause there’s a better way than what’s being tried now. What’s being tried now has never, ever, worked.