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Dec. 20, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:57
December 20, 2013, Friday, Hour #1
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Time Text
Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
Well, thank you very much.
Wow, I'm excited to be here.
I am Eric Erickson.
Yeah, if it makes you feel more comfortable, call me Mark Markson.
I did ask if I needed to change my name to Mark to come on the program.
Everyone here is very, very confused.
They've been coming around asking me, is it true?
You're not now today.
Yeah.
Yes, it is.
Open line Friday.
So I'm getting used to all of this.
Okay, so welcome to the program.
I am Eric Erickson.
For those of you in Rio Linda, if you're having trouble understanding things, this is called a Southern accent.
It's a Southern American accent, not Southern Canadian.
I have no relation to Stein here.
This actually is a lifelong dream, a total lifelong dream.
The only thing I've ever wanted to do in life, if that's not too pathetic, is to sit behind the golden EIB microphone.
And I am in the Attila the Hun chair.
So life dream fulfilled.
Let's get into the news.
If you haven't heard that Duck Commander, the Duck Dynasty, so they've released a statement on their website.
So Katie Pavlich from Town Hall was telling me that if you're going to buy stuff, buy the Duck Commander material.
Don't buy Duck Dynasty.
Duck Commander goes to them.
See, now, like Rush, I'm not a big, I don't watch Duck Dynasty.
My dad loves the program.
I don't, I've seen two of the programs.
I was held hostage by my family last Easter where they set me in front of the TV and they made me watch.
So I saw one where there was an alligator in the backyard and then the uncle passed gas in an RV.
I think that was all one episode.
You should see the look, Sterling's.
Have you seen the show?
Okay, yeah, see, but I don't really watch it, but everyone else in my family does.
And now we're being made to care about things that some people don't watch.
I mean, God bless them.
Look, I put the fun and fundamentalist.
I'm a Presbyterian, a member of the Frozen Chosen.
So I'm down with the Jesus talk.
I appreciate it.
But I didn't pay attention to the show.
And now suddenly, so they've released the statement, the family spent much time in prayer since learning of A ⁇ E's decision.
We want you to know that first and foremost, we are a family rooted in our faith in God and our belief that the Bible is his word.
Oh, Lord.
Well, I guess I can't say that either.
Now, here's the thing that's going to enrage people.
They say in their statement, we have had a successful working relationship with A ⁇ E, but as a family, we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch.
Right now, there's some woman with hairy legs and Birkenstock saying, I can't believe he said patriarch.
How dare they say patriarch?
More door rally.
You know, seriously, people, they're going to be upset now for Patriarch.
You know, they've shifted.
They've shifted from the, it was all about what he said about homosexuality to now what he said about the civil rights era that they've got all sorts of stories out there.
Basically, they don't like the guy because he represents a part of America that's not within 25 miles of the coast.
Oh, he said he picked cotton back then, too, and he didn't hear anybody complaining about Whitey and everybody seemed happy and godly.
And only now, I'm not going to get in trouble by parrying.
I mean, he paraphrased the Bible and got in trouble.
I'm not going to paraphrase him because that would be like two steps removed.
I mean, they'd be marching to the building and burning it down.
So I'll stay away from it.
So, okay, here's what's going on.
Let's be honest here.
I say all the time, you will be made to care.
You will be made to care about these things.
Evil preaches tolerance until it's dominant and then it seeks to silence good.
Back during the 80s, you had that Robert Maplethorpe or whoever, you know, the photographer.
He photographed himself.
It was a wonderful, salacious display.
He photographed himself with a bullwhip stuck up the part of the body that Phil Robertson says is unattractive.
And he put it on display in museums around the country with bondage and sadomasochistic paintings.
I'm sorry if there are kids listening right now.
My own kids are listening right now.
And then, well, he did pictures of people.
I'm aware that there are kids listening right now.
And this is a very difficult subject to talk about with kids.
So he took pictures of people drinking, well, stuff that is supposed to leave your body, not come back.
And the left heralded it.
And when conservatives were upset about it, even though they had NEA money, they said, you just got to be tolerant.
You've just got to be tolerant.
You have to let them do this.
This is art.
And then they had Whatchamadigi, the guy who put the crucifix with Christ in the jar of pee.
And they got an NEA.
He won an award with NEA money.
And when conservatives, when Christians were outraged, they said, you've got to be tolerant.
You've got to be tolerant.
Yes, I don't want to say that on air, though.
