Rush Limbaugh: Americans should “adapt” to coronavirus, like famous pioneers who “had to turn to cannibalism”
Limbaugh: “Life has to go on… And I believe this should become one of the themes that the president adopts, as he adapts to what’s necessary going forward in his presidential campaign”
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From the July 14, 2020, edition of Premiere Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show
RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): This isn’t who we are, folks, this cowering and fearful and almost giving up in the face of this enemy, COVID-19. We’ve not ever done anything like this before. So much of the way we are dealing with this is unprecedented — and it’s un-American. It’s nothing compared to the way we have overcome enemies and obstacles in our past. It’s fearful, it is turning people into victims, which is making them feel like they have no blame. They can stop living, they can stop having to accomplish or even try hard things, because there’s this deadly thing out there that might kill them. This is not who we are.
And I’ll tell you, I really believe — you know, we talk about the election, “the most important in our lifetimes.” I’m tired of hearing that, because I’ve heard it for every election my whole life, at least the last 30 years. And I think, true or not, this one really is crucial because of what the stakes are. This is not just where the Republicans or Democrats are going trade power again, or maybe the Republicans are going to hold on to it. This is about what this country is going to be.
COVID-19 is too convenient an excuse for a generation of people to just punt. We don’t do this, we are Americans.
In the Spanish flu — ’17, ’18, ’19, 1917, '18 — much death. Do you know that there was not one mention of it by the president of the United States at the time, Woodrow Wilson? Never talked about it, there was no national policy to deal with it. There was no shutdown, there was just, “Hey, go outside, get some fresh air, stand in the sun as long as you can, get some vitamin D, feel better.” It had numerous waves to it. It coincided with World War I, which is what Woodrow Wilson’s concern was. Soldiers going off to war arguably spread one of the waves. But there was no, “Woe is us.” It was just the next in a long line of things that happened to people that they dealt with — like the Donner party.
You’ve heard of the Donner Party? Maybe some of you haven’t. The Donner Party, the Donner family and a bunch of travelers trying to get to California over the Sierra Nevada mountain range. They made the mistake of trying to make the trip in the middle of winter. We’re talking the Lake Tahoe region. They get to the peak. It was so bad that they had to turn to cannibalism to survive. That’s what’s noteworthy about the Donner Party. If you read the diaries written by the leaders of the Donner Party, the only reference to how cold it was, was one sentence: “It was a particularly tough winter.”
It’s just what was. They didn’t complain about it, because there was nothing they could do. They had to adapt. This is what’s missing. There seems to be no concept of adaptation. There seems to be no understanding in the Millennial generation that we can adapt to this, and that we’re going to have to.
Because there’s nothing stopping it right now. We don’t have a vaccine, we don’t have therapeutics. We can’t shut down bars and restaurants every two months for a couple of weeks, for the next three years. We can’t do this cycle that we’re doing. This cycle that we’re doing's not stopping anything, it’s not saving anybody, it’s not preventing the spread. It’s just a knee-jerk reaction to a bunch of shock, scary numbers in the media.
Life has to go on. Life is to be lived. It’s not meant to be spent cowering and curled up in the corner in fear. It’s not meant to be spent as a victim. Your life is worth more than simply saying, “There's nothing I can do about it, I have an excuse for not even trying.” But this is exactly where we are — and it’s not who we are.
And I believe this should become one of the themes that the president adopts, as he adapts to what’s necessary going forward in his presidential campaign. A national address to the – heck, I’ll do it — a national address to the country, telling the people of this country the truth of this. Who we are, how we got here — not here with the virus, here as a superpower. We need to contradict all of this tripe and meaningless B.S. that Black Lives Matter and Antifa and Occupy Wall Street are trying to spread. People need to be told the inspirational, uplifting truth about who they are, about their inheritance as an American citizen — and their responsibility as an American citizen.