MARK: Rush had a broad range of interests. And as you know, this happened to a certain degree on his last ever show, that sometimes, you know, there would be the big stories in the news of, you know, the Iranian nuclear program or the dangling chads in Florida or whatever. And instead what would take off and dominate the show would be a Rush aside on a little peripheral cultural issue that might be of no consequence.
And this was one of the things that I was amazed by because, again, I’d never heard it before. Basically, if you listen to radio the sort of fodder page 37 news stories never made it into political talk shows. Political talk shows talked about politicians. And with Rush there were always these kind of slightly wacky stories that would take off and the audience would just run with it, and the phone lines would light up, and you knew if you wanted to hear about Mitch McConnell, you were out of luck, ’cause Mitch wasn’t gonna get a look-in once one of these stories took off. And this was one such story in which Rush forensically examined the question, vital question: Do you become a jerk if all you eat is organic food?
BEGIN ARCHIVE CLIP
RUSH: Even now, after almost 24 years of doing this particular show and another three-and-a-half years of the show in Sacramento before it went national, 27-and-a-half years, something like that, I am still surprised sometimes over what ignites the audience. This organic food stuff has lit up my e-mail. Snerdley even found a couple calls about it. I’m just gonna tell you what’s gonna happen.
I don’t tell you 90% of the food news that I read, but there’s a revolution taking place out there. Farmers are trying to sell directly to customers. This whole organic food, I know what it is, it’s in reaction to processed food, which supposedly is the reason for the obesity epidemic. And everybody’s caught up in it. Well, not everybody. I don’t really care about it. But a lot of people are caught up in doing whatever they think necessary to be the healthiest that they can be, so forth.
But I’m gonna tell you what’s gonna happen. This is as predictable as the sun coming up in the morning and setting in the evening. All these organic food people are eventually going to become conservatives, because what’s happening now is the government is figuring out that these organic food places exist, and that they’re outside the regulatory process, and they’re outside the tax-and-fee structure. And that cannot stand. So what’s gonna happen is the cities where these people operate and the state they operate, and then the feds are gonna get involved and they’re gonna start regulating this stuff eventually. They’re gonna regulate what your free range chicken is given to eat.
They’re gonna regulate every aspect, just like they do everything else, and they’re gonna come down hard on all of this so-called organic food, like raw milk, your free range chicken running in the backyard that you shoot and kill or whatever and then take to some whole food market or whatever they’re called, I don’t know. Some organic food market, farms that are selling their produce and meats directly to customers, all these people with their little utopias where they think they’re engaging in healthful living and production and so forth, the heavy hand of government is gonna find ’em. And under the auspices of regulating for safety and health, these people are going to find out exactly what oppressive government is. I’m talking about the organic crowd. It’s gonna happen. It may not be immediate, but it will.
RUSH: Parma, Ohio. Anthony. You’re up first. Great to have you with us on the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: I’m a Libertarian, Tea Party, everything else. It is a pleasure to talk to you, informing us, et cetera, et cetera. But I have one disagreement. You’re going after what you call the “food fadies” and organic people. You’re making kind of a mistake there.
RUSH: Well, I’m not. I’m reporting what’s in Today’s Health.
CALLER: Oh. Okay.
RUSH: It’s at MSNBC. A bunch of people, university people found that organic food people are “jerks.” The question is: Which came first, the jerk or the organic food? The question is: Did the organic food make the jerk or was the person a jerk first?
CALLER: Okay. Let me first explain something. I’m on what they call the Paleo Diet, like that guy from North or South Carolina was on that got attacked. I’ve been on it for several years. I got off insulin, all kinds of meds using that diet, and I spent the last five years… As a matter of fact, that gentleman may have got the idea of the Paleo Diet from me, because I write on a lot of different blogs about different things. I’m 67 years old. I’ve been on that diet for many years. I study diets.
RUSH: It’s the caveman diet, right? You do your own hunting and gathering and stuff?
CALLER: No.
RUSH: You’re out there amongst the wildlife and you wipe ’em out, and you take ’em home and eat ’em?
CALLER: No. I live in a city. (chuckles) I live in a liberal county surrounded by liberals. Oh, Lord. No, I don’t do my own hunting and gathering. But people have to understand that a lot of the stuff that is not organic is sprayed with a lot of poisons.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: A lot of bad stuff.
RUSH: Yeah, I know. That’s what I eat.
CALLER: These GMO foods, you know, the genetically modified stuff?
RUSH: That’s what I eat.
CALLER: I would stay away from that, but I’m a Libertarian. You put in your body what you want to put in it.
RUSH: See, this is the difference. You are trying to tell everybody else how they ought to eat now because of your Paleo Diet, and you’re a Libertarian. But you’re way outside the bounds of Libertarianism. You couldn’t be further from a Libertarian.
Nancy, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you?
RUSH: Very well. Thank you.
CALLER: Oh, my gosh, you are just my hero.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that.
CALLER: Anyways, I’m just calling because you’re talking about the organic food, and I’m feeling like it’s like the Prius. Just because you eat organic food or because you drive a Prius does not make you a better person than me.
RUSH: Well, they think it does. They think it makes them superior.
CALLER: Oh, exactly. And that’s the problem.
RUSH: Like those ribbons that you wear, the colored ribbons.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: The message is I’m wearing this ribbon, I care more than you do, I’m a better person.
CALLER: And I’m a better person.
RUSH: Right, exactly.
CALLER: Exactly. And I just ate a steak last night and I cleaned my house with harsh chemicals today, but it’s clean.
RUSH: (laughing) I love it.
CALLER: Yeah, exactly.
RUSH: The stuff that you’ve always used, you’re still using it, and guess what, it does the trick. But you use what they want, what is it, the top loading washer now doesn’t work, or is it the front-loader?
CALLER: Oh, that is right, yeah.
RUSH: It’s the front-loader that got all moldy and stuff and then the new detergent doesn’t get dishes clean.
CALLER: Exactly. And I’m using bleach.
RUSH: You are?
CALLER: And I had my steak and I had it rare. And I loved it.
RUSH: You sound like a real American babe to me. Have you signed up for Rush Babes of America Facebook page?
CALLER: No. I’ve gotta go there.
RUSH: You should.
CALLER: I definitely will.
RUSH: Well, it’s just like their detergent, their new dishwashing detergent that doesn’t work. You have to wash the dishes by hand but the environment’s safe. Your dishwasher is not destroying the planet if you use the liberals’ new detergent, but it also doesn’t clean your dishes.
CALLER: It’s like my bathroom’s not clean. So what is it? Yeah, oh no, give me the bleach, give me Tilex. And I love it.
RUSH: Good. I’m glad you called. You made my day, I appreciate it. Have a great day yourself.
CALLER: That doesn’t make you a better person.
RUSH: (laughing)
END ARCHIVE CLIP
MARK: Nancy the red meat conservative versus Anthony the organic Libertarian. As I said, sometimes it doesn’t have to be, you know, doing something about the deficit or talking about the ChiComs or whatever. Sometimes you just never know where this show is gonna go, and that’s what’s kept it fresh for over three decades.