I don't want to say what it's called.
So yes, yes, Christ in the jar with bodily fluids.
And I don't want to say that.
And the left told us we had to be tolerant.
They said that we had to accept it.
And then, you know, just a few years ago, you people here in New York, yes, we're in New York today.
I can feel my soul being sucked away from me by the dementors of the city.
They had Mary painted with dung and drawn with pictures of pornography.
Rudy Giuliani was all upset.
Rudy Giuliani said it was terrible.
Rudy wanted to take the money back from the Brooklyn Museum and they mocked and ridiculed Rudy Giuliani.
You're trampling on their First Amendment rights, they said.
Be tolerant, they said.
So Phil Robertson opens his mouth to GQ.
And the people who for 30 years have told us we had to be open-minded and tolerant, confronted with a dissenting opinion in GQ.
So, oh, shut it down.
Turn it off.
Get him out of here.
Burn him.
Burn him at the stake.
These people, they don't want tolerance.
They don't want you.
They want you silenced.
Evil preaches tolerance until it's dominant, and then it seeks to silence good.
That's what's happening here.
They don't want the dissenting.
The left tells us all the time to have an open mind.
Be open, be tolerant.
Well, the moment you fill your mind with something that is not what they want it filled with, then you got to go.
You got to get off the stage.
You can't have the stage.
Look, as Rush said yesterday, A ⁇ E can do whatever they want to do.
It is, it's A ⁇ E's right.
They don't have to show the show any more than you have to watch A ⁇ E. You can change the channel.
They can change the show.
And the rules of the freedom.
This is 14 million people.
The staggering thing is that around the world today, there are 3 billion people who agree with Phil Robertson at a minimum.
When you look at the number of Christians out there, there was a poll Byron York I saw he put on Twitter yesterday that 76 to 78% of evangelical Christians agree with Phil Robertson.
79% of black Protestants agree with Phil Robertson.
Now, only 33% of people who self-identify as Catholic do.
That's another issue.
But a large swath of this country agrees with Phil Robertson.
But the left can't be confronted with these things.
And then they always go out and they hand ring and they say, we need to have a dialogue.
We need to talk and sing kumbaya together.
And we need to have a dialogue about diversity.
They don't want a dialogue.
These people profit from this.
It's the same thing like the race paiders out there who they go around and they call everybody racist.
They've got no intention of getting racism out of this country.
They've got no intention of fixing race in this country, of healing old wounds in this country because they benefit from keeping those wounds open.
Every time they have a scab, they've got to scratch the scab off and let the wound keep festering.
Same with these people.
They profit from this.
They profit from the division.
They don't want the division healed.
They don't want tolerance.
Look, you've got a baker in Colorado.
They're putting out a business because he didn't want to bake a cake for a gay marriage.
You've got a photographer in New Mexico.
They're putting out a business because their religious beliefs dictated they shouldn't be providing photos for a gay marriage.
You got another baker in Washington State.
The same thing is happening.
New Jersey just refused.
The New Jersey State Senate just refused to consider legislation on gay marriage in the state because it had religious exemptions.
And the gay rights activists in New Jersey, they didn't want any religious exemptions in the bill.
They said the state Supreme Court in New Jersey had legalized gay marriage, and they were happy to have the state legislature codify it in the law, but not as long as it had religious exemptions.
They are coming for you people.
And some of you think you can sit on the sidelines.
This is the problem with the culture war.
Forget freedom of religion.
Forget whether you even agree with Phil Robertson.
Many of you probably don't agree with Phil Robertson.
That's okay.
Forget about all that.
What's happening here is the left is telling you you will be made to care.
You cannot sit on the sidelines anymore.
I don't watch Duck Dynasty.
Here, my very first day behind the golden EIB microphone in the Attila the Huncher.
I am forced to talk about a show I don't even really watch because the left is making me care.
The left is trying to silence dissent.
The left is trying to silence other people.
You can think you can sit on the sidelines.
You can think you can watch ESPN all day long, but my God, have you seen that just the political correctness in ESPN?
I mean, even in sports, they're bringing in the political correctness.
Even in sports, I mean, it should be about width.
But I mean, it's only a matter of time before these people don't even let the NFL keep score anymore.
I mean, they won't let the kids at home keep score.
Well, Tony Romo, he actually won the game because we didn't keep score.
I just, not to get painful for those of you who are fans out there, I heard Snerdley complaining earlier.
It's true, though.
