Posted on 01/20/2016 3:25:10 PM PST by Bratch
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Man, are we loaded today. I'll tell you right now, it's going to take all three hours and then some. I'm gonna try to get it all in here in three hours. Much of today is gonna build on points that I have been making the past two days, evolving, growing, adding evidence to it, all rooted around the question, who is and what is the conservative movement, and why is it apparently behaving so oddly? I think I can explain this and much else to all of you as the program unfolds today before your very eyes and ears. It will explain the massive support for Donald Trump that people can't figure out. It will explain why there's abject hatred and panic over Trump in the Washington Republican and even conservative media establishment.
Trump picking Sarah Palin, or Palin deciding to endorse Trump just exacerbates it. And, by the way, Sarah Palin is gonna help me make my points today, because I read the transcript for her speech that she made, and it's actually -- the speech that Palin made yesterday for Trump, I saw people pan it, say she looked like she lost her place, she was reading cue cards, she didn't seem to be all there. I didn't see it, but I read the transcript of her speech, and I'm telling you it is -- well, I don't want to overdo it and say brilliant, but I'll tell you, she's got substantive, logical reasons for doing what she's doing. And she explained it yesterday for anybody who really wanted to pay attention to listen to it. So I'm gonna explain that.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: These are just thoughts that I had that I'm sharing with you. Don't attach any more to it. I want to warn you, this may not be good for me to say, and I'm gonna try to make it so it's not necessary, but you may need a lot of nuance listening to me today. Avoid knee jerks today if you can and hang in as I go through some of this stuff, because it's not complicated, but it is detailed. And of course I, ladies and gentlemen, excel at making the complex understandable.
This actually isn't that complex. It's just so strange. I'm not trying to be cryptic. I tell you, the last couple of days, remember the piece in National Review, David French, where he speculated that one of the problems going on with the Republican Party is they don't even know who their base is, that they have overestimated who their conservative base is. They do not understands it and overestimate it. In other words, the conservative base is not nearly as conservative as they think it is, nor is it conservative as they define it.
That's key. The way the Republican establishment defines conservatism is not what it is. To them it's hayseed hicks, pro-lifers running around in pickup trucks with shotguns in the back, bitter clingers. You know, Obama's not just speaking for himself on that. There are a lot of people in Washington in both parties who have that opinion of conservatives, and the Republicans might even look at their own base in that regard. But the truth is that they've overestimated the conservative base and furthermore they are clueless in understanding what it is that motivates their own base, and, as such, they're incapable of understanding why Trump has any support.
Now, I'm gonna explain all that to you today, and more. 'Cause I have been researching it, delving deeply into it. My own instincts in this from a year ago are being confirmed on a couple of things. Snerdley tells me... I didn't... I haven't seen this, but why would I doubt Snerdley? I mean, why would I think Snerdley would be wrong about this? Why would I think Snerdley would come to me with something wrong?
He's telling me that George Will... Is it a column today? (interruption) Well, you read it today. I don't know when it was published, but apparently George Will is saying that if Trump wins, he's advocating third party. (interruption) That he will go third party? (interruption) Oh, it was an interview? (interruption) It's not a column? (interruption) All right. All right. (interruption) Oh. If it's in your stack, I'll find it. I've been swamped in here.
I haven't had a chance to go through it. Anyway, George Will is talking third party. I can explain why that's happening, too, folks.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I think, folks, the thing that's happening here, the awakening that's taking place, and I think it's a serious awakening that is taking place within the Republican Party and the so-called conservative movement. When I talk about the conservative movement, to me I'm talking about Washington. I'm not talking about you in the grassroots. I'm talking about the establishment, conservative media, the brainiacs, the think tanks, the professors. And it's not bad, don't misunderstand. I'm just saying that there is a new understanding of who out in the country is actually conservative and who isn't.
I think what's actually being revealed here is that the Republican Party itself and even some of the conservative intelligentsia has misjudged and overestimated the conservatism of the base, negatively. They have a negative connotation of conservatism. They don't like it, obviously. They think it's the pro-lifers, the social issues, that's what they think conservatives are, and that that's all they are.
