Thank you all. I can't
tell you how -- how wonderful that makes me feel. It happens
everywhere I go, but it's still special. If you all will indulge
me, I learned something, I guess, it's early Friday morning that
I didn't know...Friday morning is when I learned this. I learned
that Fox, God love them, is televising this speech on the Fox
News Channel, which means -- which means, ladies and gentleman,
this is my first ever address to the nation.
Now, I have someone in back taking phone numbers. In fact -- In
fact, I would like to introduce to you my security chief, a man
who runs all of my security. His name is Joseph Stalin. Joseph,
would you please... I am safe -- I am safe from any liberal
attack, in public, because they would be afraid of offending
Stalin.
Now the opportunity here to address the nation, a serious one,
it really is. And I want to take it seriously. I want to address
something. I know that people are probably watching this who
never have listened to my program and may not even really know
what conservatism is. They think they do based on how they've
been told -- the way we've been impugned and maligned and so
forth. One of the things that is totally erroneous about me --
and I just want to get this up front -- is that I'm pompous.
And that I am arrogant. Neither of these things are remotely
true. I can tell you a joke to illustrate this. Larry King
passed away, goes to heaven. He's greeted by Saint Peter at the
gates. Saint Peter says, "Welcome, Mr. King, it's great to have
you here. I want to show you around, give you an idea of what's
here, maybe you can pick a place that you'd like to reside."
King says, "I just have one question: Is Rush Limbaugh
here?"
"No, he's got a lot of time yet, Mr. King." So Saint Peter
begins the tour. Larry King sees the various places and it's
beyond anything we can imagine in terms of beauty. Finally, he
gets to the biggest room of all, with this giant throne. And
over the throne is a flashing beautiful angelic neon sign that
says "Rush Limbaugh."
And Larry King looks at Saint Peter and says: "I thought you
said he wasn't here."
"He said, he's not, he's not. This is God's room. He just thinks
he's Rush Limbaugh."
So you see I'm not pompous.
Now, seriously, for those of you watching on C-SPAN as well, and on Fox, I want to tell you who we all are in this room. I want to tell you who conservatives are. We conservatives have not done a good enough job of just laying out basically who we are because we make the mistake of assuming people know. What they know is largely incorrect based on the way we are portrayed in pop culture, in the Drive-By Media, by the Democrat Party.
Let me tell you who we conservatives are: We love people. When we look out over the United States of America, when we are anywhere, when we see a group of people, such as this or anywhere, we see Americans. We see human beings. We don't see groups. We don't see victims. We don't see people we want to exploit. What we see -- what we see is potential. We do not look out across the country and see the average American, the person that makes this country work. We do not see that person with contempt. We don't think that person doesn't have what it takes. We believe that person can be the best he or she wants to be if certain things are just removed from their path like onerous taxes, regulations and too much government.
We want every American to be the best he or she chooses to be.
We recognize that we are all individuals. We love and revere our
founding documents, the Constitution and the Declaration of
Independence. We believe that the preamble to the Constitution
contains an inarguable truth that we are all endowed by our
creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life.
Liberty, Freedom. And the pursuit of happiness. Those of you
watching at home may wonder why this is being applauded. We
conservatives think all three are under assault. Thank you.
Thank you.
We don't want to tell anybody how to live. That's up to you. If
you want to make the best of yourself, feel free. If you want to
ruin your life, we'll try to stop it -- and make -- but it's a
waste. We look over the country as it is today, we see so much
waste, human potential that's been destroyed by 50 years of a
welfare state. By a failed war on poverty.
We love the people of this country. And we want this to be the greatest country it can be, but we do understand, as people created and endowed by our creator, we're all individuals. We resist the effort to group us. We resist the effort to make us feel that we're all the same, that we're no different than anybody else. We're all different. There are no two things or people in this world who are created in a way that they end up with equal outcomes. That's up to them. They are created equal, given the chance -- We don't hate anybody. We don't -- I mean, the racism in this country, if you ask me, I know many people in this audience -- let me deal with this head on. You know what the cliche is, a conservative: racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe. Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen of America, if you were paying attention, I know you were, the racism in our culture was exclusively and full on display in the Democrat primary last year.
t was not us asking whether Barack Obama was authentic. What we
were asking is: Is he wrong? We concluded, yes. We still
think so. But we didn't ask if he was authentically black. We didn't
say, as some southern Christian leadership conference leaders said:
Barack is not authentic, he's not got any slave blood. He's really not
down for the struggle, but his wife does. So don't expect the race
industry to go away. Southern Christian Leadership Council-- you may not
know this, because it wasn't reported in the Drive-By Media -- the
racism, the sexism, the bigotry that we're all charged with, just so you
across the United States of America know, and you'll see demonstrated
here as the afternoon goes on, doesn't exist on our side. We want
everybody to succeed.
You know why? You know why? We want the country to
succeed and for the country to succeed its people, its
individuals must succeed. Everyone among us must be pursuing his
ambition or her desire, whatever, with excellence. Trying to be
the best they can be. Not told, as they are told by the Democrat
Party: You really can't do that, you don't have what it
takes, besides you're a minority or you're a woman and there are
too many people that want to discriminate against you. You can't
get anywhere. You need to depend on us.
Well. Take a look, someone has to say this -- I am thrilled for
the opportunity to say it in my first national address to the
nation -- and I'm going to touch on this in more detail in a
moment but this is just to get you thinking -- take a look at
all the constituency groups that for 50 years have been
depending on the Democrat Party to improve their lives. And you
tell me if you find any. They're still complaining, still
griping about the same problems. Their problems don't get fixed
by government. And those lives have been poisoned. Those lives
have been cut short by false promises, from government
representatives who said don't worry about it, we'll take care
of you. Just vote for us.
