Elective Decisions

Denver, CO—It has been more than five years since I wrote the essay, “Rush Limbaugh Is The Passion,” more than five years since Roy Black’s appearance on Hannity & Colmes.

 

In that essay, I boldly claimed that he was the passion of conservatism, a fire that burned through liberalism and shook the very foundations of their belief system.  I asserted that he was the very pulse, bounding through the heart of a thriving nation, executing their lies and boldly asserting daily doses of conservative truth—“The Passion.”

 

He superseded the intellectual elite, and transcended them, galvanizing the conservative movement while educating millions of Americans.  He continued his broadcast affectionately, steering the country away from socialism and towards conservatism.  He helped elect a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and was honored for doing that work that needed doing.

 

In that essay, I also claimed that he followed in the footsteps of George Washington, Thomas Paine, and Ronald Reagan, promoting the ideals of the Founding Fathers and capitalism.  He overcame prescription drug addiction, and in his sobriety, has executed his program flawlessly.  He has been an inspiration to millions of Americans—those without a voice—and continues to battle in a war against socialism, in order to return the country to the roots of its founding.  Best of all, he made millions doing it in the only country he could possibly have succeeded in—the United States of America.

 

So, I laud him, I congratulate him, but most of all, I am thrilled for him.  I can’t help but do just that.  For he was there in my conversion to conservatism, he was there for the death of my father, and he is there during this temporary period of unemployment, reminding me that success is around the corner if I choose it. 

 

I know many of you are reading this, thinking this is more ceremonious boot licking.  However, much to your chagrin, it is not.  Rather, it is a celebration of capitalism—a system that allows every single American the opportunity to do just what Rush Limbaugh III has done—SUCCEED.

 

Far too many Americans have forgotten just what capitalism is.  They have brushed it aside with the feelings that some sort of socialist utopia can be created.  They have irresponsibly ignored the basic tenets of the Declaration of Independence:  Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness.  And they have chosen to cast aspersions on those that have taken advantage of that very system that allows them the same opportunity: Capitalism.

 

Rush Limbaugh has not forgotten.  It all began at a radio station in Sacramento, California in 1984.  But far too many forget that he was not always rich.  He was no beacon of success.  He could even have been proclaimed, “A failure,” as he noted on his radio program.  He was just the common man, quitting radio and working for the Kansas City Royals.  There, he toiled away in sales, asking for a raise and being denied.  There, he struggled to pay his mortgage, charging potato chips on his credit card so he could eat.

 

He would learn that there is nothing fair about capitalism, but that it is exactly the remedy needed for the common man.  Dr. Walter Williams once wrote in his January 2000 piece, Capitalism And The Common Man, “That’s one of the great benefits of capitalism; it has made it possible for common people to enjoy at lease some of what wealthy people enjoy.  One might assert that common people don’t have access to Rolls Royces and yachts.  You’re wrong.  Microsoft’s Bill Gates is super-rich and can afford to ride in a Rolls Royce and go yachting; but so can the average common man—just not as long.  He can rent a Rolls or a yacht for a day, half—day or an hour.”

 

“Despite the miracles of capitalism,” Williams continued, “it doesn’t do well in popularity polls.  One of the reasons is that capitalism is always evaluated against the non-existent, non-realizable utopias of socialism or communism.  Any earthly system will pale in comparison to a Utopia.  But for the ordinary person, capitalism, with all its warts, is superior to any system yet devised to deal with our everyday needs and desires.”

 

Williams explains in the piece that before capitalism, “the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man.  Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving one’s fellow man.”

 

Rush Limbaugh has done just this.  He serves one’s fellow man.  Just like Kansas City, he is still in the business of sales.  Just not in advertising.  Rather, he used that special talent of speech, combined it with his intellect and principals handed to him from Rush Hudson Limbaugh, Sr. and Jr., and eagerly tackled the capitalist system, affecting his success in this great country.

 

Rush Limbaugh is special, precisely because of his service.  He provides us with a voice, echoing those sentiments that we feel every day of our life.  He encourages us to succeed, and is still often ignored.  This is likely the case, because far too many Americans have a notion about what is fair.  There is nothing fair about capitalism.  Moreover, there will always be those that have and those that do not.  Those that choose to achieve will achieve, and those that sit around with their hands out will blame those that chose to achieve.

 

There is no better example than these AIG bonuses.  This has nothing to do with taxpayer dollars.  It has to do with services to an employer.  The employees’ were valued by their employer, and the contracts were drawn up stating that value in writing.  This value equaled the value of service to their fellow man, and it was all possible because of capitalism.

 

I tried explaining this in my own home, but was nearly bludgeoned to death, narrowly escaping to the confines of the bathroom where the wounds are still healing.  It had become apparent—within my household—that the basic tenets of capitalism had been thrown overboard.  This happened in a conservative household, because of this notion of fairness and the ignorance of the tenets of capitalism—something that should be explained with some level of understanding on the concepts that sticks and stones will break your bones.

 

Rush Limbaugh is a shining example of those that choose to succeed.  He took his talent and principals, and put himself in the revenue stream.  Now, he controls his level of success as long as he continues to service his fellow man.  And as long as he continues to echo those sentiments we feel every day, he will be a success in America.  He will continue to make more money, and he will continue to be assaulted because of it.

 

If one thing is certain in this great country, hard work will win through to absolute victory.  Rush Limbaugh’s example is no different, working more than most Americans are willing to work to achieve that level of success.  This level of commitment and hard work didn’t just come naturally, they were taught.  They were learned every day as he grew up.  Hard work had become a way of life—a principal somehow lost by many Americans.

 

For example, in an April 9, 1996 broadcast of his television show, Rush Limbaugh said about his grandfather, “He worked all the way through school. From grade school through high school—paid his way through college doing carpentry work, waiting tables, assisting Methodist ministers as best he could. His family was farmers. He plowed the fields every morning before school. It was that, I think, which gave him a strong physical constitution that enabled him to go through his life with such energy. He argued sixty cases before the Missouri Supreme Court. He wrote, in effect, the book on probate law in Missouri in 1955. He was an ambassador to India in 1958 at the request of the United States State Department. India was recently liberated and he was asked to go to lecture on American constitutionality and the legal system in this country. And he accepted all of these assignments and opportunities with great pride and great relish. He was a patriot. I last spoke to him a couple of months ago, and all he cared about was the future of the country…”

 

Rush lives, eats and breathes hard work. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 He He did not graduate from college, yet he has experienced the opportunity America has to offer—he has experienced the capitalist system, and all its rewards.  He is not alone.  There are many Americans that experience success through the capitalist system—many are your friends and neighbors.  Many are your employers, endeavoring in that pursuit of the capitalist system to achieve that same level of success Rush Hudson Limbaugh, III enjoys.

 

With a recessionary economy, it is now more important than ever to discover the basic tenets of capitalism again.  We will learn again, enjoying in the stories of friends and neighbors as they conquer goal after goal, and achieve their level of success in this great country—America.

 

So we thank Rush Hudson Limbaugh III for his vigorous defense of a forgotten system.  We thank him for keeping us focused in the midst of socialism, and we eagerly await another broadcast day of “The Passion.”

 

Or as President George Washington once said, “And you will, by the dignity of your Conduct, afford occasion for Posterity to say, when speaking of the glorious example you have exhibited to Mankind, had this day been wanting, the World had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attaining.”

 

That perfection is rooted in Capitalism, and those Americans that defend it.