RUSH: There were some entertaining moments… Hard as it is to believe and imagine, there were some entertaining moments last night in the Democrat debate, which was actually an exercise in complete and total futility, given their objectives here.

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RUSH: Now, in the previous half hour, I went into a brief little monologue on how the Democrat Party sees America as a cold, dark, dank, gloomy place.  It is their natural, by the way, view.  That’s how they see life.  That’s how they see people.  It’s dismal, it is depressing, it’s dark.  You never get any optimism out of these people.  You never get any happiness, laughter, potential upside, none of that.  It’s always doom and gloom, and it’s typified by climate change.  What are we doing?

We’re destroying the planet.  We’re destroying the habitat — and then we’re destroying this or that for animals, and we’re destroying this for the transgender community and we’re destroying that.  It’s just a constant pummeling, and it was on full display last night in the Democrat Party so-called presidential debate — which, I believe, was an exercise in utter futility.  I don’t think the Democrats have, because they are living in a perpetual delusion that is worsening…

I don’t believe they have the slightest idea what they are headed for in 2020.  I really don’t.  I think they are lying to themselves continually, and I think they are telling themselves that they’re gonna win and win big, and it’s gonna be a landslide whoever the nominee is — and then they’re gonna put Donald Trump in jail, and then maybe even get the death penalty, if they leave it up to some.  Here’s an example.

Last night, Bernie Sanders promised to “criminally prosecute fossil fuel executives [for] destroying the planet,” and he said it on Twitter.  He said “if he wins, he’ll ‘pass a Green New Deal, and criminally prosecute the fossil fuel executives who destroyed,” not “are destroying,” but who have destroyed, “the planet.” Now, folks, that is insane.  It is the clinical definition of insane.  This is not just politics-as-usual.  It is insane, it is unrealistic, and the frightening thing is that there are some in the Democrat Party who believe it and eat it all up and applaud it.

Why is it insane?  Because there’s virtually no chance of this happening.  There is no chance that Bernie Sanders would “criminally prosecute fossil executives [for] destroying the planet.”  You know why?  No laws are being broken.  In fact, it is the energy and natural gas sector which is one of the leading elements propelling the growth of the economy and creating new jobs and bringing down the cost of living, and the people that run fossil fuel companies (like ExxonMobil, you name it) are not breaking any laws.

Even if he wanted to rewrite laws to make emissions — any emissions — criminally illegal, he still couldn’t do that because he’s not the authoritarian that he portrays himself as being.  But he would try.  I have no doubt that he would try to some extent, and I don’t doubt for a minute that he’s serious.  This is insane.  We need to call this stuff for what it is.  “Rush, don’t call it insane.  You’re just gonna scare people off.  People are not gonna believe it’s insane.

“It’s like calling somebody a communist.”  Well, they’ve been communists all these years and we were told not to call ’em that.  Now they’re calling themselves that! I’m telling you, these people are insane, according to a couple different definitions of the word.  He’s a socialist.  He’s a proud socialist.  “ExxonMobil has published a report predicting ‘no reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector through 2040…'”

Did you hear what Biden said?  Let me find what Plugs said.  Biden said that he would literally preside over the loss of 200,000 jobs if it meant getting even with the fossil fuel industry.  Hell, it’s not 200,000!  Biden said that he would favor the policies that would eliminate millions of blue-collar jobs for the Green New Deal.  Joe Biden admitted — proudly said — last night that he’s willing to blow up millions of jobs to satisfy the extreme left who now run the Democrat Party.

Let’s go to the audio sound bites of this debacle last night.  We’re gonna start with Fauxcahontas.  Fauxcahontas, I’m sure she’s been lying in wait all night for Mayor Pete.  Let me tell you what Mayor Pete did earlier this week.  Mayor Pete went to a Silicon Valley executive’s fundraiser.  The fundraiser was held by, I think, the family that owns the Rutherford winery in Napa.  Now, many wineries have underground caves where the wine is stored so that it can age at the proper temperature and proper humidity.

It’s much cheaper to put it underground than to hire a bunch of refrigeration equipment to have to maintain at the proper temperature.  They dig these caves and they put the wine in there and they deck these caves out.  They’ll throw parties in there and dinners and so forth, and that’s what happened.  They had this gigantic fundraiser for Mayor Pete, and there were photos of it — and it was the finest flatware you’ve ever seen, the finest silverware you’ve ever seen, the finest glassware you’ve ever seen, the finest tablecloths you’ve ever seen.

It was the epitome of the Gilded Age. Epitome.  Now, Mayor Pete is a left-wing socialist Democrat who doesn’t believe in palling around with the rich.  The rich are the problem, as far as Mayor Pete is concerned, because that’s what all Democrats want you to think they believe.  The truth of the matter is, the modern-day Democrat Party is the party of this kind of wealth! It is this kind of wealth that has been underwriting the Democrat Party for years, including that kind of wealth on Wall Street.