For those of you just tuning in on the Fox News Channel or C-SPAN, I'm Rush Limbaugh and I want everyone in this room and every one of you around the country to succeed. I want anyone who believes in life, liberty, pursuit of happiness to succeed. And I want any force, any person, any element of an overarching big government that would stop your success, I want that organization, that element or that person to fail. I want you to succeed. Also, for those of you in the Drive-By Media watching, I have not needed a teleprompter for anything I've said. And nor do any of us need a teleprompter, because our beliefs are not the result of calculations and contrivances. Our beliefs are not the result of a deranged psychology. Our beliefs are our core. Our beliefs are our hearts. We don't have to make notes about what we believe. We don't have to write down, oh do I believe it do I believe it we can tell people what we believe off the top of our heads and we can do it with passion and we can do it with clarity, and we can do it persuasively. Some of us just haven't had the inspiration or motivation to do so in a number of years, but that's about to change.
For example, we gather here -- I understand that. I talked to David and Lisa in the super exclusive private green room that nobody, but about 55 people were allowed into, and they said that there's a sense of liberation here among all of you that are attending CPAC. I understand what the sense of liberation is about. But don't make the mistake at the same time of feeling liberated as thinking we're better and we can do better as a minority. Because we're not a minority. And if you start thinking of yourselves as a minority, you're going to be defensive. And you'll allow the majority to set the agenda and the premise and you're responding to it. The American people may not all vote the way we wish them to, but more Americans than you know live their lives as conservatives in one degree or another. And they are waiting for leadership. We need conservative leadership. We can take this country back. All we need is to nominate the right candidate. It's no more complicated than that.
Now, let me speak about President Obama for just a second.
President Obama is one of the most gifted politicians, one of
the most gifted men that I have ever witnessed. He has
extraordinary talents. He has communication skills that hardly
anyone can surpass. No, seriously. No, no, I'm being very
serious about this. It just breaks my heart that he does not use
these extraordinary talents and gifts to motivate and inspire
the American people to be the best they can be. He's doing just
the opposite. And it's a shame. President Obama has the ability
-- he has the ability to inspire excellence in people's
pursuits. He has the ability to do all this, yet he pursues a
path, seeks a path that punishes achievement, that punishes
earners and punishes -- and he speaks negatively of the country.
Ronald Reagan used to speak of a shining city on a hill. Barack
Obama portrays America as a soup kitchen in some dark night in a
corner of America that's very obscure. He's constantly telling
the American people that bad times are ahead, worst times are
ahead. And it's troubling, because this is the United States of
America. Anybody ever ask -- I'm in awe of our country and I ask
this question a lot as I've gotten older. We're less than 300
years old. We are younger than nations that have been on this
planet for thousands of years. We, nevertheless, in less than
300 years -- by the way, we're no different than any other human
beings around the world. Our DNA is no different. We're not
better just because we're born in America. There's nothing that
sets us apart. How did this happen? How did the United
States of America become the world's lone super power, the
world's economic engine, the most prosperous opportunity for an
advanced lifestyle that humanity has ever known? How did
this happen? And why pray tell does the President of the
United States want to destroy it? It saddens me.
The freedom we spoke of earlier is the freedom, it's the
ambition, it's the desire, the wherewithal, the passions that
people have that gave us the great entrepreneurial advances, the
great inventions, the greatest food production, the human
lifestyle advances in this country, why shouldn't that be
rewarded? Why is that now the focus of punishment?
Why is that now the focus of blame? Why doesn't -- Mayor
Bloomberg the other day, ladies and gentlemen, resisting his
Governor's call for an increased tax on the rich in New York had
some astounding numbers. Eight million people live in New York.
40,000 of those eight million pay roughly 60 to 70% of New
York's operating budget. He was afraid that if he raised taxes
on those people some of them might leave. Mayor, one already
has, by the way. Stop and think of this, though. Stop and think
of this. 40,000 people out of eight million. He's right, if
10,000 of them leave, or 5,000, they've got a huge problem.
Because New York has its own welfare state inside the one the
federal government's created. They've got a dependency class
that has grown up and been educated their entitlement is to be
fed and taken care of by these evil mean people who have more
than they do. If New York City, New York State or Washington, DC
were a business, these 40,000 people would be taken on golf
tournament trips to Los Angeles, and they would be wined and
dined and they would be thanked and they would be encouraged to
keep it up. They wouldn't be told they're the problem. They
wouldn't be told, except there's -- I pride my accuracy rating.
There is one other business where the customer is always wrong
and that's the media. Sorry about that.
Have you ever called to complain about whatever they do?
They say, yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full. They hang up and
say you're too stupid to know how they're doing what they're
doing. You can't get it. You're not sophisticated enough. So
that's another business where the customer is always wrong. But,
seriously, the people who have achieved great things, most of it
is not inherited. Most wealth in this country is the result of
entrepreneurial, just plain old hard work. There's no reason to
punish it. There's no reason to raise taxes on these people.
Barack Obama, the Democrat Party, have one responsibility, and
that's to respect the oath they gave to protect, defend and
follow the US Constitution.
They don't have the right to take money that's not theirs and
none of it is from the back pockets of producers and give it to
groups like ACORN which are going to advance the Democrat Party.
If anybody but government were doing this, it would be a crime.
And many of us think it's bordering on that as it exists now.
President Obama is so busy trying to foment and create anger in
a created atmosphere of crisis. He is so busy fueling the
emotions of class envy that he's forgotten it's not his money
that he's spending. In fact, the money he's spending is not
ours. He's spending wealth that has yet to be created. And that
is not sustainable. It will not work. This has been tried around
the world. And every time it's been tried it's a failed
disaster.
What's the longest war in American history? Did somebody
say the war on poverty? Smart group. War on poverty. The
war on poverty essentially started in the '30s as part of the
New Deal, but it really ramped up in the '60s with Lyndon
Johnson, part of the great society war on poverty. We have
transferred something like 10 trillion, maybe close to 11
trillion, from producers and earners to nonproducers and earners
since 1965. Yet, as I listen to the Democratic Party campaign,
why, America is still a soup kitchen, the poor is still poor and
they have no hope and they're poor for what reason?
