Jarret Wollstein
and Christopher Ruddy
Saturday, Feb. 1, 2003

Michael Savage is a plain-speaking star of talk radio.

His syndicated daily talk show is heard on more than 300 stations with up to 5 million listeners a week. He doesn’t pull any punches in criticizing what he considers the greatest threats to our nation: radical left-wingers and the liberal media.

Savage’s new book, "The Savage Nation," has come out of nowhere to skyrocket to the top of the best-seller lists in just a few weeks.

In this exclusive NewsMax interview, he talks about cultural and political threats to America, the impact of 9/11, how the leftist media boost the chances of another 9/11-type attack, how to handle the problem of illegal aliens, and much more.

NEWSMAX: Congratulations on success of your book. We understand it’s now in the top five on most best-seller lists.

SAVAGE: It will be No. 1 on the New York Times' best-seller list next week. (Editor's note: This has indeed now happened.)

NEWSMAX: To what do you attribute the enormous success of your book?

SAVAGE: The directness of my writing style and my message.

NEWSMAX: What are the three most important points of your book?

SAVAGE: That liberalism is a mental disorder that has undermined our families, our society and our national security.

NEWSMAX: How would you define liberalism?

SAVAGE: It goes back to Rabelais, the French writer, who was the progenitor of the beatnik and the hippie, who wrote “do as you will,” if it feels good, do it. What happened is people believe that hogwash, they don’t believe in any repression.

All of the ethics I was raised in - which is control yourself, sacrifice, hard work – was thrown out in the cultural revolution of the 1960s. The result is the society we have today, the illiteracy, the illegitimacy, the degeneracy and the treason.

It all a result of that, the breakdown of society control promulgated by the radical left of the 1960s, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary and a few scummy lawyers, and let’s thrown in Betty Friedan and the feminists.

NEWSMAX: Why did America accept these ideas?

SAVAGE: Because people are fundamentally weak. You know a child, if you tell him to eat his vegetables, he won’t eat them if you put candy on the plate. What you’ve got to do is put vegetables on his plate and tell him to eat them or starve.

You can’t give people unlimited choice. Even a dog will eat candy and get sick and die.

The candy of society was if you do what you wish, you not only will feel better, but you’ll be healthier and live longer because you will be liberated. That’s the message of “if it feels good, do it.”

NEWSMAX: Do you see a movement in the opposite direction now?

SAVAGE: The country is ever so slowly awakening to what has happened, but I don’t know if we are going to be saved. Take a look at what’s happening with Iraq.

You have outright treason being committed by senators like Barbara Boxer. They might as well be working for Saddam Hussein. You’ve got people like Wolf Blitzer, who might as well be part of the propaganda machine of Saddam Hussein. If these people had been in power in the 1940s most of your readers would either be speaking German or be lampshades.

NEWSMAX: Do you favor a U.S. attack on Iraq now?

SAVAGE: First of all, it’s irrelevant what I favor, because it’s going to happen. Because he’s the commander in chief, not me, not you, not anyone else. These are decisions that are made at the highest government level. I have to assume that they have information I don’t have.

I’m not saying they’re God-like, but the fact of the matter is this man, Saddam, has said he will get us. “I will bury you.” “I will kill you.” So it’s only a matter when. Do we let our enemy gain a foothold because we won't cut his legs out from under him?

NEWSMAX: What do you think of the idea of a targeted assassination rather than a military invasion?

SAVAGE: People say “targeted assassination” as if it’s possible. It’s impossible. The man has body doubles. He’s never in the same place twice. He has some 100 palaces.

Of course they would have done it if they could have. I’m sure they’re tried for years.

NEWSMAX: CBS announced on Friday that the initial attack on Iraq would be what they call “Shock and Awe” consisting of some 600 cruise-missiles hitting Baghdad the first two days of the war. In view of the potentially enormous number of civilian casualties this could cause, do you favor it?

SAVAGE: Let me start with I don’t want war. No one wants war. I want peace. But we’re facing an implacable enemy who has already attacked us on our own shores. What wake-up call do we need now?