You will not be allowed to sit on the sidelines.
You may think you can sit on the sidelines.
You may think you can sit this out.
But the popular culture that praises Miley Cyrus and fires Phil Robertson is a popular culture that won't let you sit on the sidelines.
They will not do it.
Meanwhile, in Africa, 207 Christians killed in a Muslim uprising in Nigeria.
The left wants you to pay attention to Phil Robertson.
They don't want to make you pay attention to that.
They don't want you to talk about the real Christmas.
Lord have mercy.
Pretty soon we'll all be on winter holiday.
Because the left, it is anathema to them that people can believe anything.
The left's doctrine, truly, in secular America, you can believe in nothing because then you can believe everything.
Welcome back.
It is Eric Erickson.
Now, if it makes you feel more comfortable, I'm serious.
You can call me Mark Markson.
Everybody texting me to slow down.
Now, this may confuse all of you.
I am from Georgia.
I'm a native of Louisiana, but I talk like I'm from New York.
Sometimes I move a little fast.
You do have to keep up, but I'll try to slow down.
My mother is texting me.
It's only a matter of moments before my mother-in-law texts me to stop talking like a Yankee.
I will go slow for you people.
Try to keep up, though.
So this Duck Dynasty thing, I do want to move on, by the way.
If you haven't heard about the Obama administration, Ted Cruz is apparently president of the United States.
We've got to get into that.
Ted Cruz says we need to give exemptions to people.
What does Barack Obama do?
He gives people exemptions, except he does it all wrong.
Maybe we should just put Ted Cruz in there because he apparently would be able to put things together in a way that Barack Obama is incapable of doing.
We've got so much to cover today.
But let me just finish up some thoughts on Duck Dynasty before we get into the rest of the news today.
I do think.
I mean, Rush was right yesterday.
Of course, he's always right.
That Robertson, he's an evangelical Christian.
I mean, he and I were both fundamentalist Christians.
We believe in the fundamentals.
And this was a way for him to, well, share his faith, to glorify God, so to speak, which is one of the things Christians are supposed to do.
So I don't think he cares.
But I also think if you read up on some of his comments about A ⁇ E, that they were getting tired of the way A ⁇ E was doctoring, editing the show.
It wouldn't surprise me if old Phil, see, you people in Rio Linda, you look at a man who looks like Phil Robertson and you think this is a dumb man.
You know, Phil Robertson liked duck hunting so much that he left his college.
He was the quarterback at his college and he gave it up.
He gave up being the quarterback so that he could go duck hunting and a guy named Terry Bradshaw took over as quarterback for his college.
And Phil Robertson is a smart man.
I mean, we people from Louisiana, we may not look like all that in a bag of chips, but we got some brains.
Phil Robertson is a multi-millionaire by making duck calls.
You people along the coast, you see the gray beard and the camouflage, and you're thinking idiot redneck.
It would not surprise me if this man, you're listening to me right now, thinking idiot redneck.
It would not surprise me if Phil, they wanted out of the A ⁇ E contract.
They didn't like the way, Phil at least didn't like the way the show was edited.
Wouldn't surprise me.
He went on GQ and what did he do?
The only controversial thing Phil Robertson did was share his faith.
I mean, he quoted scripture.
And you know the thing that is galling to so many people out there are coastal elites is that what he did is not the what part of the body he prefers.
I mean, you can say that that's crude language or coarse language as the Duck Dynasty was no.
He said, we got to love all sinners, homosexuals, drunks, and terrorists.
That's the thing that made them mad.
Because he listed homosexuality as a sin with drunks and terrorists.
That's what blew their mind.
Because, you know, you're supposed to be born that way.
And being a drunk and being a terrorist is supposed to be a choice.
And so you can't equate them.
Well, the Bible does, and Phil's a Christian.
I'm a Christian.
I mean, if you read that book, you can't pick and choose.
You got to either take all or nothing.
I mean, show me your redacted version of the Bible.
That's all Phil did.
Now, you can disagree with him or not, but here's the thing.
So Time magazine made a guy, person of the year, who agrees with Phil Robertson.
Agrees.
Let me see.
Yes, I have the actual GQR.
How many of the people criticizing Phil haven't even read it?
I have the actual article.
You know, they say he said that being gay is illogical.
No, he didn't.
I'll read you the quote.
Sin.
It's not logical, my man.
It's just not logical.
He's talking about sin.
He's not talking about body parts there.