They're poor because of us, because we don't care, and because
we've gotten rich by taking from them, that's what kids in
school are taught today. That's what others have said to the
media. You know why they're poor, you know why they remain poor?
Because their lives have been destroyed by the never-ending
government hay that's designed to help them but it destroys
ambition. It destroys the education they might get to learn to
be self-fulfilling. And it breaks our heart. It breaks our
heart. We lose track of numbers with all of the money, with all
the money that's been transferred, redistributed, with all the
charitable giving in this country.
Ladies and gentlemen, there ought not be any poverty except
those who are genuinely ill equipped. But most of the people in
poverty in this country are equipped for far much more. They've
just been beaten down. They're told don't worry, we'll take care
of you. There's nothing out there for you anyway; you'll be
discriminated against. Breaks our heart to see this. We can't
have a great country and a growing economy with more and more
people being told they have a right, because of some injustice
that's been done to them or some discrimination, that they have
a right to the earnings of others. And it's gotten so out
of hand now that what worries me is that this administration,
the Barack Obama administration is actively seeking to expand
the welfare state in this country because he wants to control
it.
George Will once asked Dr. Friedrich Von Hayek, tremendous
classical liberal economist, great man. 1975, George Will, Dr.
Von Hayek, why is it that intellectuals, supposed smartest
people in the room, why is it that intellectuals can look right
out their windows, their own homes and cars and look at their
universities and not see the bounties and the growth and the
greatness of capitalism? And von Hayek said: I've
troubled over this for years and I've finally concluded that for
intellectuals, pseudo intellectuals, and all liberals, it's
about control. It's not about raising revenue. You think Obama
has any intention of paying for all this spending? Folks,
if he had any intention of paying for it, he wouldn't do 90% of
it because we don't have the money.
They don't care about paying for it. All that's just words. All
that's just rhetoric paying for it because he knows you have to
worry about paying for it. He knows we all have to be concerned
-- oh, except, wrong again. Except the words of Barney Frank and
Chris Dodd who were given homes that everybody knew they could
never pay for, and now Barney Frank and Chris Dodd the
architects along with Bill Clinton of the policy that gave us
the whole sub-prime mortgage crisis get to sit around and act as
innocent spectators to investigate what went on when they
largely had the biggest role in causing it.
Congressman Frank's definition of affordable housing is you get
a house you don't have to pay for that everybody else in the
neighborhood will pay for. Why? Because it's unfair that
some people can have a house and some people can't. Geez, it's
just unfair. So here we have two systems. We have socialism,
collectivism, Stalin, whatever you want to call it, versus
capitalism. Admittedly over on the right side capitalism there
will be unequal outcomes because we're all different. And some
of us care more and have more passion and we know what we want
to do and others are still struggling for it. Some people are
just going to work harder than others. Okay. You get what you
work for. Those who have a genuine inability for whatever reason
are taken care of. We're compassionate people. On the left side
when you get into this collectivism socialism stuff, these
people on the left, the Democrats and liberals today claim that
they are pained by the inequities and the inequalities in our
society. And they believe that these inequities and inequalities
descend from the selfishness and the greed of the achievers. And
so they tell the people who are on different income quintiles,
whatever lists, they say it's not that you're not working hard
enough, you could have what they have, perhaps, if you applied
it. They're stealing it from you.
So what liberals do, and I say this again to the -- another
thing, I know people in the country are watching. I was watching
a focus group after some event this week. Might have been after
Obama's State of the Union show. And they had -- it was a
typical, you know, Drive-By Media focus group. They round up
losers -- who hear Obama speak and think that the next day their
gas tanks are going to be filled up and get a new house and a
new kitchen and a new car. And so this one guy said -- oh, it
was some guy responding to Bobby Jindal. Oh, by the way did you
hear about Joe Biden? Joe Biden was mystified how Bobby
Jindal got his shift off at 7-Eleven that night to make the
speech. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Time out. Suspend
speech for explanation. People watching at home. I'm glad this
happened. Glad this happened. You think I just made a joke, an
ethnic joke about Bobby Jindal, don't you? I didn't. I
made a joke about the bigotry of the Vice President of the
United States, Joe Biden. It was Joe Biden while walking
through the train station he knows so well because he's such a
real guy, that he made a comment that you can't go into a
7-Eleven without seeing some Indian guy behind the counter.
They're all over the place.
Now, let a conservative say something like that and he's brought
up before John Conyers' committee with Pat Leahy wanting at you
next. Many people think I lose my place in these speeches
because -- by the way what time is it? We have plenty of
time. We have to be out of here by -- We have to be out of here
by 6:00 -- okay, depends on how you behave. I'll decide as we go
on. What liberalism Democrat, for those of you in the country, I
really want you to believe this because it's the truth. I'm not
saying it just because I believe it. This is a core. I want the
best country we can have. We want the most prosperous people. We
want to be growing. We want to lead the world. We want everybody
to come here legally. We want this country to be so damn great
and we just cringe to watch it basically capitalism be assaulted
and our culture be reoriented to where the people that make it
work are the enemy. That's not the United States of America. The
people that make this country work, the people who pay on their
mortgages, the people getting up and going to work, striving in
this recession to not participate in it, they're not the enemy.
They're the people that hire you. They're the people that are
going to give you a job. They're the people that are going to
give you a raise, the people that need you to do work for them.
President Obama and take your pick of any Democrat love to say
we've tried it your way. Meaning Reaganism. We've tried it your
way. We tried it your way in the '80s and it didn't work. We
tried it your way eight years, the last eight years and it
didn't work. Excuse me. Excuse me. Have you ever noticed those
of you watching around the world in my first international
address to the world, Fox is on some international satellites.
