America Will Continue to Decline Unless the GOP Establishment Embraces

RUSH: And greetings to you, music lovers, thrill-seekers, conversationalists all across the fruited plain. I of course am El Rushbo, the Grand Wizard of broadcasting with some props there to David Gregory of NBC News and Meet the Press. That's right, my friends, the Grand Wizard. Well, Gregory said that there's no Grand Wizard in the Republican Party to tell Herman Cain to shut up or go away. And he didn't realize, he claims, you know, Herman Cain being an African-American, you want to talk about Grand Wizards and people like Sheets Byrd, late Sheets Byrd in the Senate, it might be a little offensive, so Gregory went out there and apologized. (interruption) No, he was a Kleagle, Sheets Byrd was a Grand Kleagle. I am the Grand Wizard of broadcasting.

Folks, I normally wouldn't do this. I have to tell you, I don't know how this show is gonna go today because everything, I mean everything associated with putting this program together today has failed, has been a total 150% disaster. I'm in the mood to whine, since this is a nation of whiners. I'm in the mood to whine and complain. Of course I don't do that. I almost want to 'cause I want everyone to know how horrible this has been today. It has been one failure, computer blowing up. Now that I think about it, I don't want to get into it. We're in LA by the way. We have a new printer. I need literally a telescope, not a microscope, a telescope to see it. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

If you're in the IRS and you want to audit me, this is your year because every calendar I've got has been corrupted. They're all saying, "Don't say that. Don't say that." Every calendar has been corrupted. Cookie sends the sound bite roster which is normally anywhere from eight to 12 pages -- look, even this one. I've got 50 pages of gibberish here for the sound bite roster so I don't even know what we got sound bite-wise. It wasn't the DirecTV on the airplane. It was the cabin temperature. We couldn't keep the cabin temperature regulated on the airplane coming out yesterday. Folks, I could be a genuine Occupy Wall Streeter today 'cause I have got three hours, maybe eight hours of stuff to whine, moan, and complain about, but I think I've about got it out of my system here. (interruption) What election? Oh, the election results in Ohio. You upset about Issue 2?
Issue 2 in Ohio, the unions, they did win big, they stomped three to one there.

There was a stark difference between the way they did it in Ohio and the way they did it in Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, when they started this whole debate with the unions and givebacks and ending collective bargaining, they exempted the cops and the firefighters to take that ammo away from the Democrats and the unions. In Ohio they didn't. In Ohio, Issue 2 would have stripped the collective bargaining rights from cops and from firefighters, and that was an opening for the Democrats to run in and tell people you're gonna lose your house, it's gonna burn down and the firemen won't show up. The way to look at Ohio, you could say a little schizophrenic, but Issue 3 won by a bigger margin, that was the state of Ohio telling the federal government they don't want any part of Obamacare mandates. That one was 66% majority, a bigger majority than what Issue 2 won with. And the Democrats are worried about that.

Debbie "Blabbermouth" Schultz is out there, and get this now. She heads the Democrat National Committee and she said, (paraphrasing) "I don't care what the people said, because the people don't matter. The courts are going to decide Obamacare. I don't care." So here she is, they're all out there, the Democrats celebrating Issue 2 and the unions winning big, and the unions outspent three to one. Look, it's an organizational thing. The mother's milk of politics is money. In fact, somewhere, if I can read it, we got a new printer, I don't know why, if I can read it there's a story here that describes this thing, Issue 2 in Ohio is just really the first solid win the Democrats have had in a while. They have been taking it on the chin in a lot of places, and they took it on the chin on Issue 3 yesterday. They lost in Wisconsin, and that was a big Democrat state. So, no, you're not gonna win everything and Ohio is what it is.

I'm not trying to minimize it. Folks, we talked about it at great length yesterday. We are a nation in decline. I mean we've got a lot of people in this country -- oh, and another thing. I probably got two hours' sleep last night. Of course that usually means good things for the show, so we'll see. But we have a competition here, and boil it down to its essence, how many people in the country think, despite the past two and a half years, this is the real irony to me, the last two and a half to three years what the government has done -- forget a name. Let's not even mention Obama. The government, look at the jobs in the private sector government policy has destroyed. Look at the hellfire and brimstone, the damage to everyday life, home values, you name it, government policy is responsible for all of it in just the past two and a half, three years, and yet look at the inordinately large number of people who think only the government can fix it.

