A Rush Baby Reeducated by EIB

RUSH: Kurschen in Omaha, great to have on you on the program.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. It’s actually Chursten (ph), but no one ever gets it. It’s such an honor to talk to you.

RUSH: Thank you very much.

CALLER: I just wanted to let you know I was thinking about that eight-week listening challenge you were talking about, and I wanted to tell you that I grew up a Rush Baby. My brother and I were homeschooled and part of our program was daily listening to you, and I went off to college, and the whole liberal environment kind of changed my perception on things and I know my mom was in the background just waiting for me to come back. So when I graduated, she gave me Rush 24/7 for graduation, and I started listening. I was pretty negative about it in the beginning but she paid for it and I said, ‘Whatever, I’ll listen,’ and I started listening, and I have been a renewed Rush fan all over again, and I just want you to know how much we appreciate you out here and what you’ve done, and what you do and continue to do. There are people in my generation who have their heads on straight, and I just want that to be motivating to others.

RUSH: This is a fascinating story.

CALLER: Yeah!

RUSH: Chursten, I want to ask you a question. It’s a question that no man is ever supposed to ask.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: How old are you?

CALLER: I will be 27 in 15 days.

RUSH: Okay, 27 in 15 days.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: By the way, another ten years you’ll not know how many days it’s going to be until you’re 37, but —

CALLER: (giggles) Actually I will because 27 already seems bad enough.

RUSH: But it only gets better. It only gets better, Chursten. I’m telling you. Life gets a whole lot better as you get older.

CALLER: Oh, good.

RUSH: Here’s what fascinating to me is. So you were a Rush Baby. When you were growing up as part of your homeschooling and this radio program was part of the curriculum, were you —

CALLER: Yes?

RUSH: — an avid supporter or was it just something like a class that you had to take but you weren’t really crazy about it?

CALLER: You know what? Even at that young age it was so entertaining because I just remember a lot of the different little parodies you would do and the little songs you would do right, right —

CALLER: — and you would always listening and sing to them and —

RUSH: Right, right, right.

CALLER: We actually enjoyed it. I don’t remember a whole lot about the particulars of the politics at the time, but it just became kind of one of the things we did. And I learned a lot about politics that way.

RUSH: This is what fascinates me about this. What fascinates me about this is that you had years and years and years of daily exposure, focus, attention to this program; and yet when you went away to school, when you went away to college they were able to it seems really easily deprogram you.

CALLER: Well, I was there for seven years, actually went on and got another degree.

RUSH: Yeah, but it didn’t take them all seven years, did it?

CALLER: No. And that’s so true. And the whole ‘young skulls full of mush’ thing, my mom would say that, and I would be so angry with her ’cause I’m like, ‘I work really hard in school, and I think I’m learning all the truth.’

RUSH: Have you ever stopped to ask yourself, ‘How did this happen?’ I mean, you left home perfectly well-rounded, perfectly informed. You were happy with what you knew, and then somehow you ended up getting corrupted. Have you asked yourself how this happened?

CALLER: Oh, it’s obvious. School — college in general — is a liberal environment, only one point of view.

RUSH: Yeah, but it overcame you, he didn’t resist it.

CALLER: No. It’s kind of almost… I did but I wasn’t able to really express myself. For instance, you know, in one of my classes we were forced to write about something.

RUSH: Uh huh.

CALLER: There was no if ands or buts about it and I disagreed with it completely and had to put it in a positive perspective and I felt like it was just totally inappropriate and it was one of those things where instead of resisting — because it was too much work you’re not going to get the grade — you may as well do it the way they want.

RUSH: Plus you probably had a lot of peer pressure from your other students.

CALLER: Right. They would even ask us, like I remember during the Bush-Gore presidency (sic), we were in class, one of the most liberal professors I ever had, and he asked out loud, like, ‘Who’s voting for Bush?’ and, you know, people raised their hands and the other people raised their hands for Kerry (sic), and he was furious. Class was over early because he was mad that more people were going to vote for Bush. And he expressed that. (snorts) It was the crazy thing I’ve ever seen — and this is Omaha, Nebraska. It’s a pretty conservative area, you know?

RUSH: Well, thank goodness for the persistence of your mother.

CALLER: Yes. Always.

RUSH: She really cared.

CALLER: Oh, she’s the best. (giggles)

RUSH: She bought you a 24/7 subscription when you got back, and you resisted that.

CALLER: A little bit because the word out there about you is that you are just super-opinionated and you don’t even know what you’re talking about, you’re making stuff up and whatever else. So I just was kind of caught up in all of that, I’m like, ‘Whatever. You know, this isn’t going to be…’

RUSH: Well, but see, this is fascinating. Because you never thought that while you were listening. You liked it! You said it was very entertaining and so forth. I am super opinionated but I’m not wrong, and as you know I don’t make things up. And it’s the fact that I am super opinionated that rubs people the wrong way. See, I think one of the primary reasons that there is (especially in our current PC culture) such opposition to me is not just that I’m right, but it’s that I sound so sure of myself when I’m right. Nobody is supposed to be that sure of themselves! Nobody! I mean, there’s always gotta be some doubt. There’s always some value in the opposing point of view. You gotta have some doubt. You can’t just dismiss it!’ and of course I say, ‘No, there’s nothing worthwhile about liberalism.’ They say, ‘That’s close minded. You can’t say that! Nobody’s supposed to be that sure of themselves,’ and it just makes people feel inferior, is what happens, and nobody wants to feel inferior. Except the Soviets.