Well, Fauxcahontas saw the pictures.  Not of the party.  The pictures were of the tables, the long banquet tables where all the donors would show up and eat the finest foods and drink the finest wines and listen to the finest speech by Mayor Pete.  I saw some people on TV that asked, “Well, what’s a wine cave?  I never heard of a wine cave.”  Well, that’s why I just took the time to explain to you what a wine cave is.

And they’re common among wine vintners.  It’s a common thing to keep their product stored properly.  Much cheaper than refrigeration.  So, anyway, Fauxcahontas thinks she’s got Mayor Pete set up for the kill ’cause he went to this thing.  She thinks… She thinks she’s gonna take him out in the debate last night ’cause he went to the wine cave.  Here’s how she started the process…

WARREN:  The mayor just recently had a fundraiser that was held in a wine cave full of crystals and served $900-a-bottle wine.  Think about who comes to that.  He had promised that every fundraiser he would do would be open door, but this one was closed door.  We made the decision many years ago that rich people in smoke-filled rooms would not pick the next president of the United States.

CROWD: (smattering of applause)

WARREN: Billionaires in wine caves shouldn’t pick the next president of the United States!

RUSH: Now, obviously this is as phony as you can get, because this is the Democrat Party. Who are these vintners? They’re Democrats. Napa Valley, the vast majority of it — there are some exceptions — but they’re all liberal Democrats. I could give you some wine labels that are not, but I don’t want to open any worms.

But this is the Democrat Party of today. This is the big secret. They are the party of wealth, and they hide it. That’s why the fund-raiser was in a cave and not some rich guy’s mansion or estate. Well, Mayor Pete was waiting for this. Mayor Pete was ready for it. And this is how Mayor Pete retorted.

BUTTIGIEG: According to Forbes magazine I am literally the only person on this stage who’s not a millionaire or a billionaire. So if —

CROWD: (cheers)

BUTTIGIEG: — this is important. This is the problem with issuing purity tests you cannot yourself pass.

CROWD: (Ooooh!)

BUTTIGIEG: If I pledged –

CROWD: (cheers)

BUTTIGIEG: — if I pledged never to be in the company of a progressive Democratic donor, I couldn’t be up here. Senator, your net worth is 100 times mine.

RUSH: And the audience conditioned to war hoop and believe and act like Mayor Pete had destroyed her. And most of the commentators, analysts suggested that Warren did step in it big time, that Mayor Pete, he was ready for this, and he knocked it out of the park. I don’t think there’s a winner or loser. Maybe within the Democrat view of things, maybe Mayor Pete did parry this off pretty well.

But they’re both a bunch of phonies is the whole thing about this. They tried to make it look like this is not a part of their friendship sphere, it’s not a part of their daily existence. And it is. Fauxcahontas is being hypocritical. She went on to say (imitating Fauxcahontas), “I’m just gonna tell you, I’m just gonna tell you, people can donate all they want, they can give millions, but that doesn’t mean they’re gonna be an ambassador, that’s not gonna happen with me.” And Mayor Pete kind of blew that out of the water too.

Elizabeth Warren is constantly trying to make people believe she’s somebody she’s not, either an Indian or a middle-class pauper or a woman that’s never done anything in capitalism, is always been a good socialist. She’s a classic phony, classic misdirection phony.

Look at what their debates are about. Their debate is about who’s rich and who isn’t, who’s legitimately rich and who’s not, as though any of this has anything to say about who they are and what their policies end up being. We just had Barack Obama end up buying a $15 million house on Martha’s Vineyard, yet his whole career has been built on trashing people that do that with a wink and a nod at all the Democrat donors that give him enough money that he could afford a house like that, because that’s the game.

The game is to make it look like the rich are exclusively mean-spirited Republicans. The Democrat Party has more wealthy people in the Senate and House of Representatives than the Republican Party does today. Not even close.

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RUSH: I forgot to emphasize what has Crazy Bernie so irritated here when he promised to criminally prosecute fossil fuel executives for destroying the planet. ExxonMobil published the report predicting no reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector through 2040. That’s what blew ’em all up. That’s what sent ’em over the edge. And ExxonMobil also said in its report that there will be no date, there will be no time at which emissions reach net zero.

And so the entire radical left, from Greta Thunberg on down or up, depending on how you look at it, is enraged. And so that’s why Crazy Bernie believes this is destroying the planet. ExxonMobil is just being factually honest. Do you think the CEO and the executives and everybody that works in ExxonMobil, do you think that they intend to destroy the planet and still somehow be alive and have their company up and running and doing everything they do now?

This stuff is so asinine and obscene. And these Democrat predictions are common. All of these extreme, over him the top, radical predictions — destroy the planet, 12 years, 10 years, 15 years, destroying the habitat, all of that, none of that is gonna happen. It’s not possible. We can’t do it by virtue of our current lifestyle. These people are trying to say that progress, technology, innovation is destroying things? It’s all insane. It’s all absurd.

