LM#42--Tribute To Rush Limbaugh

Greetings, thrill seekers, music lovers, conversationists, all across the food to plane. This is America's Anchorman, the doctor of democracy, your own little lovable fuzzball, the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-caring, all-feeling Maharashi, having more fun than the human being should be allowed to have with talent on loan from God, with half of my brain tied behind my back. Just just to make it fair. Now, obviously, folks, I am not the aforementioned Rush Limbaugh, as you can tell from my voice. But I want to start this tribute to the great Maharashi because tomorrow, january 12th 2024, rush would have been 73 years old. He died February 17th 2021 after battling advanced lung cancer, and so I thought, for today's Liberty Minute, in the middle of the week, we would honor that great American, the greatest radio broadcaster of all time, and to do this, we're gonna pull quotes from an excellent book titled Radio's Greatest of All Time, rush Limbaugh, and this book is a wonderful collection of Rush's callers and transcripts of those calls and various segments that Rush did over his 30 years on the radio. And to give us some context, here's what Amazon describes as the book it's a collection of Rush Limbaugh's greatest on-air moments, with special commentary and personal stories from his beloved widow, catherine Limbaugh, and his brother, david Limbaugh. So for more than 30 years, millions of listeners tuned in to hear Rush Limbaugh's voice. At its peak, the Rush Limbaugh show aired on more than 650 radio stations nationwide, and his intimidable commentary and distinctive sense of humor garnered a devoted audience that celebrated with him when he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2020. So this book is wonderful and it features tons of commentary from loved ones, family, friends, prominent figures. We get endorsements from Justice Clarence Thomas, governor DeSantis, president Trump, obviously, who gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, and also we get an endorsement of President Reagan, before Alzheimer's began to take over his life. So, with that brief inner overview, let's let me share with you why we're doing this tribute to the great Rush Limbaugh. Because for me, outside of my parents, rush was the first person who instilled a sense of patriotism, and he taught me what it meant for some of our founding principles, and the first of these was something that he taught that I never forgot American exceptionalism. Now, what is American exceptionalism and what? What's the definition of it? This was a new idea to me. I had not heard of it before. You don't cover American exceptionalism in school, especially public school. So when I first started listening to him. Occasionally he would bring it up, and here in this book we have a wonderful transcript of one of those segments. Let's go to the book. Rush believed with the core of his being that we are all extremely fortunate to be Americans and to live in the greatest country on earth. He recognized that our country is flaws and our history is not perfect. However, he knew that, with our eternal optimism for the future, we will always be striving toward a more perfect union. And here's a transcript of his mission statement life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This happened on the Rushland Ball Show February 17, 2010. Here we go. Hello, my friends. It's very simple and I have used this phrase consistently over the course of my 20 plus years behind the Golden EIB microphone. What I believe has made the country great, and I have addressed this, and when I do my rare, overwhelmingly popular public experiences, I challenge the audience to think about something. Do you ever wonder how it is and why it became so that a population, at one time, of less than 300 million people created the highest standard of living, progress, economic, political, education? By any standard you want to measure, the United States of America has been the greatest collection or population of human beings in the history of the world. There have been civilizations, countries and populations long before us that were the trademark of their day, their standard bearers of their day. They can't compare to us and they've been around for thousands of years. Now. What was it? What is it? What is it that makes 300 million people special? Our DNA is no different than the Chai Khoms DNA I'm talking about in terms of humanity. Our DNA is no different than any other human being anywhere on earth or who has ever been on earth. What is it about this 200, 300 million people that have created by far there is no comparison the greatest country and collection of human beings on the face of the earth for good? We feed the world, we relieve the world, we repair the world, we defend the world. We have liberated hundreds of millions of people who have lived in bondage and slavery. What is it about us? We're not born special in terms of our DNA. What is it? I've asked people this. I've asked people to think about this, because I don't think they do. And here we go. This is part and parcel of what I call American exceptionalism. That is American exceptionalism. It's not that we're better people. It's not that we're smarter, it's not that we have the advantage because of our geography, because clearly we don't. So what is it that sets us apart? There's one answer. It's found in our declaration of independence, quote we are endowed by our Creator. So we acknowledge God as a country. When we were founded, we acknowledged God as a country and that we were all