And they're embarrassed of 'em, don't like going to the convention with 'em, and their wives nag 'em about it. And what's being discovered here by virtue of the Trump candidacy is that this misunderstanding is being exposed. And it's now out in the open that the Republican conservative base is not monolithically conservative. It has lots of components that have been lumped together as conservative maybe for the past 30 years. And there are some people who think that this masquerade's over, is good that it's over, that the idea that conservatism is one type of thinking and one person and a monolithic thing, some people think it's a great idea to have this blown up.
I think the best way to explain it is that there are a lot of people in this country who are conservative. There are a lot of those people that won't admit it, for whatever reason, don't want anybody to know it, for whatever reason or another, and therefore they live and vote and do things for the most part which are conservative, certainly not liberal. But that's not the glue that unites them all. If it were, if conservatism -- this is the big shock -- if conservatism were the glue, the belief and understanding of deep but commonly understood conservative principles, if that's what defined people as conservative and was the glue that made the conservative movement a big movement, then Trump would have no chance.
He literally would have no chance. Because, whatever he is he's not and never has been known as a doctrinaire conservative. But neither is John McCain. Neither is 90% of the Republican Party, so it's not a criticism. It's not an allegation. The point is that if conservatism were this widely understood, deeply held belief system that united conservatives and united people as conservatives, then outsiders like Trump wouldn't stand a prayer of getting support from people. Yet he is. Therefore, it's safe to conclude that there are other things at play here that make people conservative. And look, I'm gonna go back to it.
The thing that's in front of everybody's face and it's apparently so hard to believe, it's this united, virulent opposition to the left and the Democrat Party and Barack Obama. And I, for the life of me, don't know what's so hard to understand about that.
Now, Sarah Palin and her speech. There she is in Tulsa. She's out making a campaign appearance. I guess Trump's in Tulsa. Oh, really? I just was told, "She looks better today." See? These poor women in politics, like Hillary. They can't get a break. "She looks better today." What, did she not look good yesterday? What, you didn't like that cowboy jacket or whatever it was? Why are they in Tulsa on the eve of the Hawkeye Cauci and the New Hampshire primary? Why are they there? The answer is easy. The answer is easy. I'm just asking it rhetorically.
Let's look at her endorsement speech. I don't have the whole thing here, but I've got most of it. It's not getting very much attention. Her jacket is getting more attention than what she said. I've seen people criticize her delivery, she lost her place, had to look at cue cards, Trump looked kind of out of place being not behind the podium. That, by the way, I said this in the first hour. I was surprised that Trump went the endorsement route. I mean, I am not surprised that he would accept it, but Trump just doesn't look like Trump giving up the podium and standing aside, I don't care who it is for. And endorsements are kind of the way it's done, right, in by-the-book politics, and Trump's not by-the-book politics. But what is by-the-book politics is win at all costs.
So if you have to suck it up and say you support ethanol, and if you want to accept endorsements from somebody that's gonna undermine Cruz, I guess you'll do it. But she, in her speech yesterday, she explained why conservatives are angry about what's happening to the country and why they are as angry at the Republican establishment as they are at the Democrats. And she explained how a permanent political class has been created and corrupted by what's now known as the donor class. And she made it plain that what she wants to do now is participate in a movement that holds every one of those people accountable for the damage they've done to the country, for the failures they continue to mount up and be.
"When asked why I would jump into a primary -- kind of stirring it up a little bit maybe -- and choose one over some friends who are running and I’ve endorsed a couple others in their races before they decided to run for president, I was told left and right, 'you are going to get so clobbered in the press. You are just going to get beat up, and chewed up, and spit out.' You know, I’m thinking, 'and?' You know, like you guys haven’t tried to do that every day since that night in ‘08, when I was on stage nominated for VP."
Her point is, and she got close to saying this in her own words but didn't. But really what people are complaining about, you know, why would you do this. What's the Republican Party ever really done for her? I mean, besides nominate, McCain chose her. But members of the Republican establishment did their best to destroy her, to impugn her reputation. The people that were assigned to handle her were out leaking to the press how stupid she is and how it was so bad, that she's so stupid. These people couldn't vote for their own candidate, McCain, because if something happened to him and she became president, they couldn't live with themselves if they'd made that.