We have already lost 3,000 civilians, but the liberal media is more concerned about the potential loss of Iraq civilians than the death of our own civilians.

When you have Arabs who put their armament factories in the midst of civilian areas – the Palestinians have done this for years – this part of the strategy of war.

If you read the history of war you’ll understand that stealth, guerilla war, anything goes is part of the strategy of war. They know they can’t take us on face to face, so they’re fighting a guerrilla war in their own way.

NEWSMAX: Do you think the U.S. will be hit again in a major attack like 9/11, and what is the best thing we can do to stop that?

SAVAGE: I have no way to gauge whether we will be hit. All I know is that the CIA and FBI don’t fail to stop telling us “we will be hit.” I find this unbelievable that they keep tell us “expect to be hit with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

Let’s assume they are telling us the truth. So what can we do to stop this?

We could have stopped it before 9/11 had we not allowed political correctness to grip the minds of law enforcement. We could have rounded up all those suspicious people who shouldn’t be here. We could have stopped them from getting on borders. We could have prevented them from boarding airplanes.

The 19 hijackers were actually noted by the airline when they first got on the plane in Maine. This is a very interesting story. The airline security actually noted that they were flying first class, they had no luggage, and they looked like foreign nationals.

They wanted to detain them. The reason that they could not is that liberal, sick lawyers had sued the airlines prior to that occasion for "racial profiling," and the airlines lost the lawsuit. So the airlines weren’t able to use their own best judgment. That’s a microcosm of why we were hit on 9/11.

NEWSMAX: You have a chapter in your book, “Diversity Is Perversity,” but isn’t America a nation built on diversity and many cultures?

SAVAGE: Yes, but let me tell you the whole word, the concept of “diversity” was pushed forward by the radical gay movement, who camouflaged themselves under the guise or radical and ethnic diversity, in order to push the homosexual agenda. Diversity was originated by the radical gay movement to in order to stealth fully insert themselves as a minority group.

Just a few years ago, some blacks were offended by gays comparing themselves to the civil rights movement. You don’t see that any more. Suddenly, they’re all brothers.

When I say diversity I refer to those who promulgated the whole myth that homosexuality is just another part of the whole diversity mosaic. However, how much diversity can any society withstand? Are there limits to it? Should there be a dominant culture and then others, or must everyone be equal in the quilt?

NEWSMAX: You have another section in your book called “Sluts Vs. Virgins.” Do you think we should return to total sexual abstinence for teens?

SAVAGE: How are you going to keep them down on the farm after they’ve seen Berlin? I do think the next generation is going to surprise the left. There’s a complete revulsion toward this wanton life.

NEWSMAX: You say “America’s borders are overflowing with the flotsam and jetsam of humanity.” How would you limit immigration?

SAVAGE: By putting troops on the U.S. borders.

NEWSMAX: What about migrant farm workers who I understand harvest up to 80 percent of the crops in California, which in turn feed much of the U.S.?

SAVAGE: There is no question that they work like animals, they work hard, and anyone who was raised on hard work has to admire them. But let’s look at the cost.

Let’s say they’re making $10 an hour. And people say, “Who would do it for that, it’s back-breaking work?”

What they don’t know is that the migrant worker usually has a large family that’s not working. They’re usually being supported by taxpayers. It includes education, medication, legal care, housing. That costs the taxpayer probably $30-$40 an hour in terms of social services. That’s one part of the equation.

The part is that we have millions of able-bodied bums on welfare who used to pick the crops. Let’s face it; nobody wants those jobs. But if you have welfare, why take a job when you can sit on your ass? I’m saying freely available welfare is why we don’t have people willing to do the factory and farm work.

NEWSMAX: Has 9/11 changed America for the better or worse?

SAVAGE: 9/11 may save America because finally our vigilance is slowly rising, with the exception of the left, which has become more insane than ever. In other words, we finally have some vigilance. Whether it’s too little, too late, I don’t know.

NEWSMAX: Finally, what would you your first week in office if you were elected president of the United States?

SAVAGE: Resign.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

DNC

Immigration/Borders

Media Bias

Middle East

Saddam Hussein/Iraq

War on Terrorism