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Aug. 28, 2014 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:36
August 28, 2014, Thursday, Hour #2
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Greetings and welcome back.
You're listening to the Rush Limbaugh program.
I am America's real anchor man, a doctor of democracy and America's truth detector.
Combined, all combined into one harmless, lovable little fuzzball bundle and package.
Telephone number if you want to be on the program, 800-282-2882 and the email address Lrushmore at EIB net.com.
So I know I kind of left you hanging there, folks, because I imagine you are, if you were listening in the first time, well, Russia painting a very hopeless case.
No, not at all.
That's see, the my my point here is there's a counter to all of this.
There is a way out of all this, but it's not just winning an election.
I'm not.
I'm not trying to diminish the importance of winning the election, but I do want to keep it in perspective.
We're we got we have way more to do than just win an election, folks.
If we are serious, if if all we want to do is temporarily stop what's going on, okay, win the election.
But if we're serious about wanting to reverse this and roll it back and re-implementing the founding ideals of this country, then that's going to require some things.
So whereas you might have concluded that I was painting a picture of hopelessness and despair with that first hour, and okay, so last soundbite.
Oh my God, people still blame Bush, and it's so bad the recession permanent.
This economy is new, it's the new norm, it's permanent because of Bush.
There's a way out of this, but I'm telling you, the way out of this is not to shut up.
I'm all for the Democrats imploding.
But why can't why why does the Democrat implosion, why can that only happen if we shut up?
Have you noticed, too?
As we get closer to the November elections, let's be honest about something.
Democrats, I don't care what the drive-bys are saying.
I don't care about their polls right now that show that Democrats not, that there is no wave election, for example.
The Democrats are probably going to get skunked.
But look at what's happening here.
Notice that as our odds improve for the midterms, the more out of touch we seem.
Isn't that an interesting phenomenon?
Here we are, supposedly on the verge of another huge midterm election, sweeping victory.
And right there in the politico today is a story provided by Republicans about how out of touch the party is with women and about how much women hate the Republican Party.
I find that a fascinating juxtaposition.
As we move closer to November, and as our odds for victory improve, the more out of touch we seem to be, if you pay attention to the drive-by media.
How does that work?
Exactly.
And so the solution.
Well, I uh uh as I say, I don't I I hope I didn't leave you with a feeling of despair and hopelessness after this first hour.
Let's go back to the 70s, because this is often said that Obama is the Jimmy Carter second term.
The Jimmy Carter economy was just as bad as this.
Well, in you know, it respectively for the Times, the Jimmy Carter economy was as bad as this.
It was so bad that we had a misery index to measure it, calculate it.
And even Jimmy Carter himself described it as a period of melee.
And one might say that some people back then thought that Carter's economic damage was so bad that it too might Have been permanent.
I was 28, 29 when uh when Carter and Reagan were seeking the presidency in 1980.
So I remember well the uh some attitudes back then.
And it was it, folks, it was bleak.
It was it was really bleak, and even during the presidential campaign in 1980 it was bleak.
I think the poll taken two weeks before the 1980 presidential elections showed Carter up when landslide proportions.
You remember that, Snerdly?
People forget these things.
And the Reagan landslide was totally unpredicted.
It was totally, totally unpredicted by any polling data.
But everybody knew it privately.
Everybody knew it privately, but publicly nobody knew it.
So even in our past, there is a period of time where the economy of people thought was permanently damaged and forever tepid and unremarkable.
All that's needed here, folks, and I don't mean to diminish it.
I mean, it's it's it's a big all we need.
We just need somebody who can cheerfully, artfully, persuasively, happily, articulate our message, running for office.
We don't need somebody who knows how to shut up.
We don't need somebody who knows how to be quiet and not offend people.
We know we don't need anybody who knows, don't say that the Hispanics might hate us.
Don't say that to women might hate us.
Don't say that we might tick off the moderates in it, but we don't need people like that.
Arguably that's what's gotten us here.
Need somebody that's fearless, believes in the country, and is looking further ahead than just the next election.
