RUSH: We’re gonna go back to the phones to Rapids City, Michigan. This is Jean. Great to have you on the program. How you doing?
CALLER: Fine. Thank you, Rush.
CALLER: To your point about people needing government direction, on Varney & Co. this morning, a young Millennial Fox reporter who lives in Houston and safely vacated to Austin during driving rain couldn’t wait to complain about government officials didn’t order the evacuation of Houston. I mean, here she has all the electronic information at her fingertips and she’s complaining because the government didn’t tell her what to do. It goes right to what you were saying.
RUSH: Well, that’s how they’ve been raised.
CALLER: I know. It’s terrible.
RUSH: Let me give you another observation here. Look, I don’t like throwing cold water on things. But one hour ago on this program we had Vice President Pence. Vice President Pence, as much as anybody in government today, is a straight shooter conservative, small government conservative, limited government conservative, pro-individual liberty conservative. You can’t find anybody in government today that will be more tailor made for the textbook definition of conservatism. And yet look at what his message was today.
His message was how big the federal government’s gonna be. The federal government’s gonna be there when you need it. We’re gonna have all kinds of opportunities here, benefits here, we got this website where you can go. I’m not criticizing the vice president. I’m pointing something out. It’s where our culture is. This is what people expect. After a disaster like this people expect this is what the federal government does. The Democrats have mastered this. They’ve mastered the language of it.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: And they’ve created over years and years the expectation in people’s minds that this is really what government’s for, is to save people, in normal times and in disastrous times. What would have happened if Pence would have said, “You know what? Those of you that can take care of yours, we wish you would, and help others along the way and reserve our benefits for those who really –” how do you think that would have flown?
CALLER: Not very well.
RUSH: Not very well at all. Your Millennial that you saw was on Varney today?
CALLER: Yes. And I’d say she’s 25, 26 —
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: — but she just couldn’t wait to complain. I mean, a reporter, for crying out loud.
RUSH: But forget that she’s a reporter. She’s 25.
CALLER: Yeah, that’s true.
RUSH: That’s the telltale, how these people have been raised, what their expectations of the federal government is. Look, the fact of the matter is that people cannot themselves — before I saw there was a story that something like over 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: There is no way that most people in Houston are gonna be able to rebuild on their own. They’re not gonna be able to do it without assistance, even if we’re talking insurance, and how many of them do or don’t have the kind of insurance they’re going to need.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: I mean, who buys hurricane insurance in Houston? Some people might. Even if you do have flood insurance, flood insurance is so specific that if the flood comes into your house from underneath it may not count. If it comes down the walls, it might count. It’s all convoluted. Point is, people can’t, in disaster time like this, they can’t make themselves whole, and they do think this is what government’s for. And evacuating or not, that’s a direct descendant from Hurricane Katrina, when people didn’t evacuate and the state government took it on the chin for not telling people and letting the evacuation buses get flooded.
So, you know, everything’s cumulative here. But this is one of the things we’re up against. Your 25-year-old reporter thinks it’s the government’s job to tell people what to do. If government doesn’t tell ’em to leave, and they should have left, it’s the government’s fault. It’s exactly what you heard. It’s a generational thing out there.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let’s go to the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott. This was CBS This Morning talk about Hurricane Harvey. Fill-in host Maurice DuBois from CBS Eyeball News local in New York said, “Governor, I imagine you’ve spoken to the president a number of times. Are you satisfied with the president’s engagement in his response thus far?” Now, we’ve heard, by the way… We’ve had a caller and we’ve had other people say, “We’ve got to keep the politics out of this.” Folks, it isn’t possible. It isn’t possible.
These are Republican Never Trumpers. So this event… I’m sorry, the Democrats — the American left politicizes everything. It’s one of the things wrong with our country. And when they do, it has to be replied to. I’m sorry, it has to be answered, even if that further politicizes it. I’m not gonna sit here and let them own the politics of an event like this, which they would if there’s no pushback on it. And they’re trying to set up the fact…
Once they have an example, once they have an experience they think is successful such as destroying President Bush over the Iraq war — and secondarily, really harming President Bush over Hurricane Katrina — or getting rid of Richard Nixon… Once they’ve done it, they tell themselves they can do it, and they want to do it again. So Trump embodies a lot of, “We’ve done it before.” They’re trying to Nixon Trump. They’re trying to get him thrown out or to resign.
