RUSH: Yesterday on the program, I made reference to the fact that it wasn’t that long ago in our country that if you learned somebody had lost almost everything — and Trump was a billion dollars in the red. A billion dollars in the red! But he’s not now.  He was able to overcome a billion-dollar loss reported on his tax return.  Look, there’s no hero worship here.  I don’t want anybody to misunderstand.  I’m talking about what used to be signs of character and valid principles, various character assessments that people used to make. 

Like the man I told you yesterday that I met shortly after I moved here, and three years later he passed away.  At the memorial service, most everybody there learned things about him we didn’t know, because he wasn’t a braggart.  We didn’t know of his war service or his heroic service in World War II… We did not know (well, some knew) he had lost his fortune three different times.  And on each occasion, he had made a bad bet.  He took a risk, made a bad bet.  Now, most people, if they lose everything, that’s it. 

They’re defeated and they slink away and say, “Oh, my God.”  This guy came back three times, replaced his fortune.  He redid it three separate times.  Trump has done it.  Now, in 1999-2000, the amount of respect that people have for this man was obvious. But there’s no such thinking even today about Trump.  Now the Drive-Bys and the Democrat Party are hell bent on making everything in this a scandal, when in fact Trump has not broken any law.  

He didn’t violate any law.  He didn’t violate the spirit of any law.  Hillary Clinton has — many, multiple times — over a host of things, beginning with her service as first lady.  I mean, the things that these people have done on the edge of the law, her foundation now? It all skirts the edges of the law, and most of it they don’t want anybody to even know about.  The Clinton fortune has come about by selling themselves to donors who expect payback from Mrs. Clinton as Secretary of State and potentially as president. 

We have to hear what a great woman she is, how qualified she is?  She’s not qualified, and it speaks for itself she’s not qualified.  The very fact that others have to tell us she’s so qualified when we don’t see it ourselves when we look at her, tells us everything that we have to know.  But there’s something else going on here, and it’s all traceable to the way we have been raising our children in this country.  Millennials are not familiar with setbacks.  Some of them are, but most Millennials are not familiar with setbacks, obstacles and having to overcome them.  

Because as they’ve grown up, everybody’s gotten a trophy just for showing up.  Everybody is wonderful.  In fact, do you remember for Millennials and even some Gen-Xers, it was decided we wouldn’t grade their papers in school with red markers because red was a dangerous color? Red was a color that upset children!  So no red was allowed to be used.  They weren’t capable of any wrong answers.  No, no! 

If they thought 2 + 2 = 5, fine, until they learned that it wasn’t.  We would not humiliate them by pointing out that they were wrong.  So the idea of overcoming great obstacles and adversity? No big deal!  Nobody has faced any.  In fact, you’d better not appear to work harder or dream bigger or be smarter, because you’re not allowed to be that, because you’re not allowed to be exceptional — and the country is not allowed to be either.

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RUSH:  Now, I’m telling you, folks, in our culture today…  In our young culture — and in certain ethnic cultures this is true, too — nobody’s allowed to work harder, because that stigmatizes those who don’t work as hard.  You’re not allowed to be better because that shames people who aren’t.  We are trying to force total so-called equality.  We’re not talking about equality.  They’re talking about sameness.  Sameness is the enemy of equality.  Sameness is one of the greatest assaults on equality that you could ever have.  

You cannot have sameness without denying people equality.  Equality does not mean equal outcomes. Equality does not mean equal station in life.  Equality refers to opportunity and treatment but it does not mean enforcement of certain standards to make sure that everybody ends up the same.  But that’s what political correctness is doing.  That’s what higher education has been doing, and secondary education has been doing for at least a generation.  Nobody’s allowed to work harder. It’s not allowed because you’ll get ahead faster.  You’re not allowed.  

You’re not allowed to dream bigger.  That’s not realistic.  You’re not allowed to be smarter.  That’s because, see, they think that’s a denial of equality.  We must all be equal.  They don’t mean equal.  They mean we must all be the same.  They want us to all be the same because they, the proverbial “they,” are our betters — the professors, the politicians, the people in power.  They don’t impose any of the restrictions on themselves that they’re imposing on the body politic.  No, they’re plenty smarter and they’re allowed to be, and they can work harder if they want, and they can dream bigger. 