But not only is this person have to be able to articulate what we believe, this person has to also be able to tell the people what we're up against and why we're where we are.
This person needs to be able to say, if you're having trouble finding a job, it's not because of George W. Bush.
And this recession that we're in need not be permanent.
And give some historical context.
Just give some American history and be optimistic and inspiring and uplifting.
Simply, we need an American.
We need an American running for the presidency who believes in America.
I mean, really believes in it, really believes in it, really loves it, is not ashamed of it, is not ashamed of what he or she believes.
I know you.
Who is it, Rush?
Who is it?
I don't know.
There are probably a lot of people capable of it.
They're just afraid to do it.
And I don't know how many of them could win.
I mean, it's a tough thing.
I'm I'm not trying to.
I I don't want anybody misconstrue what I'm saying.
This is this is tough.
You know, we're we're we're up against some people that that are very good at what they do, who have grand designs on this country that are totally at odds with ours, and the media is on their side.
I don't make any assumptions that this is a cakewalk.
But I just I don't agree with this idea that we've got to start, we have to descend into identity politics ourselves to win.
Like this this story in the politico about women and how the Republican Party is hated by by women.
I mean, it's a Republican story putting this stuff out.
And that the only solution is to get rid of Social Tea Party conservatives.
We've got to find it find a way to diminish them, and we'll get the women back.
That won't get the women back.
That because that's not I don't even believe any of this.
I think the premise of all this is is is ridiculous anyway.
And the same thing with Hispanics.
The idea that we can get the Hispanic voter beloved by and by standing for amnesty.
But if that's true, then the America that you and I believe in, the America of the founding is gone anyway, if that's what it takes to win elections, and I just simply don't believe that.
I know the branding problems Republicans have.
I know the image problems they face.
But those are nothing new.
It's just a shame there's only one guy we can point to when these discussions happen that's regular.
It's just a shame there's only one guy.
It used to be, now you're gonna laugh, but for a short period of time, it used to be we could point to Newt Gingrich.
Before he became Speaker, before he became Speaker, Newt Gingrich.
I wish you people could hear Newt Gingrich during special orders on the floor of the House in the late 80s during Iran Contra, while the Democrats were trying to destroy Ronald Reagan.
The Newt Gingrich prior to being Speaker of the House, you can appoint it to him.
Something happens to people.
I don't know.
A couple of others.
Dick Army, Nick Armor Phil Graham.
Yeah, we had a lot of people who believed it.
We had a lot of people who spoke it.
We had a lot of people who are fearless.
Whether they could win presidential elections, it's another matter.
But we had a lot of people that were that were that they were Reaganites.
They're all over the place.
The establishment's done their best to weed them out, intimidate them and silence them and kick them out of town.
I understand that.
They didn't like Reagan either, but he found a way.
So it can be done, is my point.
It can be done.
Thinking of something here.
The media is a tough thing to overcome.
But you that too can be done.
It's been it's been shown.
I saw a friend of mine, and I can't tell you who my friend that sent me this is because he's very famous and very public, and he would get a lot of grief if I mention his name, and I don't want that to happen to him.
You'll be seeing and hearing his name a lot down the road.
Not a politician.
He sent me a YouTube video, 12 minutes to the humor of Ronald Reagan.
And I'd seen it all before, but this was a compilation of just Reagan being a real down-to-earth, honest to goodness, funny man.
Just genuinely harmlessly.
I mean, good taste, good naturedly funny.
And it it caused a bunch of nostalgia to well up, and everybody that sees, well.
Why is this so rare and unique in uh in politics?
Anyway, I got to take a break here, and I'm I must get to your phone calls.
And there's all kinds of other stuff here in the stack of stuff that I want to get to.
So sit tight and just hang it.
We'll be back in a minute and continue.
Okay, let's go to the phones.
People have been patiently waiting as they always do.
This is Daryl in uh in Elkton, Virginia.
Welcome to the program, sir.
Great to have you.
Hi.
