RUSH: Billy in Fort Worth, Texas. Greetings, sir. Thank you again for waiting.
CALLER: Hello, Mr. Limbaugh. How you doing?
RUSH: Just fine, sir.
CALLER: I’m doing just fine. I hear you — you know, you talk about — okay, I’m going to let you know, I’m a Democrat. I’m a liberal. I believe in God. I believe in Jesus Christ and I am an American, okay? And you know — and, hey look, I don’t think you realize what you’re saying, okay? You want the best for America, right?
RUSH: I do.
CALLER: But, Mr. Limbaugh, what you’re doing, you ain’t segregating the country, but you’re separating the country.
RUSH: Nope.
CALLER: Yes, you are, Mr. Limbaugh.
RUSH: Just the exact opposite.
CALLER: You want everybody to —
RUSH: Wait a second, wait a second, wait a second.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: Don’t confuse me with Reverend Wright here. Don’t tell me I’m dividing the country, for crying out loud, Billy, you’re better than this. We’re not dividing the country here. How am I dividing the country?
CALLER: Well, okay, have you listened to what you said? You said that the Republicans cannot compromise with the Democrats. In other words, you want everybody to be a Republican. You want everybody to (unintelligible) Republican. What kind of country would this be? I don’t think you realize — do you ever listen to yourself after your show?
RUSH: No.
CALLER: I don’t think you realize and hear what you say.
RUSH: Billy, I love listening to myself, because I love listening to people that are right and that know what they’re talking about. It’s not Republican versus Democrat, it’s liberal versus conservative, and I do think this country has been and would be much better off if more and more people had the basic tenets, values, and principles of conservatism, as most do, leading their lives. Most people do not run around knocking on the doors of their neighbors asking for help here for the kid to go to college or send me to the doctor’s office, but you vote for people who will do that for you. The greatness of this country has not come about by virtue of government policy. It’s come about by the ingenuity and creativity of the hard working American.
CALLER: May I say something?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: About the reverend. I’m 58 years old. Okay, and what he said, I can — listen now — what happened to me in life —
RUSH: Wait. Are you talking about —
CALLER: — but I don’t hate America. He’s just saying, you know, I don’t really believe he hates America —
RUSH: Who?
CALLER: But the things that have happened to us in our lifetimes —
RUSH: Are you talking about Obama or the reverend here?
CALLER: I’m talking about the reverend, and you’re talking about his associates —
RUSH: He clearly hates America, Billy.
CALLER: I want to ask you a question.
RUSH: He clearly hates America. You impute to me words I don’t say to think I’m separating and dividing the country. You listen to the preacher, and you don’t hear what he’s saying.
CALLER: Yes, I do. Yes, I do.
RUSH: You tell me, Billy, what the reverend has said that you agree with and support.
CALLER: Well, listen, okay, if you hear me talk, or one of my black friends, you might think I hate America, because what happened to me, okay? I know it’s hard for you to understand.
RUSH: What happened to you?
CALLER: Listen, okay, when I was — okay, I’m going to tell you something. You really want me to tell you? I’ll tell you, if you let me tell you, okay? When I was 16 years old, I got this job in Texas, down there, and it was during, you know, school, and my boss paid me a dollar. And I had a classmate, (unintelligible) we graduated in 1966 in (unintelligible) Texas, and I had a classmate. He was white. My boss came to me and told me, said, ‘Boy, I want a dollar’s worth of work from you,’ but he didn’t say nothing about my white friend who he paid $1.25, okay? And I’m thinking, don’t get me wrong, that’s just one bad thing, but I’m going to tell you a good thing that happened to me in Fort Worth, Texas.
RUSH: Now, wait a second. Wait just a second now. Because I want to try to understand you. You got a job for a dollar and a white kid came in and got a dollar and a quarter?
CALLER: That’s right, in 1966. He came to me and told me that, ‘Hey, boy, I want a dollar’s worth of work out of you,’ but he didn’t say anything to my white classmate who he was paying $1.25, back in 1966. And I’m going to tell you something good happened to me, okay.
RUSH: No, wait a second. Let’s just use that one example. Let me tell you about me. I have been fired, I’ve lost count, seven or eight times. I have been told by white people that I wasn’t good enough. I’ve been told I didn’t have what it took, if I want to stay in radio, I should be in sales. I worked one time, Billy, from the time I was 28 to the time I was 33 and I was making $12,000 to $13,000 a year, I was the lowest paid guy, paid by white people. There were white people making more than I made at this place. It was hard. We’ve all had these obstacles, is the point. Now, you may say there hasn’t been any racism in my past. Well, maybe not racism, but I can tell you when feminism came along I worked at a radio station in Pittsburgh, and because the radio business is regulated by the federal government, some new directives came out about hiring women. There were inexperienced women who were hired on the air at a couple radio stations and some white guys lost their jobs.