They're watching this in the UK right now going. When Obama
talks about past economies, he somehow always leaves out the
recession of the '80s as worst than this one. Why does he leave
it out? Because you know why he leaves it out, America?
He leaves it out because we got out of that recession with tax
cuts. For those of you watching at home I'm not nervous it's
just really hot in here. These people are wired. We got out of
the 1980s recession with tax cuts. Do you know that President
Obama, in six weeks of his administration, has proposed more
spending than from the founding of the country to his
inauguration?
Now, this is not prosperity. It is not going to engender prosperity. It's not going to create prosperity and it's also not going to advance or promote freedom. It's going to be just the opposite. There are going to be more controls over what you can and can't do, how you can and can't do it, what you can and can't drive, what you can and can't say, where you can and can't say it. All of these things are coming down the pike, because it's not about revenue generation to them, it's about control. They do believe that they have compassion. They do believe they care. But, see, we never are allowed to look at the results of their plans, we are told we must only look at their good intentions, their big hearts. The fact that they have destroyed poor families by breaking up those families by offering welfare checks to women to keep having babies no more father needed, he's out doing something, the government's the father, they destroy the family. We're not supposed to analyze that. We're not supposed to talk about that. We're supposed to talk about their good intentions. They destroy people's futures. The future is not big government. Self-serving politicians. Powerful bureaucrats. This has been tried, tested throughout history. The result has always been disaster. President Obama, your agenda is not new. It's not change, and it's not hope. Spending a nation into generational debt is not an act of compassion. All politicians, including President Obama, are temporary stewards of this nation. It is not their task to remake the founding of this country. It is not their task to tear it apart and rebuild it in their image.
It is not their task, it is not their right to remake this
nation to accommodate their psychology. I sometimes wonder if
liberalism is not just a psychosis or a psychology, not an
ideology. It's so much about feelings and the predominant
feeling that liberalism is about is about feeling good about
themselves and they do that by telling themselves they have all
this compassion. You know, if you really want to unhinge a
liberal it's hard to do because they're so unhinged now anyway,
even after -- but all you have to do is say you know what the
things you people do, the things you people believe in are
cruel. That's the last way they look at themselves. They are the
best people on the -- they're the good people. You tell them
that their ideas and that their policies are cruel and the eggs
start scrambling.
I have learned how to tweak liberals everywhere. I do it
instinctively now. Tweak them in the media. And no reason to be
afraid of these people. Why in the world would you be afraid of
the deranged? There really is no reason to be afraid of
them. And there's no reason to assume they're the minority. And
there's no reason to let them set all the premises and all the
agendas to which we respond to. I'm getting a little bit ahead
of myself here but everybody asks me and I'm sure it's been a
focal point of your convention: What do we do as
conservatives? What do we do? How do we overcome
this?
Well, the one thing, and there are many, but one thing that we
can all do is stop assuming that the way to beat them is with
better policy ideas right now. I don't want to name any names.
It's not the point. But I talk to people about the Obama budget
or the Obama Porkulous bill or whatever else TARP 2 whatever
it's going to be, and they start talking to me in the terms of
process and policy. I say stop it. What do you mean?
Who is setting the process or policy? They are. You want
to tweak it? No. This is philosophy, folks. This guy, I
forgot -- the guy in the focus group after Bobby Jindal said, I
didn't want to hear him talk, he said: Republicans and
Democrats. Republicans and Democrats. Ladies and gentlemen of
the United States of America, that's exactly what your future is
about, who wins, Republicans or Democrats, conservatives versus
liberals. The notion of partisanship, false premise. Let me
define bipartisanship for you. Bipartisanship -- everybody seems
to go orgasmic over the concept of bipartisanship. Don't worry,
I checked with Fox, that word's okay.
Remember, they covered the Lewinsky thing, so that's my --
bipartisanship occurs only after one other result, and that is
victory. In other words, let's say as conservatives liberals
demand that we be bipartisan with them in Congress. What they
mean is: We check our core principles at the door, come
in, let them run the show and agree with them. That's
bipartisanship to them. To us, bipartisanship is them being
forced to agree with us after we politically have cleaned their
clocks and beaten them. And that has to be what we're focused
on. Why would any of us in this room who hold the core beliefs
we believe, somebody tell me where is the compromise on all of
this spending? Where is the compromise on all this
punishment of the achievers. I don't know.
Where is the compromise between good and evil? Should
Jesus have cut a different deal? Serious. From the
standpoint of what we have to do, folks, this is not about
taking a policy or a process that the Democrats have put forward
and fighting around the edges. If we're going to convince the
minds and hearts of the American people that what's about to
happen to them is as disastrous as anything in their lives in
peacetime, we're going to have to discuss philosophy with them.
We are going to have to talk about principle, because our
principles are not present in what's happening here. So where
the hell do we go to compromise what we believe in when our
principles are not their principles, they're just the opposite
of what's happening?
The American people -- it's a tough challenge. I admit -- I
admit it's a tough challenge, but it's worth it. It's worth it.
The way I just defined bipartisanship you could turn it around
and liberals will define bipartisanship when we surrender and
say okay we give. We're not quitting. We are not giving up. The
country is too important. There are certain realities. We don't
have the votes in Capitol Hill to stop what's going to happen.
What we can do is slow it down, procedure, parliamentary
procedures, slow it down and do the best we can to inform the
American people of what's really on the horizon. I know it's
going to be tough. At some point I don't think it can
happen even right now. This is still the honeymoon period, and
there's a lot of devotion to the Obama administration. It
doesn't have anything to do with intellectual thinking, it's
feelings. It's going to take some time for this to play out. But
I spoke to David Keene interviewing for my newsletter. I asked
him about this. He said they're going to overreach. Wouldn't you
say they have?
They're going to overreach. At some point, at some point people
have got to realize none of this is possible. You can't have
people living in homes they don't pay for. You can't have people
driving cars they don't pay for. I mean, you can for a while.