So they were gonna vote Democrat or not vote at all. These were the people responsible for shepherding her through the campaign. So she's got a legitimate question. I've already been clobbered. I've been clobbered by the people who are gonna clobber me today before. "And, like you all, I’m still standing. So those of us who’ve kind of gone through the ringer as Mr. Trump has, makes me respect you even more. That you’re here, and you’re putting your efforts, you’re putting reputations, you’re putting relationships on the line to do the right thing for this country. Because you are ready to make America great again."
I think it's a salient point. It wasn't just Sarah Palin who was smeared by the media and the rest of the Democrat Party, and even the Republican establishment. It was her supporters, by extension, who were smeared and insulted. And now the same suspects, same usual suspects, are trying to do the same thing all over again, this time to Trump and his supporters, but Trump is fighting back, where she couldn't because she was part of the organization trying to win.
So she couldn't fight back even though I'm sure she was tempted to. I think this explains why so many Tea Party supporters and other conservatives are drawn to Trump even if he doesn't, you know, broadcast or display a bunch of conservative credentials. I mean, people have a bond and a connection here to people who are laughed at, made fun of, criticized, ripped to shreds and so forth just because of what they believe and who they are.
She said, "Now, eight years ago, I warned that Obama's promised fundamental transformation of America. That is was going to take more from you, and leave America weaker on the world stage. And that we would soon be unrecognizable. Well, it's the one promise that Obama kept. But he didn't do it alone, and this is important to remember. Especially those of you, like me, a member of the GOP, this is what we have to remember, in this very contested, competitive, great primary race.
"Trump's candidacy, it has exposed not just that tragic ramifications of that betrayal of the transformation of our country, but too, he has exposed the complicity on both sides of the aisle that has enabled it, okay? Well, Trump, what he's been able to do -- which is really ticking people off, which I'm glad about. He's going rogue left and right, man. That's why he's doing so well. He's been able to tear the veil off this idea of the system, the way that the system really works. And please hear me on this.
"I want you guys to understand more and more how the system, the establishment, works, and has gotten us into the troubles that we are in in America." So she's doing... You don't think she has wanted to do this for years? You don't think she's wanted to launch back at these people who tried to ruin her reputation and destroy her, and she wasn't able to because of the obvious requirements of party loyalty, loyalty to McCain and all that? She said, "The permanent political class has been doing the bidding of their campaign donor class, and that's why you see that the borders are kept open for them, for their cheap labor that they want to come in.
"That's why they've been bloating budgets. It's for crony capitalists to be able suck off of them. It's why we see these lousy trade deals that gut our industry for special interests elsewhere. We need someone new, who has the power, and is in the position to bust up that establishment to make things great again. It's part of the problem. His candidacy -- which is a movement. It's a force; it's a strategy. It proves as long as the politicos get to keep their titles, and their perks, and their media ratings, they don't really care who wins elections," as long as they get to maintain what they've got now.
She's not wrong.
She's more right about that even she may know.
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since Trump funded the Dem and GOP establishment which helped them get in power it will be a long fight for Conservatives to take power back from who Trump helped elect
George Will is a moron.
Wow, that was an eloquent response.
Tells me a lot about you too.
Also, read his response to me later on.
Let me expound. If the gop runs third party against Trump they will still lose, and destroy themselves.
Remember. He signed their pledge.
Yep it will take some time as it didn’t get this way overnight nor will it be cleaned up
in one term. But electing someone who has been a part of the process most of their life sometimes
isn’t the best way to clean up a mess. You bring in someone new without ties to the
establisment and charge them with righting the ship. That is what we need today, imo.
Personally I’d like to see term limits on the entire Congress with something longer than
the president. Elected officials don’t need to be lifetime jobs, imo.
Thoughts?
“Let me expound. If the gop runs third party against Trump they will still lose, and destroy themselves.”
And let me expand: the GOP of the past decades has lost anyway, as the top two contenders are GOPe.
