RUSH: It is August 1st, ladies and gentlemen, which is not just a big day here, it is a huge day in the history of the United States. It is also a huge day in the history of American media. August 1st, 1988, this program was born. (interruption – staff yelling ‘Happy Anniversary!’) Oh look at that, a little celebratory NutriSystem blueberry muffin with one little candle. (clapping) Let me blow it out. Thank you all so much. Snerdley and Dawn and Brian brought this in. Oh, and look, there’s a little card here. They always embarrass me doing this. Anyway, this program was born August 1st, 1988, today is our 19th anniversary. The birth of this program has brought about a sea change, a revolution in American media, and it all could not have happened, of course, without me, but it could not have happened actually without you. Without you being there consistently in ever increasing numbers, with your incredible loyalty to this program, we all appreciate it here more than you will ever know. I want to bring in a special guest, ladies and gentlemen, to explain the significance. Everybody thinks the 20th anniversary is going to be the big blowout, and of course it will. But the 19th anniversary is no slouch. We have an expert to explain the significance of the 19th anniversary of the EIB Network.
FARRAKHAN: In the background is the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorial. Each one of these monuments is 19 feet high. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, Thomas Jefferson, the third president. And 16 and three make 19 again. What is so deep about this number 19? Why are we standing on the Capitol steps today? That number 19, when you have a nine, you have a womb that is pregnant, and when you have a one standing by the nine, it means that there’s something secret that has to be unfolded. Abraham Lincoln’s statute, 19 feet high, 19 feet wide. Jefferson, 19 feet high, 16, and the third president, 19, standing on the steps of the Capitol, in the light of the sun, offering life to a people who are dead.
RUSH: And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, the significance of the 19th anniversary of the EIB Network. That was, of course, special guest, Calypso Louie, Minister Farrakhan, that’s from the million man March, October 16th of 1995.
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RUSH: I got a note, an interesting e-mail yesterday in the Rush comments line, somebody who subscribes to the website, sent me a note and said, ‘You know what, you had a caller the other day…’ and I could just hear this guy typing in anger as he wrote, ‘you had a caller the other day, and he said, ‘You gotta stop this play-by-play, Republicans versus Democrats.’ We all know what the Democrats are. We all know what the liberals are. You gotta start teaching conservatism. You don’t do that enough. You gotta be like Reagan. You gotta start teaching conservatism.’ I thought about that, and he’s got a point up to a certain extent. But in the process of exposing liberalism, such as stories like this, are we not in fact teaching conservatism? Still, it’s a good point. Maybe what I should do after reading one of these stories, rather than just assume all of you know that this is whacked out and silly and stupid, but also dangerous. Government thinking it’s responsible for raising kids, nanny government, liberals here do that, maybe follow it up by saying how conservatives look at this and how we philosophize over this. Don’t I make that point when I say not one time in this story will you see the word ‘parent’?
So anyway, I’ve been thinking about that, and ultimately the guy who wrote me the angry, frustrated, threatening letter, has a point because conservatism by its nature is optimistic. I don’t want to contribute here to the doom and gloom of constantly reporting on liberalism without some optimistic follow-up to it. But still, it must be done. We laugh at this stuff constantly; we have been doing so for 19 years. I think one of the reasons the left is so off the cliff now is because they are panicked. This show starting 19 years ago led to the demise of the media monopoly that the left and all of its associations had; the think tanks, these bureaucracies and so forth. They have to fight now for what they believe, but they can’t do it openly. They can’t be who they are because nobody would support them. Nobody would vote for them if they were actually honest about what they want to do. But we’re getting them closer to being that.
The Democrats in Congress are proposing appropriations bill with a new tax increase. It’s going to get vetoed but they’re telling us who they are. I think it’s important to keep pointing out who they are to people because I travel around, I meet people all the time who are intelligent, think that they’re engaged, think that they’re involved, but haven’t a clue about how politics works; how the government works; how the New York Times works; how the media works. They haven’t a clue. They’re intelligent but they’re not absorbed, they’re not engaged. This program’s mission has been, among many other things, to create as large an army of informed, educated, engaged citizens as possible so that our ideas triumph legitimately with mandates following electoral victories.
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RUSH: Joy, I’ve got about 45 seconds but I wanted to get to you before I had to go.
CALLER: Hello?
RUSH: Hi, Joy! I have 45 seconds.
CALLER: Okay. The first time I heard about you, there was a little blurb in TIME magazine that summer. I was driving down the Ohio Turnpike, and fiddling with the radio, and I found you, and I listened for a few minutes and then you came on with that Spatula City commercial.
RUSH: Yup.
CALLER: I thought to myself, ‘What in the devil? Who could be dumb enough to open a store like that?’
RUSH: (Laughing.)
CALLER: (Laughing.)
RUSH: Everybody remembers the first time they heard this show. Everybody remembers it.