Hey, Rush, thanks for taking my call.
Uh I gotta tell you this first hour this morning has just depressed the hell out of me.
Um I know that you've always told told everybody that uh you'll let us know when it's time to panic.
But can you give me anything to be optimistic about right now?
Yeah, I can.
I think the I tell you, but the if we win, we lose.
If we lose, we win.
No, I know that's why I went to great pains to open the second hour.
Um I'm trying to, in saying that, I'm trying to pigeonhole the people on our side who are short-sighted.
I I don't want to diminish the importance of winning an election.
But to way too many people, that's all there is.
That's why I gave the analogy a lot of people, you know, the Democrats are you know, trying to score touchdowns, win the game.
We're just trying to get a first down.
And if we ever do, well, oh, well, we'll ready to call a game and say, hey, we're happy now.
We at least got a first down.
Uh and I'll tell you what keeps me inspired, and what keeps me optimistic, because this is nothing new.
Daryl, the circumstance in Washington is nothing new.
You and I know full well that most of the people in that town don't want to return to anything different.
They want they the status quo is what they've been fighting for and what they want to hold on to.
They live there, they work there, they want it to be the center of the universe.
They want as much money flowing into that town as possible.
They want to get their share of it.
They want to get elected to Congress.
They want to get elected to the Senate, serve their time, be very nice to all the lobbyists and defense contractors and so forth during their service.
And then after they leave office, get hired by those firms.
I know how the game works.
And it's all about money.
Everybody wants to get rich.
Everybody wants to be wealthy.
Everybody wants to have a nice lifestyle.
And a lot of people have figured out there's a lot of ways of getting there without having to work.
Meet the right people, do what those right people want you to do, and they'll reward you later on down the road.
And the town feeds on itself.
And so there are what we call the ruling class of the Washington establishment doesn't want any rollback.
They don't even see what everybody's so upset about.
They don't think a debt's a problem.
They don't like a national debt.
It's always been there.
Just a little higher, gets higher every year.
Big deal, country's still here.
ISIS Schmeisus, who gives it?
There's always been wars and there are always going to be war.
We want to get our peace.
What continues to fuel me is right in front of me, and that's you and all of you out, the American people, the Tea Party.
The fact that I still believe a majority of the American people don't want any part of it.
And I think this majority is waiting, even with all we've seen from the Tea Party.
I think they're still waiting to be ignited.
And it's just absent leadership right now.
And who knows when it's going to pop up.
But it's worth, I think, holding on for.
I uh I I'm sorry that I ended up depressing you so much.
I didn't intend to do that because I believe there's an antidote to all of this.
There's a way to overcome all of this.
Whoever can mobilize this large majority of average ordinary, everyday people like you and me, whoever can mobilize that majority into action and political action, political awareness, is the root of the beginning of the reversal of this.
And then whatever specifics take place after that, all kinds of people with different theories about how to uh deal with this, roll it back, defeat it, and so forth.
But it's just not enough to beat Democrats if the replacement are people who are afraid to disagree with them.
How's that gonna change?
Even after they win.
And I just I I don't know.
I I refuse to uh to give up and uh or to be even pessimistic.
I you trouble me greatly when you tell me that you just depressed as hell after my first hour.
Because that was not my intent.
My intent always is to inform.
I think everybody needs to know as best they can what we're up against, what the circumstances really are, and really I just want people to think beyond an election.
This this election strategy is handcuffing what needs to really be done.
The election strategy is shut up, don't say anything, don't tick off the Hispanics, don't tick off the women, don't tick off the moderates.
Uh uh Democratic committee.
Yeah, let me tell you something else.
I could be dead wrong.
I could be dead wrong.
But using using my own theory that brilliant marketers never tell you how they're gonna try to scam you.
And not even scam.
Brilliant marketers never tell you how they are going to get you.
They just execute the plan.
Remember not that long ago, every day, Obama and the Democrats, but even Obama were talking about how upset he was that the Republicans were suing him.
Then Obama's out fundraising off of an imaginary impeachment proceeding.