created. We are endowed by our Creator with certain and alienable rights, undeniable. They're just there and they come from the Creator. Among them, but not just life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That's pretty simple to me. There's those three things the acknowledgement of our creation by God, a loving God, that our spirit has this natural yearning to be free and to be happy, and there's nothing wrong with either of those. There's nothing wrong with being created, nothing wrong with being happy or trying to be, and there's certainly nothing wrong with living. It was that codification that made one crucial thing possible, and that is for the ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. Not the smartest, not the brightest, not the well-born, not the richest ordinary people. This is a nation that became the greatest nation in human history. In however many hundreds of thousands, billions, whatever years you want to say. We've been plotting on the earth because of ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things, made possible by the fact that our country was founded. Acknowledging that our freedom comes from God, not from the government, not from some other man or some other woman, does not come from a demagogue, does not come from somebody promising to take care of us. It inspired people to produce, to take care of themselves and anybody else that needed it in their community, via the church or whatever neighborhood organization they happened to belong to. That's all been lost. Too many people think that without government doing the right things we can't succeed, and the government, when run by people like they're running it now, gets in the way. It makes it impossible for ordinary people to do extraordinary things. I know that was a long quote, but, wow, just a wonderful explanation of what American exceptionalism is. It's very hard to define, define, but it does separate us from every other country in the world. We are exceptional country, despite what the propaganda for the last 25 to 50 years has projected upon us. We'll have to keep cutting away the brush to get to that shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan talked about and restored during his presidency. Now, one of the core tenants of why I'm a conservative is that I believe you can deter people, aggressive people, by making yourself strong and by projecting strength as a deterrent. It's human nature. It's human nature. The criminals will pick up on the easiest targets they can find in regular civil society. If you remove those suffering from mental illness, or the unstable, or those evil doers who are bent on committing evil acts all the time, which is not the majority of us, but just a small minority of us If you remove those segments from our population, for the most part, the rest of us make civil society function quite well. We respect each other. We resolve disputes not with violence but through the role of law. And when we don't have that role of law, when we don't have order, when no one is respecting the role of law, that is when things begin to break down. And you look around, you can see this happening all over the place, most especially in liberal cities for the last 15 to 20 years. Thank you, george Soros. So the very same thing happens with countries around the world. Now President Ronald Reagan understood this and he developed the foreign policy strategy around this very notion. He called it peace through strength. In fact, the Reagan doctrine of peace through strength made this strategy a very successful foreign policy mandate. It was certainly better than De Ton. Sorry, mr Kissinger, the author of De Ton or the principal advocate of it, may you rest in peace. But De Ton was an inadequate foreign policy strategy. The doctrine frankly didn't work. But for peace through strength to work, you have to have the military second to none. And we have to understand and appreciate our freedom as a nation, because our freedom is the very essence, the very core virtue that threatens the evil people all around the world who seek to do us harm and who seek to rule over others. They're drunk with power and as a country we have to have a moral compass to know when to intervene for our own personal security and when to leave things alone. We cannot be policemen around the world, but in fact, let's hear from Rush on why our military, our heroes, our true heroes, why they are in fact the greatest force for peace in the world. This country, without any question this, ladies and gentlemen, is inarguable United States of America is the greatest moral force in the world. We not only eliminated slavery in our own borders, we defeated mass murders in the Third Reich and Pyrrhal, japan, the Soviet Union and thousands of other places. In fact, the most significant human force against evil in the world is our country, the United States of America. The American left does not think so. There is not another group of people in the history of this earth, living together as a nation, that have done more for the moral rectitude of the world, for the moral ability of nations to treat citizens properly. There is no nation that has done more to rid the world of evil. Here's another quote that he's talking about in the chapter, chapter six, title peace through strength. The older I get, I am more and more in awe of the people in our military and I'm just indescribably in awe of the founding of America. The miracle for everything that happened just to take place at the right time when it did. I think it is a miracle and I think we're blessed. And what about that