To me it's a major disconnect, and there is in way too many people, you and I know this, more and more people don't even consider the concept of self-reliance. More and more people don't even consider they might have a way out of their problem themselves. This is not how the country was built. The country was not built by people with attitudes that seem to be prevalent today. I'm amazed at the number of people, when faced with a problem, think, "Okay, what's the government gonna do?" I have a story, was it Memphis, the journalist here very supportive and sympathetic of now serving dinner at the schools because the poor little kids can't go from ten a.m. when they have lunch all the way to the end of the day. Gotta have dinner at the school.

This would have been unthinkable when I was in school -- and you, too, Snerdley. So go through the stacks of stuff, and no. I think we're a nation at risk in a dangerous world, and part of the danger is internal. Really. You can boil it down to how many people -- despite the damage done by government -- still think, "Well, what is the government gonna do to fix this?" It's a battle, and you talk to people about winning elections. "Well, you know, they're outorganizing us out there! They're beating us in the early voting and we really getting our organization going," and all that's true. But without... (interruption)

Oh. Is the Dittocam working? Is it? Is that what it looks like? That looks horrible. (interruption) Yeah, it's working, but it looks horrible. The angle. I gotta get a crick in my neck to look at the Dittocam out here. Anyway, I've not lost my place even though the temptation is great to just tell 'em to go get a tape from yesterday. "It was a great show yesterday! Replay it! It could have helped a lot of people." We have the circumstance, organization is fine, but we're missing out on the ideas business, the ideological business. When I heard Karl Rove basically attest to the credibility of Gloria Allred in the Herman Cain business, there's a message there, folks -- and the message is that in the Republican Party, the establishment really doesn't want conservatives to triumph.

Well, the bad thing about that is that conservative wing of the Republican Party is where the ideas are. The other guys, they're absorbed with policy and they're absorbed with organization -- and all that's necessary, but let's say we beat 'em in early voting, and let's say we beat 'em in turnout and we win elections. With who, to do what? That kind of thing matters. When you say we're not winning in Ohio the Issue 2 because of organization or whatever, I would say I think it was a loss of ideas, because Issue 3 was also fought. We were way outspent on Issue 3, if I'm not mistaken. This is the issue to reject the federal mandate to buy insurance in Obamacare. That was defeated soundly, and what defeated that was the idea, the concept, the premise, the ideology, the principle of it.

But I don't know (I wasn't in Ohio) if the people that ran our campaign there even got into the ideas of it. Some of the people on our side even afraid to go after the unions (which is understandable; they'll come to your house and beat you up) and the wording of Question 2 was one of those weird things where voting "no" meant "yes" and vice-versa. You had to vote counterintuitive. It sounded like it was written by a union thug, and it probably was. But, Snerdley, to answer your question: I still remain optimistic even despite the personal disaster that today has been so far because we still have the ideas. All we need is more and more people with courage to express 'em and run for office on 'em. They win every time they are tried -- every time people are given an option, ideas-wise.

RUSH: I want to flashback to what I said after the 2010 midterms. This is a warning that I gave November 3rd, 2010, about the results of those midterms.

RUSH ARCHIVE: Last night was just the beginning. Last night didn't solve anything. A long way to go. That's why don't be depressed. Last night was a wipeout. Last night was such a wonderful event to build on. You may interpret what I'm saying as equating where we are to helplessness. I am not at all saying that. Don't misunderstand me. Yes, there are large forces, powerful forces. They don't always win. If they always won, we would have ceased being the United States a long time ago. We are still the United States. We are finally now in a position to start fighting back. The question is, will the people we elected fight back?

RUSH ARCHIVE: They don't, they're gone, and a new crop gets sent in there in 2012.

RUSH: Yeah, that's what I said after the 2010 midterms. I want you to hear "Blabbermouth" Schultz, Debbie "Blabbermouth" Schultz and compare it to John Kasich's reaction of the vote in Ohio last night. Debbie "Blabbermouth" Schultz was on MSNBC last night. I don't know what this means, but if it weren't for MSNBC we wouldn't have any liberal sound bites. I've told Cookie I'm sick of it, ban MSNBC, and we can't, 'cause there's no other place to get liberal sound bites. There isn't any other place. I mean CNN is just insane over there. They emphasize their hosts, they have guests, but just roll tape on 'em and it's so boring. It's not worth putting anything from CNN on the air.

