RUSH: Here is Michael from Norfolk, Virginia. Great to have you on the program today, Michael. I appreciate your patience in waiting.
CALLER: Yes, Rush. It is a pleasure to talk to you. I will make my point that I am a young veteran, black Millennial, and raising my two boys with my wife as such. And what I’d like to get your thoughts on is the failed state of the Democrats. When President Trump leaves office — I believe he’s gonna get reelected, but he won’t be there forever, and eventually a Democrat will take the White House again. And this failed state of having no policies will come to fruition.
They will see the economic turnaround that we have now is real. It is not a myth. It is not smoke and mirrors. That this is real turnaround. And when a Democrat does gain the White House again, they will reverse. They will pivot the other way, and there will be a massive descent into the dark hole. What is going to be the awakening then?
This is when, like myself, a young, black Millennial who’s been told a lot of things about the Democrat Party, when they have the awakening, what then? What will be the excuse then? Because everything that President Trump has done now and probably will do into the future is going to show they have no real substance. And you could look at little examples now like Governor Cuomo up in New York having to come out and acknowledge the failed tax plan that we tax the rich, tax the rich, and then the rich left, because they can.
Well, now what’s gonna happen in New York is they’re gonna have to raise those taxes on all those middle class and those poverty people because Governor Cuomo even acknowledged that the wealthiest 1% of the state of New York was paying for more than half of the taxes in the state of New York, but now they’re leaving. California, no different.
And I would just like to point out that the awakening of the American people — if you don’t agree with President Trump’s rhetoric, that’s fine, but the policies are solid. Everybody loved Obama because he spoke well, he inspired you when he talked. But his policies were empty. His policies were absolutely empty.
And as a black man to save America, what did he do? How many black supreme justices did he nominate, did he even put up? He did less for the black community or any community, minus the LGBTQ, than any other president. But yet Trump, with his magical wand, with his magical wand, has turned it around and has brought America back to — let’s be honest — the time that you would acknowledge the superpower that we are.
When you are the biggest and the strongest and the most aware, you do for other countries, but you do so evenly. You do so fairly. Nobody ever is given anything. My father always taught me, you get what you earn. You deserve nothing. And I just feel like the awakening, whether he loses in 2020, which I don’t believe, happens or not, it will happen. And when a Democrat takes the office and they sweep through and erase it all the descent into madness will show the hypocrisy of old, young, moderate, far left, don’t care, it will come out. They will see, the American public will have to make a hard decision. And I would love to get your point on that.
RUSH: I want you to hang on because you are so shrewd. You are so perceptive. You are obviously a forward thinker. And I want to teach you something — not teach you — remind you —
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: — that exactly what you just forecast has already happened in my lifetime, and it didn’t go well. It’s already happened. And I remained befuddled and confused by it for years. And I’m gonna have to hold you through the break here if you have time to truly answer this.
CALLER: That’s fine, sir. That’s fine. That’s fine.
RUSH: Okay. Cool. Because you’ve said a lot here. You’re obviously a military person who exceeded. I can just tell you that you were great in the military and the values that you have there and you were raised with remain the spearpoint for your life and your existence today. So, congratulations to you on that.
CALLER: Thank you, sir.
RUSH: The 1980s, we had two terms of — how old are you? You’re 31, you said?
CALLER: I am 36, so I am at the very tip of what is considered the Millennial —
RUSH: Okay, right.
CALLER: — timeline.
RUSH: Okay. Well, the 1980s are fairly close to the circumstance that you predict to happen when Trump leaves office. When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, the top marginal tax rate was 70%. The federal budget collected about $500 billion in taxes. The interest rates were at 14 to 15%. Inflation was almost as high. You could not afford a house. The Jimmy Carter economy that Reagan replaced was a disaster. The Jimmy Carter presidency was an utter, utter disaster. It was worse than Obama’s.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Reagan takes over, and in two terms the top marginal rate goes from 70% to 28%. The amount of money to the government via taxes nearly doubled to $1 trillion a year. Interest rates came way down, jobs came way up, the deficit started coming down. It could not have been a greater, more stark comparison. The four years of Jimmy Carter were an absolute economic — in fact, something called the misery index, Michael, was created to actually calculate how bad the economy and the country was.