Not one Republican had ever talked about it.
And Obama and the Democrats are out there out there every day telling people, and they want to pitch me.
You believe that?
Your president, they won't impeach me, they won't sue me.
Well, who?
Who?
I mean, uh Hurst Mary, Why would they want to impeach me?
Nobody was talking about it.
And it was a clear effort at goading the Republicans into doing it.
Well, for the past month.
Do you agree with me or disagree that it seems to be a fate accomplished that by Labor Day, Obama's going to grant amnesty to five million Americans, five million illegals.
Right?
Media's reporting it.
White House press secretary, Luis Scutiani said, well, everybody's out there.
Yeah, he's going to do it.
Maybe not Labor.
He's going to do it before the election.
No, no, no.
Don't do it.
Don't do it before the election, Democrats say.
I have to take a break.
Daryl, hang in, pal.
Do not go anywhere.
Give up.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry.
I know what I have done that has unnecessarily depressed you.
I know exactly what I've done.
And I I'm going to very very briefly here acknowledge it and try to change the focus.
I know what I everybody is looking to November as a big sweep.
The Democrats are going to go down in droves.
We're going to win big, and I come here today and say it doesn't matter.
And I can understand you getting depressed if that's what you heard me say.
And I didn't intend to say that winning the election in November doesn't matter.
Didn't intend to say that at all.
I'm just saying that doesn't stop anything.
The Republicans are still going to be hated.
The media is still going to be who they are.
The Democrats are going to be out, but Obama's still going to have his executive orders.
He's still going to be able to do what he's going to do.
And my point, all the only thing I'm saying is if there's no articulated opposition.
Let me not even put it that way.
I don't even want to address it that way.
At some point, folks, there is going to have to be some articulated upbeat, positive, inspiring, agenda-based opposition to this.
We just can't triumph shutting up.
We cannot triumph.
What kind of position does it say we're in if our best odds are to not tell anybody what we think?
That is succumbing and falling victim to yet another liberal Democrat media trick.
Which is, you know the people hate you, they're going to elect you.
You're going to win the election in November, but you're so hated that you better not open your mouths, or they're going to really hate you.
You know the Hispanics hate you, and you'll know women hate you.
War on women.
And you know that moderates and independents hate you.
And so you guys.
And we get to the point we're taking advice from Chuck Schumer.
You guys want to win the presidency again, you better, you better support amnesty.
What the hell is that?
There is an army of American people waiting to be used, waiting to be mobilized, waiting to be put into some kind of political motion.
We have not lost the majority of this country.
If we had, there wouldn't be any talk of the Democrats losing as big as they're going to lose in November, if we had lost the country.
We've not lost the country.
So one of two things.
Either the Republicans have been tricked into shutting up and not telling anybody who they are and what they think.
Or the Republicans simply are comfortable with the way things are going and just want their turn at running the show.
But they're not really interested in any kind of political fight.
And I think there's this current crop, I think there's probably a lot of validity to that.
Have you people, have any of you encountered the uh and I have uh an opinion piece here or there, attempting to explain Republican leadership today In both the House and the Senate, and it is rooted in, you know what, these guys really don't want to win.
They just don't want the responsibility.
They just, it's just too much.
They know what Republican voters expect.
And they don't want they don't want to go that much against the grain in Washington.
They don't really.
Have you seen stories like that?
The Republicans are comfortable being also rands and losers, because it's just it's less work, it's less stress, it's uh less pressure.
I've seen a couple of those stories by people on our side attempting to explain the uh laziness or the ineptitude or what have you.
But I want you to know something.
I firmly believe, passionately so, that there are huge victories out there to be had.
Not easy, but I all I'm saying I'm they're not going to be had with a strategy of silence.
And this political story with this Republican poll shows the biggest problem the Republicans face is conservatives.
There's nothing new in that either.
That's nothing new.
Don't get depressed over that.
That's been common knowledge that the Republican establishment doesn't like conservatives, and they didn't like Reagan.