But after a while the people paying for it -- screw this. We're
not putting up with it. And you're going to see -- you're
already starting to see evidence of these. All the tea parties
that are starting to bubble up out there. Those are great.
Fabulous. And here's the big question. Here's the big question.
And I ask this again in the context of my first address to the
nation. You don't know how I love saying that, how excited I am
about this. Aside from the bastardization of the Constitution
that the Obama plans are, that TARP is, it's not constitutional.
Aside from that, where is the evidence that the people offering
all of this have ever succeeded in any similar plans before?
There's none. There is no evidence it works.
So you say how is he getting it done? Dumb down public
education. Dumb down public education. Emotions. And the ongoing
-- this is why I think it's such a waste for a man as gifted as
President Obama with the communications skills, you know he
could wipe out the Republican Party. He can wipe out the
Republican Party if he would inspire this country to be the best
it could be, but we don't have to worry about that because
that's not what he wants. He wants people in fear, angst and
crisis, fearing the worst each and every day because that clears
the decks for President Obama and his pals to come in with the
answers, which are abject failures, historically shown and
demonstrated. Doesn't matter. They'll have control of it when
it's all over. And that's what they want. Because they think
they can do it better. They see these inequalities, these
inequities that capitalism produces. How do they fix it?
Do they try to elevate those at the bottom? No! They try
to tear down the people at the bottom. It's not fair you're up
there. So they whack us. That's not what made the country great.
And no evidence of it is in play here.
John Kerry, who served in Vietnam. Think about this, and, by the
way, Barney Frank got involved with this, too. Northern Trust, a
bank in Chicago -- by the way, which holds the mortgage to the
Messiah's house, purchased by Tony Rezko, Northern Trust holds
the mortgage. Northern Trust was forced, like Wells Fargo was
forced, to take TARP money. The Wells Fargo CEO said they were
taken into Paulson's room and they were given until 5:00 to sign
it. They weren't getting out until they did. They wanted it
spread all over the banking business. Northern Trust was in
there. They didn't want it. They took $1.6 billion. As you know,
they went out and they sponsored the LA Riveria Open two weeks
ago that Phil Mickelson barely hung on and won.
And we find out they hired some liberals to entertain, but it
still wasn't good enough. They hired Sheryl Crow. And they hired
the rock crooner group Chicago, but they had the audacity,
Northern Trust did, to entertain their clients, to try to reward
their best customers, to get new customers, banking is in
trouble, Northern Trust is trying to do what they always do,
what all businesses do, and that is mine for new clients and
reward existing good customers. Not since they took $1.6
billion, I guess. The haughty John Kerry wrote a piece of
legislation said: He's getting sick and tired, sick and
tired of these CEOs using taxpayer money to throw all these
lavish parties. And I'm saying where do you get yours, Senator?
Sad thing, sad thing is it works. They've created class envy in
so many average Americans that they love hearing that. Yeah, you
get even with those bank guys. How is it going to improve here?
Let me ask a question for those of you watching my first
national address. Take the favorite villain you've got, maybe
it's John Thain at Merrill Lynch, because he used his own money,
his company's own money, his company's own money, to redecorate
a bathroom in a office for $1.2 million. By the way, to do that
he had to hire a contractor. They got paid. Had to hire a
designer and buy furniture, that's called stimulus. And he did
it.
But all of a sudden John Thain's thrown out. John Thain is
thrown out. He's humiliated and embarrassed; how dare he?
He did it a year before they took the TARP money. And all these
Congressmen are standing up saying this is not going to happen.
We are not going to watch these people capping executive pay
while Obama tries to live like one. You know, he's trying to
emulate the lifestyle he is attacking. That's what liberals do.
Two sets of rules: One for them; one for everybody else.
But it's coming. See, if you think that John Thain or the
Northern Trust CEO, if you love them getting attacked, if you
love them being ripped, ask yourself the next day, do you have
any more money in your pocket? Is your life any better
because that guy got taken out or down by some haughty senator
from Massachusetts?
If you ask yourself this, you'll realize your life is no better
off. That the Democrats and Obama are asking you to feel better
simply on the basis that they're going to get revenge for you,
but your life isn't going to improve, somebody else's is just
going to be destroyed and they want you to be happy over that.
That's sick. And that is not the United States of America.
Besides, as far as John Kerry is concerned, if it wasn't for his
varicose veins he would be totally colorless.
Now let's talk about the conservative movement as it were. We,
ladies and gentlemen, have challenges that are part and parcel
of a movement that feels it has just suffered a humiliating
defeat when it's not humiliating. This wasn't a land slide
victory, 52 to, what, 46. 58 million people voted against Obama.
There would have been more if we would have had a conservative
nominee. I don't mean that -- I mean that in an instructive way,
as a lead-in to what I'm talking about here. No humiliating
defeat here. I can't -- sometimes I get livid and angry. We do
have an organizational problem. We have a challenge. We've got
factions now within our own movement seeking power to dominate
it, and worst of all to redefine it. Well, the
Constitution doesn't need to be redefined. Conservative
intellectuals, the Declaration of Independence does not need to
be redefined and neither does conservatism. Conservatism is what
it is and it is forever. It's not something you can bend and
shape and flake and form. Thank you. Thank you.
For the purposes of this occasion, I'm not going to mention any
names, I bet with you I won't have to. People watching my first
address to the nation might be curious what I'm talking about.
They'll find out in due course, trust me on this. I cringed --
it might have been 2007, late 2007 or sometime during 2008, but
a couple of prominent conservative but beltway establishment
media types began to write on the concept that the era of Reagan
is over.
