Thoughts on 9/11 – and Patriotism. By Rush Limbaugh. RushLimbaugh.com, September 11, 2013.
Shock Study: U.S. Flag Only Boost GOP. By Paul Bedard. U.S. News and World Report, July 20, 2011.
A Single Exposure to the American Flag Shifts Support Toward Republicanism up to 8 Months Later. By Travis J. Carter, Melissa J. Ferguson, and Ran R. Hassin. Psychological Science, Vol. 22, No. 8 (August 2011).
The War Over Patriotism. By Peter Beinart. NJBR, January 28, 2013. Originally in Time, July 7, 2008 issue.
Rush:
They
were calling Bush names. They were claiming Bush was unqualified and
incompetent. He hadn’t done anything to avenge what had happened to us, or to
answer it, and they were humiliated because the next day the attack in Tora
Bora happened, and they just looked silly. There was a memo from James Carville
and Stan Greenberg that Bush favorability was too high and had to be brought
down, in the midst of the 9/11 aftermath. The memo described how they needed to
make Bush out to be a liar.
This
was an internal memo intended for Democrat leaders and party members and so
forth all over the country, primarily in Washington. They were very worried
that Bush's numbers were too high. So
they began distancing themselves from anything Bush. Bush was the epitome of
the patriotism, and he was talking tough about the terrorists, saying things
like, “You’re either with us or against us,” and the Democrats said, “You can’t
talk that way. That’s embarrassing.” They started calling him a cowboy, and as
I said before the break, patriotism is something that makes them nervous.
I know
some of you, like if you’re a 24-year-old woman – I mean, I don’t even have to
shout that – say, “What do you mean? This is what makes me mad, Rush.
Patriotism . . .” Look, I wish it weren’t true, but it is. US News & World
Report, July 20th, 2011: “Shock Study: US Flag Only Boosts GOP – Just a brief
exposure to an image of the American flag shifts voters, even Democrats, to
Republican beliefs, attitudes and voting behavior even though most don’t
believe it will impact their politics, according to a new two-year study just
published in the scholarly Psychological Science.”
They
found that “exposure” to the American flag changed behavior to pro-Republican
or pro-conservative.
“What's
more, according to three authors from the University Chicago, Cornell
University and Hebrew University, the impact had staying power. ‘A single
exposure to an American flag resulted in a significant increase in participants’
Republican voting intentions, voting behavior, political beliefs . . .’” The
study “found that a single exposure to a small American flag during
deliberation about voting intentions prior to a general election led to
significant and robust changes in participants’ voting intentions . . .’”
How
many times have you heard famous, retired evening news anchors refuse to wear
the American flag? Brokaw refused, Peter Jennings refused, Dan Rather, because
they couldn't show their patriotism. That would be compromising their sacred
principles as journalists. So you may not want to believe me, but the Democrat
Party and the American left has a problem with patriotism because they know it
steers people away from them. Democrats have a problem with people who love
America.
The
liberal ideology is based on America is at fault, America is to blame, America
is unjust, America is immoral from its founding. This is what animates Obama. You
know it as well as I do, folks – and you 24-year-old women who think this is
above and beyond the pale, you know it, too, if you just sit down and admit it
to yourself. Who is the blame-America-first crowd? Who is it is that mocks the
flag?
. . . .
The
unbridled displays of love of country and patriotism makes liberals nervous. These
unscripted, uncensored displays of love and pride in our country make ’em
nervous, because it’s the one thing they can’t fake. They try, and you know
they just don’t feel it. So they have to do something about it. So they set
about, as their strategy, based on the Greenberg-Carville memo, to essentially
destroy Bush. They succeeded, as we all know, and we’re feeling the
repercussions of it today.
They’re
not big fans of the military. They’re not comfortable with millions of people
turning to God. They’re not comfortable with public displays of religion. They
have tried to erase the real meaning of Thanksgiving from the history books. So
a campaign was silently begun beside the Drive-Bys and liberals to remove the
images from TV that created all of this. That's where I’m going with this.
I’m
sorry it's taken me so long to get there, but that’s why we’re not watching,
that’s why we don’t see the video, what happened on 9/11. That’s why. That’s
why we don’t see the video. We don’t want to run the risk of having that
aftermath replicated – and they run the media, so they’re in charge of whether
or not that video is shown. And to this day, they make fun of people who are
patriots. They make fun of religious people. It’s never stopped.
BREAK
TRANSCRIPT
RUSH:
To Detroit and Katherine. It’s great to have you on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER:
Hi there. Thank you.
RUSH: You
bet.
CALLER:
Well, I’ve been thinking much like you today about patriotism, and I guess my
question is based on your insight into the liberal condition. More than the
outward signs of what they do, I want to know what do they think and feel when
they say they are patriotic? I know what I feel. You know, it’s a profound love
of our country. But what do you think they feel? What is it to them if they say, “I feel
patriotic?” How is it different from what we feel?
RUSH: Well,
Hillary has defined it. Patriotism is having the guts to admit your country’s
wrong. Patriotism is the guts to realize when your country has made mistakes.
Patriotism is the right to dissent against your own country. Patriotism is
understanding where your country needs to improve. Their patriotism is rooted
in guilt. They give themselves gold stars for being honest about what’s wrong
with this country, and yet that is the patriotism, admitting what’s wrong and
admitting it’s flawed and then claiming to want to fix it.
CALLER:
Well, that’s clearly a different feeling of patriotism than I have, and I think
it’s clearly not based on love of country. It makes me wonder, is that a dead
issue for a future conservative presidential candidate? Is patriotism off the table because Obama has
transformed our country and patriotism no longer matters?