CALLER: Okay, I believe that —
RUSH: Billy, the point is, we’ve all seen it. It never once occurred to me to hate my country. What occurred to me was I had the damn opportunity to say, screw you people and go out and try it somewhere else. If I wanted to, I could create my own job because this is the United States of America, but never once was I even conscious of hating my country. I might have resented the idiots who were running these radio stations I worked at, but I never hated the country. This hatred for the country is coming from somewhere, and it’s not justified, and it’s keeping you back. It’s holding you back, you’re 58. I ask you for an example from your life, you’re harboring a resentment when you were 16. Get over it. I’m trying to help you. That was then. We all get dumped on when we’re teenagers. We all get mistreated. Now, maybe I can’t say that I have been mistreated because of race, but I’ve been mistreated in the United States of America. It hasn’t been a cakewalk because I’m white, because I’ve had white people be mean to me like they’ve been mean to you.
Now, you might think they were mean to you because you were black. Well, mean to me because he didn’t like me and it didn’t matter to me why, it’s still not pleasant not being liked, and we all go through life not being liked by people, but you don’t surrender the power to those people that don’t like you to reshape your life in bitterness and rage for the rest of your days on earth. You only get one life, and you gotta make the most of it, and with conservatism you can. But if you keep relying on these fixers to go out there and make amends for what happened to you when you were 16, you’re going to die as angry as you are today. You’re going to die as unhappy as you are today. And you’re going to get to the Pearly Gates and they’re going to say, ‘Why did you squander the life you were given?’ And you’re going to be able to say, ‘Because I believed in Reverend Jeremiah Wright. And, by the way, where is he?’ And the Pearly Gates are going to start having to check the books because they may not be sure he’s there. I’m telling you, this has gone on long enough here. I’m trying to help you, Billy.
You need people in your life that can motivate you and inspire you as a human being, and I can tell talking to you, you’ve got passion, and you must have desire. You’ve gotta turn that and direct that into something positive for you, and it cannot be based on vengeance. It cannot be based on getting even with people, because you’ll never be happy. You cannot base this on showing them, because they’ll never show you that you’ve shown them. If they hated you then, they’re going to hate you now. The sweetest revenge, Billy, is success. But if you’re going to go through life wanting those people that wronged you to apologize, if you’re going to go through life wanting to show those people, and you want to see evidence that they realized that they wronged you, you’re never going to see it, and you’re giving people way too much power to define your happiness. Your happiness is essentially being defined by people you don’t even have respect for, by people you don’t even like. If I were you, I’d say to hell with you racists, I’m going to find some people that are worth hanging around with, because they’re out there. You’re a good guy, you do good work, they’ll be glad to have you, and the more work you do and the better you do it, the better compensated you’ll be because you will become valuable. But until you get rid of this attitude that you’re going to be used and abused and taken advantage of, those things are never going to happen to you. And I hope they do.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Spokane, Washington, Dan, you’re next. Nice to have you on the program, sir.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, 50-year-old white guy dittos.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: I didn’t hear the speech, and I just wanted to call to say, thanks for being there and fighting the fight every day. It’s gotta be a royal pain in the gluteus to do some of this stuff, but when I hear you get passionate about what you can be in America because I’ve been through the no job and having to outwork people and struggling with the job situation now. It actually makes me tear up, and I just wanted to say, don’t let the dogs get you down, just keep fighting the damn fight.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. Nothing gets me down like that. I get frustrated because this country is what it is, and it’s not a secret. You don’t get a password when you’re born to access only certain parts of this country that are good. Everybody can. The frustrating thing to me is that so many — and it’s not just black people, liberals in general are trying to tell as many people as possible they have no chance, for whatever ‘ism,’ be it racism or be it sexism or be it bigotry-ism or be it capitalism or be it victimism. Liberals in this country are trying to dissuade people from the notion they can be great, they are trying to dispirit them from having any ambition to overcome obstacles. That’s what’s frustrating to me. And so when I am confronted by one, I look at it actually as an opportunity. It’s a stark reality to realize that this guy Billy, he’s 58. I may be — don’t know for sure — but I may be the first guy that ever spoke to him about America that way in his life.
Now, I’m happy and I’m grateful for the opportunity, but it’s really frustrating to know that it might be the case, and I know a lot of people in this country, from the moment they’re born, they end up going to school and so forth, they’re told how the deck is stacked against them, for all these various reasons, and it’s all done on purpose by liberals who want those people forever dependent on a government run by liberals, robbing them of their humanity, robbing them of their potential, robbing them of their dreams, robbing them of their desire. That’s what frustrates, angers, and even saddens me, to see what liberalism is willing to do to average people in order to keep liberal elites in seats of power.