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March 18, 2016 - Rush Limbaugh Program
34:11
March 18, 2016, Friday, Hour #3
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It is the fastest three hours in media, Rush Limbaugh, saying more in five minutes than most hosts will say in an entire broadcast week.
Here we are on Friday, heading on down the tracks live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's Open Line Friday.
Okay, folks, one hour reigns on Open Land Friday with your golden opportunity to have at it, whatever it is you want to talk about, whatever you want to say, whatever question you want to ask.
If you're on hold now, stay there.
I promise we're getting to you sooner than later.
800-282-2882, if you want to be on the program.
I have here a story from the New York Times.
And I don't know if this is a straight-out news story or if it's a review of something.
Maybe it's a movie review.
It is by somebody named Genslinger, Neil Genslinger.
Review: The Brainwashing of My Dad examines the influence of right-wing news media.
Now, wait till you hear this.
It isn't very long.
Apparently, somebody named Jan Sinko, S-E-N-K-O, has produced a documentary about how her dad was brainwashed by me and Fox News.
And her documentary has been reviewed by this Genslinger guy.
It starts out this way: A lot of people, especially on the liberal side of the spectrum, will certainly identify with the brainwashing of my dad, Jen Cenko's documentary about how right-wing news programs, talk shows, and internet sites turned her once reasonable father into a raging embodiment of intolerance and suspicion.
First, can I ask any of you, how many of you would produce a documentary slamming your own father?
How many of you would attempt to get noticed and maybe earn some money by producing a documentary designed to humiliate and embarrass your own father?
Well, that's what we have here.
Apparently, Jen Sinko felt she had no other choice.
She had no other way of explaining what had happened to her father.
Now, the reviewer Neil Genslinger says here that the film feels as though it's arriving late to its discoveries.
And given the current political claim, as if it's really only even scratching the surface.
So the reviewer says, okay, fine, but where were you 20 years ago?
Where were you 20 years ago, Jen Sinko?
And besides, you're not even getting down to the depth that you really need to get to here.
Ms. Cenko says that her father, Frank, was a non-political Kennedy Democrat until the 1980s.
There's no such thing.
Well, let me not take issue with it yet here.
Let me just.
Ms. Sinko says that her father, Frank, was a non-political Kennedy Democrat until the 1980s when he began listening to a lot of right-wing gum flappers.
Mr. Genslinger here says that Jen Cinko spends too much of the film detailing what anybody who watched Jon Stewart even once already knows.
So right here, the reviewer says, we don't need your documentary, Cinko.
All you need to do is watch Jon Stewart one time to understand what your documentary says.
So in Genslinger's point of view, Jon Stewart's not political.
Jon Stewart is not ideological.
Jon Stewart isn't.
Jon Stewart is the embodiment of fairness and objectivity, and he gets it right about everybody.
And all you have to do to know everything you want to know is watch Jon Stewart one time.
Now, in liberal circles, I imagine that's quite a put-down.
I imagine Ms. Sinko thinks that she has a work of art here.
And her work of art has been reduced to something totally unnecessary.
If anybody's ever watched Jon Stewart one time.
But let me continue reading.
Ms. Sinko says that her late father, Frank, non-political Kennedy Democrat, till the 1980s, when he began listening to a lot of right-wing gum flappers.
She spends too much of the film detailing what anybody who watched Jon Stewart even once on the Daily Show already knows.
That Fox News, Rushlimbaugh, and the like fabricate and distort routinely.
Oh, yeah, Jon Stewart never did that.
Jon Stewart never fabricated.
Jon Stewart never distorted anything.
Jon Stewart never made anything up anyway.
No way.
Why, Jon Stewart was biblical.
Jon Stewart was the left-wing Bible, and all anybody had to do to understand these right-wing crazies was to watch one episode of his show.
And what did Jon Stewart properly point out about these right-wing gum flappers?
Well, the right's most incendiary figures are entertainers, not journalists or academic experts.
The film has an interesting segment on the neurology of the phenomenon, how alarm is addictive, how repetition of the same messages transforms the brain.
But the subject is left underexplored.
So you see, according to this reviewer, this woman's documentary doesn't get anywhere near there.
She does explore how shows like this are addictive because we do nothing but alarm you all the time.
This is so cockeyed.
Who is it that has the whole crisis politics manner battened down?
Who is it that owns that genre?
Every day we are faced with multiple crises presented to us by the drive-by media.
Either our latest favorite phone is going to give us cancer, our latest, greatest food is going to cause us to gain weight and die of a heart attack.
Our latest, greatest beverage is going to give us diabetes.
Our automobiles are going to wipe us out.
