Be Optimistic & Positive Out There

RUSH: This really is important. We are sitting here on one of the greatest political opportunities of our lifetime. We have just — the American people have just — rejected liberalism. They need to be told that’s what they did. Too many people don’t yet realize that what they voted against was liberalism. They think they’re voting against ‘Washington not working,’ so they think they’re voting against Washington. Again, Washington doesn’t work. They want Washington to work.

Why Washington doesn’t work needs to be explained to them. It doesn’t work because of liberals running it. It’s just that simple. It’s not complicated. It can be demonstrated. Now, the minute inside-the-Beltway Republicans start trashing liberalism, that’s the day that they are rejected from the ruling class. The day they stop talking about bipartisanship and all that, that’s the day they get kicked out of the ruling class, ’cause they’re just invited guests in the ruling class. The Democrats control who’s in the ruling class, in Washington. They control who’s in the clique. But I cannot emphasize this enough. I cannot say enough times: The folly of a tidal wave victory and wipeout, historic wipeout, and the next day the Republicans think what they have to first do is trash the Tea Party and Sarah Palin rather than seize this opportunity? If they want to win every year, if they want to be a generational winner, if the Republicans wanna resign the Democrats to being out of power for 40 years, here’s how you do it. The Democrats just illustrated who they are and what they do nationally if unchecked. We’ve already got the example of Michigan. We’ve got the example of New Orleans and Louisiana. We’ve got the example of San Francisco. We’ve got it. Everywhere liberals run the show in conjunction with unionism, you’ve got utter despair and destruction. It’s time it was pointed out.

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RUSH: Here’s Timothy in Lompoc, California. It’s great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Good morning, Rush. I just wanted to go back over to what made Reagan so great was his eternal optimism. He said that the problem with the country when he came in after Carter was the disease of pessimism and the cure for pessimism is optimism, and Barack Obama needs to have that presented to him as strongly as the Republicans can and never let up.

RUSH: Well, no. Let me tell you: I agree with that, and that’s why the Republicans need to stop this pessimism about Sarah Palin and stop this pessimism about the Tea Party. You are exactly right. You know, Roger Ailes sends a memo out every once in a while. He surveys the situation at the Fox News Channel. He’s done this wherever he has worked, wherever he has been a manager. Everywhere you work — you people know it and I know it — you always have people who are perpetually negative. They are perpetual pessimists, and they’re always trying to stir people up that way. The depressed and the angry are always trying to get others to join them. Ailes sends out a memo to these people, unnamed.

He says, ‘You know who you are and I know who you are. Negative people make healthy people sick, and I’m not gonna tolerate it. Negative people make healthy people sick, and I’m not gonna have a shop full of sick people, and if I have to get rid of you pessimists and negative people, I will,’ and that’s how he shapes it up. And I couldn’t agree with that more. Pessimism, negativity is the natural predisposition, I’m convinced, of human beings. (interruption) No, no, Snerdley. Why is it that you have to go out and buy a book and you have to study the art of positive thinking? How come a guy who writes a book, Norman Vincent Peale, on the ‘Power of Positive Thinking’ becomes a millionaire — a multi, multimillionaire?

How come you don’t need to go to the library or Amazon or wherever to find a book on how to be a pessimist? Nobody has to teach you how to do that. Optimism is something you have to work at. Pessimism is the natural state, I’m convinced, of the human being. Even this week I can’t tell you how much pessimism I’m surrounded by. I’ve gotten to the point I’ve shut off half of my e-mail addresses. I’ve set up filters in my primary e-mail address to delete the e-mail from over half the people sending me stuff because it’s nothing but pure negativity. Anger at this, anger at that, anger at the media and the way they covered the election Tuesday night, anger at the Republicans, anger here, anger there. There’s anger at me for what I’m not doing!

I don’t need to be surrounded by it. So this guy is exactly right. Reagan. You ask people back in the eighties about Reagan. He made people feel better about the country. He made people feel better about themselves. If you can do that to people, you can write your own ticket. If you can inspire happiness and optimism in people, A, you’re a leader; but B, you’ll have a lot of friends. But if all you are is just seeing the negative in everything — in the midst of great glory — I tell you, you’re gonna drive people nuts. I’m convinced it’s the natural state of the human being to be pessimistic. You stop and think about it and you will know that I’m right. How many of you go through the day and you don’t have to think about how many people are bitching about something every day?

I don’t care what it is, you don’t have to stop and count ’em up because it’s prevalent. It’s happening. No matter where you go and no matter what you run into, somebody’s always ticked off about something. I suggest that one of the primary reasons for it now is that liberals are running everything. Liberals happen to make everybody sour. Liberalism and what they do to the surroundings, what they do to the workplace, what they do to schools, what they do to government, what they did to the country would make anybody pessimistic — and that’s why it takes an effort to be optimistic, and that’s why optimistic people are noted — ‘God, you know, this guy’s always smiling. He’s always happy. He’s always optimistic’ — because it’s unique.

Stop and think about it. It’s the natural state. I’m convinced that it is. Some people — you’ve heard the phrase. It’s either happily miserable or miserably happy. I forget which it is. My mother told me once. There are some people that are just happily miserable — and if they’re not miserable, something’s wrong. I’ve played golf with guys like that. Let me tell you, you won’t find more negativity than on a golf course. I played golf with guys who boom a drive down the middle of the fairway, and he’s ticked off and mad. Oh, it’s ’cause that means the next shot’s gotta be horrible, ’cause he didn’t deserve to hit that good a drive. I mean, it’s everywhere, and I don’t like being around it. I do not. It’s the fastest thing to get me to lose it. (laughing) I know, you’re all saying, ‘Whoa, what’s Rush all ticked off about?’ (laughing) No, it’s something I constantly note.

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RUSH: Now, this negativism, you wouldn’t have believed it election night. I was inundated with it during the election coverage, as the returns were coming in. I had to almost shut off the e-mail. It was just overwhelming. It was really starting to tick me off and I didn’t want to hear any of it ’cause there was no call for it as it turned out. Shirley MacLaine, that great philosopher, once said, ‘Dwelling on the negative simply contributes to its power,’ and that’s true. I hope you all have had a great week. I hope you understand exactly how triumphant this week was. I hope you understand what a wipeout this week was and what a great opportunity it presents.

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RUSH: Thanks for a great week here, folks. It was a wonderful week of broadcast excellence here at the Limbaugh Institute, and it was made possible primarily — not entirely, but primarily — by one man, Barack Obama, and who he is and what he stands for. And there are a gazillion more like him in the Democrat Party, and they are all the same way, and they need to be treated the same way the next election.