But here's the part that really gets them.
This is the part that Good Morning America wouldn't cover.
George Stephanie Stephanophilos.
It would offend his soul to have to deal with, be confronted with this, to deal with it.
He said, this is Phil's actual factual quote.
We never ever judge someone on who's going to heaven or hell.
That's the Almighty's job.
We just love them.
Give them the good news about Jesus.
Why, if you had taken the Southern American vernacular out of there, that could be the Pope himself.
Now, Phil didn't rail on capitalism, so I guess there is that.
Maybe if he had, I mean, as Rush said yesterday, throwing in some remarks about capitalism, maybe then they'd be accepting of him too.
But I mean, we never ever judge someone about on who's going to heaven or hell.
That's the Almighty's job.
We just love them.
Give them the good news about Jesus.
Whether they're homosexuals, drunks, terrorists, we let God sort them out later.
You see what I'm saying?
That's called Romans.
That's called the Bible.
I mean, that's not Leviticus.
That's New Testament love.
And the left is all upset about it.
Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there.
Bestiality sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men.
Don't be deceived.
Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers.
They won't inherit the kingdom of God.
Don't deceive yourself.
It's not right.
That's the actual quote.
That's what offended them.
Forget the other stuff, the coarse language stuff, the what body part he likes or doesn't like or that men should like.
If any gay man had said that about straight men, there would be no retribution.
Had Phil stopped there voicing his personal preference, they would have given him a pass.
Well, I disagree with that, but they would have given him a pass.
No, no, no.
It's because they were confronted with scripture.
They were confronted with his beliefs.
They were confronted with the beliefs of millions of Americans, and that made them angry because you're not supposed to talk about that in public anymore.
You're not even allowed to sing Silent Night, Holy Night in elementary school anymore.
You're certainly not allowed to quote the Bible unless it's one of those like verses that the politically correct can latch on to.
It's all about the love.
You who haven't sinned, throw the first stone.
You can quote that one.
Just don't finish up the paragraph.
Go and sin no more.
Can't quote that one.
The standards these people try to hold on to, that they will rewrite everything, the left will.
The left, look, history books, the left has been rewriting our history books for years.
You're more likely to read about what Caesar Chavez in high school now than you are George Washington or Julius Caesar.
They've been rewriting history to prop up their heroes and martyrs and downplay the rest of history.
That doesn't make, I mean, if you read an American history book today under Common Core, all you're going to do is study the victims.
History is the lesson of victimology, according to the left.
These people, they thrive on victimhood.
The real victims here are the people who aren't allowed to speak anymore.
The people who aren't allowed to dissent.
The people whose mind is open, just filled with other things.
Those are the people who have to keep quiet these days.
It's not right, but that's the left for you.
It is Eric Erickson.
And I'm, you know, there's one thing I've always wanted to do in life.
It is fill in behind the golden EIB microphone.
And to say, 1-800-282-2882, I have been wanting to do that since I was 18 years old, people.
Seriously, probably 17.
My dad and I, when I discovered Rush Limbaugh, my dad and I were on our first father-son road trip together.
We were going to look at colleges.
We were going through rural Alabama, outside of Montgomery, Alabama.
We were looking for Paul Harvey, and we found the golden EIB microphone, and we stayed.
And I've been listening ever since.
I would plan college classes.
I'd plan my college schedule around Rush Limbaugh.
I honestly, so this is a huge honor.
And my name really is Eric Erickson.
My buddy Ben Damashi, he was convinced.
We started Red State together, and he was convinced for two years it was a fake name.
No, my name is really Eric Erickson, as is my dad, as is his dad.
We go way back.
We all have different middle names, but there are a lot more than three of us.
Yes, we go all the way back.
Yes.
My grandfather several, several centuries, yes.
Look, because you know, Eric, son of Eric, way back then in Sweden, yes.
My father's Swedish, which is, yes, we are Vikings, yes.
Well, you know, we came to the United States, and in the land of luxury, we got fat, happy, and lazy.
And then my dad married a woman from Louisiana, and I discovered gumbo.
So a gumbo and beer, it was all over from there.
So, yes, I, hey, and now I can make it myself.
So, yes, yes.
So, I actually am Eric Erickson, and I actually speak as fast as I've been speaking.
Everybody says, slow down.
I'm sorry.
It's a habit.
I'm trying to do better on Russia's show.
I have to consider.
See, my show is out of Atlanta.
