RUSH: Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have. I am Rush Limbaugh, your GOAT, America’s Real Anchorman, America’s Truth Detector, and the Doctor of Democracy — which means that I know what a democracy is, and the United States is not a pure democracy. I don’t care what you think, it’s not. Back to the phones. This is Michael, Gilbert, Arizona. Welcome, sir. I’m glad you waited. Hi.

CALLER: Thank you so much, Rush. Is an honor. Prayers to you and your family.

RUSH: Thank you, sir, very, very much.

CALLER: No worries. First-time caller, first-time voter in 61 years so I voted for Trump this year. And you were being very positive earlier, and I wish to be positive as well. But do you really think that the 2022 and 2024 elections are really gonna go toward the Republicans?

RUSH: I don’t know how they’re gonna go. That’s one thing —

CALLER: I don’t think so. I mean, not unless they get rid of the voting machines that they’ve got now and go to something else and get rid of the mail-in voting.

RUSH: Okay. See, there’s a lot loaded in your question here, I want to answer your question as honestly as I can, first.

CALLER: Sure.

RUSH: I can’t predict the future.

CALLER: Sure.

RUSH: I mean, I will occasionally try to have fun and I’ll make a prediction. But you’re asking me seriously, and you’re asking me as an offshoot of what you’re hearing today as a positive attitude that you think I’m exuding. And I haven’t said anything about 2022. You are assuming that I think that in 2022, we’re gonna turn things around. I have no idea what’s gonna happen 2022.

I have no idea what’s gonna happen in the next week. I have no idea. What I try to do is inform myself the best I can and then plug in things that I’m fairly confident of. And I think that the closest thing I see is the Democrats blowing what they’ve won here by assuming mistaken things, things that are completely wrong that explains their victory.

I don’t think they have the ability to be honest with themselves about how unpopular they are in a lot of ways. I don’t think they have the ability to understand that most people that voted for Biden did so just ’cause there’s a D next to his name. They didn’t vote for Biden because they know what his agenda is, ’cause they haven’t the slightest idea.

‘Cause Biden didn’t tell anybody, other than “unity.” But they voted for Biden ’cause he’s got a D next to his name, and that’s how they grew up voting, and some of them have been talked into hating Trump. I mean, four years of a media massacre has to have an impact on people, and I think that it did.

That Trump got 74 million votes or more I think is mind-boggling amazing. I don’t think anybody else could have come close. I don’t think, with the total attempt at destroying him that was made for four years. It was consistent. It was relentless. It didn’t take a day off’ it happened multiple times a day.

And for Donald Trump to remain as popular as he is is unlike anything we have seen in American politics? Our lifetimes. There’s nothing that we can compare this to. Now, the reasons for that popularity are also fascinating. They are substantive. Trump is not a cult figure. He is not popular because his ideas are unique.

He’s not popular because he’s brave. He’s popular because finally there was somebody in American politics who happens to agree with 75 million Americans. The Republican Party was never able to produce such a person. They never were. They haven’t wanted to. Donald Trump did it on his own.

Now, you stop and think. If you’re looking for reasons to be optimistic, you’re looking right at 74 to 75 (and maybe more) million of your fellow citizens who are not going anywhere, Michael. They might have lost this election, or they might think it’s been stolen from, but they’re not going anywhere.

They’re in this. They are fed up. They want their country back. They believe in American greatness. They believe in America First. They know this does not have anything to do with race, has nothing to do white supremacy or any of these other derogatory terms that the media and the Democrats use.

Seventy-five million people voted for a guy who was destroyed four times a day for four years in a row by the American media. Unheard of. Now, you hear me expressing optimism. Um… (sigh) I will grant you it’s my natural statement. Sometimes, however, I get down like everybody else does. I’ll share this with you.

When the microphone goes on, there’s a… Folks, let me take you back to the early days when I was just a deejay. And those of you who have never been in broadcasting, you don’t know about these little quirks of this business. But one of the first things any young broadcaster learns to appreciate about the professionals is they always sound the same every day.

If you’ve got… I come from the sixties. The deejays that I listened to in the sixties, every day sounded identical. I could never tell when they were having a down day. I could never tell when they were having a bum day. I could never tell when they didn’t want to be there. It was the mark of professionalism — and yet, there were days I didn’t want to do it.

There were days that I didn’t feel like doing it, and there were days I couldn’t cover that up, and I said, “There’s gonna be something to this professionalism in broadcasting that you must somehow find a way to sound the same every day.” I mean, if you’re ticked off and mad, you better do it every day.

If you’re upbeat and honest, you better do it every day. You gotta be consistent. It was a sign; it was a mark of professionalism. And even now, I remember when I had the set visit to the 24 TV show with Joel Surnow and his buddies and Howard Gordon. I met Kiefer Sutherland. There are a bunch of California radio talk show hosts at this party.

I’m not gonna name any names, but two of them came up to me and asked, “How do you do it every day? How do you sound so up every day? I mean, there are days I don’t want to do it.” I just smiled internally because I got that out of my system in the sixties when I was a teenager. So my point to you is, I’m not capable of coming here and not sounding like I’m happy to be alive.