Now they’re trying to destroy Trump on the basis he doesn’t care about people ’cause he didn’t act fast enough on the hurricane in Corpus Christi and Houston and so forth. They just keep recycling the things that they view have worked in damaging Republicans in the past. And that’s what this is. Here you have Republican governor Greg Abbott, and they ask, “Governor, I imagine you’ve spoken to the president a number of times. Are you satisfied with his engagement and his response?” Does he know what’s going on? Is the president basically leaving you alone, hanging out to dry?
He doesn’t ask that, but that’s implied in the question.
ABBOTT: The engagement and response by the president, the White House, by his cabinet and by FEMA have been actually remarkable. We began working with them a week or two in advance of this. And I’ve been in constant contact with either the White House or FEMA on a daily basis and they’ve provided Texas everything that we need. Whenever Texas asks for anything, the answer was “yes.” And so we’ve been very pleased with their collaborative response.
RUSH: Okay. Now, this cuts both ways. While Abbott’s saying, “Oh, yeah, the president’s been there from the get-go,” and he was. Trump convened all these people before this hurricane hit. These people are not idiots. They saw what happened to Bush in Katrina. So they got moving. But what are they moving? They’re moving government. They’re moving Big Government. They’re now actively bragging about how they’re moving Big Government. So you see, all of this on the one hand is really great and way to go and our guy is not gonna let these guys beat him.
On the other hand, how’s he doing it? Mobilizing this behemoth. That’s why one of our early callers today had a brilliant idea. Take this and use it as the foundation for the entire infrastructure agenda item that the president has, and dare the swamp to oppose him. He’s got an infrastructure agenda to rebuild America’s airports, roads, bridges. Supposedly Obama was gonna do it and didn’t do it, twice. Trump has promised to do it. It’s gonna have be done in Houston. It’s gonna have to be done in the suburbs of Houston and in other parts of southeast.
It’s gonna have to be done. So why not use it as the starting point for a nationwide revitalization of infrastructure? And dare them to say “no.” So Abbott says (summarized), “Fine! He was right there, man. He’s been there before this thing even hit. Everybody’s mobilizing.” Gayle King, who is the friend of Oprah, said, “Governor, the Houston police chief said the scenes down there break your heart. But it’s Texas, and they will get through it.”
ABBOTT: Exactly. And one thing he was talking about that you all were talking about earlier, and that is, not only the way the first responders were able to help out, but you’ve seen countless stories about the way fellow Texans have come together, bringing up their own boats helping to rescue their fellow Texans. This is typical Texans helping each other. We rally behind each other in times like this, and I could not be more proud of my fellow Texans about the way they have helped their neighbors respond to this challenge.
RUSH: By the way, let me echo that. As you people know, as a powerful and influential member of the media I’m a well-traveled person, and I have spent a lot of time in “Tex-iss.” It’s not “Texas.” “Tex-iss.” There’s an i-s-s on the end of it: “Tex-iss.” And I’ve been there. And there is something to this notion of a Texan culture. Now, I’m sure people in California think they’ve got theirs and Oregon or what have you, but there is something to what he’s saying here. I’ve seen it. Texas is a red state. But Austin, of course, is a very blue state capital. It’s got its blue areas, got its universities.
But there is a unification of culture in Texas that is unique, and I’m sure the same thing could be said of other states as well. I remember when the earthquake in… What would it have been, 1989, ’88 out in San Francisco during the World Series? They actually lost the section of the Bay Bridge, I think, on the upper level. I remember I had lived in Northern California. In fact, I’d moved to New York from Northern California. I just had the sneaking suspicion that people there would get this taken care of, that they would fix it, that it would come in ahead of schedule — and it did.
