RUSH: The West Village in New York. This is Rebecca. Rebecca, it’s great to have you with us. How are you doing?
CALLER: I am doing so excellent, Rush. Thank you very much for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: All right. Well, first I just want to say that I am a very recent student of yours, and I am probably one of the best students and on top of the deplorable list. So I just want to get that out there. And now my question is: What is socialism? You always hear people comment like, “Just look at Venezuela.” I’ve heard you say that. I’ve heard it on Fox News. In my head, I’m, like, I just go blank. What is socialism, and what made Venezuela so bad? So that’s my main question.
RUSH: May I ask…? You don’t have to answer. The reason I’m asking is because it’ll help me understand where you’re coming from. Can you tell me how old you are if you’re in college or not?
CALLER: Yeah. I’m 27, and I am married to a small business owner. She owns a flower shop, Angelica Flowers, and I work with her.
RUSH: Okay. Did you go to college anywhere?
CALLER: I did. I went to the University of Akron in Ohio and I got a bachelor’s in exercise science.
RUSH: Oh, cool. Bachelor’s in exercise science. That’s something I could study and could probably benefit from that.
CALLER: Yeah. I could tell you all about it, Rush.
RUSH: All right. Well, the reason I asked your age and if you went to college is because you probably haven’t been taught anything about socialism other than positives.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: And I’m gonna need to hold you over through the next hour, if you can. If not, we’ll call you back when you have time, ’cause I desperately want to explain this to you, because if you’re out there asking, it means a lot of people are.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: The first thing that I would tell you about socialism is that it has never worked a single time in the history of the world. It has never accomplished any of its objectives anywhere in the world. It has not made people prosperous. It has not expanded liberty and freedom. It has not created more open-mindedness and tolerance. Socialism is essentially where the citizens of a country give over their freedom and their individuality to the state, and the state runs and controls — maybe not owns, but runs and controls — virtually all of a society’s needs, and some wants. But the needs is key, because it turns everybody into a dependent-on-government-for-survival person. It strips them of self-reliance and individuality, and that’s just the opener. But hang on, if you can, because there’s more.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We now return to Rebecca in the West Village, who has called to ask what socialism is. May I ask you…? You don’t have to answer the question if you don’t want to, but would you tell me what you think it is?
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Not a long, drawn-out answer, but what do you think that it is?
CALLER: You know, you ask that, but really my brain just goes blank.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: Because in college it just used to be like, “Oh, in socialism you get, like… You know, socialism helps fund the military. It helps fund our streets, rebuilding our infrastructure.” Like, socialism is a good thing, and then I listen to you —
RUSH: No, no. No. Okay. Stop right there. Socialism funds nothing. Capitalism does.
CALLER: Yes. Understood.
RUSH: Now, the thing about socialism is that in practice, as you live it, it is a hideous and demeaning form of government. It is presented as a panacea. It’s presented as utopia. It is presented as complete equality, fairness, and sameness. It assumes that individuals are not capable of being fair to each other. It assumes that individuals are not willing to share equally. It assumes that individuals are not capable of making the right decisions to live their lives according to the desires of the state.
It presumes that you are incapable of being charitable. It assumes the worst characteristics of people. It is presented as a way of equalizing and leveling everything, and it’s presented — by the people who espouse it — as equality and fairness and prosperity for all, where nobody has anything more than anybody else, and nobody has any less than anybody else, and everybody is basically the same and treated the same.
Socialism and its offshoots — communism, liberalism — is one of the greatest inventions of violations of human nature that humanity has ever conceived. It denies individuality. It denies the very real fact that we’re all different, that we all have different ambitions, different intelligence abilities, different degrees of ambition. It seeks to punish achievement. The one thing about socialism, Rebecca, is it never seeks to equalize by elevating those at the bottom.
Socialism always attempts to equalize by penalizing the achievers and lowering them so that nobody is better than anybody else. But it’s not presented that way. That’s what you end up with. It’s presented as love, peace, happiness, contentment, no worries. Everybody’s gonna take care of it for you. The supposed selling point of socialism is that by controlling the economy, the government can make sure that there’s no income inequality. The government can make sure that there’s no poverty.