Jimmy Carter was telling people, lower your thermostats to 68 in the winter, raise your thermostats to 78 in the summer, we’re running out of energy. There were oil shortages, there were gasoline lines. The price of energy was skyrocketing, it was an absolute disaster. Reagan fixed it and then some, revived this economy, created new jobs. It was as what is happening today. And the Democrats were able, in three years, to convince the American people with the help of the media that the eighties didn’t happen.
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: Bill Clinton got elected four years later, running on the premise that we had “the worst economy in the last 50 years” from 1989 to 1992. So the lesson here is that as long as the media is constituted as it is and are the leaders of the Democrat Party, they will simply lie about the Trump years, how great the economy was. They can’t afford to leave it to people like you to realize and do this side-by-side comparison. They will tell them that the illusion of the great economy was all it was during the Trump years. They will lie. They will revise history. They will do everything they can, and the danger is… You talk about New York. You just described New York people leaving, taxes skyrocketing. Never forget that there are millions of people in New York who vote for that!
CALLER: Yes. (crosstalk)
RUSH: There are liberal Democrats who vote for the worst possible things to happen, and they do so eagerly. They never see the circumstances or the comparison you’re talking about!
CALLER: Yes. But here is the caveat, good, sir. In the eighties, there was something that wasn’t around, which is social media. And because there are young people like me who understand conservatism is not some —
RUSH: Yeah, but —
CALLER: — fatalistic, ritualistic (crosstalk), you can push the message. You can see it already. It’s hard work.
RUSH: Wait a minute!
CALLER: (crosstalk)
RUSH: Let me play devil’s advocate. By the time we get to 2024, Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey may have seen to it that there any conservatives allowed on social media!
CALLER: If that is the case, you would have to acknowledge that the power of the people will always come through. Now, that might be slightly naive, but I have —
RUSH: No! No! No, it’s not. Hang on. Let me take the break here, Michael. You hang on. We’ll come back and continue this right after this. So don’t anybody go away.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay. We’re back with Michael. He’s 36 years old and from Norfolk, Virginia. Look, I’m not trying to be negative. I was just playing devil’s advocate with you on the —
CALLER: No, no, sir. (crosstalk)
RUSH: Because you’re right about that. Social media wasn’t around in the 1980s. It’s a big factor. It could be. But the people that run those sites are doing their best to negate the power and influence of any conservative contributors. It’s slow. They’re going after some high-profile people. But you’re right about that. I mean, there are differences. Nothing is the same. There’s always something different or new when you start doing historical comparisons.
CALLER: Correct.
RUSH: But don’t change your attitude. I think people like you are gonna carry the day.
CALLER: Yes, because people like you… Unfortunately, we are all fighting Father Time. But we will hold the mantle. And there are some of us like me who are educated, who understand the brass tacks of politics, the design of this great country, what it was meant to do and not meant to do, where it was supposed to go and where it’s not supposed to be. But with that, there are some of us who do have a microphone, regardless of Facebook or Instagram. Ben Shapiro. Candace Owens.
You may agree with some things. Some people may not agree with some things. But these are people who understand the conservative ideology and are still fighting for the rights of the Constitution and understanding that you cannot just force your way into certain things. You run veeery, very close to a communistic state what you do that. Many, many examples out there. Venezuela is the easiest one. But when you have people who you let into your world that are outside of an echo chamber, you allow thought; you allow growth.
I’ve had the very good benefit from my father to very, very good mentors like a Mr. Carlos Cruz. These are the people from the military to my current establishment to you, who I’ve never met, but I’ve listened to you for years. We can still hold true the foundation of what this country was meant to be, which was a gratuitous nation, is to help people. We are bigger. We are stronger. We are more wealthy, and we are becoming even more so. But we have to understand that with the lies, that with the corruption there has to be a mounted defense, and there has to be a conversation.
And the point that I’m making on that is when a Democrat takes the White House again, that is gonna be the awakening. That is gonna be the true moment for the conversation ’cause it’s starting to happen now — you’re absolutely right — with New York and California and the misery index. But the true acknowledgment of when the conversation should happen to most of those young, young Millennials and most of these older leftists is when they reverse it, what the results are, and then how do you justify that? Because there will be very little justification. You can spin a lie. But unfortunately, for everybody that lives in this physical realm, numbers don’t lie.
RUSH: Now, Michael, let me step in here because I’ve just got a couple of minutes and I need to react to this before I run out of time. And the first thing that I want to tell you is: Whatever you do, do not lose your enthusiasm. The next thing I’m gonna tell you… I don’t mean this to dispirit you. But when I was your age and just coming up and doing this, I was filled with excitement. Of course, when I started, there wasn’t anybody else. I was a lone wolf for two or three or four years ’til it all blew up, which is great.