second leg of the Reagan doctrine of peace through strength our freedom? Let's hear from the great Maharashe Rush Limbaugh, radio's greatest broadcaster of all time. Let's hear what he had to say about that. Most of the world's leaders are tyrants. There's another reason that we are special and why we are so hell bent opposed to and frightened by tyrants. We don't want dictators, which is what most people live under. Most people were born into tyranny and bondage and dictatorship and most to this day are still subject to it in one way or another or in many ways. Those people, the tyrants and the dictators and many others who seek to run and rule countries, do not want free people. Do you think Fidel Castro wants his people to be free? Do you think Raul Castro wants his people to be free? Do you think Stalin, old Joe, wanted his people to be free? Or Lenin? Do you think Hitler wanted his people to be free? How about the Chai Khoms? Do you really think they want their people to be free? No, they want to be controlled. The leaders in these tyranny is a dictatorship's do very well economically. They're literally thieves. They plunder and steal the national wealth of the countries. They lead A lot of. The Castro's, the Soviet leaders. Look at the oligarchs, even there today, putin and his buddies. The thing that stands in the way of that is a free people and a runaway economy, a growing economy with prosperity for all. That's again what explains, illustrates and defines the specialness or the uniqueness of the United States of America, and it really is a rarity. My question was of all the leaders that I'm talking about, these tyrants and dictators. If you listen to them, what are the names of their countries? The People's Republic of whatever? The people don't have a say in anything in these countries. The leaders who claim to be for the little guy, who claim to be for the oppressed, to care for the oppressed, who claim they're even gonna get with the rich, claim they're gonna get even with those who have their jack booted thugs on the necks of the little guy. They don't mean it. If they did, they would be trying to emulate the United States. They would attempt to seek the stature and credit one would attain from founding and establishing and leading such a nation, such a prosperous nation. But that's not who these people are. They're dictators, they're tyrants. They roll by the use of force and intimidation and imprisonment. That is the story for most of the people in the world and in light of that fact, it infuriates me even more when I have to listen to people, both in this country and visitors to this country, who blame us, the United States of America, for the problems in the world. Amen, amen, radon, radon, as the great Maharash used to say, haba, haba. So when we combine our economic freedom with our moral freedom, and we share that with the world. That's a powerful combination and we saw the fruit of that with President Trump signing those historic Middle East peace deals what is known as the Abraham Accords, which were bilateral agreements between Arab nations and Israel, and Israel got the first of those signed in September, september 15, 2020, with Bahrain in Israel, and then the UAE on the same day I'm sorry, on December no, it was on the same day. Bahrain in the United Arab Emirates was on the same day, september 15th. Then we have Morocco on December 22nd of 2020, and then the Sudan of all places, place where Osama bin Laden came out of in 1997, 98. So, with those four historic peace deals and normalization with Israel, the United States brokered that with their moral authority and their economic freedom. Now, this is by far one of the most successful foreign policies in the last 50 years or longer. It was certainly by far one of Trump's most successful aspects of his presidency. No president in modern American history, at least going back to the 1950s, had as successful four years in foreign policy as Donald Trump did. It's not even close, and that, frankly, is coming from someone who will not vote for him in the primary for a host of other reasons. So I'm not a cultist for Trump or a sycophant. I'm just spitting facts because of where the evidence leads, and I think that the great Rush Limbaugh would do the same Now for me. Rush Limbaugh was my first educator that taught me why America was and is great. He explained there's founding principles to me and to help me understand why this is still the greatest country in the world that ever existed. One last item that Rush really helped me to understand is why Ronald Reagan was in fact one of our top five greatest presidents in the history of our country. Top five because certainly Lincoln is our first. I don't think there's any argument anymore. Some people put Washington, but I have to put Lincoln first. Washington had a lot of help from other founding fathers. Lincoln had nobody. Lincoln was just there with I mean, even his cabinet was constantly bickering among themselves. Lincoln literally had nobody. He didn't have a general to fight for the better first half of the Civil War, for all of 61, all of 62. Then you get Meade in 63. Wins at Gettysburg just most pivotal of all battles and then doesn't want to pursue Robert Lee. So Lincoln has to be number one and slavery, keeps the country intact, puts it back together. Washington certainly is our second president. Most historians are going to say FDR is third. I have some disputes but we'll save that for later. But once you get past those three, you know people putting up Andrew Jackson come on nope. Jefferson, eh, not really that successful for