So there's nothing new there that constitutes a surprise that we're up against that we didn't know.
What bugs me, folks, if I if I can get personal with this, and I don't know how else to say it, but but with this way, and I don't mean it to sound egocentric, it's because it's not, it's the fact it's the opposite of that.
But I just don't understand why.
The only place you can go to find the principled articulation of what's necessary to turn back what's happening to this country is in the media.
Talk radio or occasionally Fox News or what have you.
And if I had to bet, if I had to guess, a lot of you people are the same way.
For those of you who've been here all 26 years, think back to the first few months when you heard this program.
Why did you like it?
What was so great about it?
It wasn't me personally, it was that finally, finally, after all of these years, there was somebody in the national media saying what you say, believing what you believe.
Somebody other than CBS ABC NBC, somebody other than CNN, somebody other than the New York Times and the Washington Post.
That's what I can't tell you how many people have said that validation is what they really liked when this program started.
Yeah, it was a good show, the content and all that, but it was a discovery that they weren't alone, that there was somebody else out there in national media saying exactly what they already thought.
You that's what's missing today.
In the political sp uh universe or spectros, nobody in the political universe saying what you say or saying things that you believe.
And in fact, in some cases, there used to be, and now they don't say it anymore.
People you thought were going to be those people as they matured and grew in office, have gone moderate, wimpy, establishment, what have you.
See, I don't really think it would take much because there's already a pant up.
The Tea Party illustrates this.
Pent up, ready to explode majority political movement out there, fed up and angry and ready to show everybody what the real America is.
That it's not whatever is on TMZ everything.
It's not whatever's on Comedy Central.
It's not whatever's on CNN or ABC.
You're dying.
You're itching for this to be known.
There just isn't any elected political leadership representing what you believe.
That's all it is.
That's a big all it is, but if somebody surfaces that's able to marshal all of that pent up, demand support, energy, what have you, then Katie Bar the door.
And that's why I'm optimistic.
And I'm not exaggerating a bit.
I gotta take a break.
We'll be back.
Don't go away.
Your guiding light, Rush Limbaugh, and the cutting edge of societal evolution.
Just one two more things before we head back to the phones here.
I know, I know exactly why if you if you came here today all jazzed up, you think, hey man, the Democrats are continuing to implode, it's looking bad, wave election, and then I come along and I basically tinkle all over it.
Um in your mind, because I started saying and started talking about that that one election doesn't mean anything.
And it means everything to a lot of people.
Just beating the Democrats means everything to some people.
That's all.
Do that and years of frustration can be vanquished with one election.
And I don't disagree with that.
I totally understand it, but it's going to take more than that.
And all I'm all I was trying to say was I just think it's short-sighted to focus on.
I was basically sharing with you some frustration though.
When I'm what no matter where I go, I get questions, who think a nominee is going to be.
Are we going to win in November?
I as I always assume I interpret those questions as also being short-sighted and uninformed, and I can prove it by the way I answer, you see their faces when I answer.
Anyway, enough on that.
I just said the other thing is if you think this first hour depression you You ought to, you you ought to deal with what I have to hear every day from people.
You think what I said in my first hour was now you ought to hear the defeatism and the pessimism I'm surrounded by.
Wherever I go, I don't mean you snurdly, I don't mean the staff, I don't mean that.
And you are too, I'm sure.
Anyway, enough of that.
Don't be defeatist.
That was the the uh the the all I'm trying to do here is do the exact opposite, in fact, is you know, I'm the mayor of Realville, folks.
Okay, here's Patty in uh in Naugatuck, Connecticut.
Great to have you.
I'm glad you waited.
Welcome to the program.
Thank you for taking my call.
I have a two-part question.
Yeah.
Um, have the reduction in telephone landlines affected the validity of the polls, and if so, how?
Yes, it has.
Most definitely it has.
The um reason is that there is no national directory for cell numbers.
So you really can't, you can't get a good target demographic sample.
Uh the people who are remaining with the land light usage, of course, tend to be in the older demographics.