Fracking is going to destroy the planet.
Miami Beach will be underwater in two years because we have done nothing about global warming every day.
Multiple crises.
And yet we are being held responsible and accountable here for that.
In addition to telling her own family story, Ms. Cinco invited video submissions from others who have had similar experiences with loved ones.
And those provide the film's most heartfelt moments.
Apparently, this documentary is not just about Ms. Senko's dad becoming a pod person, but a number of other leftists have sent in similar horror stories included in her documentary about how once tolerant and open-minded and touchy-feely and non-political fathers and parents and other relatives had been co-opted to mean-spirited extremist racist bigot homophobes by right...
right-wing media.
But the nastiness that has been brought out into the open by the current presidential campaign demonstrates that hatred and suspicion are more endemic than a collection of personal stories suggests.
So this guy takes another swipe with this poor woman's documentary.
Yeah, she did a documentary about her dad.
Yeah, but it's too late.
Jon Stewart told us this 25 years ago.
And yeah, well, no, he went 14 years.
Sorry.
Jon Stewart told us this 14 years ago.
And where was she 25 years ago?
This is old news.
In fact, the presidential campaign is a greater testament to the insanity of the right wing than anything Ms. Sinko could do in her documentary.
Right-wing outlets may be exploiting humanity's ugly side, but Ms. Cinco's frail-looking father, who died in January of age 93, isn't so much the face of the phenomenon as he is a small and not especially representative stamp.
Boy, this guy cuts her documentary and he agrees with everything in it.
Can you believe he agrees with everything in her documentary?
It was too little.
It was too late.
I guess there wasn't enough homage paid to Jon Stewart in it.
But this is who they are.
Folks, this is why, from the first days of this program, the focus here has been to try to inform people that the greatest destructive force in this country today is American liberalism as personified by the Democrat Party.
And we all have our grievances and we all have our problems.
Let me tell you what irritates me most about the Republican establishment, everything we've mentioned, but it's this.
Not recognizing the enemy.
Not having the guts to recognize the enemy, the political enemy, not having the guts to recognize them, not pushing back against them for all the obvious reasons.
There have been times I have felt like I'm in this all by myself.
I mean, there are others who do what I do, don't misunderstand.
But in terms of the supposed political party that's supposed to be the repository of our set of values and beliefs, there hasn't been any recognition whatsoever in the last 10 years that liberalism is.
It used to be the Republicans had no problem using the word.
And every time they did, they won elections.
Every time they successfully characterized their opponent as a raging lunatic leftist, they won.
Well, not every time, but I mean, it was frequent.
These people are sick.
They are dangerous.
They are closed-minded.
They are not the tolerant, open-minded, loving, harmless people they want us to believe.
They're the architects of political correctness.
They're the architects of censorship.
They are the ones that want to take your constitutional rights away from you.
They are the ones that want to make you an economic serf dependent on them for your day-to-day living.
They are the ones who hold you in contempt.
They're the ones who think you do not have the capability, the competence, the ambition to succeed on your own without them.
They're the ones that call you racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe.
They're the ones that create race wars in this country.
They're the ones that create economic division.
They specialize in creating division.
The American left, liberalism, the Democrat Party.
And I can't get anybody in Washington to ever utter a syllable of that, much less act on it.
That, to me, is the enemy, not Donald Trump, not Ted Cruz, not John Kasich, not Ben Carson, who'd just been named the dean of the Trump University Medical School.
Well, it's check to see if you can find a news site, a website called Newsbusted.
That's where it is.
Some woman at News Busted, not Newsbusters.
Newsbusters quotes this babe at Newsbusted.
The story is posted at Newsbusters.
But you want to know what animates me, what informs me, what energizes me?
It's beating these people, beating them politically, beating them culturally, which is why, you know, I've probably bored you silly telling everybody how important it is for everybody to be able to talk to recognize liberalism everywhere they see it.
It's destroying us.
Liberalism is tearing the country apart.
And liberalism is found throughout the Democrat Party, so I guess they're inseparable.
That's my enemy, folks.
That's my focus.
That's who I'm opposed to.
Anybody can beat them.
That's the objective, is to beat them.
I realize people are mad at me thinking that I'm letting conservative principles waft by the wayside.
Hell's bells on that.
No freaking way.
But it's also not a suicide pact.
You can talk about honor all you want, and I understand it, and I agree with it, and I applaud it.
But it is whatever they call it, nutcracking time here.
This Supreme Court nomination, this whole thing ought to be waking everybody up to what the future portends if we get this wrong.
They have to be beaten.
Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, whoever, they have to be beaten.
