So it was just get in, get it, and get out was the way I did this. But I thought when I said “revolution,” I knew what people were gonna be thinking, that the next word out of my mouth is gonna be Obama. And it wasn’t. It wasn’t. You’ll hear it. We just uplifted. It was just an attempt to be inspiring and positive. You know, it was like I went out there and I tried to pretend I owned a bra company. That’s what I wanted it to end up being, uplifting.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here it is in its entirety. It’s about nine and a half minutes. This was last night at about 8:10 p.m. Central time in Joplin. This is at Landreth Park at their Fourth of July celebration where we had sent in about 3,000 cases of Two If By Tea. And, by the way, I got a note from Kathryn. She said, “Hey, look, don’t include me in you being a boob about pictures. We thought about it, don’t include me.” (laughing) She said, “We thought about having a photographer at the truck, but we didn’t want to big-time it. We weren’t trying to big-time anything so we didn’t go with a professional photographer at the truck and people were taking pictures with their own cameras, and that was fine,” and I’ve got a bunch of pictures here I have to upload after I fix the trackpad to RushLimbaugh.com. These are some pictures that Kathryn took out of the airplane window of Joplin as she was flying in yesterday that show the destruction. I’m running out of time, better get started with it.
START TRANSCRIPT
HOST: Welcome to the stage, Rush Limbaugh!
AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)
HOST: Maha Rushie!
RUSH: Thank you all very much.
AUDIENCE: (cheers)
RUSH: Thank you so much, but I can’t hear you. I’m a little hard of hearing.
AUDIENCE: (wild cheers and applause)
RUSH: I gotta tell you, folks: Thank you so much for allowing me to be part of this tonight. It was a thrill, it was an honor to be here tonight among all of you. It’s the Fourth of July, and do you know what we’re celebrating today?
AUDIENCE: (cheers)
RUSH: No, no. We are celebrating a revolution.
AUDIENCE: (cheers)
RUSH: We are celebrating the most unique revolution in the history of humanity.
AUDIENCE: (cheers)
RUSH: Most revolutions install dictatorships.
MAN: Obama!
RUSH: No, I’m not going there tonight, folks. Our Revolution… Have you ever thought…? I ask myself this frequently as I’ve gotten older and I’ve become more and more in awe of the country. I’ve asked myself: We’re 235 years old today.
AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)
RUSH: There are countries, civilizations thousands of years older than we are. In 235 years we have become the most powerful, the most benevolent —
AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)
RUSH: — the most productive, the richest society in the history of the world. How did this happen?
MAN: Freedom!
RUSH: Do you realize, even to this day, the United States produces 25% of the all of the world’s economic output?
AUDIENCE: (cheers and hoots)
RUSH: Twenty-five percent! How did it happen? My friends, seriously: We are no different DNA-wise from any other human beings on the planet. There’s nothing special about us genetically. So what is it about us as Americans?
MAN: Freedom!
MAN: Liberty!
WOMAN: Freedom!
RUSH: I heard a key word here a moment ago.
AUDIENCE: Liberty! Freedom!
RUSH: The word is “freedom,” but I want you to stop and think about something very seriously: This country has produced opportunity and prosperity unlike any the world has ever seen before. The first reason is our Founders — this country is a miracle. Our Founders believed in the power of the individuals not the power of an elite government —
AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)
RUSH: — to dictate for people.
AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)
RUSH: The power of the individual. They knew that people using their God-given gifts — their own ambition and desires — could exceed their own expectations, could realize their dreams, and in so doing create the best and most prosperous country in the history of civilization. But there’s one other element to American exceptionalism. This is a term, when people bandy it about, they think, “Well, we’re better than everybody else. We’re exceptional.” That’s not what it means. The history of the world is oppression, tyranny, dungeons. Not here. We are an exception to the way human beings have always lived on this planet. This is a nation blessed by God.
AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)
RUSH: This is our exceptionalism. This is not a country chosen by God; we are blessed by God because our Founders — it’s all in our Declaration, folks. “We are all endowed by our Creator,” there it is, “with certain inalienable rights, among them Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
AUDIENCE: (applause)
RUSH: That’s all up to us. This country turns America loose, it turns individuals loose, and look what has happened in 235 years. We, even to this day, run the world but we do it benevolently. We liberate people from tyranny. When there is a disaster anywhere in the world, we are the first to arrive. Now…
AUDIENCE: (applause)
RUSH: You — those of you here tonight from Joplin, Missouri —
AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)
RUSH: You may not know it yet, but you are the essence of what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
AUDIENCE: (applause)
RUSH: You are the epitome. You are the people who make this country work. What happened here is something that you are going to erase. You’ll never forget it from your memories, but you are going to build it back. It is going to get fixed. It is going to be rebuilt. It is going to be better than it ever was. You are going to show the rest of the country how it’s done, because…
AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)
RUSH: You represent the best of what this country has to offer. You understand the principle of hard work and self-reliance. You understand the difference between “self-interest” and “selfishness,” and you are not selfish. You are all going to be working in your own self-interest to rebuild your lives and, in the process, everybody else’s lives will be rebuilt right along with yours. American exceptionalism is simply the result of our Founding Fathers’ understanding that our government is not to determine the equality of outcomes in life because we’re not all the same. Our country was determined to provide equality of opportunity, and what you do with it is your business.
AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)
RUSH: We are 235 years old. We are here on Independence Day. We are celebrating the greatest miracle in the history of human civilization, and as I grow older — I just turned sixty; I know I don’t look it.
AUDIENCE: (laughter)
RUSH: I just turned sixty. I become more in awe of — have more appreciation for — this country each and every day. Now, I’m from Missouri. I’m from southeast Missouri, another part of the state.
AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)
RUSH: You know, people ask me, “Do you think you would have succeeded as you have…?” and who can deny my success? (chuckles) “Do you think you would have succeeded if you’d been born in the Northeast?” Yeah, but not the way I have. I don’t think that there is any doubt that the fact that I am from the heartland of this country allows me to be able to understand and relate to and be one of you. I have never changed. We are all part of a great part of this country that understands the concepts of hard work and self-reliance — respect for our neighbors, love, doing the best we can, playing by the rules — understanding none of us are perfect but we’re there for each other when times require it. Joplin, Missouri, you are defining that in the last month.
AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)
RUSH: You are showing the world how it’s done. I am honored — I am really honored — to be here. We have this new little company we’ve started. We wanted to bring a truckload in, but we wanted to make sure… We didn’t want to intrude. We wanted to add to and be part of your event tonight, show a little gratitude and keep the spotlight on your city. The one thing that needs to happen: We must not forget what happened here. I know you’re trying to tonight and I understand that. People say, “Well, what are you going to do?” What I’m going to do is keep the spotlight on Joplin, Missouri —
AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)
RUSH: — and what you are doing and how you are overcoming something that was just thrown your way. So thank you all so much. I know you’ve got a lot to do. You’ve got a great band coming up. You’ve got fireworks coming up tonight. You have a great future. You are Americans; we’re all Americans! We are celebrating our 235th birthday — and remember: There’s no stopping you. Whatever you want to be, you define it.
AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)
RUSH: You can be the best you can!
AUDIENCE: (wild cheers and applause)
RUSH: Go for it — and I’ll see you there! Thank you all very much and have a great Fourth of July!
AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause)
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We got Gretchen from Joplin on the phone. Snerdley found somebody from Joplin. Great to have you, Gretchen, welcome to the program.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Mega dittos.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Well, I just wanted to call today and tell you how much we appreciated having you up here. I hadn’t had the chance to try your tea yet, and that was wonderful and it was really inspiring to see you and Kathryn and it just meant so much to the community. And I really appreciate the way you did keep it all about America and how great our Founding Fathers planned this country and how we need to keep that going.
