RUSH: San Francisco. This is Mark. Thank you for calling, sir. Great to have you on our program.
CALLER: Thank you for taking my call, Rush. I’m in Walnut Creek about 30 miles east of San Francisco.
RUSH: I know it well.
CALLER: I know you worked in Sacramento, and you talked about Rio Linda, but I know Sacramento well, lived here my whole life, born and raised in Modesto in the Central Valley —
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: — territory. Despite that I am a Northern California liberal. Like I said I’ve listened over 20 years, I enjoy your program, I really don’t think I have much potential to be one of your many converts to your cause, but I still enjoy your program.
RUSH: I appreciate that, sir.
CALLER: I hope my conservative Tea Party friends in Arizona are listening. They’ll get a kick out of me actually getting on the program. I know you have limited time and I want to get to the issue. Well, real quick, I’m a former mortgage broker in my fifties, just a little bit younger than you I think, and would love to discuss your last topic that you just commented on before the last break over possibly cigars and a drink sometime, but that’s not why I called. I called because I watched the Republican debate from start to finish the other night, and I was struck by many things. I really think all of the candidates portrayed their true selves quite well, nobody stuck their foot in their mouth, et cetera. However, what I considered to be a very important question from the audience, at least if somebody wants to actually get elected by the broad spectrum of the electorate in a general election, was stonewalled and ignored.
RUSH: What was the question?
CALLER: The question, and I can’t give it verbatim, but I can give you the gist of it, and I imagine you watched, very likely remember it, it was from a middle-aged, well dressed gentleman —
RUSH: What was the question?
CALLER: — asking how the mostly right-wing candidates would appeal to a moderate Republican such as him as opposed to having the whole scene dominated by —
RUSH: Oh, I saw that.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: I saw that.
CALLER: I think the candidates are marginalizing themselves much in the losing way that on the left George McGovern did in ’72 or on the right Barry Goldwater did in ’64 —
RUSH: Let me tell you something. I’m gonna answer your question. If the Republicans, and I’m like you, I don’t have this guy’s question in front of me verbatim, but this guy basically said, “I’m a Rockefeller Republican, I’m a Republican-in-name-only,” is basically what he said, he would never call himself that, but when he described himself, that’s what he is. He’s a squishy Republican. He’s embarrassed of conservatives, and he’s feeling left out, all these conservatives on the stage. What are you going to do to attract me? And if I’d-a been on the stage I woulda said, “If any of us goes out of our way to appeal to you, we will lose the election.”
The moderate RINO Republicans are why the Republican Party loses. This guy was not a moderate Republican. He’s a liberal Republican who doesn’t like the social issues being front and center. It’s predictable and these people are all over the Republican Party. And if I’d-a been on that stage I woulda simply said — in fact, I think I’ve got a bite here. Rick Perry actually had a answer similar to what I would say. The basic answer to the question is, “Sir, I’m gonna appeal to every American in this country and I’m gonna do it not with identity politics but with conservative policy. We have a serious problem in this country. We’ve gotta fix and change the direction we’re going, and I’m not gonna come up with a message for you and then a message for Hispanics. I’m not gonna come up with a message for women. I’m gonna come up with a message for Americans. I have a message for Americans.”
That guy and his question illustrated the danger that the Republican Party faces because that guy wants conservatism nonexistent or watered down ’cause he thinks it’s why the Republicans lose. You’ll note there are some in this Republican field, there are some RINOs in this field, and you just wait how conservative they’ll make themselves sound in this primary season. You just wait. The Democrats know what it takes to win elections. Yeah, I saw that guy, holier-than-thou. You aren’t the party. You think you are. You’re the problem with the party, people like you. Now, here’s Rick Perry. This is yesterday afternoon, he was on with Neil Cavuto on the Fox News Channel, and Cavuto said to Rick Perry, he’s the governor of Texas thinking about getting in the race, “Are Hispanic voters the crucial bloc Republicans have to win over?”
CAVUTO: Is that a big draw in your case?
PERRY: It is, absolutely, it’s a very important — Mexico is our number one trading partner in Texas. So the idea that somehow you would write off that segment or would do things to cause harm to them from a voting bloc is — you know, it’s off the table. The Hispanic population in the country is no different from the Anglo population or the Asian population. They want to live in a state where they can be free from overtaxation, overlitigation. They want to be able to have good schools for their kids and have a wide open future. That’s what the Republican Party is all about.
RUSH: Damn straight, there it is, there’s your answer. I don’t care if it’s the guy that stood up with the question in New Hampshire or any question that comes down the road, “What are you gonna do to make sure you get the Hispanic vote?” There’s your answer. They’re Americans, too. They’re tired of high taxes. They’re tired of overregulation. They want decent future for their kids. I’m gonna tell you something else, to the guy in San Francisco. This whole notion that there is a right wing is a myth and the election in November of 2010 proved it. We are not a wing. We are the broad middle. We are the mainstream of this country. The mainstream in this country is not the media. The mainstream of this country is not liberal Democrats. The mainstream of this country is not what you see popularly portrayed in most of the pop culture. We, conservatives, it is the way people live their lives, even if they don’t always vote that way. We’re not a wing. We are the broad middle, plain and simple.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I’ve got a transcript of the guy that asked the question of Michele Bachmann, and here is his question. My question is, “I’m a New Hampshire native. I’ve been an active Republican for years from a town committee chairman, Republican chairman, Merrimack County vice-chairman all the way up to 2004 delegate for President Bush. My question is: How will you convince myself? I’m not a Libertarian Republican, I’m not a Tea Party Republican, I’m just a mainstream Republican — and we need both independents and mainstream Republicans to win in November. How can you convince me and assure me that you’ll bring a balance, you won’t be torn to one side or the other from many factions within the party? You have to have a balanced approach to governing to solve our serious problems.”
That was the guy’s question. I don’t have the tape here but I’ll just read you Michele Bachmann’s answer from from the transcript. She said, “What I’ve seen in the Tea Party…” Basically he was scared of the Tea Party. This guy was just paranoid of the Tea Party, and Michele Bachmann said, “What I’ve seen in the Tea Party — I’m chairman of the Tea Party caucus in the House of Representatives — and what I’ve seen is unlike how the media’s tried to wrongly and grossly portray the Tea Party. The Tea Party is really made up of disaffected Democrats, independents; people who have never been political a day in their life; people who are Libertarians, Republicans. It’s a wide swath of America Coming Together, and I think that’s why the left fears it so much because they are people that simply want to take the country back. They want the country to work again.”
That is a fabulous answer. That’s exactly right. This guy, for all of his history as a powerful Republican in the Republican hierarchy had a hotel misconception of what the Tea Party is, because he got it from the media. He’s scared of the Tea Party. He thinks the Tea Party is a bunch of peasants running around with pitchforks and stuff, and his house is next. He has no clue who they are. Folks, the degree to which otherwise intelligent people are uninformed in our country, even on our side, is striking. It’s just it’s mind-boggling. But it’s an opportunity, a huge opportunity for growth. It’s another reason here to hang in there and be tough.
END TRANSCRIPT
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