Rush Limbaugh quotes Stalin!You’ve done it! You readers who are passing our Network America messages around the internet have a done a fantastic job. My activity is generally limited to writing the messages. When we’ve reached the level of having the Stalin quote we sport on the votefraud.org website – used by Rush Limbaugh – then you’ve done an amazing job in spreading these messages far and wide.
I generally never listen to talk radio unless I’m driving in my car, but I jumped into my car at about 2:30 PM Friday November 24, 2000 – just in time to hear Rush Limbaugh say this (paraphrase): “The Gore team isn’t trying to steal the election behind closed doors – they’re doing it right in public! What did --- where’s that quote from Stalin that all over the internet . . . (rustling of papers) . . . Here it is: “Those who vote decide nothing, those who COUNT the votes decide everything.”
Now, Rush didn’t get the quote exactly right in his haste, nor is he bringing it up for the same reason we are. We want to restore verifiable elections everywhere and always, he wants to get George Bush elected right now.
But what this shows is the tremendous impact being had by all of us who are spreading this information. And now for a, as they say, “clarification” about the Stalin quote.
I got an email from a Mr. Bruce Levy at the Wall Street Journal on Monday, November 20. Below is his email, just as it came:
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Levy, Bruce" <Bruce.Levy@wsj.com> Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 13:18:10 -0500
my name is bruce levy i work at the wall street journal i am looking for a stalin quote. quote is "those who cast the votes decide nothing.those that count the votes decide everything" my question is was this a stalin quote?
if not let me know.
rgds.bruce levy
End of wsj email from Mr. Bruce Levy.
Here is my answer, which you all need to see since the quote is becoming so darn popular.
Answer by email to Mr. Levy of the Wall Street Journal, the words in brackets are improvements to the wording of the original email:
Dear Mr. Levy --- We began circulating this quote [I heard] it from call ins to Radio shows [on which] I was on [as a guest] -- and from people writing us. We say that it is attributed to Joseph Stalin.
In fact, I cannot cite the exact source of this quote in any kind of an historical record. The funny thing is, this quote seems to have more legs than everything else we are doing. It recently appeared on the O'Reilly Factor from a viewer letter, and so forth.
We have continued to use it as it falls into the category of other famous quotes which become popular without specific historical documentation, however, I would be interested in any comments you may have on circulating "word of mouth" quotes like this which seem to have gained wide acceptance --- Regards, Jim Condit Jr.
End of my answer to Mr. Levy of the WSJ.
Before this, famed Libertarian writer Mr. Lewellyn Rockwell wrote me asking the same question. I replied to him, and he suggested that, under the circumstances, we cease to use the quote until a source of the quote can be documented.
While I am open to persuasion on this matter, I do not agree with discontinuing its use for the following reasons:
1. There are many “word of mouth” quotes in circulation which are repeated over and over again.
2. There were elections in Communist Russia, even though the opponents, if any, never had a chance.
3. My alternative at this point is to believe that a man from Texas who called in to the Roger Friedenberg show (I believe that was the show) while I was a guest on that show in 1996 manufactured the quote and gave Stalin the credit, which doesn’t seem very likely. (That was the first place I heard it.)
4. If Stalin didn’t say it, he should have. (This is not really a reason, but it underscores how powerful the quote is.)
5. Seriously, if anyone can document where this quote came from – either from Stalin or from someone else, let us know – but until then -- I accept it as a good word of mouth quote, such as: “Allow me to issue a nation’s money, and I care not who makes the laws,” – which is attributed to Amshel Rothschild; or “There’s a sucker born every minute,” – attributed to PT Barnum; or “Let them eat cake,” attributed to Marie Antoinette.
There’s the up to date scoop on the votefraud “Stalin quote” – now appearing not only on our votefraud.org and Network America websites, but also on the O’Reilly Factor on Fox News a week or so ago in the form of a letter to the show, and now, even on Rush Limbaugh.