RUSH: Here’s Eric in Cornelius, North Carolina. Hey, Eric. It’s great to have you with us. Hi.

CALLER: Thanks. Mega dittos, Rush, from a black conservative who loves you.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: Thanks for accepting my call, but I sincerely request your indulgence for a moment, and hopefully you’ll even engage me, because I have a very deep concern, and I want you to tell me if my concerns are unfounded, but it’s of grave importance here. I’m actually originally a Carson supporter. I moved on to Cruz and supported Cruz. I love the guy. But I’m actually going to support Trump. I’m pulling for Trump through this, because I’m actually terrified of the prospects of a brokered convention. Part of the reason why is, I don’t like the Republican establishment. I can’t stand liberals and Hillary, but I’m even more so afraid of a brokered convention or contested convention because it’s going to give the Republican establishment and Hillary exactly what they want. And so —

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Which is what?

CALLER: Which is a guaranteed loss. The Republicans are hoping they can pull a rabbit out of the hat and pull out a miracle win because of a brokered convention. Obviously it’s gonna politicize the party big time. They’re hoping they can win, but they’d rather have Hillary rather than somebody like a Trump for stupid reasons. But the Democrats want this because they know it’s going to kill us in the general election. They’re guaran… They know that. So they are, in a disjointed kind of way, in collusion with the Democrat Party and the Republican establishment.

They’re in a weird kind of disjointed collusion, hoping and praying for this for this brokered convention. Now, Ted Cruz — whom I do love, of course — and Kasich, it’s mathematically impossible for them to win this thing. You know, Cruz, Trump, they were saying, “Get out. You’re just baggage now.” Now Cruz is facing the very dilemma, and he’s saying, okay, he’s going to probably stay in because he wants to, for whatever reason. Obviously he wants to win the election, but he is being unwittingly or semi-wittingly duped by the establishment, because they’re supporting that he last through and force the thing to a brokered convention.

RUSH: No, no. I think it’s a question with Kasich of who’s duping who. But look, Eric, look, I want to explore this with you, but I’m out of time for this segment.

CALLER: Oh.

RUSH: No, no, no. Can you hang on?

CALLER: Yes, I can. Thanks.

RUSH: Because I want to talk to you about this brokered convention. You think it would be deadly for Republicans’ chances in November, and I just want to run some things by you. There are a lot of people who think it would not be from a television standpoint, a drama standpoint, and a focusing-of-attention-on-the-Republicans standpoint. So you hang on and we will chat about this in many few moments here.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let’s go back to Eric here in Cornelius, North Carolina, who has been holding on since the latter part of the previous hour. You’re still there, right, I’m trusting?

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: You’re still there. Tell me specifically here your fear of why a brokered convention — I think you’ve essentially said — guarantees the election of Hillary or Bernie, whoever the Democrats nominate.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: Why do you think that?

CALLER: Well, thanks again, Rush. But the problem here —

RUSH: I know. Most hosts would have hung up on you.

CALLER: Yeah. You’re right.

RUSH: They’d have said thanks and then sent you on your way.

CALLER: You’re right.

RUSH: But we held you over because you are a fascinating caller; I want to hear what you think about this.

CALLER: I can only say, “God bless you, man.” I’m crazy nervous here. But here’s the thing, Rush. There’s several layers to this here. You got different angles for wanting the brokered convention from the Republican establishment, from Democrats — Cruz, even — and they’re very interesting how if you put them all together, they still mean disaster. Of course, Cruz especially. He’s becoming more and more mathematically… It’s becoming more and more impossible for him to win the 1,237 he needs, but he’s trying to force this to the convention.

He’s proving a certain sort comes in thinking that he’s being patriotic and that he’s the best candidate for the job — I think he is — and that this is going to be good for the Republican Party, but he’s missing something here. This isn’t gonna strengthen this party. A brokered convention is gonna divide it in a violent way. It is not going to unify. It’s gonna divide us. And this is exactly what the Democrats and Hillary are wanting. They want to get in office, of course.

But this year’s going to lead to the demise, the hastening of the demise of this country because we as the Republicans or the conservatives, we’re not gonna get elected because we’re gonna be pushed out because we’re divided. You know, Lincoln said a house divided, it won’t stand; it can’t stand. So this is why I’m pulling for Trump. He has certain qualities that I like, certain that I don’t like. And, as a matter of fact, Rush — real quick — there are certain things that he could do because of his chutzpah that could bring in more black votes than the Republicans could have ever imagined, and I would love that.