And that we needed to adapt our appeal, because, after all,
what's important in politics is winning elections. And so we
have to understand that the American people, they want big
government. We just have to find a way to tell them we're no
longer opposed to that. We will come up with our own version of
it that is wiser and smarter, but we've got to go get the
WalMart voter, and we've got to get the Hispanic voter, and
we've got to get the recalcitrant independent women. And I'm
listening to this and I am just apoplectic: The era of
Reagan is over? When the hell do you hear a Democrat say
the era of FDR is over? You never hear it. Not only that,
the President of the United States today thinks he's FDR, thinks
he's Abraham Lincoln, and sometimes, Tuesday night, thinks he's
Ronald Reagan. Our own movement has members trying to throw
Reagan out while the Democrats know they can't accomplish what
they want unless they appeal to Reagan voters. We have got to
stamp this out within this movement, because it will tear us
apart. It will guarantee we lose elections.
We have to. You see, to me it's a no-brainer. It's not even
something to me: How do you get rid of Reagan from
conservatism? The blueprint -- the blueprint for landslide
conservative victory is right there. Why in the hell do the
smartest people in our room want to chuck it? I know why.
I know exactly why. It's because they're embarrassed of some of
the people who call themselves conservatives. These people in
New York and Washington, cocktail elitists, they get made fun of
when the next NASCAR race is on TV and their cocktail buds come
up to them, those people are in your party? How do you put
up with this? It would be easy to throw them overboard, so
as to maintain these cocktail party beltway New York City inside
the beltway media relationships. But I tell you: This
notion that Reaganism is dead, conservatism needs to be refined,
let's take a look at this. We've got to go get the Walmart
voter. I opened my remarks tonight by telling the people
watching on Fox who we conservatives are. When I look out at you
in this audience, I don't see a Walmart voter. And I don't see a
black, and I don't see a woman, and I don't see a Hispanic. I
see human beings who happen to be fortunate enough to be the
luckiest people on earth you are Americans.
Conservatism -- for us to make the decision that we've got to
figure out policies, to get the Walmart voter -- psst, we've got
most of them already, is the bottom line. Conservatism is a
universal set of core principles. You don't check principles at
the door. This is a battle that we're going to have. And there
are egos involved here, too. When the situation like ours
exists, there are people who want to lead it. They want to
redefine it. Their egos are such that they want to be the next
X, whoever it is. So there will be different factions lining up
to try to define what conservatism is. And beware of those
different factions who seek as part of their attempt to redefine
conservatism, as making sure the liberals like us, making sure
that the media likes us. They never will, as long as we remain
conservatives. They can't possibly like us; they're our enemy.
In a political arena of ideas, they're our enemy. They think we
need to be defeated. Why do you think -- you all in this room
know this. For those of you watching at home, my first address
to the nation -- I'm sure you paid close enough attention, that
you knew at one time Senator McCain was the favorite Republican
of all the cable news networks and the Sunday shows. And they
would just -- I mean their tongues would be on the floor. The
media people when they knew McCain was coming. And they would
treat McCain as the greatest guy in the world. Did you wonder
why? You were told he was moderate. He was not strict. He
was not an authoritarian, he was able to walk to the other side
of the aisle, able to get along with the enemy. And everybody
wants love and bipartisanship.
That's not why they invited Senator McCain. They invited Senator McCain because he happened to be the loudest at criticizing his own president and his own party and that's what they want, is people from our side -- and there will be factions in our movement, folks, who are going to make an effort to say we have to grow, we can't stay stale, I think I heard the term used the other day. Nothing stale about freedom. There's nothing stale about liberty. There's nothing stale about fighting for it. Nothing stale whatsoever. Freedom. Are you getting tired of standing up, I don't blame you. By the way for those watching on TV you think the standing -- people are just tired. They've been up and out of their chairs 100 times here. Thank you. Freedom -- freedom is the natural yearning of the human spirit as we were endowed by our creator. And the United States of America is the place in the world where that yearning flourishes. Where freedom is expected because it's part of the way we're created.
I loved it when the Soviet Union went down and the wall went
down and the liberals in our country said you know they may not
be ready for freedom over there. They've been oppressed -- yes,
liberals will gladly tell you who can have freedom and who
can't. And that's what the pieces of legislation is all about,
folks, freedom, liberty, economic prosperity, they're all
entwined here we'll have to as a conservative movement
understand that our job, after we come to an agreement among
ourselves, which shouldn't be hard but it's going to be
difficult because the people that think they're smarter than
everybody else are going to be out there forging alliances with
people that try to make themselves look like new power brokers,
and they will become the spokesmen, by the way.
By the way, explain that to you. This is a funny story. Show you
how I can hijack a news cycle even by doing anything. The
Tuesday before the inauguration, President Bush invited me to
the Oval Office for lunch. And it was on and off the record,
some of the conversations. And he brought out, interesting, at
the end of it -- my birthday had been the day before. He brought
out a chocolate birthday cake, a microphone, and stood beside me
with Ed Gillespie and sang happy birthday. Photographers taking
pictures. I wish my parents were alive. My parents wouldn't
believe my life. They came out of Great Depression. They
didn't think it was possible for somebody who did not go to
college and even for people who did they didn't think this was
possible. Life has changed so much for the better in this
country. That's why I cringe when I see what is in store.
So as I'm flying home from lunch, I'm watching television and I
see that the word has leaked out that Obama is hosting a dinner
with conservative media pundits at the home of George Will. I
said: I wonder who these people are? In the media
one of them is going to have to leak it. Sure as heck, one did.
Now, we all know who were there. And let's see -- I can't rather
all the names I won't mention any. But let me tell you Obama's
purpose. Does anybody really think that Barack Obama had dinner
with a bunch of conservatives hoping they would change his mind?
Hell no. His purpose -- and his purpose really wasn't to change
theirs. His purpose was to anoint them as conservative
spokesmen. These are the people that Obama's willing to break
bread with. These happen -- some of the people there happen to
be the people who think the era of Reagan is over, who believe
that conservatism needs to be redefined. Of course Obama would
try to lure them in. Well, all of a sudden I land. I get home
about 5:00, and my e-mail is jammed with questions from
reporters, are you, is that why you took the day off today?
