RUSH: I have a story here from the Washington Post. I know when I pass the contents on you’re not gonna believe it. Or, if you believe it you’re gonna say it’s meaningless because it has no practical application in reality.

But the headline of the story: “Americans Are More Conservative Than They Have Been in Decades.” I’ve got two stories here. I’m wondering if they’re both using the same poll. The second one, the Washington Examiner, does use Public Policy Polling, and that bunch has just been totally discredited. Public Policy Polling polled the Colorado recall election over guns three weeks ago now, whenever it was. This is this outfit, this liberal polling unit out of North Carolina, and they’re polling on the Colorado recall election had it pegged. They were dead right. But they never released the poll because they couldn’t believe it. They’re a Democrat liberal polling unit, and their poll indicated that the Democrat in the safe district would lose big time.

Their poll predicted exactly what would happen, but they thought it wasn’t possible. They thought their poll was flawed and they never released it. Which led to a number of discussions about, well, if these people won’t release their own data just ’cause they don’t like the results, should we trust them on anything? I’ve held Public Policy Polling up for ridicule oftentimes on this program.

Now, they happen to be the source for one of the stories on this. Washington Post: “Americans Are More Conservative Than They Have Been in Decades — James Stimson knows as much about public opinion as anyone in America. He has been tracking the nationÂ’s policy preferences for more than 20 years using a ‘policy mood’ index derived from responses to a wide variety of opinion surveys involving hundreds of specific policy questions on topics ranging from taxes and spending to environmental regulation to gun control. The latest update of StimsonÂ’s policy mood series suggests that the American public in 2012 was more conservative than at any point since 1952.”

Now, again to our previous caller, who gave up, announced that it’s pointless. His wife’s the low-information voter. I would ask him, what do you think the election returns of 2010 meant? He said, “We can’t go back, Rush, it’s over. The Republicans, we can never roll this back. We can never go back to the way it was. We can never go back to the America we used to have. It’s over.” His point was the socialists have won, the Republicans are powerless, the Republicans are gutless, whatever the point he was making, we can never go back.

In 2010, don’t forget, the Republicans retook control of the House because the vast majority of voters that turned out hated Obamacare. And no matter what poll you look at, a majority of Americans still oppose Obamacare and don’t want any part of it. There was a New York Times poll that was shown up today, or discussed yesterday on Meet the Press, which I had never heard of, which said that 56% say go ahead and let it implement, which that was a new one. That’s the only one I’ve seen. This guy has a poll here, James Stimson, that Americans in 2012 are more conservative than they’ve ever been since 1952.

Okay, so you might look at that and say what good is it doing anybody? And you might hear this, can’t possibly be true. If the American population was more conservative in 2012 than it’s been since 1952, then how the hell did Obama win? And those would be logical questions. If the American public is more conservative today than it’s been at any time since 1952, how is any of this happening? And that would be a legitimate question you could ask.

I guess the question would come down, if this is true, if the American population is more conservative now than it has been even since 1952, then what explains Obama being reelected and what explains the Democrats dominating? What explains all these conservatives just sitting out there and taking it? Why aren’t they doing anything about it? And the answers to that I think would get pretty intricate, because then party politics comes into play. You know, they say the guy’s right. If the Republican Party is not representing that, how many of these conservatives are actually showing up to vote and participate? We know that four million of ’em didn’t in 2012. Four million Republican voters who did vote in ’08 did not vote in 2012, because they were dissatisfied with Romney or who knows whatever else.

The Washington Examiner story: 76% of the GOP is now conservative, and in a poll by Public Policy Polling they have identified Ted Cruz as the person they would choose for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. According to this PPP poll, which has Cruz as the top choice for the Republican nomination 2016, those who describe themselves as very conservative make up 39% of the GOP. Add in those who consider themselves somewhat conservative and conservative voters comprise 76% of the party. Now, if that happens to be true, well, then, you’ve got a recipe there for real disgust, because the Republican establishment is not 76% conservative. The Republican establishment in Washington is not conservative at all, yet most Republican voters are?

Now, I understand people are gonna look at this and say, “Doesn’t mean anything, Rush.” I’m not trying to be phony positive with you and I’m not trying to say it means anything that you can grab onto, put your arms around and make predictions for the future about, not that at all. ‘Cause it’s a disconnect. It doesn’t make any sense. For some guy that polls the American people to say the American population is more conservative today than at any time since 1952, where’s the evidence? It’s a legitimate question. I happen to think it’s true, particularly in how people live their lives, particularly in the moral foundations of most people.