presidency. Certainly as a founding father. Certainly did great things. Author of the declaration certainly big stuff there. Ike Dwight D Eisenhower certainly not JFK, that's just people who don't even look at his presidency. He was just well liked as a person. Obama pretty much the same thing, and we'll definitely have to talk about that one later. We're finally starting to get people writing books that are balanced. Historical assessments of the Obama presidency Usually takes historians about 10 years. That's the timeline after their last term. You know real books didn't come out about Reagan's for eight years, until 1998. Until after, you know the presidency is over in 1998. So for Obama we've been waiting 2016. We're probably going to have to wait until 2026, but we're starting to get a peak coming up on the eight year mark. But Reagan is certainly in that top five greatest presidents for sure, and Rush Limbaugh helped me to understand that. I grew up with Reagan in the White House. Now, sadly, my first time in that I could vote was for Bush 41, but man, I really wanted to have that first vote to be for Ronald Reagan. Now we're going to certainly study more about Reagan later in this podcast, but not on today's episode. But for now let's hear from Rush on Ronald Reagan and why he was Uber important for this country. And here's Rush from the Rush Limbaugh show, june 7th 2004, talking and remembering President Ronald Reagan. He was optimistic and happy. He was infectious. He dared to embrace big ideas. He dared to do big things, to overcome huge obstacles, in the midst of all kinds of experts telling him that it couldn't be done, in the midst of all kinds of criticism, in the midst of all kinds of personal insults. Along came Ronald Reagan. And there was no doom and gloom in Ronald Reagan. He was the optimist, eternally so shining city on a hill. He would have none of this doom and gloom. He rejected Washington elitism and he had, since 1964 and before, talk about core values, talk about sticking to them. He rejected Washington elitism and connected directly with the American people who adored him. He didn't need the press. He didn't need the press to be able to spin what he was or what he said. He had the ability to connect individually with each American who saw him, and that is an incredible I don't even want to say talent. It's a characteristic that so few Americans have, so few people have, but he was able to do it. He brought confidence, he brought vigor, he brought humility to the presidency, which had been missing for years, and this profoundly upset his political and media adversaries to no end, and Reagan enjoyed that. Ronald Reagan rejected socialism. He rejected big government. He insisted on returning as much government back to the people as was possible. He cut taxes so deeply that even some on his own staff became disbelievers and wrote books about it. They were wrong and he was right. Our lives today are a testament to how right Ronald Reagan was. This has been the staple of this program since its inception in 1998. The 84 in Sacramento, my adopted hometown, that is that. You are the ones that make this country great. I'm trying to celebrate Reagan. Reagan knew because of his unbridled love for the American people, coupled with our God given freedom, our natural yearning to be free. Reagan knew that. He knew that all he had to do was unleash that, and it was Katie Bar the doors, and he was right. He was right then and he's right today. He'll be right for as long as there is an America. Those who choose to follow his footsteps will also be right. Those who choose to follow his footsteps will experience the optimism and the good cheer and the love of the country that he always had, and there will be many who will carry on his tradition, and I'm honored to be one of them. I would not be sitting here where it not for Ronald Reagan, and I never met him. What a great tribute to our 40th president in the United States, ronald Reagan, by the great Maharashi Rush Limbo, who we are giving a tribute to today. Now, on page 52, we have President Ronald Reagan on December 11th 1992, sending Rush a simple letter, and I wanna read it from the desk of Ronald Reagan Dear Rush, thanks for all you are doing to promote Republican and conservative principles. Now that I've retired from active politics, I don't mind that you have become the number one voice for conservatism in our country. I know the liberals call you the most dangerous man in America, but don't worry about it. They used to say the same thing about me. Keep up the good work. America needs to hear the way things ought to be. Sincerely, ron. What a wonderful endorsement from one of the greatest presidents in this country's history. And we're gonna turn now to another tribute written to Rush after his passing by one of the Supreme Court's greatest justices to ever have served, justice Clarence Thomas. Let's go to that tribute. Rush was a fabulous man and a wonderful friend. Rush embodied the American dream. In those early years he reinvigorated the AM radio stations across the country and it was fun to listen to him as he added station after station. The first I've heard of Rush when the first I first. Let me correct this I first heard of Rush when I arrived at the court I received hundreds and hundreds of letters. One of those letters asked me whether Rush Limbaugh was a friend of mine, since he spent so much time on his radio show defending me and supporting me. I had not heard of him. During the following summer, a friend of ours, a very dear friend of ours, brought her radio to me as I rested