RUSH: We’re gonna start in upstate New York with Tim. I’m glad you called, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you today?

RUSH: Very fine. Thank you.

CALLER: My name is Tim. I just wanted to say “thank you” for changing the way I look at these politics. I stuck my head in the sand for so many years. I’m a Democrat and I just watched years and years go by without really getting into what the politics were about. And after my kids were born, I realized I need to start getting really into this to find out what’s going on more and more. Just seeing the way this country has taken such a turn, it’s just ridiculous. I said, “Okay, if I’m gonna be a Democrat, I’m gonna start listening to the other side and consider the other side.” I said, “Okay, you know what? I’m gonna turn on something that I probably never thought I’d turn on.”

RUSH: Me!

CALLER: And that was your show.

RUSH: That is right, and I know what happened. You were hooked inside of six weeks.

CALLER: I wouldn’t say six weeks. It took a little longer than six weeks, because I try to keep an open mind.

RUSH: No, that means you were resisting.

CALLER: Yeah, you’re right about that.

RUSH: Yeah, you were resisting.

CALLER: But regardless, I just had to agree. I found myself agreeing more and more and more. And I have very limited time to listen to your show. I try to put it on when I can, and I just want to say thank you, because you really did change the way I look at what’s going on in politics.

RUSH: You are more than welcome, and I appreciate it. Thank you very much. I think, folks, that Tim here in upstate New York is exactly what I’m talking about. When I say Tim was “a low-information voter,” I don’t mean that Tim’s dumb, stupid, or any of that. He was a Democrat, and that’s all it took. That’s all that mattered. He’s a Democrat. He was loyal as a Democrat. He didn’t even care to find out why. He just was. And then, for some reason, some of it stopped making sense.

And look what happened.

He, on his own, found a way to expose himself to something other than what he had been traditionally devoted to. And it made a difference. This is the golden opportunity I’m speaking of that’s out there, that’s sitting there on a silver platter. But I got to tell you something, Tim. While I’m flattered, and while you think you are agreeing with me, what you’re really agreeing with is reality. You finally have found reality. My ideas are nothing unique. I just live in the real world. I’m the mayor of Realville.

And you haven’t heard my ideas before, because you were a Democrat. Folks, it’s what I was talking about yesterday. That show yesterday was so far ahead of its time. I guarantee you that show, six months from now, people are gonna look back on. One of the things was when we were talking about the partisan divide and how it’s not about policy. It’s not about issues. I created this mythical Silicon Valley CEO who’s bright, obviously.

This CEO has no policy reason, no intellectual reason whatsoever to be fundraising for Obama, bundling for Obama, and donating to Obama. Much less supporting Obama. None! But why does that CEO do so? Well, if it isn’t policy, what is it? Obama’s policies are gonna kill her company, unless she ends up being a crony of Obama’s and ends up getting government support like GE got. Maybe she’s angling for that, or may be she just gets off on being part of the elite circle.

“I know the president! The president comes to my house. I fund-raise for him.” It could be any of those things, but it ain’t policy. So if it isn’t policy, how do you reach those people? Well, you find out what they think of us. We’re unhip, we’re uncool, we’re stupid! They think we’re absolute idiots. It’s so uncool to say you’re a conservative, to these people. To these people. I’ll give you an example. You know, I read a lot of tech blogs because I am fascinated by tech. I love it. I actively, physically love high-tech and reading about it. So I read a bunch of these blogs. That’s what I do for relaxation.

At the Values Voter Summit over the weekend Rick Santorum got up and said, among other things, (paraphrasing) “The smart people and the elites are never gonna support us. The smart people and the elites are never going to like us.” That’s not in context. Now, you and I know what he meant. He’s talking to other people who know what he meant. “The smart people,” that’s in quotes. The elites, the smart people, the people who think they’re smarter than everybody else, the arrogant, cocky, think they’re smarter.

You would not believe how many tech blogs posted: For the first time Santorum ever made sense. That’s right, smart people are never gonna like him. Smart people are never gonna like conservatives. It’s about time some conservative figured it out was the point on all these tech blogs, where you’ve got young people who think that they’re progressives, who think they’re ahead of their time, who think they’re the smartest people in the room, and to them conservatism, they don’t want any part of it ’cause it’s embarrassingly dumb and stupid.

So here they come along praising Santorum for finally getting it right, realizing, “Yeah, bud, you are weird. You are a nerd and a kook, and we are never gonna want anything to do with you,” and they praised him for finally getting it. ‘Cause what they heard him say was, “We’re dumb and we’re not cool and the smart people are never gonna like us.” They didn’t understand that he meant “smart people” in quotes. They didn’t understand that what he was talking about was closed-minded bigots, arrogant, cocky SOBs who think they are the cat’s meow. Santorum was telling these people, “Don’t worry, don’t worry, they’re not the smart people. They’re not the elites. They’re self-appointed. They are not with us culturally,” and he’s right.

You know, it used to be cool to face reality like a man. Now it’s not. Being cool has nothing to do with reality. Reality’s too hard. Reality’s too painful. Reality requires too much. I’d rather live in my self-created cocoon where everything’s fine and dandy, and everybody loves everybody, and those who don’t are a bunch of idiots who we don’t have to spend any time with anyway. Living in a fantasy world is the cool thing to do. Avoiding reality.