Book 19: Rush Limbaugh - See, I Told You So
See, I Told You So
Rush Limbaugh
Released: November 1st, 1993
Growing up I had always heard about Rush Limbaugh. I get mixed takes that generally run along political party lines. Some swear by him, and others loathe his entire being. I have seen him mocked on Family Guy and some other pop culture places which isn’t shocking. I have never listened to his show, and the only things I really knew about him were that he was a prominent conservative talk radio DJ who dropped out of college his freshmen year. He was controversial in nature, but that’s usually a given when it comes to radio and politics.
As I read the book, I noticed he takes on a very “entertainer” style in this narrative. Some of his views tend to align with mine, and the quotes I took from it make sense and he had a good mindset about certain things.
Here are quotes I agreed with and what I learned:
“Why let the government get far more [taxes] than it requires, just so you can get some of it back with no interest?”
He believed that there has been a growing cycle of government dependency. I can agree with this. Even 30 years later we have a striking reliance on the government as opposed to our own abilities.
“Too many people are waiting for the government to solve their problems instead of taking the initiative themselves.”
“We must understand that individual and national excellence can be achieved only if we reward rather than punish achievement and success.”
“So, don’t listen to those who characterize individual achievement as bad, cold-hearted, greedy, selfish, and deserving of punishment.”
“I am fed up with the fact that individualism and self-reliance are now equated with greed.”
This I definitely agree with. In today’s world, we punish those who achieve things. They are “gifted” and “privileged” and other filler words that I do not agree with. It takes a lot of hard work to be successful. But you have to rely on your value. You have to believe in yourself. Even when times are tough. You shouldn’t rely on Hollywood or pop culture (or in the modern world, social media) to make you feel inadequate.
“There’s a huge difference between showing up, playing, having fun, and doing well, and really playing to win. It’s an entirely different mindset. It’s not a physical thing. It has nothing to do with athletics. It has to do with attitude.”
- Danny Ainge, flight to Chicago after Game 2 of the 1993 NBA Finals
“This anti-competitive, anti-achievement attitude is terribly destructive. And it is infecting virtually every aspect of our lives.”
“Well son, in football, we don’t pace ourselves. We go all out all the time. You’d be wise to do that your whole life son.”
- Rush’s Football coach on pacing in football and life.
This is one are where I tend to disagree a bit. I have learned the difficult way what overwork and lack of self-care does to oneself. There has to be a balance. That doesn’t mean give less than your best, but rather give your best when you’re working towards something or achieving great things.
“If you shelter [kids] from real-world situations with real-world consequences today in the interest of sparing their feelings, you are going to cause them irreparable damage in the long run. Because it is only through dealing with life’s ups and downs, the struggles of everyday living, and, yes, even a bit of adversity that they will mature into adults capable of taking care of themselves and their dependents and becoming productive members of society.”
“[People like] Johnny Carson, who had longevity in show business. I discovered something important: they didn’t mistreat the people who were invited to participate in their show.”
“Don’t believe the doomsayers. Don’t believe the negativity-mongers. Don’t believe the America-bashers. Don’t buy into the lie that punishing high achievers will bring you happiness. Your own success — born out of your own ingenuity and industry — is what will make you happy. This is still America. And America is not over.”
He felt the 1992 election was the result of a combination of President Clinton running on a conservative-narrative and Ross Perot.
“Greed and profits are not the same. Neither are greed and the pursuit of profits. They have, however, been intentionally confused by certain opportunistic politicians in our society.”
“The pursuit of profits provides the incentive that encourages entrepreneurs and developers to experiment — to do market research, to innovate, create, and invent let us say — all at private expense. The important role profits play in an economy is to signal to investors — risk-takers — where to send more resources and where to send less.”
“It’s none of the government’s business to tell people how much they can earn.”
Richard Nixon at one point imposed wage and price controls.
“You as a worker and as an employee, must realize that punishing CEOs and athletes will not improve your life at all. But it seems that those who talk about fairness today actually mean retribution. It seems they want to exact revenge on achievers to make themselves feel better on some level.”
“America’s economic renaissance requires less government and the unleashing of the entrepreneurial spirit.”
“If we have learned anything in this country in the last thirty years, isn’t it that we should judge people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.”
He felt “culture wars” were people who believe in living by a set of divinely inspired moral absolutes — or at the very least, they believe that following such a moral code represents the best way to avoid chaos and instability. The other side consists of people who feel morality is simply a personal decision. Any attempt to enforce it is viewed as oppression.
