Ladies and gentlemen, here we go again. Barack Obama promised his presidency would fundamentally transform the United States of America, and it sounds like he won’t stop until they are literally rewriting the dictionary. In a recent speech, President Obama redefined the American concept of “rugged individualism” - and it no longer involves “rugged” or “individualism”.
Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it may contain errors:
GLENN: So the president has come out with a fascinating new definition -- because that's really what we're into now, new definitions. We've redefined brave. We've redefined hate. We've redefined love. Let's we define -- because we have to change our words and our meanings. Let's redefine rugged individualism.
OBAMA: The rugged individualism --
GLENN: Stop. Stop. Before we go on, I just have to ask everybody here. Rugged individualism. How would you define that Jeff Fisher?
JEFFY: Strong by yourself.
PAT: The ability to take care of oneself, right? Come what may, you're independent. I'm going to make my own way. I'm going to make sure that whatever happens to me and mine, I'm going to take care of it.
JEFFY: And I don't need you.
PAT: I don't need you.
STU: This is the definition of individualism. The habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant. Now, rugged to me in this particular context would indicate that it's not always going to be easy. It might be bumpy. It might be hard. It might be tough to get through it. But you do it anyway because you believe in self-reliance so much.
PAT: Right.
GLENN: You're tough. You're tough. Nothing will stop you from being self-reliant.
PAT: It certainly doesn't mean I'm depending on the government.
STU: No.
GLENN: Well, who would say that?
STU: Let me give you definition number two before you figure that out: A social theory -- this is for individualism -- a social theory favoring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control. That is the actual definition of the word.
GLENN: Okay. All right. So we got it. Rugged. Come hell or high water. Individualism, I am going to fend for myself and I'm going to make it. Rugged individualism. Here's the president's definition.
OBAMA: The rugged individualism that defines America has always been bound by a shared set of values.
PAT: Uh-huh.
STU: Uh-huh.
GLENN: Stop. Stop. Stop. I just want to say -- it's defined by a shared set of values. So we're already into the collective. It's defined by a shared --
PAT: Yeah, you're sharing it with everybody. My individualism is shared with everybody. My individualism is so collective that we all have it.
[laughter]
GLENN: I'm so independent that I'm tied to you in the same definition.
PAT: Yes.
OBAMA: That we're in this together.
PAT: We're in it together. Forget individualism. We're in it together.
GLENN: My individualism is a shared definition that we're all in it together.
[laughter]
OBAMA: That America is not a place where we simply turn away from the sick.
GLENN: Stop. Now, notice what he's done.
PAT: Uh-huh.
GLENN: We're all in it together. Our rugged -- I'm going to redefine some words and some theories here for you, kiddoes. I'm going to take and I'm going to turn it upside down. But then once I do that, before you can say that doesn't make any sense, I'm going to throw in something that we all do share, we don't let people starve. We don't let people die on the street.
PAT: Uh-huh.
GLENN: And if you want to define rugged individualism any other way, that means you'll let them die on the street.
PAT: That's what this guy does.
GLENN: That's what he's doing.
PAT: That's what he does all the time.
GLENN: That's how he makes you into someone who must be hated because he's redefining words. We all know that -- Webster, not the little black guy, the dictionary says -- Webster says rugged individualism is a determination to be able to make it on your own. Come hell or high water, you will make it on your own.
STU: Without anyone's help.
GLENN: Without anybody's help. That's the definition of that. He's changing the definition. And to be able to call you a bigot or a hater that just wants to have people die, he has to redefine the words "rugged individualism."
So when you say, wait a minute. No, I'm a Libertarian and I believe we can all make it. He then can go, well, see we -- we once had this shared idea that we don't let people starve in the street. Wait a minute. Hang on just a second. We were talking about what it means to be a rugged individual. It didn't mean I didn't help the person on the street who was dying, who maybe got their hand cut off by, oh, I don't know one of the new Islamic, you know, terrorists that you have working at the Department of Homeland Security. I don't know. Maybe that's what happened.
PAT: Rugged individualism has nothing to do with anybody starve to death. It has nothing to do with being poor. It has nothing to do --
GLENN: With the collective.
PAT: Any of this crap he's talking about.
GLENN: Right. It has nothing to do with the collective. It's who you are and how you make it. It doesn't mean that you make it at anybody else's expense. You're making it because you won't take a handout from anybody else. You don't need it. You will make it. It will make you stronger. You see somebody along the way that needs help. My Christianity, which I know he doesn't like, my Christianity tells me I have to help. My rugged individualism says, I don't need help. I'm going to do it. And I'm going to make it. And don't spend your time worrying about me. You worry about you.
Then when I get to somebody on the side of the street, my Christianity says, I got to help that person.
PAT: Yeah. It doesn't say I have to pay more taxes so the government can help that person. It says I have to.
STU: Individually.
PAT: Again, individually. So it's not conflicting with your rugged individualism.