and said I should listen to him. I started listening to Rush and I would listen regularly to him for the next quarter of a century. He became a very, very important part of my life. It's probably hard to think of those years now and remember them, but those were very difficult years for my wife and for me. I often think of those years as a dark night of soul, but Rush was that beacon of hope, that beacon of light that brought joy. Days would be dismal or difficult and I would listen to him and the music and his jokes and his upbeat attitude, even about serious things, and it would change my attitude, it would sort of help me through it. He treated others and I watched him around people who worked in restaurants, who worked around him. He treated them the way he would want to be treated if he were in their position and the maximum do unto others as you would have them do unto you. He was an honorable and a good man. When he gave you his word, he kept his word. What a wonderful tribute by Justice Clarence Thomas. And we have what Rush Limbaugh thought about that justice. Here's a quote from him. What a God send for the court and for America. Clarence Thomas has been Not just has been but is. His legal mind and his brilliance are on display with every opinion he writes or concurs with or descents from. He is a genuine treasure. And just one last tribute I'd love to share with you comes to us from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was Rush Limbaugh's governor for his time when he lived, when he was governor. Rush obviously lives in West Palm Beach, so let's go right to Governor Ron DeSantis's tribute in the front of this book. Rush Limbaugh, in my judgment, is one of the top five conservatives of the past 75 years. I would put him in the same league as William F Buckley, clarence Thomas, ronald Reagan and Antonin Scalia. Rush had a profound influence on tens of millions of Americans and I always joked with Rush Rush, please give me a degree from the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies so I can hang it in my office in the governor's mansion. Rush said that learning never stops, and so that wasn't something he could do, but he did say I'm the closest thing that he ever had to an honorary member Very high praise from the great Maharashi. But I can tell you that Rush had a huge impact on conservatism and on our country. I was very proud to be governor of the state that was home to Rush Limbaugh. We're gonna miss him dearly, and we do. There's gonna be someone that will ultimately succeed him at 12 o'clock on the most listened to radio show ever and that person at that hour. But there is no one that can ever replace him. God bless the memory of Rush Limbaugh, a great American and the greatest broadcaster that ever lived. And so in today's tribute to Rush Limbaugh, america lost one of her best and greatest patriots, but Rush's beliefs and the founding principles of this country will indeed live on for eternity, because he taught us those founding principles and, as one of his listeners for those many decades, the greatest tribute we can offer is to follow his torch. It was really the torch of America. It was really that torch the statue of Liberty holds high. So we're gonna conclude this tribute. We're gonna conclude with the final words of his brother, david Limbaugh. Rush will forever be radio's greatest of all time the goat. His timeless words and passion for our country will always fill our hearts with pride. He dedicated his life to challenging us all to think about the vital issues that affect the future of our country and how we must never let go of the principles enshrined in our declaration of independence, constitution and bill of rights. We must always remember our country is miraculous, regardless of our shortcomings. Rush was truly an irreplaceable pioneer who paved the way for so many future broadcasters and conservative talk programs. He was also a life coach of sorts for countless Americans. Over the years he encouraged his audience to find their personal passions and to never let obstacles hold them back. He pushed each of them to be the best they could be, to dream, discover what they love and pursue it with passion and reject naysayers in their lives. He inspired them to open small businesses, engage in politics and support their communities. We have received thousands of messages from grateful fans sharing that he changed their lives. What a blessing to read these stories. Rush was an extraordinary man with the greatest gift in broadcasting the world has ever known. As a fearless champion of liberty, he changed America forever. He was taken from us too soon and will miss him profoundly, but his legacy lives on. We will carry on the Rush Limbaugh legacy through many efforts, including the Rush and Catherine Adams Limbaugh Family Foundation, where scholarships will be provided to young patriots to continue their education and to families facing hardship brought on by a medical crisis. We also continue to support owners of small businesses and the United States military through our new website, theofficialrushlimbaughcom. Let's honor Rush by remaining committed to this great nation and doing everything we can to preserve our God-given rights and our precious liberties. Let's carry his torch in this never-ending struggle and do all we can to ensure that the miracle of our founding is never forgotten. Until we all meet again, may Rush remain our guiding light as Heaven's Anchorman. Remember it's never time to panic. Life will go on and our best days are ahead.

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