Is that why you're not on the air? Are you going to dinner
with Obama? By the way, I left out a crucial part of the
story. Was this a Monday, Kit? It was a Tuesday. I had
forgotten to tell my audience that I was going to miss the next
day I signed off the show saying I'll see you tomorrow. That's
the last thing I said. The staff reminded me you're not going to
be here tomorrow. I came up with a plan, that the guest host the
next day would say that I was called out of town to Washington
at midnight the night before. Just an innocent little trick on
the radio audience. Everybody picked that up and thinks I'm
invited to the Obama. So those people that were invited to it
got less coverage than I did and I didn't even know about it. It
was fun.
Conservatives are naturally happy. We seek happiness. We pursue
it. It's part of who we are. So what can you do? Live your
life. I swear, folks, you do not know in just the everyday life
that you live in your homes, your neighborhoods, the favorite
word of this administration, your communities. Remember the root
word there is "commune". Be happy, live your life according to
your values and principles. Know you're going to fail no human
being is perfect, you're going to make mistakes, but live your
life -- you'll be stunned at how many people you impress. Don't
be afraid to tell children that they're wrong. They don't know
what you do. They simply haven't lived long enough. It's not
their fault but they're being fed a bunch of garbage in school
and don't be afraid to tell them that they're wrong.
Don't go the Oprah route and say gotta be friends with my
parents, my kids and foremost. Understand they're going to hate
you for a while and they're going to rebel against you and some
day they're going to think you're the smartest person they ever
met. But you owe them the truth. You owe them the truth about
things. You owe them the truth about morality. You owe them the
truth about values. You owe them the truth about politics. Next
thing, we've got to stop treating voters as children. Somebody
says they want something that's bad for them, do you give it to
them just to be nice? Or do you tell them, regardless of
their age, no, you shouldn't have that? Well, it's none of
your business. Maybe not. And then you back out of it. But you
still have to have the ability to tell people what's right and
wrong. And that's not authoritative. That's not authoritarian.
And it's not trying to deny somebody a good time. It's not
trying to interrupt somebody's hedonism, pleasure, it's about
all of us with shared values trying to make sure that people
live the highest quality lives they can. Ultimately it's their
decision as to what they do. But the point is don't treat
them like especially voters as kids just -- they say they want
it okay we'll come up with a plan to give it to you.
Have any of you see the movie -- I'd never heard of it, but I
happened to get a DVD the other day. Anybody see the movie Swing
Vote with Kevin Costner? You know, it's kind of a moronic
movie like most things out of Hollywood are. But this is
fascinating in the way -- tell you a short story, because a
voter screw up in New Mexico there's one voter who is going to
elect the president. His vote didn't count because his daughter
voted for him. I won't give the whole story away. But Mexico's
electoral votes, New Mexico's electoral votes determined. And
they have a two-week period before this guy can vote again. So
the challenger and the president both relocate to where this guy
lives in New Mexico and they end up like the Democrat played by
Dennis Hopper stands for antiabortion. The Democrat candidate
comes out with a commercial for life. The Republican candidate
comes out, because this guy is an idiot and doesn't know what he
believes, and every utterance that he makes these politicians
react to it throwing their principles on the floor, just to get
his vote. Sadly, this is what some of the conservative
intellectuals in our movement want to do, essentially. And that
we cannot do. We've got to stand for what we believe and treat
people as adults and understand they can learn. Go optimism.
Joe Biden, ladies and gentlemen, was watching CBS -- when did you start here? Thursday. You might have seen this. The days run together. It might have been Wednesday, but Biden was on the CBS early show. And he was asked -- the anchorette -- sorry. I'm trying to change my ways. I've been doing women summit programs so not to offend women. The anchor, Maggie Rodriguez, went out and got some man on the street questions. And one guy, woman, I think question for Biden. What is in the stimulus package for small business? Biden was clearly stumped because there isn't anything in the stimulus package for small business. So what Biden said, honest to God, what Biden said was: Well, if there's a bridge to your small business, we're going to make sure that bridge stays open so that you can get to your small business and your customers -- honest. I kid you not. Now, of course, the media today is a bunch of hacks they're out there as PR agents they're starting to get a little embarrassed. Maggie Rodriguez says Senator Biden there's a website that answers all these questions. What is the name of the website and Biden says I don't know. He looks off stage. "Does somebody have the website number?" I realize those of you watching at home during my first address to the nation, you have never heard liberal Democrats be made fun of in this way. Get used to it.
Two other things and we'll get out of here contractually over time. The president's stimulus package, the TARP, the whatever, the budget, relies on one thing for its success. Well, aside from authoritarian government power. It relies on the complacency of the American people. It relies on their belief that they can convince the American people that there's such a crisis that the only government, the only entity that can fix its government, as Obama has said. So they get complacent and they sit around and they wait. See, this is something liberals will never understand about the United States of America and it's right under their noses, right in front of their faces, we are a competitive people. We strive, enough of us do, to be the best. We strive to win. We strive to avoid defeat. Enough of us still do. Don't believe otherwise. The liberals have made efforts to shut that aspect of our nature down. Wherever you live, I am certain that you, when you were a child or your kids today in youth sports are told not to keep score, because the losers, it's just not fair. They'd be humiliated especially if one girl's basketball team can defeat another one 100 to nothing. And let's fire the coach who put that game together. It's so unfair. So let's not keep score. Well, here's the dirty little secret. The kids are keeping score. You know they are. They don't want to lose. They know what winning and losing is. They're saying, well why go out there and put on the pads and play football or T ball if the objective here is to not keep score. So they're keeping score. They get in the car with mom and dad and they tell mom and dad: Yeah, we kicked their butts tonight. Wait a minute, I thought you weren't keeping score. They weren't officially. They keep score. We're competitive people. Adults are doing the same thing.