RUSH: I’ve been waiting for you to get there. That’s why my patience was rewarded.

CALLER: Wow.

RUSH: You’re an African-American guy. You called here and you’re a Cruzer, which is really unique.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: But you’re open to Trump because you think Trump can siphon some African-American votes away from Hillary, and you also think that the brokered convention would end up showing disunity and would cause disunity that the Democrats would benefit from it. Let me give you the other side of this. By the way, it’s a valid point, but there’s some other people who think a brokered convention would be beneficial in these ways. Remember, now, Eric, we live in a media world. Whatever is on TV is what’s real, and whatever is on TV is what determines whether people are entertained. Other than this program on radio, TV is it.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: So a brokered convention: Drama, contention, confrontation, arguments, lying, cheating, attempted stealing, and then you have aboveboard honesty and morality at war with all the other. You would have endless speeches and votes and people would actually see how the sausage is made. As strictly as a televised event people think that it would draw ratings out the wazoo like no convention ever has, and that the Republican Party desperately needs eyeballs to see who it is and who they are and what they believe in.

And there’s no better way to expose that than four or five smack-dab days in a row of a convention arguing, because part and parcel of a brokered convention would be an argument over issues. You know, why vote Trump over Cruz? That would be an issue-oriented argument in addition to whatever else it would be. The establishment would want a brokered convention because the donors to the party want amnesty. They’re gonna do whatever they can do to get a nominee that’s gonna maintain open borders.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: So we would have that debate play out.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: It’s totally unknown. It could go your way. It could show a party totally fractured, but it would also — I guarantee you this. A brokered, contested convention on TV, gavel to gavel —

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: — would dispel all kinds of lies and myths that the left has succeeded in attaching to the Republican Party.

CALLER: Okay, you made a point there speaking from the way others are speaking. Before I answer your question, let me ask you a question. Do you, in your gut of guts, really believe a brokered convention will unify us or fracture us?

RUSH: I don’t know. You know, that’s the thing. The whole thing is unknown to me. All I can tell you is what my hope and dream is. My hope and dream is that no matter what happens we end up being unified by a realization that we cannot do for another four years what we’ve been doing the last seven and a half, that it cannot be Hillary Clinton, that nothing on our side is anywhere near Hillary Clinton. Not near as bad, near as dangerous, near as tumultuous. Anybody we would nominate —

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: Well, not anybody. The establishment could come up with some people that would be no different than Hillary on key issues like the border and so forth. But if it’s —

CALLER: Well, think about this. Think about this, Rush.

RUSH: All right. I’ll think about it.

CALLER: (chuckles) This has been the most vicious, vitriolic primary that we have ever seen —

RUSH: Right, and look at the turnout!

CALLER: That is true. But this has been a very gut-wrenching thing for me to watch, because what’s going on here, Rush —

RUSH: I know.

CALLER: (chuckles) What you have here is there are people — Republicans/conservatives — who are being literally stupid. You have Glenn Beck out there saying he’s not gonna vote. He’d rather vote for someone on the Democratic side rather than Trump, talking stupid. You have Erick Erickson. You’ve been very kind and patient to these guys who have been saying the most stupid things, and I’m gonna say what you are maybe thinking but you’re not wanting to say because you’re kind and generous.

RUSH: Ah, ah, ah. Be careful. Don’t put words in my mouth here. I purposely do not discuss other people that do what I do.

CALLER: You don’t. You’re right.

RUSH: There’s no way I can win doing that.

CALLER: Right. But, having said that, the point here is, these people are saying some of the most outlandish, idiotic things, not realizing that a vote for Hillary is a vote against themselves.

RUSH: You’re making it so hard for me. He’s talking about bringing this stuff up. I can tell you why that’s happening, but I don’t dare do it.

CALLER: Right. Well, okay, then, don’t dare. But let me at least say it this way. Because these people are being so stupid in the way they’re reasoning, it’s impossible for a brokered convention to heal that, unless they get the guy that they want. But the point is at a brokered convention people are going to so many polar extremes in the way they talk.

