RUSH: You know, I made a point earlier in the program, speaking of Reagan. I want to repeat this because I think it’s fundamentally important as all of you prepare in Iowa to go caucus. You know, something else on my mind. I’m gonna go against my instincts here and I’m gonna share with you some of the details of the analysis of the latest Des Moines Register poll, because some analysts think that it’s seriously flawed because it’s projected a way-too-high turnout.
The problem is a lot of numbers, and numbers are hard to follow on the radio. But I’m gonna endeavor to do this. But I want to repeat something I said early on. We’ve had a lot of people on the Republican side (not just in this campaign, but for the last number of years) urge the party to get rid of Reagan. The most recent was a young guy saying, “You know, this Reagan fetish that the Republican Party has? We gotta drop it. We gotta get past it. The Reagan era, it’s long gone. It’s over with.” We never hear the Democrats say, “The era of FDR is over,” or, “The JFK era is over.”
They never throw their ex-presidents overboard. They don’t even throw Jimmy Carter overboard! But we do. We’ve got the Republican establishment that wants to get rid of Reagan. But look at this primary. We have a really great field of Republican candidates seeking the Republican nomination, and many of them are direct descendants of Ronald Reagan. And by that I mean they are the result of the influence of the Reagan presidency, Reagan himself and the Reagan years. Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Scott Walker (before he dropped out of the race).
I would even throw Ben Carson in this mix, in the sense that these are young men. These are all great people. Ted Cruz is not “a nasty guy,” and he’s not heartless. I’ve got the most fascinating piece here about Cruz, by the way. I would love to be criticized the way this piece criticizes Ted Cruz. He’s steady, he’s solid, he’s dependable, he’s always of good nature. This is a piece where he’s being criticized for this ’cause nobody thinks it’s real. No matter how much pressure he’s under, he’s got a smile for you.
No matter how much pressure he’s under, how many different directions he’s being tugged, he’s the Ted Cruz you know and expect. He never gets mad, never loses his temper, never snaps with people that anybody sees. This piece is written as a criticism in the sense, “This is not the way people are. Nobody can do this all the time,” and it’s like saying, “Nobody can be a nice guy all the time.” But whatever anybody says or whatever you think, Cruz is not “nasty,” and he’s not heartless. It’s the exact opposite in both cases. Because he’s a conservative.
Conservatives are not nasty people, and they certainly are not mean-spirited or heartless. This is one of the biggest ruses that has ever been successfully played, and that is the characterization of conservatives as mean-spirited and heartless. They have the biggest hearts of anybody around. They want the best for everybody! Look, I am a conservative, and I can speak for every conservative I know here. We love people, and we want the best for everybody, and we want everybody to be responsible for being the best.
What’s a phrase running around now? There’s a phrase that runs around now in the New Age community called, “I want to be the best version of myself.” Have you heard that said on TV and so forth? Well, you can smirk at it all you want, but conservatism is what makes that possible. Conservatism is what makes you the best you can be. Liberalism doesn’t! Liberalism doesn’t believe in you. Liberalism and liberal people do not think that you have the ability to be your best. That’s why you need them.
You need them spending your money for you ’cause you won’t do it the right way. You need them figuring out where you’re gonna go to school, where you work, because you won’t make the right decision. You need them supporting you financially because you’re not capable. They have to believe this in order to make them feel necessary and facilitate their acquisition of power. The liberal desire for power is rooted in a contempt of the average person and the belief that average people are incompetent and incapable. That makes them victims.
And they are victims of what?
Mean-spirited and cold-hearted Republicans.
It’s just freaking a lie.
Conservatives happen to have the biggest hearts of anybody know. They’re the most charitable. They’re the most desirous of people literally doing well. The conservatives I know love sharing the things that they love, and they love sharing their passions, and they want everybody to be happy. And they believe that everybody has it in them to be better than what they think they can be. It’s the other guys that don’t believe that in people. It’s the other guys that want you to believe yourself a victim, with no chance unless somebody’s looking out for you — who really doesn’t even know you or care about you.
Except when it’s time to count votes.
Marco Rubio? You know, I mentioned one day last week that I know all of these people: Donald Trump, Rubio, Cruz, Dr. Carson. I’ve met them all, and the unabashed, undeniable young conservatives that are seeking the Republican nomination, they’re direct descendants Ronald Reagan. They are what they are because they came of age and believed during the Reagan presidency. And they saw what great times this country had, and they want that again! They want it for everybody. They remember how it happened in the 1980s.