I'm a Swedish guy from Louisiana who grew up in Dubai, no less.
Yeah, I grew up in Dubai.
Snerdley, people, is so confused right now.
Snerdley has not been this confused since he actually got the call from the woman in Rio Linda.
For those of you who are in Riolinda, this is all real.
I'm sorry.
I know it's a nightmare for you to have a guy like me behind the microphone, but you're just going to have to deal with it today.
I'm 16th, actually.
Yes.
Yes.
From Jackson, Louisiana, who moved to Dubai and then moved back to Louisiana and then went to school in Georgia, married a Georgia girl.
The very first date with my wife, I walked into her apartment.
She had two pounds of bacon cooking.
And I asked her what she needed the bacon for.
She said she didn't.
She needed the drippings.
I was sold.
That was 100-some odd pounds ago.
I was sold.
You people, you need to come to my house.
I mean, my wife, when she makes cornbread, it's in the giant cast iron skillet where it's fried on the bottom and baked on the top.
You got to come eat.
My wife is an amazing cook.
So it is open line Friday at the Rush Limbaugh Show.
1-800-282-2882.
How about we take some calls?
People are still wanting to talk about Duck Dynasty.
Two days.
This is what happens when you anger 14 million people in camouflage with guns.
I'm telling you.
Let's go to the phones.
The first call today, Jim in Orangeville, California.
Jim, welcome to the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Hi, Eric.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Well, I'm nervous, and so thank you.
Oh, look, I am too.
This is our first time together, so we can do this together.
Somewhere there's a euphemism, we shouldn't go down that road, though.
Eric, I'm with you on most of this stuff.
I got to just tell you, my feelings are like this.
I just think we've gotten to the point as a society that we've just done away with God.
And since we've done it away with God, you know, we no longer have a judge, and so therefore we become like our own judges, right?
And so we're only accountable to ourselves.
Pretty much.
We don't have anything to kind of meter things to.
We just kind of just do whatever we think is good for us, and there's no accountability.
So that's kind of a kind of a stickler on our society these days that we don't have to account to anybody.
We only account to ourselves.
There's no God in heaven.
There's no judgment.
There's no wrath.
Right.
Well, and you know, Jim, here's the thing that's galling.
I ran into this on Twitter last night.
There's another story out there.
A father who has been defrocked by the Methodist Church because the Methodist Church doesn't allow you to participate, conduct gay marriages.
Well, his son is gay, and he conducted his son's marriage and said he disagreed with the book.
He disagreed with being prohibited from participating.
So he performed his son's gay marriage.
The media is making him a hero because he's been defrocked.
Now, I look at that story and think, I feel his, I feel sorry for him to be in that position, but he's kind of a minister, and there's a book with clear standards.
And when you tell people.
Yes, they had a trial in the Methodist church.
Yes.
Yeah.
And yeah, and he told them that he would do it again.
That's why they defrocked him.
Yes, because he was.
We're at a crossroads.
We're at a point right now where we have to decide whether we're going to stick to our fundamental values or if we're going to allow everything to kind of just proceed as it is.
And if we make a decision that we have to, you know, kind of decide that we're going to stick with our faith, we have to then defend our faith.
Right.
And so we have to say these things.
We have to say them all right.
Otherwise, we're not doing justice to ourselves, our faith, or those that are around us.
Because after all, we're stewards.
Basically, we're stewards of the things that God's given us if you believe that way, or you're stewards of the things that you have in your life.
And it's a matter of how you manage them and how you craft them and how you take care of them and how you distribute them.
And we've gotten to the point where we're in a disregard society, in my kind of viewpoints, where we just basically toss things out when they're broke rather than try to mend them.
And after all, the relationship of our faith, or the purpose of our faith, is to mend our relationship with our Heavenly Father.
So, I mean, it's a big societal problem for us.
Look, you know, Jim, I'm one of those people.
I'll just tell you, I'm one of those people who believes that what's in the Bible is real.
I believe there's going to be a last day.
I believe he wins the last day.
J.R.R. Tolkien, when he wrote The Hobbit, or when he wrote Lord of the Rings, Galandriel, in the book, she refers to them as having fought the long defeat.
That's what we're fighting.
That's what conservatives are fighting.
That's what people of faith are fighting, the long defeat.
It is, you know, the slippery slope.
As Judge Bork said, the slide to Gomorrah.
The world increasingly embraces what was once bad as good and what was once good as bad.