But you can’t because you’re supposed to be no different than anybody else, because that’s how equality is being defined.  And young people are lapping it.  Young people are swallowing this misguided definition of equality, which is nothing more than forced sameness.  And I want you to think about it. Forced sameness is the antithesis of equality, because no two people are alike.  No two people are the same.  No two things are the same.  It’s not possible.  You force sameness, and you are denying equal opportunity, equal treatment, equal this, equal that.  

It’s one of the biggest scams that is currently being run on young people, and that is to equate sameness with equality.  Because the only way you can have sameness is by defining everybody down.  And you’ll note that the left never tries to raise anybody up.  The left never sees these divides.  They never see people upper level, lower level, middle level and seek to raise the people at the bottom up.  “That won’t help the Democrats! That means people might become self-reliant.  We can’t have that.  

“We need them constantly dependent on the government, constantly dependent on politicians, preferably the Democrat Party.  So what do we do?  We punish the achievers! We raise their taxes.  We increase regulation on them.  We make it tougher for them to exist as we attempt to lower everybody under the bastardized term of equality — which is really nothing more, as I say, than forced sameness — and what you end up with is no one is exceptional, and that is all equality. “It’s a beautiful thing.  It’s a wonderful thing.  It’s utopian.  

“There is nobody that’s the exception.  Nobody is better than anybody else, and nobody is worse than anybody else.  And the ugly or not ugly and the beautiful are not beautiful because they’re all the same.  And if you think differently we are going to punish you accordingly.”  So a number of classic American concepts — American exceptionalism, self-reliance, rugged individualism, working hard — have all been trashed by education and the left in just 20 years.  In just 20 years. 

From a decade when people bought Trump’s books in droves and thought what he was able to achieve was awesome for turning it around, for coming back from the abyss, saving his company, saving the people that work for him, employing many more, building skyscrapers and other buildings, golf courses, you name it, the world over, that people have willingly paid money to join.  Now all that is looked at now as somehow a scandal. Somehow that’s the sign of a reprobate.  “It’s weird.  It’s unfair, and we’ve got to go after guys like Trump.  

“We’ve got to make sure that guys like Trump are intimidated and never ever again try to be like Trump.  No way.  No how.  Because Trump is scum.”  That’s what they want you to think.  So they pepper it all with how Trump’s violated the law and Trump’s this and he’s a bully and he says mean things about women and so forth.  The real bully is Hillary Clinton.  Her husband’s another real bully.  They’re cads.  They don’t have great compassion for people.  They look at people with contempt.  I maintain to you that a bunch of people who want everybody to be the same under the misguided premise of equality? Those are not compassionate people.  

Those are people that don’t like people, who don’t trust them.  Those are people that want to control other people and don’t trust them.  So you have to strip them of their dignity, of the things that make them unique, the things that set them apart and punish the things that they achieve in, and that’s the modern day Democrat Party from Barack Obama on down.  That’s the modern movement of liberalism. 

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Here’s Heather in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. It’s great to have you, Heather, what’s up? 

CALLER:  I was just calling to talk about Trump’s taxes.  I think that it’s going to backfire. 

RUSH:  On who?  

CALLER:  On the Democrats. 

RUSH:  Oh, okay.  Tell me how. 

CALLER:  I think anyone’s that’s had businesses, there are a lot of people that have had small businesses.  When you get into that you see all the ridiculously crazy tax laws that you shouldn’t need lawyers and accountants and other people to explain them to you.  Most of the people that start a business aren’t stupid.  They’re usually fairly intelligent.  But there are a lot of loopholes.  The loopholes are there for bigger businesses.  Trump has one.  Multiple. 

RUSH:  They’re not loopholes.  They are laws.  People think of a loophole as something that only a select few people can use that actually is outside the law, that they’re able to use because they’re either wealthy or powerful.  There are no loopholes being used.  He’s using existing tax law.  Same as you do. 

CALLER:  Right. 

RUSH:  See how easy it is to fall into the trap of denigrating something when it’s not worth denigrating.  There’s no loophole involved here.  By the way, you think it’s going to backfire, I wish it would.  But look at all that they got away with Mitt Romney.  Mitt Romney is one of the finest people.  Just forget politics.  In terms of human character, he’s one of the nicest people you will ever encounter.  And look how easily they were able to demonize him with enough people to make it count. 