RUSH: No,
it’s not. The majority of this country are just the exact opposite. The problem
is, as I was just saying, outward displays patriotism are made fun of. They're
mocked. Late-night comedians or whoever in the pop culture, if anybody acts
really patriotic or says something patriotic, they make fun of it as though it’s
–
CALLER:
Corny?
RUSH: It’s
corny, and they say, “Look, we all feel that. There’s nothing special. You don’t
have anything on us. We love our country. We love America.” But they make fun
of it. It is corny, it’s not cool, it’s not hip.
CALLER:
But the basis of patriotism would be the decision that any leader would make on
behalf of our country.
RUSH: Precisely.
CALLER:
Yeah. That's what I don’t get.
RUSH: That’s
exactly right. You know, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think America is
perfect. But I also don’t believe that imperfection is an ideological flaw that
needs to be . . . Let me put it this way: Liberals think they can perfect
everything. They can perfect what’s
wrong with, say, racists, what’s wrong with bigots, or they can fix what’s
wrong with America. If it isn’t perfect, there’s something wrong with it, and
then they are needed. That’s their call to action is when there isn’t
perfection. It’s all part of their utopian fantasy, that there is perfection
out there, and that only they are capable of finding it, discovering it, and
maintaining it.
CALLER:
Right.
RUSH: It’s rooted in the flaws and the things that
are wrong, and in having the guts to admit it. Whereas they look at us, our
patriotism, and they see us as blindly accepting whatever is wrong in this
country and saying it’s good, saying it’s great. They don’t look at us as
having the ability to discriminate or discern good or bad. They think it is a
mistake to think just because it’s America, it’s good, and just because it’s
American, it’s great.
That,
to them, is flawed thinking because the country is flawed. It was ill-founded,
if you will. It was unjustly, unfairly constructed in their view. So that’s why
one of these Obama runs around apologizing for America for. Bill Clinton did
the same thing. Why do you think they do that?
They really think the United States is the problem in the world, not the
solution.
BREAK
TRANSCRIPT
RUSH:
Back to the phones in Dayton, Ohio, this is Julie. I’m really glad you waited. Thank
you for your patience. Hi.
CALLER:
Hi. Thank you, Rush. I’m proud to be an American patriot.
RUSH: Thank
you.
CALLER:
Yes. Unlike Michelle Obama, my whole
life I have been proud of this country.
RUSH: There
you go. There you go. There's another example right there. Exactly. Well said.
CALLER:
Thank you. Thank you. You know, this morning I woke up and there were a couple
things I thought of as I was getting ready for work. I thought about George
Bush, another true American patriot who did not care about polling numbers. I
wondered what he was thinking of on this day. I had the news on, and I kept
wanting to see some of the past footage, and I think it is so important to show
that footage to the American people of what we endured on that day, and there
is a song called – I can’t remember the country artist – “Have You Forgotten?”
If you could play that on your show today, it’s such a great song, because in
the song, it says they should show that footage every day because people need
to remember.
RUSH: I
know. We’ve talked about how they should show it; we’ve been through the
reasons that they don’t. One of the reasons is ’cause it would revitalize,
possibly, patriotism, which is something they just . . . They’re made
uncomfortable by it, folks. They just are. The left is made uncomfortable by
outward displays of patriotism and the flying of the flag and all that.
You
know, there’s something that I don’t think very many people have seen ever. They’ve
shown video footage. But do you ever
recall seeing footage of people jumping out of the World Trade Center towers to
avoid dying by fire? They don't show that, and there is footage of that. Now,
that brings you back to life real fast when you see people plunging from 50,
70, 80 stories to escape flames. I mean, it was horrible.
BREAK
TRANSCRIPT
RUSH:
But I want to close the loop on this patriotism, ’cause I know that a lot of
people . . . It’s very important thing, and when you start talking about it, it’s
tough. You know, I’m not challenging the left’s patriotism. What I’m trying to do is tell you that it’s
not yours and mine. We had a caller ask, “What is their patriotism?” Their
patriotism . . . These are their words, folks; I’m not making it up. Their
patriotism is having the guts to criticize the country.
Their
patriotism is recognizing what's wrong with this country and saying so. Their
patriotism is dissenting when Republican presidents are in power. That, to
them, is honorable. Patriotism is not about the greatness of America. It’s
about the flaws that they think exist and the willingness to speak up about
them and apologize for ’em. That’s really big. That makes you a big person,
when you could admit your mistakes.
Except
they’re not theirs. They’re the Founders’. I know that this makes people
nervous. Let me give you some examples of this. You know, I’ve said that
displays of force by the US military, make ’em nervous, they don’t like it. They
get very nervous about outward displays of patriotism because they know . . .
We had the story earlier about how when you show people the flag, it moves them
away from Democrats, it moves them away from liberalism, and they know it.
. . . .
So I’m
very comfortable in saying that these patriotic differences are real and that
real patriotism, as you and I know it, is mocked and made fun of. Folks, I’m
sorry it’s taking me so long in a scattershot way today to convey this. But all
of this is to explain why we don’t see anymore full-fledged video of what
happened on 9/11/2001, because the left does not want that kind of patriotism
brought back to life. It threatens them.
They’re
far more comfortable with a patriotism that finds fault and blame with America,
not a patriotism that celebrates the greatness of America. They don't think it’s
great, and it won’t be great till they get full control of it and fix the flaws
– and that's all the racism and bigotry and homophobia and environmental
wackoism and all that. ’Til they get in power and fix all of that, there won’t
be any reason for real love of country.
Nothing.
There’s too much wrong with this country right now to love it, and people that
do are dangerous. That’s their patriotism.