And uh that's fine, but it doesn't give you nearly the cross section of the population demographically that you need.
Yes.
But I uh the the polls are a frustrating thing to me, too.
Look, for example, Patty, we were talking just last week or earlier this week.
Where are the polls on the on the vulnerable Democrats in the Senate this November?
Where are those polls?
Remember Larry Sabateau, the brilliant political scientist in the University of Virginia.
Earlier this week said, what wave?
Everybody's talking about a Republican wave election.
I don't see any wave.
I said, you know, I want Because there aren't any polls.
Polls have become such elements of manipulation for the media.
Polls are not used to reflect public opinion anymore.
They are used to shape it.
And that is a huge difference.
Huge.
Poll results are now lead news stories for crying out loud.
Well, a lead news story today is not about telling people what's happening or what did happen.
It's about shaping public opinion.
Be it a poll, be it any news story.
The lead story out of Ferguson, Missouri was not to tell people what went on.
It was to create a template or a narrative of what they wanted people to believe about what went on.
So the fact that there aren't any polls on these Democrats who are vulnerable in November, Democrat senators, tells me that the people in charge of the polls don't want to put the data out because it's too devastating.
Because if the polls showed that the Republicans were not going to win as big as everybody thinks, those polls would be the lead item every day.
And there aren't any polls.
The polls are being taken.
No missing, they're just not being reported.
Now the candidates are doing their polls, but they never release their internal data.
They always keep that close to the best.
So the um the whole subject of polls is a is a uh irritation to me, too.
I mean, sometimes they're right on the money and they have to acknowledge it, but they still are used for ways that are diametrically opposite what most people, particularly low information people, think they're for.
Here's uh here's John in Fairport, New York.
Hello, sir.
Hey, Ross, how are you doing?
Good.
I'm I'm good.
Thank you for calling.
I hope you win your NASA's when you're playing golf.
Um, I'm a registered Republican living in New York, which is um, you know, pretty frustrating.
But the county that I'm in is a Republican-held county.
So um, you know, we do have some control over our local elections, not all over national.
But even locally, the the topic you're on is um uh I'm I'm glad you're talking about it because even our local Republican uh elected officials really um I think they're more in interested in getting re-elected than actually governing on any principle that that would help um you know what in New York is a huge welfare state.
And you know, I think it's the exact same uh on the national level.
The frustration is how do you change that if you if you vote out a Republican, you're voting in a Democrat, and um I'm not sure what that accomplishes.
So it is frustrating, and I'm not sure what the answer to it is, but um The answer is what it's always been, and it's easy to say, in fact, it's too easy to say.
It's so easy to say that it can be dismissed just as easily.
The answer is conservatism.
The answer is fealty to the core beliefs and principles of this nation's founding.
That's the answer.
And and that that I think that's what we we need new party.
We need we need the Republican Party to become a conservative party.
Um, it's up to I think the conservatives to take it over.
I don't like this third party.
I never have liked the third party.
No, not a third party.
Replace the Republican Party with a con truly conservative party, um, if that can happen.
Well, a party that is conservative.
Correct.
Yeah, yeah.
Um rather than a conservative party.
Um fine minute point, but I still think it's it's worth making.
But you raise the dilemma here is, okay, so if the and this is I I I know again, this is why I ended up unintentionally depressing people.
But let me ask it another way.
In 2012, the Republicans spent.
What was the number?
What over a hundred million?
What what is elections cost these days?
How much money was was a hundred million dollars?
Was it fifty million?
I don't know how what.
Okay.
Uh okay.
Well, let's say half a million, I just pick a number.
Half a million dollars.
How many people, after that money is spent, could answer questions on what are Republican core beliefs?
And how many could answer what Democrat core beliefs are?
And therein is my point.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, back we are.
Look, we get back here.
I'm going to delve into some other things I've got here in the stack of stuff.
If you're depressed, just stop it.
That wasn't the intention of the first hour.
It was the exact opposite.
Uh objective intended.
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