And then after they're beaten, they have to be marginalized.
And none of that can happen in one election.
Not all of it.
You know what I told you I think is going to happen after this election if a conservative Republican wins this election.
Whoever the next president is is going to be harassed and harangued every day by the usual leftist suspects.
And as each element of the Obama agenda is attempted, we try to get rid of it.
Obama himself is going to be on TV with his buddies in the media trying to defend it.
It's not going to be for the faint of heart.
That's why what's happening in our campaign right now, this whole Republican primary, this is tiddlywinks compared to what the future is going to be if we succeed in beating these people back.
It's tiddlywinks.
And people have got to know how serious this is.
Okay, it's a parody.
News-busted is Newsbusters parody site.
I knew it was.
That's why I prefaced it that way.
I always treated it as a joke.
But see, it has an element of truth in it.
I mean, I can see Trump doing it.
I can see me doing something like that as one of my famous bits, putting people on way back when.
Early days of the program.
Folks, to me, there's one objective here.
And it supersedes all the intramural skirmishes that are taking place here.
Which is why I said when I was up there on Fox News Sunday two Sundays ago with Chris Wallace, and he said, what do you think is going to happen?
I told him what I thought, what I hope is going to happen.
That when all this is all over, we end up with a nominee, everybody rallies behind, unifies behind.
I love the idea.
I have to tell you, I love the idea of the Republican Party growing.
I love the idea stealing Democrats from the Democrat Party because there's a bunch of them that are fed up.
White working-class blue-collar people are fed up with the Democrat Party.
I'm more than happy to welcome them in, not as liberals, but as us.
And I fully understand.
Some of you think, well, that may be a good thing, Rush, but what about Republicans that might leave the party for the same reasons those blue-collar Democrats are joining the party?
I understand.
I know what's going on.
I just don't want you to be in any suspense or have any doubt about what my objective here is.
It has never changed.
And in fact, I am more to me, it's a greater sense of urgency in this election than it has ever been.
I have to take a break.
We'll get back to your phone calls right after this timeout.
I didn't doubt it was real.
Snurdy just found the sound of Nautika, the ant, the Trayvon Williams story.
Apparently, some people have doubted that that was real.
I know I was one of the early doubters.
We found audio soundbites documented.
Look, folks, I meant it.
What's happening now in the Republican primary process is tiddlywinks compared to what is going to happen if the Republicans win the White House.
You worried about riots right now?
You haven't seen riots until somebody tries to unwind Obamacare.
You haven't seen riots until the next Republican president takes dead aim at numerous Obama policies, illegal immigration, amnesty takes dead aim at all of Obama's executive orders.
You haven't seen riots.
And they're already promising us that it's going to happen.
The Occupy Wall Street crowd, they're already promising these things.
They're bragging about the biggest riots anybody's ever seen this summer to protest Trump.
They're going to protest us no matter what.
Whoever on our side wins.
And what worries me is that we do not have a Republican Party apparatus that is equipped and prepared for this.
It's a genuine concern of mine.
I don't like using the word cave, but it's patently obvious they're not much into conflict.
It's pretty clear that they are willing to compromise what they believe so that the media doesn't call them names.
Well, we don't.
We don't even know what name calling is yet.
People are involved in this right now like it's an academic exercise.
Conservatism has to triumph here.
We need to be true to our principles there, and all of that's right on the money.
But that's all well and good, but it better also maintain and grow after the election is won.
There are a whole lot of different competing objectives going on out there.
You have a lot of people trying to show they can still have influence and power.
A lot of people still trying to show they can affect outcomes and events.
You have a lot of people trying to claim they're the real conservatives standing up for conservatism.
Fine and dandy.
But if it's not focused and targeted on beating back the American left, what good is it?
That's my point.
That's right, folks.
Turn it up to at least 800 decibels.
Make sure you miss nothing.
Here's Tom in Grand Rapids, Michigan back at you, sir.
Greetings and welcome to the program.
Hi.
Well, thank you, sir.
It is an honor and a privilege to speak with you today.
I hope I make you look good.
I believe that the Trump campaign is being run like a reality show, sir.
And the reason I believe that is partly you when you tell me there's no consultants over there.
They don't have the same setup as maybe any campaign that's run.
Secondly, he makes character caricatures out of all the candidates, such as Lion Ted, Little Marco, Low Energy Jeb.
You name it.
He's got a name for everybody.
And what happens is now we're just trying to vote him off the island.
And the only unfortunate part about this, sir, is that these people have no idea what the consequences are going to be because normally they get on the phone and they make a call to vote for American Idol, and you get more votes on American Idol than you do in a presidential election.
