RUSH:  So, I’m sitting here minding my own business harassing and bothering no one, diligently preparing for the annual Thanksgiving program here on the EIB Network, and I notice that I received an email, an email from Mr. Snerdley.  The subject line says: “I’m sure you’ve already seen this a zillion times by now, but just in case.”  And I had not seen what he had sent me.  And this is just literally two minutes before the program began. 

Greetings, my friends.  Great to have you.  Telephone number, if you want to be on the program, is 800-282-2882.  Email address is ElRushbo@eibnet.us. 

It is our annual Thanksgiving program where the truth of Thanksgiving, the actual Thanksgiving story, once again, will be shared with everybody as written about in my first book, The Way Things Ought to Be.  Or maybe it was the second book, See, I Told You So.  Either one, I forget which, it’s so many years ago now. 

But speaking of books.  Seven books now have been written.  We just released the fifth book in the

Rush Revere Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans series yesterday, just hit the shelves yesterday.  The email from Mr. Snerdley was a Web link from our old buddy Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit. 

“Rush Limbaugh Children’s Books Banned at Wisconsin School: They’re ‘Inappropriate’ — School officials in Marshall, Wisconsin — “ Folks, I mean, I’ve got to address this, because it — I just do.  I had no idea this was happening.  We guessed it was gonna happen with the first book, but instead we won an award.  We won an award for the first book, 2013 Author of the Year at the Children’s Choice Book Awards.  We won an award for the first book.  I went there personally to accept it at their annual Children’s Choice Book Awards evening in New York City. 

So what this is: “School officials in Marshall, Wisconsin told a 6-year-old boy he could not bring his Rush Limbaugh books to school. The officials claim Rush’s books contained ‘inappropriate material.’ Rush Limbaugh has published several award-winning kid’s books on US history. The school claims the history books are inappropriate.”

Another website, the Badger Pundit, reported: “Wisconsin school officials are bullying a 6-year-old boy. His offense? Bringing to school the latest book in the bestselling children’s book series on American history, ‘Adventures of Rush Revere,’ written by Rush Limbaugh (with his wife Kathryn). The book, just published, is Rush Revere and the Presidency. As Matt, the boy’s father, explained to Vicki during her November 18 afternoon (Madison) show, school officials in Marshall, Wisconsin, regard anything written by Rush Limbaugh as ‘inappropriate material’ — even though the series has received rave reviews,” which they have.

These books are a departure from politics.  There isn’t any politics in these books, by design and on purpose.  These books are devoted to teaching the truth of American history, and that’s probably what’s deemed to be inappropriate.  What’s deemed to be inappropriate by these obvious cranks at the Marshall, Wisconsin, school district is the accurate portrayal of American history.

Look around at what’s going on in America right now and what people knew was going on and why the election results ended up being what they were.  Real news is labeled fake news now.  Award-winning children’s books are banned.  Police are assassinated.  Another cop was shot, this one in Detroit.  Health care has become all but unaffordable. 

The Democrat candidate for the White House was selling access to her office as secretary of state and future considerations as president, had she won. Political opponents are targeted and attacked by the Obama IRS. Immigration laws are not being enforced. Black Lives Matter was invited and praised at the White House.

A dirty trickster by the name of Robert Creamer, the husband of a congresswoman from Illinois, was hiring protesters and paying them $1,500 a week to show up and disrupt Trump rallies met with President Obama 47 times at the White House.  CNN was feeding debate questions to the Democrat nominee, Hillary Clinton.  And children’s books written by me are ending up banned, at least in this little burgh, Marshall, Wisconsin, as inappropriate. 

Let me tell you what this book is and you tell me if this book is inappropriate and fraught with danger.  The whole purpose of the Rush Limbaugh Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans series is designed to counter what is being taught, obviously in places like Marshall, Wisconsin.  These books tell the glorious, joyous truth of the founding of the greatest nation on earth, the United States of America, a genuine miracle, a God-blessed miracle. 

For the first time in human history people came together and organized a nation wherein the limits were placed on the government, not the people.  The Constitution and other founding documents specifically limited the power of the government.  It was the first time in human history where a nation had been so organized.  The first president of this country was George Washington, who was the commanding general in the Revolutionary War. 

The latest Rush Revere book is all about Washington and his presidency and how it came to be and his thoughts on it and what the temptations were to accept the offered kingship, the monarchy.  There were people that loved Washington so much they wanted him to be king.  The natural tendency of human beings is to grant authority to an all-powerful place in exchange for safety and security, particularly if you agree with that. 

