RUSH: Matthew in Waco, Texas, you’re next on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Mr. Limbaugh, a huge honor, sir. I discovered you when I was 12. Thank you so much for all the things that you’re talking about light and excellence. I really appreciate you, sir.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.
CALLER: Man, yesterday I’m working diligently to better myself, sitting at my computer, making video programs for the iPhone — your favorite product — and I suddenly find myself yelling at my radio. Some jerk is calling you a ‘racist,’ completely unfounded accusations, flying at you live on the air for like five minutes, and you won’t hang up on him!
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I lose 15 minutes of precious productivity wondering why you’re entertaining him so long.
RUSH: That’s it? You didn’t feel vindicated or validity when it was over with?
CALLER: Man… (sigh) I don’t know.
RUSH: Look, I know where you’re coming from. You’re looking out there, you’re saying, ‘Look, you’re Rush Limbaugh. You don’t have to defend yourself to these schlubs. Don’t waste our time defending yourself,’ but here’s why I took the time. A) We had somebody that was not gonna resort to name-calling in 30 seconds. It wasn’t a typical… (interruption) He did resort to name-calling, Snerdley, is that what you’re saying? We had a rarity here. This guy was not resorting to name-calling; he was willing to talk about it. But there is another factor, Matthew: It’s not just me that they’re calling a racist. It’s you and everybody in this audience.
I have to tell you: It infuriates me, this racist business, and I see so many people on our side of the aisle run from the charge, cower in fear of the charge. So many people on our side have willingly silenced themselves, have willingly shut themselves up, and in doing so they have decided they’re not going to be critical of a huge portion of liberalism. Well, I’m not gonna be silenced on it. The charge is baseless — it is, of course, untrue — and so I took the time to not just defend myself, but everybody in this audience and every other conservative, Tea Party or whatever. The Tea Party routinely labeled racist. The president, just yesterday it was revealed in a book, said that the Tea Party is dominated by racist elements — which is gutless.
The attorney general has said we’re ‘cowards’ because we will not discuss race in this country. Well, the president leads the coward parade. He won’t discuss it publicly. He’s president of everybody, but he reserves his comments for a book that’s not even published yet (or is soon to be published), the contents of which have been leaked. I was illustrating absurdity by allowing that guy to illustrate his. So that was a decision made on the fly. I don’t look at that as any waste of time at all, and I don’t look at as though I have to defend myself. What I looked at that as was an opportunity to refute some of the worst, most ridiculous, baseless allegations and charges that there are — because liberals listen to this show, as was evidenced by that call.
And there are many purposes for this program. I have a whole lot of accomplishments here that I have as objectives, a number of things I’m trying to get done on this program. There are a whole lot of elements combined in this presentation. That’s what makes this program unique. It’s not just one thing. That guy and his call afforded an excellent opportunity to knock something out of the park that needs to be knocked out of the park by every conservative and every Republican, most of whom have been cowered into silence in even dealing with this. So part of it was providing a little leadership; part of it was dealing with the substance of it; part of it was whacking it out of the park.
Part of it was answering it for all the other liberals and sending a message: ‘Don’t waste your time calling here with the same attempt. It isn’t gonna work. You cannot cow me. You cannot intimidate me,’ and another part of it out there, Matthew, was having fun. You know, you have fun building your video game apps for the iPhone. I have fun dealing with liberals like that. I have fun playing ‘Barack the ‘Magic Negro.” I have fun explaining how ‘Barack the ‘Magic Negro” came about when a guy is telling me I invented the phrase, I invented the concept. I did no such thing. They did! It was an opportunity to ram every allegation he was making right back in the face of every liberal listening to this program. It was an opportunity I was not gonna pass up — and I dare say, Matthew (not to be critical here, but), the vast majority of listeners were standing up, giving them a standing O and a bunch of high fives.
Where were you?