If it weren't for MSNBC there wouldn't be any liberal sound bites. Now, that has to mean something. That has to mean that they're rare, that they're not everywhere. They may be everywhere in print, but, you know, left-wingers on the radio, genuine cuckoo's nest. You wouldn't even want to go there. I wouldn't play that stuff. MSNBC's it, and it's two shows or three shows. It's it is morning thing with Scarborough, it's the Larry O'Donnell show at night, and maybe occasionally something from Reverend Sharpton. (interruption) Well, yeah, sometimes Sergeant Schultz. Sergeant Schultz is out there walking amongst abandoned railroad cars looking for the future of America. I know there's Algore's channel, but that's nothing worth highlighting. It really says something. MSNBC is the only place in the media to get these liberals. It's the only place hear Debbie "Blabbermouth" Schultz. Anyway, let's get to the sound bite. Here she is talking about the results in Ohio last night.

SCHULTZ: Lawrence, I think the more important, duhh, news tonight on -- on the, uh, Affordable Care Act is that the DC Court of Appeals, uh, written by a -- a very conservative judge, overwhelmingly upheld as constitutional the Affordable Care Act, and the DC Court of Appeals is a significant court, one of the most significant courts in the country; and, uh, to have the conservative judge write the majority opinion upholding that law as constitutional, that sends a clear message as to the likelihood of success when this -- when that legislation gets to the Supreme Court and that answer the question of whether a mandate is constitutional overall.

RUSH: Now, folks, I hate to tell you this, but she's half right here about something. When I read the story today of what she's talking about, I was floored. The lead judge who wrote the opinion is a man named Laurence Silberman. He is Ronald Reagan. He was nominated by Reagan. This is the equivalent of Reagan writing an opinion and changing. This is profound. I just don't know any other way to sugarcoat this, and what Silberman cited as his reasoning? He said the right to be... Let me make sure this is right. The mandate, Silberman wrote, "seems an intrusive exercise of legislative power [and] certainly is an encroachment on individual liberty, but it is no more so than a command that restaurants or hotels are obliged to serve all customers regardless of race, that gravely ill individuals cannot use a substance their doctors described as the only effective palliative for excruciating pain or that a farmer cannot grow enough wheat to support his own family.

"The right to be free from federal regulation is not absolute, and yields to the imperative that Congress be free to forge national solutions to national problems, no matter how local -- or seemingly passive -- their individual origins." I can't believe this! Folks, I don't want to panic you, but whoever you think is the most rock-ribbed conservative writing an opinion basically denouncing conservative theory and policy and agreeing with liberalism, that's who Laurence Silberman is. He was one of the most highly respected jurists in town. He's not a young man anymore. But Debbie "Blabbermouth" Schultz is right. What Silberman thinks and writes could have impact on justices at the US Supreme Court, but so do the voters, and so do election returns.

This was a slam-dunk. Like Debbie "Blabbermouth" Schultz may think that what the people said at the ballot box in Ohio on the mandate doesn't matter because of what this court did. She's not totally correct there, because judges do follow election results. But it must be said that the DC Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the mandate -- the health care reform law's requirement that nearly all Americans buy insurance -- and the most conservative judge in America wrote the opinion.

RUSH: Here's Kasich last night in Columbus Ohio. He held a press conferences to talk about the election results.

KASICH: It's clear that the people have spoken -- and, you know, my view is when people speak in a campaign like this, in a referendum, you have to listen when you're a public servant. There isn't any question about that. I've heard their voices. I understand their decision -- and, frankly, I respect what people have to say in an effort like this.

RUSH: Yeah. That's losing gracefully. Contrast that with Debbie "Blabbermouth" Schultz. "Ah, screw the people! It doesn't matter what the people think. We got the judge; we got the courts," and they do. That's the way they look at it. It's just the way they look at it. The people don't matter. You get the courts even when you lose elections you win issues because the judges can legislate from the bench. Here's another portion of what Kasich had to say.

