RUSH: Fort Myers, Florida. This is Sean. Thank you el mucho for calling. Great to have you on the program.
CALLER: Mr. Limbaugh, thank you so much for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet, sir.
CALLER: I’m extremely honored to be able to talk to you and to personally be able to tell you thank you.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. For what, though?
CALLER: Well, I was born a Democrat, raised in a Democrat family, been a Democrat all my life.
RUSH: Hmm.
CALLER: I met a wonderful woman a few years back and married her, and she’s a conservative Republican, and about a year ago, our debates with each other were getting so bad that we were about to go through a divorce, and I’m driving in the car one day and I start listening to your show, and you really opened my eyes. I’ve been converted over to a conservative Republican; and I tell you, me and my wife now get along better than ever. We actually listen to your podcast every night together. We’re able to sit down and talk with each other and debate, and get along, and our marriage is so wonderful now. We’re really a poster child family for what the Democrat Party really preys upon. I’m a hard worker. I go out, 350, $400 a week. I support my wife and two kids. She has a disability and about a week ago after listening to your shows and really getting involved, we decided as a family that we were gonna start returning all the disability checks that my wife was getting because we didn’t want to be a part of that. We wanted to support ourselves; we wanted to be a self-sustaining family.
RUSH: Whoa!
CALLER: And we are… I mean our marriage is so wonderful now, and it’s single-handedly because of you and your show.
RUSH: Whoa. Now, I have to tell you something. Let me ask you a question. When you said that your wife is conservative and you’re a liberal Democrat and your arguments got ferocious. Those are core value arguments you’re having, and so when you come together finally — when you had your conversion, and you and your wife now agree on core values — that’s probably what changed the whole marriage around. Because it’s key for two people to have core values in common. It really is. I am ecstatic to hear that the program here had a small role in that, but giving the disability money back. The disability money exists. You know, that’s the kind of help society is willing to fork over. Now, sometimes even that gets abused, but that doesn’t matter. If you feel better, if you feel more responsible and so forth, more power to you. I find this fascinating.
CALLER: Well, we tried… Well, I don’t want to say “we tried.” There were all these organizations that were trying to get us set up and something to I have go us handouts, get us something free. I’m not gonna lie to you: The money that I make, we get by. We pay our rent. You know, we’re able to do what we need to do. And it’s absolutely easy to take that money and be able to go out to eat, you know, do things that we want to do, so on and so forth, but we really feel — and both of us, we talked about this for a long time, but we really feel — like these handout programs were a way for Democrats, for liberals to keep us on their side. As hard as it is sometimes, the joy of knowing that we went out, we didn’t have to accept handouts, we work hard for our money, we have two wonderful kids. Our relationship is amazing now, and to us the pride that we feel for not allowing ourselves to get caught up in, “The government owes me this,” or, “it owes me that,” or whatever —
RUSH: You’re happier, right?
CALLER: I’m happier, I’m much happier.
RUSH: You’re not thinking somebody owes you something? You’re not thinking you’re a victim of somebody else?
CALLER: Exactly. I think that’s the big word is a “victim.” My wife has lupus; and, you know, I think for a long time she felt like a victim, and I’ve actually seen an improvement in her attitude and everything. Not just because of our marriage being better but because she — exactly — doesn’t feel like she owes somebody something.
RUSH: Well, I’ll tell you what: The first call on Open Line Friday carries with it an awesome responsibility, setting the tone for the whole day, and you’ve done a great job of that. This is just fabulous. Was your wife, while you were still in the midst of your lost years as a liberal Democrat, a listener to this show?
CALLER: She was. I used to hate you, Rush. I used to think that you were egotistical and that you were just —
RUSH: I am.
CALLER: — a puppet. Well, yeah. (laughing)
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: But I tell you — and I don’t know why — I was driving down the road and I was listening to your show and everything was so profound. It was just like a bulb came on — and I fought it. I fought it for a while, and I listened to you. Actually I’ve been written up twice to work for listening to your show and that’s when the wife and I decided that we wouldn’t do your show live anymore, that we would wait ’til I get off work and we would listen to it together, and that’s helped with our communication. As a matter of fact tonight I promise you I’ll be in trouble because she’s gonna hear me talking to you. (laughing)
RUSH: No!
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: No, no, no. It ought to make you an even bigger hero! This is a great story. It’s a great story. Everybody associated with the program is got a warmed heart over hearing this. Bringing people together like this, this is cool. This is just great. Merry Christmas to you. Have a wonderful holiday season. Thanks so much for the call. That’s Sean in Fort Myers, Florida.