It happens.
It's going to happen.
It is a cycle that has always happened.
It is a long defeat, but it's a defeat that you still got to be a happy warrior on.
You still got to be a you still got to be someone who fights the good fight.
And once you fought the good fight, at the last day, if you're a Christian, you believe you win on the last day.
So you just got to keep your head up through all of it, but understand what's going to happen.
And understand you still got to go out there.
The only thing more obnoxious, well, I guess it's not more obnoxious than what they did to Phil.
But what is obnoxious are the number of people who went out there and said, well, Phil shouldn't have said it that way.
That was just too judgmental.
I agree with him, but he should have said it differently.
Well, you know, God bless them.
They didn't have the opportunity.
They don't have 14 million people watching them every week.
They don't have a GQ interview.
Phil did.
You may disagree with the way he said it, but do you actually disagree with what he said?
Do you?
If you do, okay, that's fine.
But should he be driven from the airwaves because you disagree with him?
I mean, I disagree with Piers Morgan.
Beers Morgan has a show on CNN.
They're not going to drive Piers Morgan from the air because I disagree with him.
Beers Morgan was on Twitter thinking, you got to get rid of Phil Robertson.
You got to toss him.
I wish they'd tossed Spears Morgan.
I bet you there are 14 million people who wish they would toss Spears, but they're not going to.
And that's okay.
Because really, I just disagree with him.
Doesn't matter.
It's a disagreement.
We are allowed to disagree.
We are allowed to have disagreement.
Well, I take that back.
We're not really allowed to have disagreements anymore.
We have to agree with what they want us to agree with.
That's it.
You just got to keep your chin up.
You still got to be happy.
It's kind of like this fight with the left.
I mean, Obama won in 2008.
He won in 2012.
And you've got so much anger on the right.
No, be happy.
I mean, the guy is, I mean, he's doing himself in.
I mean, this with the exemption, he's beclowning himself.
He is just, well, you know, it's Barack Obama.
I just, I look at what Barack Obama does on a daily basis, and I don't know why people on the right are so angry with him.
I mean, this man is God's gift to small government.
Have you seen the poll numbers on the people who think that big government is the greatest danger in our lives?
Wouldn't be happening but for Barack Obama.
People forget.
We have fickle memories.
The news cycle is so fast.
There's a whir, there's a blur.
There's so much news.
We forget about things.
We forget that 30 years ago, people decided big government was a danger and they tossed Carter for Reagan.
They forget, but they're remembering now.
They're going to remember.
Welcome back.
It's Eric Erickson here in for Rush Limbaugh.
It is Open Line Friday.
1-800-282-2882.
And now I'm going to give you a hint.
You see, I'm one of them 30-somethings who always has my iPad or iPhone or my MacBook in my lap.
So I'm on Twitter and Facebook at EW Erickson.
And you can email me at Eric, your ICK at redstate.com if you want.
All you people who hate right now, you're rushing to the keyboards.
I can feel on Twitter and Facebook.
E.W. Erickson.
I can feel the hater.
I can just feel the dark pulse in the force right now.
All right.
Back to the phones we go.
Mike in Long Beach, New York.
Welcome to the Rush Limbaugh Show.
How are you?
Hi, Eric.
Welcome to the show, I guess.
Thanks very much.
First and foremost, let's get it out of the way.
I'm a Democrat, but I'm also quite embarrassed these days to be a Democrat.
Well, I just, I thought there was like a force block on the EIB network that Democrats weren't allowed to get through.
So this is funny.
This is exciting for me to know Democrats can't actually get through.
See you, people?
You're wrong.
Okay, sorry.
Go forward.
Something happened this week.
I live out on Long Island in a town that was badly damaged by the storm and still recovering, but it's a Democratic hell town and they do a lot of wacky things here.
And you said before you were talking about people shouldn't be angry about Obama because this big government thing, it's destroying itself.
And I'm going to disagree with you on that because there is a lot to worry about.
We're paying for it.
And my town is almost like a microcosm of what's happening because of the way D.C. does it.
It filters down to the small towns because they're emulating the same thing.
And I'm going to give you an example this week, and you tell me how I'm supposed to deal with being a Democrat after they try to pull stunt like they're pulling now.
In the city of Long Beach, New York, this week, the city council tried to pass a resolution allowing for lifetime medical benefits after only five years of employment.
Wow.
Regardless of age, regardless of whether you're retired or not.
And this is not a joke.