CALLER:  That’s true.  When you look at all the rules, he’s employed thousands and thousands of people.  He’s kept those families surviving by being in his employ.  And by losing that number maybe not paying that taxes on it legally, he’s still been able to keep people employed.  Those people employed are probably paying more taxes.  He may not be, but he’s still helping the tax base. 

RUSH:  Absolutely. Look, I’m not trying to dispirit you.  But the vast majority of people are not self-employed and do not own small businesses.  The vast majority of people are employees and, as such, all of this to them is something they can’t do.  So it’s easily denigrated.  It is easily mischaracterized, which they’re succeeding or they’re trying desperately to do now, to characterize this as something evil and illegal and under the table when it isn’t.  

And, look, Heather, the worst thing about it is it puts everybody on the defensive.  That’s what I hate about it.  I hate the fact that we end up on the defensive because of these insane attacks that these people on the left mount.  And there’s no reason to be on the defense about this.  But it’s a position that they engineer and the trick to this is to react to it without appearing defensive about it.  It’s a tough thing to pull off.  It really is.  

But that’s one of their techniques.  And we’re not just up against the Democrats making the charge; we’re up against the media who hopes to prosecute the charge and proclaim Trump guilty and therefore influence people not to vote for him.  It’s despicable, but it’s typical of what’s happened to us with Democrat Party politics.  

CALLER:  I think it’s because they know how many people are supporting him and agree with him.  He’s not perfect.  But I don’t think we have ever had anyone that is. 

RUSH:  Well, you’re right about one thing.  They are sitting there today still buffaloed and stymied that Trump is still alive and kicking and contending.  Do not doubt me on this.  They can’t believe they haven’t taken Trump out.  They can’t believe the Khizr Khan episode didn’t take him out.  They can’t believe that the Alicia Machado episode didn’t take him out.  

They are fully convinced that they have succeeded in destroying him with this illegal publishing of his tax return by the New York Times.  And everything else in the past that they have used to try to destroy Trump, they’ve thought every one of those was going to work, and they’re flabbergasted.  And some of the Republican establishment, too, remain flabbergasted about this.  Heather, before I let you go, did Mr. Snerdley get your address for us to send you the phone?  

CALLER:  Yes, he did. 

RUSH:  Okay.  Cool.  I appreciate it.  Thanks much.  

Next is Sylvia in Miami.  Welcome to the program.  Great to have you, hi. 

CALLER:  Hi, Rush, thank you for having me. 

RUSH:  You bet. 

CALLER:  I was calling because I’m very upset about the bias.  I know that there’s nothing most of us can do about it, about the media bias against Mr. Trump.  But it’s ridiculous for Hillary to sit there and say that he lost $1 billion when she has lost $6 billion while she was on watch as Secretary of State.  No one knows where that money is.  It’s been misplaced.  Nobody has had any inclination to tracking it.  Nobody has questioned her about it.  It’s just becoming really ridiculous. 

RUSH:  Well, not only that, the money Trump lost was his.  The money Hillary lost was the taxpayers. 

CALLER:  Correct. 

RUSH:  But in addition to losing the money, Hillary Clinton loses lives.  Four people died in Benghazi because of Hillary Clinton.  

CALLER:  That’s correct.  And no one says anything about this.  They keep saying, “Oh, Benghazi, Benghazi.”  But the mother of one of these people have come forward crying, upset.  And she ridicules them.  It’s ridiculous. 

RUSH:  It is.  But in the midst of all this they persist in telling us how imminently qualified Hillary Clinton is.  Why, there hasn’t been anybody as qualified as Hillary Clinton.  It’s an insult.  It’s a laughable joke.  The very fact they have to point it out means people do not see it for themselves.  And believe me, there is nobody that sees Hillary Clinton more qualified than anybody else who has ever been president.  

Somebody with the negatives that she’s got couldn’t possibly have that reputation.  And she doesn’t.  It’s been tried.  They’ve tried to manufacture this whole narrative that she’s the smartest woman in the world for almost 30 years.  And they still haven’t pulled it off.  They’re still trying.  So smartest woman in the world is now morphing into most qualified ever to endeavor to be president as Moochelle (My Belle) Obama said.  Thanks for the call, Sylvia.