KASICH: It requires me to take a deep breath, you know, and to spend some time reflecting on what happens here. You know, you have a campaign like this, you give it your best. If you don't win and the people speak in a loud voice, you pay attention to what they have to say and you think about it. So people ask, "What will you do if this doesn't fail?" I can tell you. Now it's a chance for me to catch my breath and try to gather my thoughts together as to -- for what we do next.

RUSH: I think he's beating himself up here. This is not his fault. There's a matter of being outspent three to one. I really hope he doesn't believe all this. I mean, the unions have spoken, but "a government of the unions, by the unions, for the unions can't stand." Not for long. They'll run out of other people's money. So I'm just hoping. I know Governor Kasich a little bit, and I'm hoping he's taking the humility here just a bit too far.

‘Silberman wrote, “seems an intrusive exercise of legislative power [and] certainly is an encroachment on individual liberty, but it is no more so than a command that restaurants or hotels are obliged to serve all customers regardless of race, that gravely ill individuals cannot use a substance their doctors described as the only effective palliative for excruciating pain or that a farmer cannot grow enough wheat to support his own family.’

Absolutely right. If the federal government’s overstepping its bounds and violating state sovereignty is acceptable, then there is no point in trying to stop it in particular cases. All of the instances cited by the judge are an outrageous grab for power on the part of the federal monster.

Even though this happens over and over in cycles, Rush misses the fact that Republicans gaining back some power motivates the Democrat groups, and demotivates the Republican groups. This always happens and is easily predicted(as I did more than once) . And so Obama is campaigning claiming that it is now a Republican held congress.

Political battles require careful design and delivery of the message to voters, and Republicans never seem good at that. Winning without a winner's plan is just moving the chairs around again.

Walker has taken lots of liberal fire too, and so he starting playing up the bipartisionship talk to the WI voters. Kasich is now in a tougher position than that.

There is another possibility that is rather unpleasant and it is not optimistic. Americans were once a People. A People think and act as one. To put it another way they are of one mind. We became a people circa 1865 and we expanded in wealth and power.America was alive! As a People we elevated into office a high average of leader.(Great leaders do not make a great People but a great People raise up Great leaders.)

Starting about 1960 and continuing to date at an ever increasing rate we have become not a People but a demographic and as such unable to raise up competent men.

The country is flooded with aliens who are largely takers and who will vote for the persons who give them the most. Egalitarianism has uprooted exceptualism.

The election of the flake currently in the White House is living proof that the American People are failing to raise up competent men. From now on if a good man is elected it will be a mere "lucky hit" not a member of the previous high average.

The flake in the White House is a pure symptom. In my youth we would have died laughing if he even announced he was wunning for dog catcher in Chicago.

In all probablity America is now starting in its terminal decline. But at least we will all be EQUALLY miserable. Equality has arrived!

Caught 8 seconds of Rush while filling my coffee cup. Heard him say: We are a nation in decline...

My immediate reaction was “that is a soft-peddling understatement.” While true, it would be far more accurate and attention-getting to say “We are a nation under attack.”

Compare our situation today with that of just a few years ago when a liberal democrat President sent Americans by the hundreds of thousands to face death and misery in a distant jungle war in order to “prevent the spread of communism”.

Are there even more home-grown leftists in our government and society today than during that recent era? Are we failing to defend the Constitution through an effective education system? Does over-taxation and over-regulation by the government threaten to destroy a free market way of life that gives everyone a chance at success?

You are financially independent, Rush, and you have a microphone and an enormous national audience. Call out those who work in the open against our nation, including the RINO's. You have done well in the past in a few specific instances, but I encourage you to clearly and unequivocally call all of them out, my friend, while there is still time.

If the federal government’s overstepping its bounds and violating state sovereignty is acceptable, then there is no point in trying to stop it in particular cases.

Neither, however, is there any point in elevating the overstep into a principle and then capitulating to that "principle" as a basis for wrongly deciding a new case of even worse abuse of power.

Time to start looking for improper influence. Someone was holding Silberman by the back of the neck when he wrote that. He capitulated his principles -- and the Constitution, and Original Intent.

-——The country is flooded with aliens who are largely takers and who will vote for the persons-——

That is rationalization.

The fact is, American cites have gone to hell and largely control the countries politics. That is because the city dwellers demand liberalism and get it.

The die is cast. Until the cities are taken over and purged of politicians and people who insist on destruction of traditional American values there will be no change.

Until there is blood in the streets,that change will not occur.