But the morality of George Washington said after we have just fought years and years of battles and a war to free ourselves from the tyranny of a king, the last thing we’re going to have in our new country is a king, and he refused to accept it. He ran for president.  He was elected. 

The Rush Revere Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans series takes young people via the time travel capabilities of one of the characters.  Liberty, the talking horse, is able to time travel anywhere in American history.  Rush Revere is a substitute teacher at a place called Manchester Middle School.  Liberty’s his horse.  They take students from Revere’s class back in time and actually relive the events in American history we choose to write about. 

It’s a great vehicle because it takes the reader there. It actually puts the reader in the middle of each of the events. Rather than just reciting the events, the reader, the young reader reading the books is actually able to relate to and understand because it is written as though it’s just now happening, even though it’s quite obvious it’s time travel back in time to American history. 

The point is to teach the truth of the founding of this great country because it’s not being taught properly in way too many places, obviously Marshall, Wisconsin, is one of those places.  There’s nothing inappropriate in these books.  There’s no political partisanship whatsoever in these books.  You won’t even find the word “liberal,” “conservative,” “Democrat,” “Republican.” You won’t find the words, except as political parties in the day were named, but you won’t find any connection to modern-day American politics in these books on American history because that’s not the point. 

The point is to try to help parents today who don’t like the way their kids are being educated, provide a foundational understanding of the American founding on which to build as their children continue to be educated and go through school.  And we do it in a fun way, and we do it in a way to make it interesting and engaging and involving to young people. 

We had a pre-order record for the fifth book. This is the fifth book in three years.  They are labors of love.  We spend a lot of time getting the history right.  We do the illustrations. We do the layout. We double and triple-check the history. 

We don’t delve into this in ways that would be undecipherable, indecipherable or confusing to anybody that’s between eight and 12 years old.  They’re obviously written for that age-group.  And that’s bit of a challenge, too, to be able to make sure that the books are considered interesting and intriguing and, more importantly, understandable by the age that we have chosen here.  But when I say “children’s books,” they’re not really children’s books.  They’re hardbound books for young people.

And their parents and grandparents are reading books with these kids, and they report to us that they are learning things they didn’t know because of the way American history has been taught.  We’re extremely proud of these books.  In this book particularly, talking about the presidency and George Washington, the way we did this in this books, one of the students at Manchester Middle wants to be school class president. 

But he wants to be president for all the wrong reasons.  He wants to be hip, he wants to be popular, he wants everybody to notice him and think how cool he is.  And Revere — that would be me — clearly sees that this is unhealthy and not the reason anybody should want to be class president.  There have to be real reasons you would want to lead other people.  And we thought, you know, how many young people are not in the big clique and how many people want to be hip and how many people want to be cool?

The vast majority of kids are not in those cliques, and so that’s who we write the book for, to show them what’s really important, and when leading or engaging with other people — particularly if you want to lead them — what really is important about that.  It’s not a popularity contest.  So we decided the best way to do this would be to take this young student — via Liberty’s ability to time travel — back and talk to George Washington about his campaign for the presidency and why he wanted to do it and what it meant to him and what were his fears.

What were his desires? What were his objectives? And slowly but surely during the course of the book, our young student matures and realizes the really important, major step he’s taking by wanting to be school class president.  I don’t want to give the book away.  He has opponents in the book.  And we didn’t know it, but we actually ended up having a Donna Brazile-type character in the book. While she was doing what she was doing, we were writing the book.  We had no idea she was doing it, but it worked out. 

But it’s a great read.

It’s highly entertaining and instructive at the same time, and we’re so proud of it.  I guarantee you these people in Marshall, Wisconsin, have not even read it.  They wouldn’t take the time to read it.  The school district people there.  All they are doing is seeing my name and then attaching the word “inappropriate,” and they are the bullies.  This is classic of the way the American left operates.  They claim they’re the open ones. They claim they are the understanding ones! They claim they are the ones with all the tolerance for a wide variety of views and opinions, and they’re not. 

They are not open, they are not tolerant, they are not understanding. They are bullies and they are cowards, and they are afraid — viscerally, literally afraid — of any point of view that they don’t ascribe to.  And rather than consider it and rather than throw any view they disagree with open for debate, they shut it down.  They eliminate, or try to, all opposing views.  But there isn’t a political view in the Rush Revere Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans series.  By definition.

