RUSH: Here’s Dave in Salt Lake, Utah. Dave, great to have you on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: Yes, sir.
CALLER: I would like to thank you for your ability to clearly describe what is going on. A few days ago you had a piece on the air about the correct definition of crony capitalism, and that it occurs with big government involvement in the free market.
RUSH: Yes, sir.
CALLER: I just want to thank you for accurately verbalizing what crony government is on the air to all your viewers.
RUSH: Well, I must confess, I had a little assistance that day. I found a really good piece about it at RedState.com. What was great about this piece was that it gave some examples. You, me, anybody can define crony capitalism as it exists today — or crony socialism may be a better term.
CALLER: Well, that’s interesting because I think that maybe you’re in really such a great position to make new definitions. You’ve made definitions in the past that have caught on. I think maybe we need to replace some of these definitions. Like crony capitalism, should be replaced with one of two terms, like “crony government” or “Obama capitalists.”
RUSH: I like “crony government,” actually. Capitalism is under assault right now anyway.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: So I don’t think we need to put it in a name that is further stigmatized.
CALLER: When people sit there and say, “That’s crony capitalism,” we should turn it around and say, “Actually, it’s crony government.”
RUSH: Right. Right. But the real key to it — and here’s the thing. I’m going to take the occasion of your call to explain what I think is the fundamentally most important aspect of it. Most people labor under what are now false perceptions, misconceptions. One is that all business people are Republican, and the second one is that all businesspeople are for an unregulated free market where they’re free to rip off and screw any customer they want.
That’s what most people think it is, and it’s not anymore. They used to think that capitalism was just brutal competition with all kinds of tricks and unfair practices. Companies try to destroy each other and so forth and out-build or out-invent or out-innovate. There’s some companies that still practice business that way. Apple is one, for example.
But the way it’s working today, if you have a willing president who is very happy for government to take over or join business, then it’s much easier for a CEO to establish a relationship with the president, with the administration, and let that relationship serve as the primary competitive advantage he has over his competitors. For example, use Walmart.
Most people would think that Walmart is unfettered capitalists, Republicans through and through, great competitors. And yet, there they are helping Obamacare, helping Obamacare become reality. Why? The answer is they are so big, they can afford it. They know their competitors can’t. So aligning themselves, crony government, with the Regime means Walmart does not have to lower their prices anymore.
They don’t have to have more products, better, any of that. Their association with government alone can help them beat their competitors. General Electric is the same way with green energy. Costco supports the minimum wage? There’s no business that supports a minimum wage increase. What the hell is that? Costco did, because they know their competitors can’t afford it. They associate with Obama and get some breaks.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: That’s crony government, and this not how Republicans operate. It’s not how conservatives operate. The big problem with it is that products are not getting better and services aren’t getting any better, but companies are winning simply because of their crony relationship with Washington rather than standard business practices: Better product, better service, what have you.
CALLER: Earlier today you used another word. You said, “Bridgegate,” and I sat there and I thought, “That work word ‘-gate’ should be replaced with a better term that describes a cover-up, such as ‘-ghazi.'” Like instead of Bridgegate, it should be “Bridge-ghazi.”
RUSH: Ghazi, as in Benghazi. Because Watergate is tied to Republicans and Benghazi is —
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: Well, your thinking on this is very solid. It really is. I’m glad that piece had impact with you. It seems more and more that our focus sadly is on the low-information crowd. And the problem with that is that most low-information people don’t know that they are low-information people. The ignorant, by definition, don’t know what they don’t know. Therefore, they don’t that they’re ignorant. So they never think you’re talking to them. And more and more that seems to be the target of what we have to do, because they’re the ones that they’re having the wool pulled over their eyes by slick packaging and marketing.
That’s really nothing new. It just seems to be more successfully exploited today than I remember it being. But I could be wrong about that. It could be common parlance. I always strive to make sure I don’t think something that is happening today is worse than ever. But man, I’ve never been, in my life, a country this precariously balanced. In my life the country has never been this threatened. The basics, the fundamentals, the foundation, has never been under assault like this. There’s always been leftists. There’s always been anti-American, blame America, first people. They’ve never been this numerous in leadership positions before. That’s different, too.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ronaldus Magnus, ladies and gentlemen, 1975 interview on 60 Minutes. “It always has been. How do we call a liberal? You know, someone very profoundly once said many years ago that if fascism ever comes to America, it will come in the name of liberalism.”
And then Reagan said, “And what is fascism? Fascism is private ownership, private enterprise, but total government control and regulation. Well, isnÂ’t this the liberal philosophy? The conservative, so-called, is the one that says less government, get off my back, get out of my pocket, and let me have more control of my own destiny.”
Reagan back in 1975. And I think most people today — you know who the low-information crowd today is? Well, among them is the New York Times readers. New York Times readers today are the essence of low-information voters. That Scott Walker story, classic example. The readers of the New Republic are low-information readers. They don’t know it. They think they know the gospel. They’re being lied to and they just eagerly swallow every syllable of it.