The government can make sure there’s no racism. The government can make sure that there’s no bigotry. The government can make sure there’s no homophobia. The government can make sure that there is no prejudice of any kind. But what has happened, under every socialist regime and communist regime is that the people in power use it to enrich themselves and their friends and family. The Castros have billions. The people running Venezuela? You mentioned them.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm?
RUSH: Hugo Chavez literally absconded with billions of dollars and put the money in Swiss banks while their people starve. The lack of market incentive causes corruption and causes economies to collapse because money will always go where it’s treated best. Let me give you a real-life illustration of how it works, and I’m gonna use the subject of amnesty for illegal immigrants. This is presented by socialists as the epitome of compassion.
“Here we have the downtrodden of the world, and all they want is a better life, and they can get it by coming to the United States. And we should welcome them. We should want to share our bounty and wealth. We should be honored that such people wish to come to our country.” We are guilted into thinking that there is something wrong with ignoring their violation of law. They immediately — 95% of them if not more — end up on government assistance of some kind.
They are never taught the language, never forced to learn it, and they never actually assimilate into an American culture. The reason that the proponents of amnesty propose it is because (and this gets down and dirty) the Democrat Party — but they’re not alone. It’s people in the Washington establishment who push amnesty — and Rebecca, this is fundamental to understand. They need a permanent underclass that is not going to improve, that is not going to become middle class or upper class.
They’re going to remain just on the verge of poverty, everything they’re going to get in life is going to come from people they vote for, which in this case is largely Democrats, but there are some Republicans who run around and campaign on that basis too. This is where it’s hideous. It promises all of these utopian things that it has never delivered anywhere in the world at any time in American or world history, and it keeps people poor. It keeps people in need. It denies them the opportunity to become self-reliant.
It denies them the opportunity to increase or improve their standard of living.
That’s the last thing proponents of amnesty want. They want a never-ending supply of people who are going to remain poor their entire lives and are going to think that their only hope is to vote for people in Washington who are going to continue to provide them with housing, with food, with jobs, maybe. But even jobs are not necessary. You can still live a very comfortable life in America on the welfare system without even working. Socialism creates that as well. Socialism has failed for many reasons. It’s in direct violation of human nature, number one.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: It punishes the people who actually make a country work. It punishes the achievers. But even in the most socialist regimes, there are still very rich people, and you can see them. In many cases, they’re the leaders or the friends of the leaders. In every socialist… Like in Great Britain. There’s socialized medicine, but not everybody has to use it. The people who can afford their own have the best health care in the world in Britain.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: But they’re not part of the British health system. Ditto, Canada, and we’re headed that way here.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: There are always rich people, and there are always gigantic mansions and houses, and there are always very expensive cars that everybody sees but they’ll never be able to afford and they wonder why. How did those people get it? How do they have that nice house? How do they get to go to all these vacations? How do they have that big car when I can’t? It breaks down because it enforces inequality. It does the exact opposite of what it says.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: And in the meantime, while all this happens, it strips away the humanity of as many citizens who fall prey to it. When they deny your individuality, when they deny self-reliance is a factor, when they deny hard work, when they deny achievement, they essentially kill it. And it is one of the most dehumanizing forms of government you can have, because it leads to communism, which is where they build walls to keep people in so that they can’t escape it.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm. Scary thing.
RUSH: It’s very scary. We are much… We’re way too close to it here. We’re not there.
CALLER: No.
RUSH: But there are… There are current leaders in our political system who can’t wait for us to get there. Nationalized health care is one of the fastest routes to a socialized country that you can get.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm. Yes.
RUSH: You know why?
CALLER: Why?
