RUSH: We’re going to start with Ellen in Cincinnati. It’s nice to have you, Ellen. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: You know, I’m… We are conservative evangelical homeschoolers — I mean my husband and I — and what concerns us is that Mike Huckabee is anti-school choice, which we believe is the only thing that really levels the playing field for homeschoolers, and he’s endorsed by the NEA, which is the very entity that really forced many of us to choose to home school. It’s a bit concerning.
RUSH: Well, you’re right. You’re right to have that concern. How come, as an evangelical homeschooler, you’ve not been swept up in Huckmania? Is that the reason?
CALLER: Well, that’s part of the reason, but the main part is, Rush, we believe what the Bible says that there is one mediator between God and man, and it is not the federal government.
RUSH: And you think Huckabee wants to enlarge and empower the federal government?
CALLER: I believe his past governance has shown that, yes.
RUSH: Jihads all right, Ellen, I appreciate the phone call. Thanks.
CALLER: Thank you.
RUSH: You bet. There’s an evangelical homeschooler — who is correct, by the way: The NEA in New Hampshire has endorsed Mike Huckabee. They do not — the NEA does not — endorse conservatives. Robert, New York City, you’re next on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. How are you?
RUSH: Good, sir, thank you.
CALLER: Let me start by saying first of all, I respect you a lot, but according to — Like a lot of your listeners, I don’t need you to tell me who to vote for. That’s what I think you stressed to everybody, but the point I’m trying to make is —
RUSH: Wait. Wait. I haven’t told anybody to vote for.
CALLER: That’s what I’m saying. I’m saying all these people are calling up, complaining that you’re not.
RUSH: Oh, from last Friday. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
CALLER: Yes. Yes.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: But my point, my point I want to make is this: First off, the first caller made a point about, you know — me, I’m starting to feel that as a conservative that maybe — I… To pull the lever for McCain, who, like me, is no conservative. I’m a former Marine and I respect what he did for my country, but as far as that goes, to me he’s a zero when it comes to McCain… All that stuff. To me, to hold my nose…
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait. I’m really having trouble understanding you. You’re saying you’re going to vote for McCain?
CALLER: No, no, no, no. The point was, the first caller made that he’s going to have to pull the lever for somebody on the Republican side because, you know, better than the other side, which is true. But to me, I’ll have a hard time pulling the lever for McCain or Huckabee if they’re the Republican nominee. So I’m thinking about maybe it’s better for us conservatives to sit out. Let them destroy the country like they did during the Carter years and maybe, just maybe, a true Reagan conservative will come through and clean up the mess like he did back in 1980, because personally —
RUSH: Yeah, but wait. It’s an interesting thing that you just said.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: You sit out. I think if the Republicans nominate certain people, a lot of conservatives will sit out, to be honest with you.
CALLER: Yes. I agree.
RUSH: Or might even vote Democrat.
CALLER: No, I’ll never do that.
RUSH: Well, but some will. But look, going further in your analogy: we ended up with Reagan, but what did it take?
CALLER: Listen, I’m 46 years old so —
RUSH: It took Jimmy Carter.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: You can’t take Jimmy Carter out of the Reagan equation. This is not to take anything away from Reagan, but Jimmy Carter so botched everything in this country. I’m not taking anything away from Reagan. It’s interesting you say this; because I found last night a couple of fascinating pieces by the same author at the American Thinker, and he said that there are two scenarios here that Republicans can follow. I’ll have to read excerpts to you because it’s really, really good. The first excerpt is: Why are you people in a funk? Look at all the good that’s happened in this country the last eight years, and he went through the list of all the great things that have happened and the great course that we’re on. In the second piece, he took your position: You know what, things are really going bad; the Republicans have totally, totally abandoned their conservative promises. All this talk about doing something about the life issue, all this talk about doing something about spending, all this talk about reforming the tax code. They haven’t done diddly-squat.
So it may well be that some Republicans are going to say, ‘To hell with it.’ It’s sort of like an analogy to the black vote in the Democrat Party. The black vote keeps voting Democrat, expecting all these problems to get fixed and they never get fixed. The conservatives in the Republican Party keep voting Republican, expecting all these things to get fixed and the opposite happens: earmarks, uncontrolled spending, Republican presidents letting Ted Kennedy write the education bill, on and on and on and on and on. So the theory is in the second scenario, a lot of people might just sit out — which would give the election to Hillary or Obama, which in turn could do such damage to the country that by 2012, that that will bring about the new Reagan, that the new Reagan’s not possible in this scenario. I don’t know about this ‘new Reagan’ business. But his point is that somebody far more conservative than we have on the roster now would surface in 2012 as opposed to now. It’s a fascinating piece. It’s very, very long because it’s really two pieces in one. It was supposed to be posted today at the American Thinker. I’ll make sure that it is, and we’ll link to it at RushLimbaugh.com, because it is fascinating.
On one side, it chides all of us — well, not me because I’m not in a funk about the country. But it chides everybody who’s in a funk about the country. Wake up, we’re Americans! Look at all the good things that are happening. Look at the great future we have here. Look at how the rest of the world lives. What do you want? And it chronicles specific successes that this administration has had, with judges to the Supreme Court, tax cuts, an expanding economy coming off a Clinton mini-recession, and then 9/11. There are a lot of reasons to feel happy, a lot of reasons to feel optimistic. The second scenario is a down-to-earth appraisal of how Republicans who have campaigned as conservatives have not governed that way and let anybody down and that’s why there’s a funk and people may not vote, pure and simple. Because they’re fed up with empty promises, and the conservatives are not going to be repeating the mistakes of the black voters in this country by continuing to vote for endless promises that never happen on the Democrat side. I appreciate the call out there, Robert. Thanks much.