It didn't take long for people to get fired up when they figured out that they're going to be paying mortgages for people who should never have been lent money in the first place for the bogus excuse of maintaining property values in the neighborhood. This is something that -- the complacency of the American people is something they're going to rely on along with their authoritarian efforts to control it. But they will not succeed at this. Because we're not quitters. We don't acquiesce. We're not going to give up the American dream and watch idly while it is restructured and transformed.
As I say, we want the best: Happiness for everybody. Now, about my still to me mysteriously controversial comment that I hope President Obama fails. I was watching the Super Bowl. And as you know, I love the Pittsburgh Steelers. So they have this miraculous scoring drive that puts them up by 4. 15 seconds left. Kurt Warner on the field for the Cardinals. And I sure as heck want you to know I hope he failed. I did not want the Cardinals to win. I wanted Warner to make the biggest fool of himself possible. I wanted a sack, I wanted anything. I wanted the Steelers to win. I wanted to win. I wanted the Cardinals to fail.
This notion that I want the President to fail, folks, this shows
you a sign of the problem we've got. That's nothing more than
common sense and to not be able to say it, why in the world do I
want what we just described, rampant government growth
indebtedness, wealth that's not even being created yet that is
being spent, what is in this? What possibly is in this that
anybody of us want to succeed? Did the Democrats want the war on
Iraq to fail?!
They certainly did. They not only wanted the war in Iraq to
fail, they proclaimed it a failure. There's Dingy Harry Reid
waiving a white flag: [Harry Reid impression] This war is lost.
This war is -- They called General Petraeus a liar before he
even testified. Mrs. Clinton -- said she had to, willingly
suspend disbelief in order to listen to Petraeus. We're in the
process of winning the war. The last thing they wanted was to
win. They hoped George Bush failed. So what is so strange about
being honest to say that I want Barack Obama to fail if his
mission is to restructure and reform this country so that
capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why
would I want that to succeed?
Let me add a caveat here. My friends, I know what's going on. I know what's going on. We're in the aspects here of an historic presidency. I know that. But let me be honest again. I got over the historical aspects of this in November. President Obama is our president. President Obama stands for certain things. I don't care, he could be a Martian. He could be from Michigan, I don't know -- just kidding. Doesn't matter to me what his race is. It doesn't matter. He's liberal is what matters to me. And his articulated -- his articulated plans scare me. Now, I understand we can't say we want the President to fail, Mr. Limbaugh. That's like saying -- this is the voice of the New Castrati, by the way, guys who have lost their guts. You can't say Mr. Limbaugh that you want the President to fail because that's like saying you want the country to fail. It's the opposite. I want the country to survive. I want the country to succeed.
I want the country to survive as we have known it, as you and I
were raised in it, is what I mean. Now, I have been called --
and I can take it. Pioneers take the arrows, I don't mind what
anybody says about me, any time ever. I don't have time for it.
I don't give other people the power to offend me. And you
shouldn't either. By the wasted time being offended.
I mean, there's some people you can't say you want the President
to fail. Ladies and gentlemen of the United States, the Democrat
Party has actively not just sought the failure of Republican
presidents and policies and now wars for the first time, the
Democrat Party doesn't stop at failure. Talk to Judge Robert
Bork or Justice Clarence Thomas about how they tried to destroy
lives, reputations and character, and I'm supposed to say I
don't want the President to fail? We're in for a real battle. We
are talking about the United States of America -- and there will
always be an America, don't misunderstand me -- we're talking
about it remaining the country we were all born into and reared
and grown into. And it's under assault. It's always under
assault. But it's never been under assault like this from within
before. And it's a serious, serious battle.
So as you leave here, as you leave here optimism, confidence,
not guilt, it's not worth it. There's nothing to be guilty
about. Don't treat people as children. Respect their
intelligence. Realize that there's a way to persuade people.
Sometimes the worst way is to get in their face and point a
finger. Set up a set of circumstances where the conclusion is
obvious. Let them think they came up with the idea themselves.
They'll think they're smart that they figured it out. Who cares
how you persuade them, the fact they can be persuaded is
factually correct, it's possible. But the main thing to do here
is stop thinking that we are a minority. Stop thinking that it
is being in the minority that liberates you. It is your beliefs.
It is your core principles, it is your confidence that liberates
you. It's not being in the minority.
In fact, for those of you watching my first national address and
still hanging in there, we really are not that happy about being
a minority and we're out to change it. So I have -- I've gone
over my allotted time by an hour.
I want to thank all of you so much for everything that you have
meant to me and my family in my life.
I understand it's mutual. And I hear people -- you have made my heart grow so much that it barely fits in my chest cavity here tonight. But the things that by virtue of your listening to my radio show and being active in this movement that we all cherish and love, you have meant more to me, my family and my life than whatever it is I might mean to you, even though I know that's considerable. You still can't outdo the absolute joy and awe and thanks I feel for all of you. I've been doing this for 20 years and the numbers just keep growing. And I can't tell you how appreciative I am and proud to be in a movement with the same passions, desires and core beliefs that all of you have, because we know that it's right for the country, and we know it's right for people. It's not something that has to be forced on them. It's not something that has to be authoritatively pressed on them. We are what is, and that's why we are an enemy because we're effective. The people that do want control look at us as the enemy. We're always going to be -- don't ever measure your success by how many Drive-By Media reports you see that are fair to us. Never going to happen. Don't measure your success by how many people like you. Just worry about how they vote. And then at the end of the day how they live but that's really none of your business once they close the doors.
Thank you all very much. It's been great.
Book/CDs by Michael E. Eidenmuller, Published by McGraw-Hill (2008)
Also in this database: New Gingrich - Address to the Conservative Political Action Committee
Text Source: RushLimbaugh.com
Audio Source: C-SPAN.org
Page Updated: 10/2/21
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