I’m not capable of coming here and bleeding on you by complaining and whining about things that may be going wrong in my life. It’s something I learned as a young broadcast professional 50 years ago that you just don’t do. You don’t bleed on the audience. You don’t whine and complain. Now, there are exceptions to everything.

And there are many different personalities. And there are some people who have made a living out of complaining and whining. So there are exceptions to everything. But my point to you is, you’re hearing optimism because I don’t know anything else. That, to me, is professionalism. That is one of the defining characteristics of a true broadcast professional.

I just don’t think people want to tune in here and listen to me be mad all the time, every day, about personal things, it’s okay to be mad about things everybody else is mad about, politics and that. But to share, “Folks, I really don’t want to be here today. I can’t pay my electric bill today, and they might come confiscate my house and I really -” people don’t want to hear that. So you have to gut it up. And something about when the microphone goes on, professionalism kicks in.

At the same time, I am optimistic ’cause we live in America. We got 75 million people who are not satisfied with this. They’re not gonna put up with this. They’re not going away. We got a guy who leads those 75 million, Trump, who’s not going away. Pretty sure. Don’t know what he’s gonna do, but he’s not going away. They’re gonna try to put him in jail. They’re gonna try to convict him. They’re gonna try to make sure he can’t run for office again ’cause they are scared to death, folks. Which is another reason to be optimist.

They’re scared to death of the guy and he’s not even, as far as they’re concerned, he’s not a factor anymore, except that he is. Because he’s still walking and breathing and that scares the heck out of ’em. But 2022, couldn’t begin to predict to you what’s gonna happen. The only thing I will say is that I firmly believe the Democrats are gonna overshoot because they’re gonna misjudge their popularity, they’re gonna misjudge how much they’re loved. They are certainly gonna misjudge how much people support their policies. This is not a socialist country. It’s not a communist country. It’s not even close.

So they’re going to blow this opportunity by taking too big a bite at it, they’re gonna misjudge their popularity, they’re gonna misjudge the people that voted for ’em and why. And I don’t know when it’s all going to come to grips with ’em, but it will happen. I gotta go. I’m glad you called, Michael. Thanks much.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Frank in Houston, you’re next on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, great talking to you. You know, I used to hate listening to you —

RUSH: Why?

CALLER: — for many, many years. Because I hated everything that you had to say.

RUSH: Wow.

CALLER: Until I believe George Bush won his reelection that I really started listening to you.

RUSH: Ah.

CALLER: And I’ve changed pretty much, made a 360 ever since and I religiously listen to your show. You pretty much made me swing in the other direction, and I’ve never looked back since. So I just want to say thank you for that. And to what you were saying earlier in regards to Democrats overreaching, I think you know that Democrats have never cared about that.

RUSH: No, no, I don’t think they care about it. That’s why I think they’re going to do it. And it’s gonna cause them problems.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Look. I just found an audio sound bite here that might help me explain one of the things I’ve been saying today. When I say I think the Democrats are gonna overstep, it’s not that they’re gonna purposely do it, it’s not that they’re gonna realize they’re doing it. My point is they’re not gonna be able to help themselves. They’re gonna make incorrect assumptions about their popularity. They always do this. The Wellstone memorial is a great example of overstep. It is gonna happen. There’s no question. It just a matter of how and when, how’s it gonna manifest itself.

Now, listen to this. We have a montage of a bunch of leftists lamenting the fact that so many millions of Americans think that Biden is illegitimate.

FRANCINE LACQUA: How many Americans still believe that this was not a legitimate election?

LEW LUKENS: Unfortunately, a significant number of Americans don’t believe that Joe Biden was elected in a legitimate process.

JAKE TAPPER: It’s not the American way to pretend that Biden was not legitimate.

JOHN DICKERSON: This election was not stolen, it’s a lie, and anybody who continues to say it’s stolen is lying. Until you take that out, people will think that…

GAYLE KING: Yes.

DICKERSON: …Joe Biden is illegitimate.

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Two-thirds of Republicans don’t even believe that Joe Biden was legitimately elected, a third of all Americans believe that. How do you bridge a divide like that?

RUSH: That was Savannah Guthrie. My point is, they can’t believe it. They have told everybody Biden was legitimate. That’s all you need to know. They are bummed that so many millions of Americans do not accept it. I’m telling you, folks, they think they took care of that, they think they have persuaded everybody. And the fact that two-thirds of Americans that didn’t vote for Biden do not think he’s legitimate, it bugs ’em, because it means that they’re not effective in one of their primary objectives here. It really bothers ’em.

And it’s this kind of reality, they’re gonna sit around and they’re gonna understand that all these millions of Americans are still not buying it in, and it’s gonna cause them to go overboard or to overstep in their efforts to make sure you get the truth, whatever. You watch. I don’t know when it’s gonna happen. It may take a couple years for this to manifest itself, but it will.