GLENN: Correct.
PAT: Everything he's saying conflicts with the definition he's supposedly defining.
GLENN: I --
PAT: I mean, this is madness. This is --
GLENN: I'd like to raise my hand. I'd like to raise my hand. Enough is enough. Enough is enough. I just can't go there anymore. I raise my hand to say enough of the insanity.
PAT: How is it that somebody in this audience doesn't raise their hand and say, what you're saying doesn't make any sense. You don't have any clothes on right now. You have no clothes.
GLENN: He wasn't wearing clothes?
PAT: No, he wasn't. He was completely naked.
GLENN: Wow. For a minute I thought you were referring to that fairytale, the emperor has no clothes, but he's --
PAT: No, I was really -- it wasn't a metaphor. He was actually naked. He was actually naked.
GLENN: He was actually naked. Wow. Okay.
PAT: It was weird. I don't know why he did that.
GLENN: But there's more.
OBAMA: Turn our backs on the tired. The poor. The huddled masses.
It is a place sustained by the idea, I am my brother's keeper. I am my sister's keeper. That we have an obligation to put --
GLENN: Stop. Stop. Stop. That's not what sustains us. That's not what sustains us. I am my brother's keeper? All we would be is a hospital. That's all we would be.
PAT: And a broke one.
GLENN: And a broke one. No. It requires people to go out and create something.
PAT: Right.
GLENN: That's what sustains us. What lifts us up and makes us a great nation is we also help people and love people. My gosh this guy doesn't get it. He's -- honestly, he has a third grade understanding of the United States of America.
PAT: I don't give him that much credit.
GLENN: In today's world. Today's third grade.
OBAMA: And see each other's common humanity.
GLENN: Still defining rugged individualism.
OBAMA: After decades of trying, after a year of sustained debate, we finally made health care reform a reality here in America.
PAT: All about health care. Rugged individualism is about socialized health care.
STU: Again, I give you a social theory favoring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control. It's actually in the --
GLENN: It's actually the exact opposite of the dictionary definition.
STU: Uh-huh. And there we are. As Jeffy said so many times, whatever they say, you should believe the opposite.
JEFFY: Because the opposite is true.
STU: And here it is.
GLENN: That is absolutely unbelievable. Just unbelievable.
PAT: I don't -- I really -- I mean, I know he does this all the time. How does he get away with it? There's nobody that's curious about --
GLENN: Okay. All right. So when you -- there's two things that have happened to our country. One, you teach people to -- you can't make a difference. Don't say anything. Don't cause a hassle. Just -- just leave it alone. It will pass. Okay? So there's the first reason why we don't say anything. Just don't -- we're not -- we're not those people. We never have been. We just all want to get along. Okay? So we have backed up and backed up and backed up. And we have been taught to back up. Then comes the second lesson. You better shut up or we'll destroy you. Now, there is a third lesson to this. And that is, I'm going to beat you nearly to death and the fourth lesson is, I'm going to beat you to death. But the first two lessons are, you don't make a difference. It's better just to leave it alone. Just be quiet. That one has been taught my whole life. The second lesson has just started in the last ten years. And that is, shut up, or I'll destroy you. The third lesson is coming soon. Shut up or I will beat you within an inch of your life. And all you have to do is beat a few people. So we don't say anything because we're like -- have you ever been around a dog that has been abused? You are around a dog who's been abused, you reach out to pet that dog, and they turn away. They put their head down. They see that hand coming, and they think they're going to get hit. We're close to being that dog. We're not there yet. But we're close to being that dog.
Many Americans are that dog. We've never been hit. Think we're cowards now? We've never been hit. You have people now who are being put in jail because they were a baker who wouldn't make -- in jail! Not a fine. Jail. You do that, and enough people will say, you know what, I don't want this hassle. I'm just going to go on with my life. I just want to be left alone. We cannot be those people. We cannot be those people. You know, Martin Luther King, by the time he got to -- the entire black population was like that dog who had been abused. They had been abused for 300 years. So every time they saw a white person come, and they, still, many places they still flinch, you're white, they flinch. That's how deep the abuse went. You can't claim anything close to that abuse.
We're just getting to the point to where we're being told, you don't make a difference, and shut up and sit down or I'll destroy you. But look at what happened. When Martin Luther King taught them, no, no, no. Stop arguing. Stop fighting with each other. Start standing together. Start being who you really are. You're good, decent, honorable people that just want a fair shake. You're not trying to hurt anybody else. You're not trying to put the whites out of business. You're not trying to kill them. You're trying to just be a neighbor. That's all you're trying to be, is just be a neighbor. Hey, neighbor. Hey, neighbor. That's it. How unreasonable is that? Stand together and don't flinch. If they hit you, don't hit back. And look what he changed.
We don't have that ground to make up. Only a few people have been imprisoned or thrown in jail, like the baker. We have not had -- we don't have most of our society being thrown in jail. We have not received 300 years of abuses.