And I think that's where all these people are coming from: they think they're on this reality show, and it's going to be their 15 minutes of fame without knowing the consequences.
You're talking about Trump supporters.
Yes.
So you're not one.
You are not because you're not falling for this ruse.
No, sir, I'm not.
I think we're really made.
Well, I was watching his campaign.
I actually watched him do a stump speech over, you know, he gets off his plane in Cadillac, Michigan, and all he did was sit there and tell everyone how great his polls are and sit there and run down other candidates.
He never talked policy because a diatribe for over an hour.
And these people are sitting here listening to it.
I'm wondering, where are these people coming from?
This isn't a campaign stump speech.
This is just, it's a reality show.
Well, I like your analogy.
The only thing missing is Diplain!
Diplain!
And Irve Villish, and of course, Mr. York, welcoming everybody.
Remember, all the people that show up at Fantasy Island got the shaft before it was all over.
I like the analogy, especially Trump lands, gets off the plane, starts talking about how great his polls are, starts talking about Lion Ted, low energy Jeb, Little Marco, gets back on the plane, flies away.
And his audience thinks they've been on TV.
They've been on American Idol.
They've been on survivor celebrity apprentice because Trump never talks policy.
Yeah, I know.
I know Trump never talks policy.
Well, that's actually not true.
You see, he does talk policy, just not the way they do in professional politics.
But he talks about policy all the time.
At least I know that his supporters hear policy.
Make America Great, again, is not hope and change to them.
It's not open and vacuous and define it as you want.
Make America Great again is very specific.
I'm going to build a wall with a beautiful door.
That's pretty specific.
We're going to let him in.
We're going to let him in.
We're going to let them.
They got to go.
They got to go.
We're going to let them in legally, legally.
Yay!
He does stream a consciousness.
As I say, I'm working on my Trump impersonation.
It really isn't hard to do.
The hardest thing about a Trump impersonation is just actually saying what comes into your mind, whatever it is.
And whenever you say it, you don't have any governor on you.
You're talking about your polls, and something reminds you of low energy Jeb and you go off on low energy Jeb.
We talk about low energy Jeb.
It reminds how you're killing little Jeb in the polls and you go into Little Marco, how you're beating everybody, the polls, and you just never stop.
You do that for an hour and a half.
There's no damn on the stream of consciousness.
There's no depends diaper for the Incontinency of the emotions.
It just goes and goes and goes.
And that's what very few people can do.
It comes off as undisciplined and unprepared to the button-down professionals.
But it's that's right.
To other people, it comes off as confidence and, you know, an a willingness to say whatever pops in.
Anyway, Ken, I appreciate the call.
Next up, we have this is this is Daly from Houston, Texas.
Hi, Daly.
Great to have you on the program.
See, you're 14, is that right?
Yes, sir.
Hi, Mr. Limbaugh.
Hi, great to have you on the program, Daly.
It's such an honor to speak to you.
First of all, I want to thank you so much for all you do.
I've actually been listening to you since I was a baby, and I love your show so much.
You're doing so much for America, and I can't thank you enough.
Well, you have made my day.
It is I who thank you.
I really appreciate that.
My question is, do you think that Cruz still has an honest chance to win?
I really like Cruz, and he's inspired me, and I think that he's the kind of leader we haven't seen since Reagan.
And I was wondering if you think he has an actual chance to win.
Have you met Senator Cruz?
Yes, sir, I have.
So you, obviously, you've been inspired by him.
How long a time did you have to speak with him?
Well, actually, he was at an event in Houston, and he took four questions, and I got to ask him a question, and he answered it.
And so, probably about like 15 minutes.
Well, let me answer your question this way, Daly.
The question, basically, young Daly here wants to know if I think that Ted Cruz has a chance to win.
And in answering that question, let's take a look at where he is.
He right now is in second place.
And because of something I said earlier, I think the fact that Ted Cruz is in second place is astounding.
Ted Cruz has been ignored from the first day of this campaign.
Whatever the news of the campaign is, day to day, he is not in it.
And particularly from last summer through the fall and winter, he was not.
The news was always about Trump.
But then it was either about Jeb or Marco or Governor Christie, even at the debates.
Ted Cruz is smoking.
Everybody at the debates never is reviewed as such, never commented on.
After the debate, the post-debate coverage is usually how did Trump do or what did Trump say about this moderator or that moderator.
But Daly, my point is, Ted Cruz is in second place.
He has been given no time by the drive-by media.
He has been shown no respect.
They have not treated him as a viable candidate.
He has been hammered over and over by every other candidate.
One way or another, Ted Cruz has been lambasted.
