He is talking about politicians and the donor class and the organizations that get their way in legislation, not regular folks.
He was talking about the Democratic Party ("The rats, in this case, are the Democrat Party." -- Rush the Inveigher, as quoted by Nick) Democrats are about 35% of the overall population. If he meant something smaller than that, he didn't say so.
Rush thinks people like you are brainwashed sheeple ; certainly not rats.
Did you really just use the word "sheeple"? Are you a punk garage band in 1994? Do I come across as "meek" or "easily persuadable" to you?
It would be ironic if he thought that, as he's built his entire career on shouting misinformation and half-truths into a microphone to scare his listeners. He's a conscious peddler of outrage porn, which requires a whole flock of credulous fools taking it all in. But the hook is that, while he's shouting into your ear about the infestation of rats, he's also confirming for you, dear listener of the EIB network, that you know better. You're not one of the dumb Democrats. You know how the world really works. And that makes you feel smart, and superior, and smug, and righteous, and people like to feel that way about themselves, and so they swallow the vitriol because it affirms for them their own self-worth.
The fact of the matter is that any large group, when viewed from a distance, looks pretty herd-like. Conservatives, liberals, Christians, atheists, sports fans, anyone. That doesn't mean the individuals in the group are dumb, it's just a sociological property of group behavior. There are leaders, and there are followers, and the leaders always look a lot more clever than the followers who they contrast against, in part because you seldom get to hear what the followers have to say.
I agree he went too far here. I don't think you are a rat.
That's generous of you.
You are the unfortunate consequence of being a millennial and educated in a typical school.
Technically, I'm not a Millennial. I'm just a little bit too old. But I do identify with them somewhat. And I had a fine education, which left me with a skeptic's ear, that it seems to me too few people possess.
Indoctrinated people are to be sympathized, not demonized.
You poor dear.