And it’s not nostalgia. It’s an understanding of what works and what doesn’t. There are certain things that are timeless. There are certain institutions, manners, good manners, behavioral traits, whatever. There are certain things that are true no matter what era you put somebody in, and conservatism is one of those things. It’s not tied to a specific era. It’s not tied to specific events. It’s a condition of the heart. And these young guys… I say “young guys,” because they’re forties and fifties.
They come from an era of greatness in this country that they lived and experienced. And in Rubio’s case, it was the Reagan era that allowed his family to escape Cuba, come to this country. And for him to become a senator in the United States of America? His father was a bartender. John Kasich’s dad was a mailman. You know the drill. And it’s just tremendous opportunity. And here’s the first day.
This is the first day people are gonna have a chance to actually go out and do something that’s not responding to a poll or getting caught up in outside, extraneous influences. Now, a caucus is not as private as a vote. There’s all kinds of arm twisting and pressure that goes on in there. It’s where you go in and you tell people who you’re for and some say, “Great, great.” Others try to talk you out of it, try to talk you into their guy, and it can go on for a period of time.
There’s nothing really private about it which makes it obviously different from other primaries where there were votes.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
I do want to get back to the phones. This is Mary Jo in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Great to have you. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thank you for taking my call. I’m calling because I am a Christian and I’m a conservative. I became eligible to vote in 1988 and have voted in every presidential election since. I held my nose and voted for McCain and Romney even though I knew they did not share my conservative perspective. But if Donald Trump wins the nomination this year it will be the first time in 30 years that I will not vote in a presidential election.
And I’ve actually talked with a number of people where I haven’t given my perspective, but they have said the same thing to me. And so I think that Donald Trump has a real problem if he wins the nomination because Ronald Reagan won 49 states with Christian conservatives, and Romney lost without them, but I did vote for Romney. McCain lost without them, even though people like me did. But I think that Trump is not gonna get the people that —
RUSH: Well, wait a minute, now. He got the endorsement of Jerry Falwell Jr. out there who’s been running around on the trail with him all over in Iowa.
CALLER: Yes, he did, but he did not get the endorsement of Tony Perkins. He did not get the endorsement of that large group of women pro-lifers. He did not get the Tea Party Patriots. I’ve heard someone call Jerry Falwell’s son a cheap date and I think that might be a reasonable —
RUSH: Oh.
CALLER: Oh-ho-ho. Really?
CALLER: That’s what I heard. I didn’t say it myself.
RUSH: No, of course not.
CALLER: I did not.
RUSH: No, of course not.
CALLER: I did not think that his perspective on why he’s endorsing him comes from a conservative perspective.
RUSH: Right. Right. Well, you really won’t vote?
CALLER: I won’t vote.
RUSH: So you would be in that group of 60% who view Trump unfavorably out there?
CALLER: Yes. Rush, I base my vote on integrity, consistency, principles, policy, and the Constitution. And, really, on all of those, he does not have integrity, in my eyes. He’s not been consistent; that’s for sure.
RUSH: Right. Well, who do you like?
CALLER: — universal health care.
RUSH: Who do you like?
CALLER: I like Ted Cruz, but I would vote for a large number of any of the other Republican candidates. But I won’t vote for Donald Trump. And I’m sorry to say that. Like, as I said, I voted in every election since I became eligible.
RUSH: So are you comfortable with the possibility that you, taking that course of action along with the others that are like you, effectively electing Hillary Clinton and thus continuing the current policies of the current Regime, which are destruction of the United States? You’re content to let that happen?
CALLER: I hate to say it, but I am, but just as you said earlier today, Rush, and you said it over and over, universal health care puts our very lives in the hands of the government. And once they have that control of us it’s all over. So if Donald Trump is in favor of universal health care, which he is, he has said it over and over.
RUSH: No, no, no, no, no, no wait a minute, now. He went out the there and it was originally reported he was for single payer, and then they walked that back, that he didn’t actually say that. It’s the way he went after Ted Cruz again as being heartless and letting people die on the streets that has made people think that because that’s the way liberals talk about conservatives, that they’re heartless and mean-spirited and don’t care if people die. And I can tell you that that’s not who Ted Cruz is. Ted Cruz doesn’t want people to die on the street.
I got news for you. They already are, under the Democrats, folks.