He addresses the phrase “You can’t legislate morality.” His example is the civil rights laws of the 1960’s. Very good and appropriate laws, and we see less racial discrimination, however, it doesn’t change the hearts of people set in their ways. We don’t destroy racism by writing a law against it.
I can agree here. No matter what law you write, there will always be people to break it. I feel the true battle against the evils of the world are best fought against with our truest intentions modeled by our lifestyles and behaviors. That would be a more persuading action than writing some law that would just upset and anger someone who doesn’t understand the consequences of their beliefs and actions.
“Live your life the way you think it should be lived. Influence the people around you. But don’t do it with rancor, bitterness or hatred. Be of good cheer. Be a living example of that which you advocate. No matter where you are or in what walk of life, that lesson applies. If you follow that principle, you will be a beacon of truth and righteousness among those with whom you associate.”
“…the very values that help define our common-sense view of the world are under assault.
People have taken to the extreme this spurious notion of freedom without responsibility. There are no more moral guardrails in our world. The people who live on the medians and on the shoulders of our society are told by the dominant media culture that they are right in the middle of the road. No judgments are permitted to be made about anybody's behavior or conduct. Nothing is wrong anymore (except, of course, conservative thoughts and expres-sions).”
He felt very strongly about the state of the country under former President Ronald Reagan, and felt the 1980’s were arguably the most prosperous time. To him, the failure of Reaganonics came under the 1990 budget deal
“The 1980’s could and should serve as a model for our nation’s future economic policies for generations to come.”
[Side note for context] In 1990, there was a bipartisan deficit reduction bill passed and signed into law that would achieve roughly $500 Billion in savings over 5 years. It was a combination of spending cuts and tax increases. This would notably come back to haunt President George H.W. Bush’s legacy as he campaigned under “No New Taxes”.
His support for Reaganomics was a result of the 96 continuous months of the economic growth from 1982 - 1990 (which even factor in the market crash of 1987). At the time (the book was written in 1993), it was the longest peacetime economic expansion in US history. I research this a bit, and found It has since been surpassed by growth of 120 months from March 1991 - March 2001, and 126 straight months of growth from June 2009 - December 2019.
The federal deficit fell from $221 Billion in 1986 to $150 Billion in 1987.
(Source: fiscaldata.treasury.gov)
This was a result of more taxpayers at work, and therefore a bigger base from which to collect. Rush speculates that had Congress cut more in the late 80’s, there might not be a deficit.
“Government simply cannot be the source of prosperity. No country has ever become great because of tax increases or government spending. Nations become great because people are given the freedom to achieve.”
“It disturbs me when young people are told by America’s leadership that it doesn’t matter what you do because the system is rigged, or that unless you are born to wealth and privilege, you can’t succeed, so you might as well be grateful for the crumbs that government will throw your way. That’s not what America is about. As I've said, I want people to be the best they can be. And I want the country to be the best it can be. For that to happen we need strong, self-reliant individuals. We need to reward risk and stop punishing achievement. Let the marketplace work. President Reagan showed the way in the 1980’s, President Kennedy in the 1960s. We can return to that kind of prosperity again with the right kind of leadership.”
He comments on New Age Liberalism (which essentially amounts to leaders who came up in the 1960’s Hippie Era US, and came to power years later in the 1990’s) as being “We care. We’re good people. We love people, and we have good intentions. We’re more compassionate than ordinary mortals. So everything we say and do is right, and everything anyone else says and does is reactionary and wrong.”
Personal thought: It’s interesting because that seems to be what the world has transformed into in 2023. And it happens on bother sides of the aisle. It’s a world of emotionally driven self-righteous people. “I’m right, if you disagree, you’re triggering and upsetting me and I’m going to use commenters in numbers to slight and bash you.”
“The issue facing the country is not the quality of health care, which is clearly the best in the world. It is simply a matter of cost and coverage.”
He holds strong words against Al Gore, (whom he refers to as Algore). He isn’t strong on the Global Warming idea, and supports this with Global Cooling predictions coming out of the 1976-1977 winter.
He laments that he did not enjoy education until later in his life. He wishes 5 years prior to his dropping out of college, something would have inspired him to seek higher learning. He recalls, the teachers who pushed him the hardest, got the best results from him.