We wanted everybody to be able to enjoy these books, and we were trying to get past this silly leftist fear that there are things politically in it that would scare them or frighten them and make them want to hide the book or burn the book or ban the book.  None of that.  This is just the truth of the American founding, because we believe it’s a miracle, and we believe that it was blessed by God.  We believe that it is important for every American to understand how exceptional this country is and they are. 

What is American exceptionalism?  The real definition of American exceptionalism… I’m sure the people in Marshall, Wisconsin, probably think that American exceptionalism, the people who believe in it, they believe we think were better than other people.  And that’s not what American exceptionalism is.  The true definition of American exceptionalism is America as founded is the exception to the way human beings lived on this planet prior to America. 

Most people never knew freedom.  Most people lived under tyranny and in bondage.  Most people lived in poverty.  They certainly lived in fear of the people who governed them or led them.  The United States of America was the first nation in the history of humanity to reverse that, to limit the power of government, to limit the size of government, to decree that the people who lived in America had the constitutionally documented, God-given rights of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That these rights came from God, not from another human being, and that the rights were inalienable — meaning they could not be taken away by a tyrant, by a dictator, or by anybody else.  We were born with them.  It is part of our nature to be free, to seek happiness and liberty.  And to have these truths enshrined in our founding documents was the exception for every human being who had yet lived on this planet.  That’s what American exceptionalism is, and that exception — the freedom and the liberty of people who lived in America to pursue their dreams and be the best they could be — is what gave us and what ended up creating the greatest nation ever. 

The people made it happen.  Not their government, not their leaders, not their presidents, not their secretaries of state, not their vice presidents, not the political parties.  The people of this country — using their God-given rights of liberty, freedom, and the pursuit of you happiness — created the greatest nation on earth with the highest standard of living of any people who had ever lived.  This is no longer taught.  The truth of America is buried. 

Instead, America’s taught as a racist, homophobic, and bigoted nation that was created for a select few.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  So I guess the school district at Marshall, Wisconsin, finds the actual truth of this country to be inappropriate because there’s nothing else in these books that is.  Every American needs to read these books — particularly every child — so that they will have an insurance policy against the kind of ill education they’re getting in places like Marshall, Wisconsin.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  I know you’ve got a lot of recommendations on websites to visit, but if you want to see pictures of happy kids reading the latest copy of Rush Revere and the Presidency — if you want to see pictures of families and kids excited when the books are delivered — the families take pictures of the kids opening the boxes the book comes in. We posted a couple pictures today. A young boy is reading his book at the dinner table at home, and his parents are thrilled, and they wanted us to see the picture. 

People from all over America for the past years and months have been sending us photos of their kids dressing up as the characters in these books.  They want us to see the impact books are having.  You won’t find anything more wholesome and more decent and more America than what we have on display for you, because it’s simply the American people reacting to the books and living them through their children.  You can see them at RushRevere.com and readers can post, send us picture.  We love to get them and post them there.  We have a Revere Facebook page as well. 

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  Snerdley thinks I didn’t get the title of the book out there enough. (laughing) Rush Revere and the Presidency.  Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims.  There’s five of ’em, folks.  Get the whole set.  Your children will love ’em.  And, by the way, the Facebook address, if you want to see some of the greatest family pictures of people enjoying these books and their kids dressing up as characters, it’s Facebook.com/RushRevere.  Just go there.

I was gonna mention the book in, you know, a casual way today.  There’s a lot of other things to do out here today, and as you know I don’t spend a lot of time promoting myself on this program, to the chagrin of many who think I should spend more time.  But I couldn’t let this go by.  My first book came out back in 1990 whatever it was, two, The Way Things Ought to Be. I’d go to bookstores in New York and find it upside down in the cooking section or in the back in the stockroom not even having been brought out for sale. When you ask for it, “We don’t have that book. We would never stock garbage like that.”

So it’s nothing new here.  Except in this case, this little town, this Marshall, Wisconsin, about 30 miles east of Madison.  And it’s in a county that voted 70% Hillary.  I checked it out.  So all of this adds up.  But what we have are a bunch of closed-minded bigots who are bullying their six-year-old students at one of the public schools by telling the kid he can’t bring his Rush Revere books.  And virtually every kid in that school would benefit from those books. 

I think one of the things the left is really worried about is these books are reaching a demographic that they never, ever worried that I would reach, young people learning the truth of America, learning the greatness of America, learning to love and be joyous Americans.  Doesn’t fit with the left’s agenda today.  So that’s a great fear that they have.  But if there’s anything inappropriate here, it’s the way the school officials in this little town of Marshall, Wisconsin, are bullying students for bringing books on the truth of the American founding into class.  

END TRANSCRIPT