RUSH: Thank you very much. I really appreciate that. I’m glad you noticed the subtleties.
CALLER: (laughing.)
RUSH: (laughing.)
CALLER: You were wonderful, and I love you bowing off the stage. That was classy. I liked it.
RUSH: Well, it was a fun night, it really was. And that crowd, you heard the crowd, the crowd was jazzed, the crowd was revved up. I love being a part of things like this. As I told ’em, it was a genuine honor and opportunity for me and for Kathryn to be there.
Chloe, 13 years old from Joplin, Missouri. Hi, Chloe, you’re next on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: I’m 13 years old. I’m Chloe. And I just wanted to call in ’cause I’m a huge fan, and I met your wife, and I just really appreciate that you came down to Joplin, ’cause you didn’t have to do that.
RUSH: No, I didn’t have to but it’s something that we really wanted to do, and you got to go, too, right, your parents took you?
CALLER: Yeah, and we helped distribute the tea. We brought our golf cart and we brought a trailer and we helped distribute your tea all around Landreth Park.
RUSH: Oh, that’s so wonderful. We had, I forget how many hundreds of volunteers. You’re from the young conservative group, then?
CALLER: Yeah. I’m just a huge fan. I go to College Heights, which is a private school.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And we always talk about you, Rush, and we’re 13, so we say we listen to 1310 KZRG ’cause we’re 13.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: Yeah. And I just hope maybe one day I could meet you in person. And Kraig Kitchin was very nice ’cause he gave us a white sheet of paper, and he said that you would send us something, so —
RUSH: Well, there’s no question we will. If Kraig said that we’re gonna send you — Kraig gave you a white piece of paper?
CALLER: White piece of paper.
RUSH: What was on the white piece of paper?
CALLER: They were T-shirts. My dad, which is Ron Brewer, my mom, Theresa Brewer, and me, Chloe Brewer, and we want you to sign T-shirts for us, if that’s okay.
RUSH: Are you the one, there’s a stack about two feet high of T-shirts that I ended up with.
CALLER: I don’t know. I don’t know. But I would just like to meet you one day.
RUSH: Well, that will happen.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: Chloe, that will happen. And thank you so much for being there. Thank you for helping distribute the tea.
CALLER: You’re welcome. And just thank you so much for coming to Joplin —
RUSH: No, no, no, no —
CALLER: — ’cause you didn’t have to do that.
RUSH: No, no, no, I appreciate that very much, thanks. The honor is all ours, the opportunity to be there. We’re the ones that horned in and you all let us come in, accepted us, open arms. We loved it. Thanks very much.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: (interruption) No, Snerdley, come to think of it there was not — Snerdley wants to know who else was at Joplin. There wasn’t one politician that showed up, other than local politicians. That’s right, that just struck me. The state representative was there, and I think their member of Congress was there earlier in the day. In fact, I think the congressman from that area got a picture with Kathryn. But you would think that they would see that as a golden opportunity to go in. There wasn’t one there.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Jerry in St. Louis, as we go back to the phones. Great to have you with us, Jerry. Hi.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush. I appreciate that. Mega dittos.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: First thing I want to do is I want to thank you for taking my call and thank the call screener for allowing me to talk to you. I actually called originally about — I was at the rally yesterday, I guess you’d call it, the party in Joplin. I drove from St. Louis across the state to Joplin just to see you, and it was worth it for the ten minutes, I want to tell you that. I’ve been listener to you since 1992, I actually found you by accident. And I feel as if we’re friends, because I’ve been listening to you so long and I actually talk to you while you’re on the radio, “Yeah, Rush, that’s right,” that kind of stuff, so —
RUSH: Ah, you’re making my day. I know what you’re talking about. The remarkable thing about this program for me, what it’s meant to me as a person, is that the relationship between my staff here, me, and the audience, you, is familial, it’s like a family.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: There is a deep connection there. You drove across the state. Tell people how long a drive that is from St. Louis to Joplin.