All kinds of construction companies out there got in gear. The same thing is gonna happen here in Texas — “Tex-iss.” Once they’re able to get moving, you’re gonna be dazzled by the speed with which they move down there. Proud people. They’re all Americans. They don’t feel distinct and separate; don’t misunderstand. But there is a pride in being a Texan. I mean, it even extends to the fact that Texas women are different from women elsewhere in the eyes of guys in Texas — and if they believe it, then it’s true.
If it’s in your heart, if you believe these things, it’s true. So what they’re saying here about the unification efforts in Texas and the distinct culture that’s gonna tackle this, I’ve seen it. I have no doubt that it exists. Right on the money. Let’s now go to the FEMA director. This is Brock Long. He he was at FEMA headquarters today, had a little press conference to talk about the response to Hurricane Harvey. We have a couple sound bites. Let’s check the first one.
LONG: Helping Texas overcome this disaster is gonna be far greater than FEMA coordinating the mission of the entire federal government. We need citizens to be involved. This is a landmark event. We have not seen an event like this. We need the whole community — not only the federal government forces, but this is a whole community effort from all levels of government — and it’s gonna require the citizens getting involved.
RUSH: Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Let me tell you something. People respond to expectations. We have created in our country this idea that people are a bunch of babies and have to be led and have to be told what to do, and basically don’t want to do things. You throw something like this out, “We need you. We can’t do it all,” I maintain that human beings as naturally created, constructed, what have you, respond to expectations.
Now, look, there’s expectations to everything, I know. Some people, no matter what you do, are just gonna be slothful. But for the most part, on balance, people will — that’s what’s wrong with liberalism. They have such contempt for average, ordinary people thinking they can’t do anything on their own. They’re not smart enough to decide what to do with their own money. They’re not smart enough to go through life, navigate life, make the right choices. Liberals, government needs to do it for them.
It’s the exact opposite. It’s like raising children or motivating people in a classroom or at a company. You let them know what’s expected of them and they’ll go out and prove to you that your expectations can be met. That’s what the soft bigotry of low expectations is. When you have low expectations of people, as leftists do, that’s its own form of bigotry, when you don’t think people can do something. But when you think they can and know they can and you tell them that you’re expecting them to because you know they can, and they’re needed, you watch ’em respond.
This is a tremendous way to react to this. And we didn’t hear this in New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. We got sob story after sob story from TV reporters on the ground all the way down to the state and local officials, blaming themselves for not demanding evacuation or blaming somebody else in government, FEMA this, FEMA that, didn’t get people in place.
But at no time were people there told they were needed to help get everything back and up and running.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: The second sound bite from Brock Long, the FEMA director, simply pointed out that disasters begin and end at the local level and that the federal government brings up the rear and so forth. And that’s good too. That’s the right attitude to have about it. But it seems like everything’s in place, and Trump is going to the area tomorrow.
Remember, presidents going into areas like this can be positive or negative because of the security needs and all of the police, law enforcement presence necessary to secure the president and his entourage while on the ground. That’s one of the reasons that George W. Bush didn’t go to New Orleans immediately and flew over it. But there was a picture, somebody took a picture on Air Force One of Bush looking out the window.
You know, he had flown back from vacation. He was on vacation strumming a guitar with Charlie Daniels or some such thing, I don’t know who it was. And he left, he was on his way back to Washington, did not stop in New Orleans. There’s a photo, Air Force One dipped and they circled New Orleans and somebody took a photo of Bush looking out the window at the city of New Orleans, and that’s all it took. “Bush remains above the fray, didn’t care enough to land.” And of course circumstances would have made it impossible at that time for the president to go in there. It would have messed up everything logistically.
And there’s some saying that Trump’s going into Houston too soon or southeastern Texas too soon. But that’s just from the naysayers that are gonna try to find problems with anything. These are now expected presidential acts. Disaster, president goes, comforts the people and lets them know they’re not alone. It’s just something that’s evolved as part of American culture.
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