That’s why I continue to have faith in the future. It’s why I have not given up. That’s why I don’t think we’ve lost the country yet. It’s hard to point to such things as election results or what’s going on in Washington for the evidence of it. But the fact is there’s a disconnect. We’ve discussed this, too, ruling class versus country class, and there’s a huge disconnect between both parties. Ruling class, both party establishments and the American population at large. It’s huge. It’s a great disconnect. And it leads to so many people having so much frustration. And most people feel powerless to do anything about it.

Conservatives by nature are not gonna take to the streets and protest like Occupy Wall Street does or any of that, even when they’re asked to. It’s just not who they are. It’s not the kind of things they do. And, absent that, the Washington establishment doesn’t think that there’s anything to worry about. Despite the 2010 midterms, they don’t think that there’s really anything to worry about from the people. They think most of you have signed on to big government, amnesty, gun control, whatever it is, gay marriage, and even if you haven’t, there’s nothing you can do about it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay, so really, what would explain it? Let’s take this story at its word, just for the sake of it. Let’s accept, for the hypothetical discussion that follows, that the percentage of Americans who are conservative is at an all-time high since 1952 and that that is most Americans. Most Americans. So what, then, would explain Obama being reelected? What would explain Obama getting so much of his agenda, if the people of this country are more conservative than they’ve been since 1952?

Well, dare I mention it, there’s two possibilities here.

One is the Limbaugh Theorem — and maybe just because somebody’s conservative doesn’t mean that they automatically understand a liberal when they see one. The Limbaugh Theorem is the explanation for Obama not having any accountability for the policies that are his. Obama constantly positions himself as an outsider, campaigning to fix what’s wrong, when he’s the guy that’s broken everything.

But he’s never seen that way. It’s never reported that these are Obama policies. He is constantly running against evil Republican. He had a little statement today. Grab sound bite 25. It’s another great example. He had a little photo-op here and a brief mention sitting in the Oval Office fireplace next to Bibi Netanyahu, and he got a question from a reporter. “Are you resigned, Mr. President, to have the government shut down at this point?” a reporter shouted. This is what Obama said.

OBAMA: The Senate has passed a bill that keeps the government open, does not have a lot of extraneous issues to it, that allows us then to negotiate a longer term budget and address a range of other issues but ensures that we’re not shutting down the government and we’re not shutting down the economy at a time when a lot of families out there are just getting some traction and digging themselves out of the hole that we’ve had as a consequence of the financial crisis. I’ve said before, Congress has two responsibilities.

RUSH: All right, that’s enough.

OBAMA: Pass a budget.

RUSH: So it’s not just a government shutdown. Now we’re “shutting down the economy.” Now the Republicans are “shutting down the economy,” number one. Number two, we’re “shutting down the economy at a time when a lot of families are just getting some traction and digging out of the whole that we’ve had as a consequence of the financial crisis.” So it has nothing to do with him, you see? It has everything to do with everything that happened before he got elected and immaculated.

He continues to operate this way, and therefore he escapes any accountability, and maybe, even though some of these people in the country are conservative, they just do not see Obama in an ideological way. And that could be explained by the fact that there aren’t very many people who talk about Obama in an ideological way. Certainly not the Republican Party. So it’s either that, the Limbaugh Theorem, or they’ve just given up.

But they still went ahead and answered the question honestly. But I think it’s clear that Obama has escaped practically all attachments to everything happening in this country policy-wise for five years, other than Obamacare, which people don’t like. I mean, that’s got his name on its. They can’t really conclude that he’s got nothing to do with that. But even there, what did he say? “Premiums are gonna come down $2500! It’s gonna be free for people! If you like your doctor, you’re gonna keep your doctor!”

You know, most people, contrary to what you might think, just do not want to believe anything bad about their president. It took the Democrats four years to create the monster that was George W. Bush. You could even argue it took ’em longer than that because they started on that even before he was inaugurated ’cause of the Florida aftermath. Those are the only two things I could come up to explain, “If we accept that the vast majority of people are conservative, then how the hell is any of this happening?”

If you have any ideas, feel free to weigh in.