This is a point of view.
Yeah, I don't mean to be laughing.
I'm just surprised at the brazenness.
No, brazenness is a step down.
This was Tuesday.
Democrats always have so much more testicular fortitude than Republicans when it comes to stuff like that.
You need to put it back into perspective.
This is a city with a $12 million deficit, and they just had to borrow $6.5 million just to pay their police department.
Wow.
And I'm supposed to stand by, like most loyal Democrats, and defend this.
Well, you know, Mike, this is what I mean by they're doing it themselves, and we don't have to worry about it.
We still, Republicans have to make a case.
And frankly, I think Republicans are terrible at making these cases.
They hope the Democrats lose instead of trying to win these things.
But look at yourself.
You are a Democrat who votes Democrat, calling Rush Limbaugh's program to vent about Democrats.
You're not alone out there.
Look, I am a formerly elected Republican.
I was a Republican on a city council.
I was one of two Republicans on a 15-member city council.
And I was the one who always voted no.
Are you going to fund museums?
No.
You're going to fund charitable things from city government?
No, and I always lost, but we didn't have the money to do it.
But, you know, you can go out, and even though you may have to hold your nose, by God, I got to hold my nose to vote for a lot of Republicans these days, too.
But I'll still vote for the guy who's not going to do this or who is willing to undo this.
Sometimes you got to be bold in what you do, including going into a private little booth and pressing a button or flipping a switch to vote for a party you don't particularly care for, but know that they're going to fix grievances.
When Republicans stay home or Democrats stay home or they go vote for the other side, it sends a message to their own party.
You're the perfect segue, Mike.
And I appreciate you very much for calling in on this because there's polling out there about how much conservatives hate the Republican Party right now.
And the Republicans would actually be doing better in the polls if more conservatives liked them.
Fascinating polling out there.
But in your particular situation, folks, if you're still scratching your head, if you're confused, that was an actual Democrat calling the EIB network to complain about Democrats in New York State, in an area stricken by Sandy, where they don't have the money to pay the police, but they can give everything to the city employees.
They can give everything to themselves.
I was actually on a city council in Macon, Georgia, where you had members of city council, which is a part-time job, decide to give themselves health insurance benefits for working the part-time job as a city councilman with $10,000 salary.
They were going to get benefits.
This is what politicians do.
This is why you have to stay engaged.
This is why you have to be vigilant.
And, you know, let me just say this particular issue down at the local level.
Macon, where I was on the city council, we were the only partisan city council in Georgia.
For the life of me, I can't tell you where the Democratic and Republican positions are on picking up trash.
But apparently we were supposed to have partisan positions.
Local politics is some of the dirtiest politics of the nation.
You got to stay most vigilant in local politics because they think you'll give them a pass because they're your next door neighbor.
No.
Politicians, you just can't trust them.
You can't.
Eric Erickson, in for Rush Limbaugh, 1-800-282-2882.
It is Open Line Friday.
We'll give you a little more flexibility for you people to call in and talk about what you want to talk about today.
But as Rush says, your job is still to make me look good.
I'm the host today.
You make me look good.
David Ferdoso over at conservativeintel.com.
This is what I was referencing.
There is a poll.
We'll get into this into the next hour.
And Congress just letting the president get away with things.
You know, if Sheetsbirds were still in the United States Senate, there is no way he, a card-carrying member of the, I mean, the Democratic Party, would allow Barack Obama to get away with what he's getting away with.
He, back when he was in the Senate, he believed in the institutional integrity of the Congress.
He actually wrote a book, which I have read Robert Byrd did, on the Senate, tracing its history all the way back to Rome.
If that man could have, maybe that was why he was in the KKK.
He had this thing about Roman senators and wanting to wear sheets for a living.
I just, in any event, Robert Byrd would be fighting Harry Reid, didn't you?
Harry's letting him get away with it.
By the way, prayers for Harry Reid.
I understand he's in the hospital today, but still he's letting them get away with it.
The Republicans, Daryl, I say he can have hearings, but it is amazing to me.
But this is actually kind of awesome when you think about it.
For years, the Democrats said George Bush was getting away with all sorts of stuff.
Think of the precedents they're setting for the Republicans.
When the Republicans get back into the White House, now they'll be able to get rid of Obamacare with a snap of a finger.
They won't even need Congress.
Well, of course, no, the Republicans won't.
They lack the fortitude.
Eric Erickson, in for rush.
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