RE :”Your #5 is well said. As I described it in early 2009: “The Republicans and the Democrats are in what could be a bloody struggle for control our nation, but only the Democrats realize that.”

Back in the 1990s I used to be a huge Rush fan. But I am much older and have seen alot more since then.

(Conservative) Talk radio hosts are not the best sources for political messages to win over voters. Their business is talking to audiences most of which believe anything they say, an echo chamber. That is why the messages coming from them to us are getting gloomy and gloomier. If they were convincing, they would be talking positive now.

Two quick tips:

1) If you want something in law to last, then explain in clear and precise terms why it is good for the general voter, and the opposite bad. “Less taxes for the rich makes us all better off” does NOT cut it

2) When Democrats pull out ‘experts’ and analysis and CBO numbers to prove that they are right, then you (Republicans) do the same. Show why Obama’s jobs bills are bad and pull out expert analysis to show it.

Call me frustrated.

Political battles require careful design and delivery of the message to voters, and Republicans never seem good at that. Winning without a winner's plan is just moving the chairs around again.

True, but political plans to do anything meaningful hardly have a good win-loss record.

What causes this political pendulum? You win an election, then what? If you are too careful, you will accomplish nothing or worse. If you go "too far," then the experts will say you "overreached," and in fact, as you explained above, that energizes the other side. It's not easy.

Thanks, Kaslin, for giving me the whole title . . after I'd read about four screens worth of irrelevancy.

Is "conservative ideology" only what Rush Limbaugh says it is, or can it be what other people who call themselves conservative say or write?

In the 1960s, when being called a conservative was considered a compliment -- we were more often called "the ultra-right" by the liberal media -- the GOP establishment consisted of people like Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, Sens. Clifford Case, Tom Kuchel and Everett McKinley Dirksen. It would have been next to impossible for any of the aforementioned to speak glowingly of conservatives, who were then on the Goldwater bandwagon after seeing Nixon lose two elections in a row and recognizing that there would be more defeats ahead if Republicans didn't put some distance between themselves and the Democrats.

The Conscience of a Conservative became the unofficial manifesto for Republicans who wanted to see a change in the Republican Party away from the welfare state and back toward local control of government functions.

Which conservative book has replaced Goldwater's as a blueprint for putting America back on the right track?

Or is there one? It's not from Limbaugh's word processor, I'm certain, because he hasn't written a book in the last 18 years or so.

So how does he expect the GOP Establishment to "embrace conservative ideology" when it's, at this point, a rather nebulous term?

Wouldn't it be more appropriate for someone in Rush's position to simply suggest that the RNC, the RSCC and all the rest of the establishment Republicans are too concerned about a strategy for winning the next election and not at all concerned about that strategy losing support from that portion of the membership who call themselves conservatives? As I see it, that's the problem.

RE :"What causes this political pendulum? You win an election, then what? If you are too careful, you will accomplish nothing or worse. If you go "too far," then the experts will say you "overreached," and in fact, as you explained above, that energizes the other side. It's not easy. "

Obviously it's not easy. But I see one side constantly in battle with strategies and new messages and the other side ..... like I say... Rush is talking gloomier and gloomier.

(Conservative) Talk radio hosts are not the best sources for political messages to win over voters.

That may be true inasmuch as they are not politicians. Nonetheless, they are in a position to bring clarity and reality to either a good or bad political message.

Those that claim the conservative space and fail to be, at the least, a component of the “best source” for neutralizing the liberal MSM’s steady daily pounding message deserve our rejection. .

Obviously it's not easy. But I see one side constantly in battle with strategies and new messages and the other side ..... like I say... Rush is talking gloomier and gloomier.

But not everything the Dems do serve them well in the long run either. Yes, Obama was "successful" with the porkulus and obamacare, but he lost quite a few congressional seats, and the economy is still wretched. If the voters are not completely apathetic or brain dead, Obama should lose this time.

Don't they always talk about "spending" political capital, not nurturing it as a a lasting asset? This is a description of the political pendulum.

As Von Moltke said, "No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy."

It would help if the GOP had more conservatives. People who have courage to do the right thing, but also make thoughtful plans flexible enough to have a good chance of real, long term success.

One might say, we need a Reagan now, but unfortunately today he would have no chance of being elected gov. in california.

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