“Get in a room and negotiate crap.”
You are projecting.
Read The art of the deal. He says he aims high -band usually gets exactly what he wants.
OTOH you could have a negotiator like Cruz who can’t even get people to talk to him.
Thanks Jim.
I listened today to Rush and got the same feeling as from reading this.
I do believe Conservative is an over-used and corrupted term. Too many people have used it to cover their real intentions with actions that are not “conservative” as we think of it.
Maybe a new term encompassing American( patriotic)- Constitutional (strict construction or legally amended) is needed. I have never been for a third party, but perhaps it is time for the Republican Party, which has left me, to be replaced.
And some of us just want to throw the corrupt, putrid corpse over the side and wash down the deck.
Conservative Orthodoxy today is embodied in the philosophies and actions of the Republican party. Foreign wars with no strategic interest at stake, free trade with mercantilists who would never open their markets to us...and who pay $2/hr. A tax code designed to pick winners, and which lets large interests buy their own win of the Congressmen and Senators that write it. Pork. Bailouts. No borders. No deportations. No concern about cultural invasion. And a debt that will become catastrophe.
This is what Conservative Orthodoxy has become and it's high time we take it out back and shoot it.
“Cruz is consistent Conservative”
Not on illegal immigration, which is my #1 issue.
He’s handed out bears, been for legalization, been silent, condescendingly said Americans don’t want to have that conversation, won’t deport, then will deport, was against Prop 187, and now is copying Trump’s very conservative position.
Disingenuous.
Ping to Sarah's List.
Rush Limbaugh's Take.
Correct.
| ...Cruz is the only real conservative here. And I will certainly vote for him. But Trump is offering us something that can't be ignored. Trump is breaking through the corrupt media and the corrupt republican establishment. Wonderful and balanced analysis and good comparison of Trump and Cruz's strengths. Let me pick up on your point and add some more thinking... What does it take to lead the country and make America great again? I think it boils down to leadership and excellence across three spheres:
OK, so let's break this down a little bit more. Beginning with the Policies area. This is the subject of most discussions on FR, in the media, and on conservative radio progams. And people on FR argue back and forth who would be more conservative: Trump or Cruz. And perhaps Cruz scores better on social issues. Trump meanwhile scores higher on stopping illegal immigration. And we could go right down the list of issues and compare their positions in all sorts of areas. So who has the better or more conservative policies? People on FR have debated that point for many, many months now and there is really no consensus. But here's my point: policies — as vital as they are — are only one dimension out of three we need to have a successful president. So let's now examine the Communications side of being a president. Here I would point to three arenas of competence:
Now I would argue that on all three of these fronts, Trump has a decided advantage over Cruz. First of all, as you said very well, Trump is the master of communicating with the media. Perhaps no one in the history of presidential elections has done better at working the media. And in the second area — communicating with Congress — I think Cruz is a bit handicapped because he's burned a lot of bridges fighting the good fight with the GOPe. And this was the subject of Peggy Noonan's column a few days ago. And on the social media front, Trump is pretty far ahead of other candidates, I think. Trump talks to his supporters multiple times per day on Twitter and has a huge following on both Twitter and Facebook. Finally, Administration is probably Trump's stongest suit. In fact, here's where Trump is holding four Aces while everybody else on the table only has a pair of 4's or 5's in their hand :- ) The guy owns and runs a company worth $10 billion. And he's beholden to no one: it's his company. He has no shareholders to please -- just customers. And he has customers, a winery, hotels, and golf courses across the world. OK, to wrap this long-winded analysis up then. I think what juices Trump supporters is this larger picture. It's not just what policies Trump would pursue, but also how effective he is likely to be implementing them in a huge bureaucracy while the MSM, Congress, and foreign leaders are trying to block his every move. It's a YUGE job!! But when you look at the broader scope of what's meant by "presidential leadership", then Trump scores awfully high. |
Better read up on George Will today as he floated that if no conservative is nominee, a 3rd party bid will be made.
So, only Trump had to sign a pledge not to run third party?
