Government & Personal Happiness

RUSH: ‘Voters Unhappy with Bush and Congress.’ We’re all depressed, but personally we’re fine. ‘Deepening unhappiness with President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress soured the mood of Americans and sent Bush’s approval rating to another record low this month, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday. The Reuters/Zogby Index, which measures the mood of the country, also fell from 98.8,’ which happens to be my accuracy rating, ‘to 96 — the second consecutive month [the ‘mood of the country index’] has dropped. The number of Americans who believe the country is on the wrong track jumped four points to 66 percent. Bush’s job approval rating fell to 24 percent from last month’s record low for a Zogby poll of 29 percent,’ but Congress’ number is a ‘paltry 11 percent.’ You know, my numbers are higher than this. I’ve got approval numbers in Nevada, and I’m at 32. I’m higher than the president. I’m higher than Congress. I’m higher than Harry Reid out there in Nevada — and he’s been an elected official from Nevada for 30 years!

‘The bleak mood,’ it says here, ‘could present problems for both parties heading into the November 2008 election campaign, Zogby said. ‘Voter turnout could still be high next year, but the mood has turned against incumbents and into a ‘throw the bums out’ mindset,’ Zogby said. The national telephone survey of 991 likely voters, conducted October 10 through October 14, found barely one-quarter of Americans, or 26 percent, believe the country is headed in the right direction.’ Now, keep that figure in mind: only 26% think the country is headed in the right direction. ‘The poll found declining confidence in U.S. economic and foreign policy. About 18 percent gave positive marks to foreign policy, down from 24 percent, and 26 percent rated economic policy positively, down from 30 percent.’ BUT: ‘A majority of Americans still rate their personal financial situation as excellent or good, although the number dipped slightly this month to 54 percent from 56 percent. … ‘Americans are still feeling good about a number of things in their lives, but not about the government’s leadership,’ Zogby said. ‘They are giving up on this government.” Well, look, this sort of illustrates the point that I have been trying to make over the many, many countless years of service from behind the Golden EIB Microphone. I wrote about it in one of my books. ‘My success, my happiness is not determined by who wins elections.’ Now, I can understand being all bummed out about government now and then.

Thank God! We all ought to be bummed out about government. That’s a good sign. The answer to it is not, ‘We need more!’ If there’s any evidence that we don’t need more of this, this is it. People are happy with government? Fine. Do something about it. Put some new people in there. Shrink it. Make it more efficient or what have you. But the idea that people can have their national mood determined by the government is a frightening thing. You don’t have to wake up every day and face your state or national capital and pay homage and salute. If you’re happy in your personal life, that should be enough. That should be fabulous. What’s going on in government is something that we can all participate in changing, but the idea that it’s going to affect people’s mood? Frankly, I don’t think it’s government, although I wish it were. I think it’s a combination of government and what people see on the Drive-By Media day in and day out, like this story out of Iraq. The deaths all over the country of citizens and US military personnel are plummeting, and so the Drive-Bys have a story today that this is really putting a pinch on the Iraqi funeral business! They just have to find the negatives, have to find it. When 10,000 kids go to the hospital every year because of bicycle accidents, ‘Oh, no! It’s so sad!’ We’ve got this killer germ out there wiping us all out. I don’t even have a ribbon for it. It’s killing more people than AIDS. We’re all going to get fat and we can’t do anything about it because it’s simply life itself that’s causing it.

There is a drumbeat of news every day — radio and television, newspaper, magazines, whatever — that some people might say, ‘Why should I even bother trying? Why should I even get out of bed? The odds are, I’m going to fall down the steps based on the latest statistical evidence.’ I haven’t even gotten to the scare tactics being bombarded by the global warming hoax and crowd. So if you’re happy in your personal life, why, that’s 80% of it. ‘Well, I know, Mr. Limbaugh, but I see the news. I see how unhappy many people are. The economic news for people is not as good as I…’ Don’t believe it! Most people are like you. They’re feeling good about themselves, and they’re being made to feel guilty about it, and so they say, ‘Well, I’m fine with myself, but I think I’m going to temper that because it’s not fair for me to be feeling good when there’s so much misery out there.’ There’s not that much misery out there, and the misery that’s out there has been manufactured. Misery, by the way, is something that comes natural. A lot of people think that there’s virtue in it, because misery leads to suffering, and suffering is considered virtuous. Some suffering you can’t avoid, but the suffering you bring on yourself — worrying about things you can’t possibly know, telling yourself stories about what’s going to happen tomorrow or the day after, and start worrying about it — that’s a waste of energy and time, because you can’t possibly know. It’s self-induced suffering. There’s nothing virtuous about it. In fact, it’s just the opposite. It’s a waste of time.