RUSH: A lot of people would agree with you on that, and I know… Look, you are a Cruzer, Eric. I know how hard this has been for the devoted Ted Cruz voting bloc, the Ted Cruz support base. I know how maddening and frustrating this is. I can voice every frustrating aspect of this starting with here we have the closest in our lifetimes we’ve ever been to the most successful Republican president in our lives, Ronald Reagan, and the party can’t unify behind him, and instead is unifying behind somebody that’s as far away from that (they think) as you can get.

They’re frustrated out the wazoo.

There are people who have been living their entire lives waiting for this moment, believing that this moment would be what would unite the party. And I’ve got friends who believe on the other side of this that Donald Trump would be the one to unify the party because finally, they believe, somebody has come along on the Republican side who can make the media eat it. That’s my friends’ belief here. There’s a lot of that. They hate the media. They think the media is the reason the Republican Party can’t get a break, that the Republican Party can’t get ahead.

The media is the reason the Republican Party is a bunch of cowards. The media is the reason the Republican Party fails. The media is to blame for all of it, and they’ve always believed that if a Republican could come along and make the media eat out of his hand, that would be it, that everybody would celebrate and unify, and that hasn’t happened, so they’re frustrated. So a lot of people who thought this was going to be nirvana on both sides are finding that it isn’t and they are distressed.

The conservatives, the solid conservatives behind Ted Cruz cannot believe, just cannot believe what is happening here. They cannot believe people are falling for Trump. They cannot believe people are being duped by Trump. That’s the way look at it. They’re pulling their hair out, they’re frustrated, don’t know what to do with it. The Trump supporters, by the same token, have their own frustrations but of a different nature, of course. But it’s all gotta unify somehow for a potential win over the Democrats.

And I said on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace that I’m hoping that when all this is ultimately decided that there will be a party-wide realization that the real opposition here, as it always has been, is the Democrat Party and Hillary Clinton, that that would serve to unify.

But I’ll tell you, some of these divides are pretty wide. And your thoughts on a brokered convention are held by a lot of people, that it would just divide the party further, there’s no way it could unify, and that people would see this fractured party and so forth.

You know what other people tell you, Eric, is that the party’s already blown up and we’re watching it happen. Not that it would blow up during the brokered convention or contested. That it is blowing right now and that Trump is massive evidence of this, that the party is blowing up.

For me, I am, by nature, optimistic on all of this stuff. I’m disappointed a lot. I thought we were gonna beat Obama in 2012, and I didn’t think it was gonna be — well, I knew it would be close, but I didn’t think it was gonna be difficult. I was optimistic about that. I was optimistic that Clinton would be beaten in ’92. I’ve been optimistic a lot of times, and I continue to be, but my optimism hasn’t been rewarded, but it’s not turned me into a pessimist, either.

I continue to have hope, but we’re down to nitty-gritty time here, the demographic shifts in our country, the all-out assault on our culture, civilization, and way of life is serious and real, and we’re nearing a point where the whole concept of Western civilization is going to become minority thought in the nation that pretty much established it and supported it, went to war to preserve it. It’s scary. It’s scary. I mean, we’re watching our culture, our morality literally rot away before our eyes.

I still remain optimistic that something’s gonna come along and stop it. I don’t begin to know what or who, how, why. I still think we have majority numbers and at some point people are gonna rise up and say, “Enough, stop it,” and reassert themselves. But the assaults onto are not gonna stop, and they now have been further defined as direct assaults on Christianity, the Judeo-Christian ethic, which was one of the foundations of this country’s founding. So we’re under assault no matter where you turn, and the agents of that assault are all found in the Democrat Party. That’s their home.

Every radical leftist, every radical opposed to anything traditionally American is found in the Democrat Party, and that is why the Democrat Party is home to the most destructive forces in the country today, and they have to be defeated. And however it happens is fine with me. I’m not picky, as long as it happens. ‘Cause I think anything’s better. “Really, Rush, you think anybody would be better?” Well, given options that we have, yes, I do.

I don’t think we can do worse than Hillary Clinton. I don’t think we can do worse than Barack Obama has done. We could do worse in the sense we could have more years added onto this so it starts compounding. But in terms of policy architects, I mean, they are who they are. And it doesn’t get any worse than who they are unless they just become further emboldened, radicalized, which they’re in the process of doing. Eric, I really appreciate your time, my man. Thank you for calling.