RUSH: Here’s Bugsy.

CALLER: Good morning, Rush.

RUSH: (laughing) Bugsy in Chicago. You know, you remind me, one of my all-time favorite movies, Jerry Lewis, The Family Jewels.

CALLER: Still got mine.

RUSH: Jeez. (laughing) Yeah, not for long in Chicago. He played a bunch of different characters in that movie, and one of them was a gangster, Bugsy Peyton. And I used to be able to do a perfect impersonation of the voice that Jerry Lewis used for the character in that movie. So I look up there and I see Bugsy in Chicago, I did a double take. (laughing) Anyway, welcome to the program. Good to have you here.

CALLER: Hey, same here. There’s about a five-step process, I guess, to gracefully losing power. And I think, you know, this guy here, our prez is on the way. First you have to apologize to the other countries, which he’s done. Then you have to send your manufacturing to them so it’s kind of a goodwill gesture, so you deplete all your manufacturing. Then you gotta bankrupt our own country by giving away entitlements and good old, what is it, Solyndra, and all this other stuff, just blowing through all our money like water and making a good national debt. Give away the military or just stop the military from increasing or —

RUSH: Hey, don’t forget shutting down much of the oil industry and allowing the ChiComs to buy all that oil from Canada instead of us.

CALLER: Oh, yeah. Six.

RUSH: That’s gracefully giving up global power.

CALLER: Well, then you gotta accuse the other party of doing what you just did.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: They’re to blame for all this, like you were just saying about Romney and this poor lady dying because she was sick for who knows how long. She coulda gone to the doctor —

RUSH: Ah, ah, ah! You can’t say that this woman could have gone to the hospital. Who do you think you are? The memory of this woman is immortalized in this ad. Be very careful, Bugsy, we’re here to protect not just me, but you.

CALLER: You hate to step on the guy.

RUSH: All right.

CALLER: But, you know, this guy’s on his way, and the people believe what they believe, and as long as you can blame everybody else for the dog poop on your lawn —

RUSH: You know where I make my mistake? And that is not very many mistakes, so when I say where I make my mistake, I’m an idiot. I foolishly, blindly, stupidly, dummkopfedly assume that everybody wants to provide for themselves. (laughing) How silly. I do. I assume that everybody’s trying to forge their way in the world and everybody’s trying to make their mark, trying to climb their ladder, and everybody is trying to accomplish something, enjoy success, become the best they can be. I assume that that’s what most people are trying to do. That’s where I’m wrong. That’s where I’m wrong.

I assume that most people are going to pay for their own car. I assume that most people are going to pay for their own food. I assume that most people are going to pay for their own house. I’m just dumb in that regard. A lot of people don’t think that that’s a responsibility of their own anymore. See, I think everybody’s like me. I think everybody is blessed and understandingly blessed with incomparable freedom that people around the world don’t have, and that the road is out there for ’em, as fast as they want to travel, much as they want to do. And I just make the mistake of assuming that that’s the vast majority of the people in the country. It used to be. It used to be. I don’t know. I hope we’re not down to half. I hope there’s still more than half that look at life as a triumph of rugged individualism and self-reliance and not selfishness. It’s a big difference. Self-reliance and selfishness are two separate things. You know, self-interest is a great thing. It’s not selfishness. Anyway, Bugsy, I appreciate the call.