But we all think that when we’re doing it, that things are gonna change, that there’s gonna be an “overwhelming awakening,” as you call it. And if it doesn’t happen as rapidly as you think it’s gonna happen, do not get discouraged. Human nature is a tough thing to change, particularly the human nature of dependence. The Democrat Party has created a lifetime’s worth of people who think government is Santa Claus, and no matter how much common sense you’ve got and no matter how much access to people you’ve got, it’s hard to compete with Santa Claus.
Do not lose your enthusiasm, and don’t get spirited. Every generation has its group of reformers that come along and think, “It’s finally gonna happen! We’re here.” Like Obama: “We’re the ones we all been waiting for.” If it doesn’t happen as rapidly as your enthusiasm tells you or makes you think it’s gonna happen, do not get dispirited. Just hang with it. Because eventually, you’re gonna become my age and there’s gonna be one of you talking to you.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: You’re gonna have had the benefit of 30 more years, since you’re alive now — 30 more years. You’re gonna be able to have the experience of being able to tell them like I’m telling you.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: I asked the editor of National Review 30 years ago, Michael, “So when do you think we’re gonna win and convince most people that conservatism’s the way to go?” He said, “It will never happen.”
CALLER: Here’s my win, Rush. Not to cut of you off, here’s (crosstalk) —
RUSH: I gotta cut myself off, ’cause I’m out of time. If you want to hang on, I’ll get your close in a couple of minutes. If you can, hang on.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, I want to go back. I had to short the change our last caller, Michael. He wanted to react to me, and we ran out of time. Michael, I just want to try to recast what I said to you that you wanted to react to, and it’s this. All throughout American history, we have reformers (and you obviously are one) who have believed that while you’re in the middle of doing what you do, you’re changing the world. And then you look up, and Democrats are still getting elected, even president, and you’re seeing the media doing what they do.
And you’ll look up every day, and you’ll that what you’re doing is having no change, is making no impact. And yet you thought you were gonna change the world! You thought you were gonna be the one to actually make people see the difference. And you’re looking to 2024, when the Democrats win the White House back or whenever they do.
And when they start doing what they do, the American people are gonna awaken and see it! And I’m just trying to tell you: You’re gonna have to make them see it, Michael. Do not rely on them, in a majority, to see it themselves, because until the media reforms, you can’t… A lot of Americans will. Don’t misunderstand. But there’s a significant portion of them that are not gonna see this on their own, for whatever reasons.
CALLER: No, I totally —
RUSH: I’m just telling you, stay optimistic. Don’t get pessimistic. Don’t give up. Don’t ever think that you’re not having an impact, because you always will.
CALLER: I fully agree with you, but the point that I would make to you is this: I don’t judge the results for my beliefs and what I say and how things are going as to the results of what comes out of Washington. I view them on the ground level here, the people I talk to. If I can educate someone or at least get them to come to the middle ground, that’s a win. Education is power.
Knowledge is power. Pulling someone out of an echo chamber is a part of the result. But more importantly than that, because those are individuals who I may know — friends, family, or people I may never see again. But the most important part, Rush, are my children, that my two boys understand that this is how America was designed to be, from our Founding Fathers —
RUSH: Bingo.
CALLER: — going forward.
RUSH: Bingo.
CALLER: As long as I do that —
RUSH: That’s how you carry traditions forward, and that’s how you maintain traditions and values. You’re making a point that I’ve tried to tell people. I’ve had people call me all through my career, Michael, and ask, “What can I do besides vote? What can I do? I don’t think I’m making enough of a difference.” Just live your life. Live your life with your values. Influence as many people as you can. You probably have no idea how many people you’re influencing. But never, ever cave into pessimism.
Do not think that what you’re seeing on media is an accurate reflection of the majority of the country. Don’t ever, ever think that. Look, I’m glad you called, and I really applaud your in-depth question and your lookout forward to the future, because he’s exactly right. The Democrats are gonna win again, and they are going to set about dismantling everything good that’s happened. It’s in their nature. They cannot afford for people to become self-reliant and self-made. That goes totally against the grain of the Democrat Party’s reason for existence.
So, Michael in Norfolk, thank you again for the call.