He felt the problems with the educational system stem from groups preaching that “competition, achievement, and success are dirty words”.
He took issue with “Outcome-Based Learning” as he felt it was more focused on the process than actually achieving the correct answer.
He disagreed with Elizabeth Hilt’s idea that women need to “release their inner bitch” in order to compete in a man’s world. He felt that this reinforced a stereotype used by true chauvinist pigs for females by saying the only reason they are strong and powerful is by being degrading to people.
He disagreed with the notion of “Get-Even-ism” which pushed the idea that “Correcting the problem is not enough; there must be retribution.”
He felt Catharine MacKinnon’s push for sexual harassment awareness went a bit too far when at a University of Maryland art fair, they posted the name of every male attending the university, with the phrase “These Men Are Potential Rapists.” Naturally, this caused an outcry, to which the arts professor Josephine Withers stated “It’s ok for people to be mad.”
He felt Hollywood stars were more about symbolism than substance. He considers this to be when people are more concerned about appearing to do the right thing than attaining actual results, and saying the right things rather than doing them.
He felt the problem with engaging in political debate is that the opposition has come to demonizing and discrediting the reputations and backgrounds of their opponents instead of focusing on the issue.
“There is simply nothing funny about Racism.”
Professor Walter Williams of George Mason University once said “We have things ass-backward in America. We lionize thieves and criminals as victims of society, while at the same time vilifying productivity embodies in the likes of Bill Gates, and Henry Ford as the rich! We constantly hear calls to ‘those who’ve been most blessed to give something back’ — That’s nonsense. It is the thief who should be giving back because he’s produced nothing, whereas Bill Gates and his ilk have already served their fellow man by making life easier for us all and providing jobs in the process.”
Rush had a high opinion of Jesse Jackson but feels he changed in the 1980’s to a very different tone that we often see him display in modern times.
President George H.W. Bush and Senator Bob Dole were political competitors despite being on the same side. Both grew up in the Great Depression and served in WWII. Bush always had an edge as he was selected as VP for the winning 1980 Reagan campaign and later the presidency in 1988. Dole campaigned as Ford’s VP choice in 1976 only to lose to Carter, and later lost 2 presidential campaigns in 1988 and 1996.
President Clinton’s presidential victory in 1992 marked the end of an era, as he was the first president to have come up in the 1950’s and 1960’s and ushered in a new generation after 12 years of Republican Leadership.
Rush believes the modern generation has never had to face the sacrifices that the Great Depression and WWII era generations had to.
“In the late 1930’s, America was looking at 22 percent unemployment rate. There was no such concept as welfare. There was no minimum-wage guarantee. There was no “safety net,” except for the one that family members provided. Grown men were selling apples on the street for a few Pennie’s in an effort to support their families. People would accept any kind of work available.”
Mikhail Gorbachev had an American office set up in San Francisco in 1993.
“If you don’t know how to define total victory, you have no business getting young Americans killed.”
Rush was a big fan of Supreme Court Justice Antonio Scalia’s observation of “The trouble with reading more rights into the Constitution is that jurists deprive the people of public debate.”
He did not believe a Utopian society is achievable because of all the varying abilities, talents, desires, ambitions, capabilities, and other characteristics.
“If you penalize achievement and punish success, there is less wealth produced for everyone. This is the fatal flaw of Utopianism.”
“History has irrefutably proven that when you punish achievement, and discourage self-improvement, you stifle economic growth. When you deter economic growth, you hurt those at all economic levels and, perhaps surprising to some, the hardest hit are the poor.”
He felt that while a lot of people associate the Reagan and H.W. Bush Eras together (due to political affiliation), history will most likely start to drive a wedge between the two and Bush would be remembered more along the lines of the Clinton Era. He justified this by comparing the 1990 Budget deal and the 1993 Budget plan. He felt the 1990 deal unraveled what the Reaganomics built up, and then the final nail was the plans for the 1993 budget, seeking to erase the progress of the prior 12 years.
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Interesting read. I agree with him on several things. Even 30 years later, some of his ideas have occurred in the modern day. There’s certainly a bias (which he admits outright many times). Being a former radio DJ, I enjoyed reading about his years in radio and how he revolutionized the AM Format as well as his ideas on taxation and government involvement. My liberal friends would most likely be a hard pass, but good read for a 30 year old book.
On to Book 20 for the year: “Born A Crime” by Trevor Noah
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