CALLER: That’s 300 miles.
RUSH: So you drove 300 miles.
CALLER: Now, I’d like to share with you, though, that I gotta be honest about this, my son-in-law is in the Army, he’s stationed in Fort Leonard Wood. Well, they own a house outside of Fort Leonard Wood, okay, so she’s been wanting me to come down and visit her anyway, and I was listening to you last week when you said that you were going to be in Joplin.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And so I called my daughter and I said, “Well, you’ve been wanting to see me, how would you like to have me for a night?” So I reserved a room in Joplin, and she said, “Yeah, Dad,” and I told her I wanted to go see you. We talked, my son-in-law and I and my daughter talked about you a lot that evening when I was there with her. But anyway, so I stayed at my daughter’s one night and then I drove on into Joplin the next day and checked into the motel room, cleaned up and went to the rally. I was there before they put the first case out. I was at your truck, took pictures and everything.
RUSH: No kidding.
CALLER: It was really exciting for me, the opportunity, and I paid for it. I had to stand around and, you know, stand in the sun. It was 92 degrees and felt like a hundred. It was really hot, but it was worth it, and the ten minutes I think was fine. I would have loved to have met you. I was within 20 feet of you. I was right to the right of you there, and I want to share this with you before I go any further. My best friend, Milton Menafee, who a veteran of the Vietnam War, he listens to you religiously, can I say —
RUSH: Sure, you just did, so go ahead.
CALLER: Mega dittos to Rush Limbaugh for Milton Menafee, because I know he would like me to do that. He’s my best friend. He’s disabled, and he listens to you every day.
RUSH: Well, God bless both of you guys. You drove 300 miles, you got to see your daughter, and the ten minutes didn’t disappoint. That’s the one thing that I walked out of there — of course I love all these people. This has been going on, it will be 23 years August 1st. And this just humbles me. I mean it humbles me. We’re listening here, these are the kind of people I always have in mind when I talk about who it is that make this country work. These are the people, they’re not trying to get their picture out there in People magazine, they’re not running around. They’re just playing by the rules and living their lives, and they’re the ones that make the country work. I mean it sounds a little hokey, but it’s not. It’s actually true. These are the people that make the country work.
His disabled vet friend, country wouldn’t be what it is without his friend Milton, and Milton listens to me every day. And here’s old Jerry driving in there from St. Louis, 300 miles, satisfied by ten minutes. I walked out, if Kathryn were here she’d tell you, we’re flying back home and I’m worried, we’re on the airplane and she’s telling me, “No, no, no, it was fine, it was good,” and I don’t know, ’cause I saw that line of cars still driving in as we were driving out, and I know that I normally go two hours and there was no way I could do two hours. I mean it would take us past the fireworks and they’d-a hated me. But I always want to meet and surpass expectations, and if I feel like I haven’t met people’s expectations, audience expectations, I feel like I’ve let ’em down and so forth.
I didn’t see any coverage of this in Politico before I got there. The New York Times had a story about this before we got there. The New York Times mentioned I’m going in there to hawk tea, which is not what we did. We gave the tea away. They said we went in there to try to take advantage of the opportunity. No, I didn’t even mention the name of the tea when I made my remarks. (interruption) Is that what they said? Politico and the Huffing and Puffington Post said I was going in there to grow the Republican Party? What they don’t understand is, we have the news from Harvard, that happens anyway, whether I’m there or not. Harvard University study, Fourth of July celebrations grow the number of Republicans, whether I show up at ’em or not.
Now, the New York Times story just ever so mildly snarky at the beginning, intimating that we’re going in there to use the occasion to promote the tea, which is not what happened. If you listen to my speech, I did not mention the name of the tea. But then at the end of the story, the guy whether he intended to or not, came up with a great description of Two If By Tea: “Iced tea packaged as patriotism.” Two If By Tea, iced tea packaged as patriotism. Thank you, Jerry, and thank you, Milton.