RUSH: Very simple. The first thing they do is price health care out of the individual’s ability to pay for it.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: Therefore, the individual needs “assistance.” The insurance companies are demonized as mean-spirited, want their customers to die. They end up having to turn to where? The government, who you love! “The government’s taking care of me! The government cares about me. I’m getting my health care and health insurance through the government.” Well —
CALLER: So, Rush?
RUSH: Yes?
CALLER: How do we get people to understand the beauty and the power and the greatness of capitalism? Like, what can I do every day? Because we try to explain that to someone; obviously, they don’t want to listen, ’cause that’s such a beautiful explanation, but I always feel caught, like, how do I make someone understand what we can be and what we’re going to be if we don’t do anything? This is just so frustrating, a frustrating line.
RUSH: Well, the first thing that we’re gonna have to do if we want to long-term reverse it is retake the American education system, because socialism is taught, it is romanticized, it is inculcated, it’s lied about. From day care on, the concepts of socialism are taught.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: Look, when I hear Millennials… You’re a Millennial.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: When I hear Millennials talk about equality and fairness, I know that they’ve been had. Their minds, their young skulls full of mush have been co-opted. Socialism —
CALLER: Mmm-hmm! I used to be there. You changed me.
RUSH: Yeah. Fairness and equality. And of course in socialism there isn’t any fairness for a lot of people. And there certainly isn’t equality. There are people are always trying to escape it! There’s always gonna be a certain percentage of any population that’s been socialized that refuse to accept it, and they’re gonna do anything they can to escape it, using their initiative, using their intelligence, using their bravery and their courage. Now, how do we overcome it? How do you overcome years and years and years of propaganda? In your case, you and your wife, the best thing you can do? You have a small business, right?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: How much of your small business is controlled, do you think, by the City of New York and federal regulations and so forth? I mean, how many limitations do you have to deal with in doing business every day?
CALLER: Honestly, Rush, I wouldn’t know. That would be a question for my wife. I don’t do the paperwork but I can tell you I get a lot of parking tickets.
RUSH: She would know. The bottom line is I’ve always thought… But it’s not true in a lot of cases. The way to overcome this stuff is just live your life in your own freedom and your own individuality and let your life — your prosperity, your success, your character — speak for you —
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: — and have that be influential. It’s much more effective leading by example than preaching to people. You know, wagging a finger in their face and telling them they’re wrong never works.
CALLER: That’s true.
RUSH: It just gets their resistance up. But, by the same token, where we are now, they’ve been so effective that the more people around them who are successful, the more that is resented —
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: — and hated as unfair and so forth.
CALLER: Well, Rush, I really want to thank you for your time, most importantly, and your incredible wisdom. You have expanded my mind more than school or anything has ever done. So I genuinely appreciate it. And that caller that was crying last week? I felt it in my heart. You are a very special man, and I hope you know that.
RUSH: Oh, man. I am so appreciative. I don’t know what to say to these things other than “thank you.” It boggles my mind.
CALLER: Yup!
RUSH: I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it. That’s why I have these enormous performance expectations I put on myself here every day, because I know people’s expectations. I cannot… I cannot thank you enough.
CALLER: Because of you, I’m gonna do something great someday. So thank you.
RUSH: You no doubt will. If you think you will, you will. If you want to, you will. That’s another thing about socialism. Socialism beats that kind of thinking down. It makes that kind of thinking seem futile — and, in the worst case, it makes that kind of thinking unfair and selfish. “Why should you succeed when Person X over there doesn’t? Why should you have whatever you have when they don’t? It’s not fair! Therefore, somebody should come and take it away from you, not teach them how to also get it.” That’s a real secret to the Democrat Party. They want to equalize everybody by lowering everybody’s standard of living and calling it equal. I call it “equality = sharing misery equally,” because nobody’s happy in socialism.
CALLER: Right on! Right on, Rush. Right on.
RUSH: Right on, dude. (laughing)
CALLER: (chuckling)
RUSH: Thank you very much, Rebecca. I appreciate it very much.
CALLER: Absolutely! Bye, Rush! I’ll listen to you later and tomorrow and every other day!
RUSH: Thank you much, again.