RUSH: I’m trying to find something. I got an e-mail from a friend of mine last night explaining to me why it’s hard to teach conservatism to people. Ah. Here it is. “Dear, Rush. Quick story.
“When I was in my early thirties, I arranged for a large condiment packing plant in New York to take care of producing a food product that I was selling. I needed it produced in the eastern part of the country, and they suggested that I visit their plant in New York. I accepted, not knowing that they would fly me on their company plane. Well, I knew it was a company plane; I didn’t know what kind.
“It was a small turboprop, and I was scared. When I got the airport, I was scared. I was expecting a jet. It’s a corporate entity. It was a small turboprop, and I had to get on board but I was scared to death. Within moments after takeoff, somebody on the plane noticed that I was very tense. I’m not a good passenger on commercial jets, and this was flat-out scary to me, this little turboprop/puddle jumper-type thing.
“So somebody suggested that I go up and sit next to the pilot in the jump seat. He said, ‘Let the pilot explain to you what’s going on here. So that you’ll understand there’s nothing to be afraid of. You’re telling yourself stories. You’re imagining that nobody’s in control of this. You’re imagining that you’re at the whims of whatever you can’t control up here at 20,000 feet. Go up and talk to the pilot.’
“So I did, and the pilot proceeded to explain how the plane worked and how it flew, and everything that calmed my nerves. He spent a lot of time explaining the redundancy safety features of the airplane and just everything that was helpful. After 20 to 30 minutes, I was totally relaxed — and flying in that airplane became fun. The pilot even played around a little bit to make it more interesting.
“He showed me how to bank, how to raise the nose and lower the nose. He explained the stall, all of these things. Basically the pilot showed me how he was in control of it, things that would have scared the heck out of me an hour earlier.” Now here he gets to the point with the analogy. He says, “Rush, I think conservatism is scary to people that don’t understand it.
“They don’t get why it is safer, why conservatism is safer than command-and-control central government with good intentions. They don’t understand how conservatism will provide them even more of whatever it is they want. The safety features of limited government, they don’t see them. They think Big Government is a safety feature. They think Big Government is the hammock or the safety net.
“There millions of experienced, passionate, engaged consumers and business owners making decisions — and in conservatism, the odds of them all screwing up at the same time are virtually nothing. But people are scared. Conservatism scares them based on what they’ve heard about it from the media, the whole notion of being on their own.” He says, “Look what happened when the Soviet Union fell.
“People that had been taken care of, however poorly and insufficiently for 70 years, all of a sudden were on their own were scared to death. Rush, it’s the same thing here to people that do not understand conservatism. Now, your listeners understand it. Your listeners don’t fear it. They love it; they want more of it. They want entrepreneurs to go a little crazy. They know the economy isn’t gonna crash with people taking risks.
“Your listeners and people who understand conservatism know that there are bold risk-takers — i.e., stunt fliers — and they want them to do it. People that listen to you, people who understand conservatism, know that an economy based on people who know their strengths and weaknesses — and have learned from the mistakes and are willing to take risks — are far better off than a bunch of people behaving like robots waiting for the latest handout.
“But that’s safer, Rush, to people that don’t understand what conservatism is. And the way it’s been maligned and impugned in the media, it’s really a fear.” This guy’s point is like a fear of flying that has to be overcome. Then he got into the suck-up portion of the note, where he said, “Rush, you are America’s Real Anchorman and the real pilot. You’re piloting this airplane. You’ve taught conservatism so that we know it isn’t scary.
“It isn’t what the news media and the late-night clowns make it out to be. It’s the safest form of governance there is. It’s the most productive way to organize people’s affairs ever. But many low-information voters are scared, and they’re ignorant. They are white-knuckle political and economic fliers. Imagine if that pilot talked to me like Obama and his propagandists in the news business and late night TV comics talk about conservatism.
“I would have never gotten on the airplane again. If that pilot would have insulted me, told me I didn’t know what was best for me — if he’d said, ‘You’re stupid even to be here’ — I would have been scared to death. When explained properly, flying and conservatism are understood to be the safest methods of travel, commerce, and government. But it has to be explained properly.”