He is very rarely given a chance to rebut the things that are said about him.
He is routinely one of the speakers at each debate that speaks the least.
There's some exceptions in some debates, but for the most part, he's among the least.
He is hated by the establishment, and they're the ones that totally ignore him.
The party has not lifted a finger to help him.
And even now, when they are starting to, they make it known that they're not happy to be doing it.
You're completely right.
Now, hang on, though.
He is being dwarfed and swamped by unprecedented coverage of Trump, who hasn't had to spend any money to get it.
Ted Cruz has raised money left and right.
There are all kinds of people giving money to Ted Cruz, and nobody talks about it.
Nobody wants to talk about Ted Cruz.
We are told over and over that everybody in his Senate hates him.
We're told over and over, everybody in Washington hates him, but yet he's in second place, and he's won nine states.
So you're asking me if I think Ted Cruz can win?
Yeah, I do.
I don't think it's anywhere near over yet.
Everybody wants you to believe that it is.
Everybody wants you to believe one of two things.
It's over.
Cruz is not going to get there.
Trump is, or we're going to go to a contested convention and it's going to be between Kasich and whoever else the establishment can throw up.
It still amazes me, Daly.
You have the establishment types with their secret dinner meetings like last night here in Palm Beach, trying to figure out how to game the convention so that one of theirs can get the nomination.
Then you have these conservatives who are plotting, trying to come up with a third-party candidate.
And here again, nobody's talking about Ted Cruz.
And he's there every day.
He's out campaigning.
He's going everywhere.
And he is in second place despite all of the obstacles that have been put in his way.
So I think he can.
Now, if it goes contested, the establishment doesn't want him even more than they don't want Trump.
But I think it's remarkable what he's been able to accomplish and pull off here, given the way the deck has been purposefully stacked against him.
What do you think of that, Daly?
Thank you so much.
I completely agree.
You've made my day, too.
Thank you.
You bet.
I'm glad you.
Hey, Daly, have you read my books, the Rush Revere books?
Yes, sir, I have.
You have?
Okay.
Well, I was going to say.
I love them.
They're awesome.
Do you have an iPad by any chance?
No, sir.
I don't.
Would your parents mind if I sent you an iPad, do you think?
I don't know.
Sounds like they.
I'll tell you what.
You asked me.
I'm so grateful.
Oh, good.
Cool.
Okay.
It's fine.
Okay.
So you want a big one or do you want the little one?
You want the iPad Air or you want the iPad Pro?
I think the iPad Air, whatever is great.
Thank you so much.
Okay.
All right.
Well, you know, Daly, I don't know.
Do you have big hands or small hands, Daly?
I have small hands.
Small hands.
Okay.
Small hands.
Well, but the pro could grow into the pro.
The pro is like 13 inches.
The little one's like 10 inches.
Whatever you think is best.
You know it.
I knew I liked you, Daly.
Really, so few people ever say that to me.
Whatever you think best, Rush.
Nobody ever says that to me.
You made my day.
Okay, Daly, hang on so Mr. Snerdley can get your app.
We're going to FedEx it.
You'll have it tomorrow, okay?
Thank you, Dan.
I bet.
And we will be right back.
Don't go away.
Here's Janice in Billings, Montana.
Janice, you're the last call today.
Great to have you with us.
Hi.
Hi, Rush.
I want to suggest a way to stop the plan for a contested convention.
Okay.
This is the way.
Trump and Cruz agree to be running mates.
One of them suspends his campaign.
The other one wins the remaining delegates.
Problem solved.
Well, okay.
Who goes number two in your scenario?
Who is the V?
I think Trump should be president first because he's the older frontrunner.
And so we could have two Trump terms and two Cruz terms.
And they'd be great together.
You know, Trump understands messaging.
Cruz understands the Constitution.
And I want both of them.
Well, you know what?
The nominee is going to be one of the two of them.
You can say all you want, but when you boil this down, the nominee is going to be one of those two people.
These people having their dreams and fetishes can do it all they want.
It's going to be one of those two people.
And although they're great men, they're both strong men.
That's true.
I don't know.
Some Cruz people might abandon him if he did it.
I mean, there's some, the anti-Trump vitriol is pretty anti, pretty vitriolic, I should say.
But it's an interesting thing to chew on over the weekend.
I'm glad that you made it through here, Janice.
We've got to go, folks.
We'll be back to wrap it up after this.
Okay, folks, that's it.
I hope you have a great weekend.
We will be back on Monday.
You can count on it.
Hope you have a great weekend.
And thank you so much, as always, for being with us today, every day.
Look forward to the next time.
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