In almost every state there is a “sore losers law”. Look it up. It says that after the first state primary (Iowa) anyone who was on the ballot is ineligible for a third party run. A third party run will need to be fresh blood or someone like Perry who dropped out before the first primary vote. Trump lost nothing by his agreement if he was not going to ditch the GOP before Iowa.
I’ve been following Trump since last July and have yet to hear him promote single payer. It isn’t on his issues page either. So when he talks about getting rid of Obama Care, the precursor to single payer, I have to wonder where this idea comes from—if it is present day or years ago.
So! YOU. STILL. DON’T. GET. IT!
You purists want nothing less than complete lock step with whatever each of YOU individually define conservatism to be.
You would have us all goose step to your tune - even while the country literally burns and collapses down around you - just as long as you can hold up your fist in defiance and rage on of your “purity” during the meltdown.
The total destruction of EVERYTHING we ever were or could ever hope to be, is but a minor thing; for you will happily perish in the flames, and gladly be reduced to ashes, because you can shout from your graves that never did you deviate in the slightest from your dogma ... Let the irony of your indifference forever echo above the chard destruction ...
Let the epitaph be chiseled into the cold granite of your monolithic stupidity:
“Here lies Conservatism - His prideful cause perished with his country, but at least he never gave one inch!”
And you, oh purist, with your willing accomplices, made damned sure that neither could any other, less you beat them into submission with mockery and calumny.
In your arrogance of certainty, you forgot one very important axiom of life - a tree that never bends in the wind, snaps.
The game is not about electing the the most conservative candidate ... The game is, and has always been about choosing the MOST ELECTABLE conservative candidate.
You do not get the “purist” candidate - because there is not one who can win a national election. No sane citizen of this Constitutional Representative Republic is so self-absorbed in their orthodoxy as to play the purist fiddle while the nation burns to the ground around them. We have a nation to save, and a Republic to restore - In that most gravest of causes, purity must take a back seat to the necessity of preservation.
We are now in a fight to the death with forces that mean to utterly destroy us, and all we have ever been. Let me remind you of those fateful words spoken in our past:
“... Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. ...” - Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address
We need ALL hands on deck - the purists and the not so pure; the ideologue and the pragmatist; Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Independent, man, woman, young, old - every one who believes in what this country stands for ... We need every creed, color, race and ethnicity who, at their very core, are AMERICANS FIRST - purity be damned.
Donald Trump is not a straight down the list “pure” conservative - but then neither is Senator Ted Cruz, his protests to the contrary notwithstanding ... In fact, I doubt you will ever find such a one standing among us, because we each hold to a different idea of what defines that moniker of “conservative” - and that IS the point that Governor Palin was making in her endorsement speech.
On the other hand, the enemy we face is very “pure” - and very focused on one singular evil goal - our utter destruction ... He is the Dragon of fascist governance - call the beast “Smog” if you please, and ourselves the Hobbits. This entrenched and most powerful adversary desires that our rugged individualism, that guiding spirit which beats in every American heart, be burned out of existence and replaced with subservient collectivism ...
And those individuals, who demand nothing but “ideological purity,” are helping this adversary achieve his goal.
In this, our hour of trial, we need a champion - more than a Bilbo Baggins, we need a Braveheart ... We need a leader - one who will exploit the Dragon’s weakness, see the chink in his armor, and let fly the arrow of liberty ... Thus to slay the Dragon ... Not merely for the purists, but for all Americans - red, white and blue.
Honestly how much more liberal can this country go? In 8 years we have become almost 90 percent more liberal then when Obama started. You think Trump can do worse? I am sorry I really am but this election is about national security. If we are all dead, what the hack matters about anything else.
Trump is not PC. Trump wants to get rid of nasty immigration types
Trump wants to build a wall
Trump will put justices on the court that are not Bernie and Hillary picks.
That alone is why I want Trump. I mean we had Reagan and what did we get out of abortion from him? Nada. Reagan of all people could have totally stopped every abortion but it didn’t happen. Heck we have had better results with Obama (not because of him). So nothing is in stone and I tell you I want our country proud again and the only one to do that is Trump.
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