And all ExxonMobil’s doing is admitting the truth here. But these people have a political agenda, and it requires that people believe these extreme lies. And with ExxonMobil not playing along, why, they’ve just become an even bigger enemy. But the problem for them is they’re not breaking any laws, not even close.

Back to the phones, Leona Valley, California, Carl, great that you called. Nice to have you, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. I’ll get right to the point. I’ve isolated three problems that our president has given the Democrats long term, and I’d like to know if you can tell me which one you think is most problematic. One is what he’s doing with the courts, the judges. The second would be, he’s breaking up the lock the Democrats have had on the minorities for all these decades. And, third, he’s exposing the mainstream media because he’s fighting back, and it’s obvious that they’re lying most of the time.

RUSH: And you want to know from me which of those three I think are hurting the Democrats the most?

CALLER: Correct. Yes.

RUSH: Well, this is kind of a chicken-or-egg question because I would say that I think the number one agent in creating and doing damage to the Democrat Party is the Democrat Party. But then you would have to say, well, how do people know this? You throw the media in and Trump. Trump is pointing it out. Trump is calling them out. Trump is helping to illustrate it. In the process, they even go more radical. As they fail to convince people, they get more drastic and extreme in their effort.

And what it all adds up to is that they know that they’re failing. This is what’s got Pelosi all — they’re failing. They’re racking up failure after failure after failure. They can’t accept it. They can’t believe it. The African-American vote, if these polls that exist now that show Trump’s approval rating among African-Americans is 34, 35% — and there’s three different polls that show this — if that is true, just in terms of elections, if the Democrats were to seriously lose 10 to 15% of the African-American vote, it would be close to a death knell.

So it would be tough to pick any particular one. I’d say throw them all in just the one big package called Trump. I think Trump himself is the agent of destruction here for all of the reasons that I have mentioned over the course of these past three years.

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RUSH: So looky here.  Right along the lines of one of my big points today, with the Democrat Party and how they see America — especially today — as a cold, dark, dank place, no hope, no opportunity.  I mean, they’re all over this debate stage last night. Elizabeth Warren says, “I am proud to stand on a stage with people who understand that the only people benefiting from this growth are the wealthy and the rich” and so forth, and it’s just…

I think Trump is doing so many magnificent things, it’s hard to literally categorize them all or list them all.  The Democrat Party has not changed its rhetoric.  They can’t.  Trump has created economic circumstances for many Americans unlike those ever in their lifetimes. And, in the process, the Democrat Party’s being who they are. And they are exposing themselves and their crazy thinking, their negative outlook on things — their dismal, dark look — and it’s there for everybody to see, without having to be told.

It’s just staring everybody in the face — and not only is it not true, it isn’t infectious.  You have people doing well, their jobs have come back, their savings accounts are up, their 401(k)s are up. Job opportunities are plentiful. And then you turn on TV, you listen to the Democrats, and they paint a picture of a country that doesn’t exist — and, furthermore, you don’t want to exist — and that’s where they’re really doing themselves in.

The kind of things they are trying to sell and get support for are things no American wants to be a part of.  You don’t want to join a movement of darkness.  You don’t want to join a movement of pessimism and defeatism, unless you already are pessimistic and defeated. And the odds are if you’re a regular Democrat voter, that pretty much might sum you up.  And I don’t want anybody to misunderstand.  I’m not a Pollyanna here.

I’m not saying that there aren’t people in trouble, that there aren’t people suffering, that there aren’t people in various stages of misfortune.  It’s the case, law of averages. It’s gonna happen no matter what overall circumstances are.  But then the question becomes, “What do you do about it?” and the Democrats’ sole solution is to blame people for it, blame Republicans for it.  Whereas our solution is to fix it, is to find a way for all of this uplift to include as many who want to be part of it, recognizing there are going to be some who don’t.

Three hundred million people in the country are never gonna have uniformity on things, even things that seem to make the most common sense.  But I think Trump is drawing ’em out.  I think Trump is helping to expose the Democrats and liberalism in ways that have not been as effective before, and the way it’s happening is their sheer hatred for him.  They know nothing else.  They can’t… Because of their opinion, they can’t agree with him on anything.

They can’t join him on anything.  Their fingerprints are not on any of the good things happen in America, and they can’t afford for their fingerprints to be because they think that would be hypocritical.  So they’re now forced into a constant position of opposition, and what are they opposing?  They are opposing things that have revitalized the lives of millions of Americans! I mean, it’s right where we want them.  Here’s a little piece from PJMedia.com.

“Fact Check: Democrats Claim Trump Economy Isn’t Working for the Middle Class; They’re Wrong — When Democrats were asked questions about the economy, one thing was clear: they want the public to believe the economy isn’t doing well…”  How would you like to have that as your job today, to try to convince as many people as possible the economy is not too good well?  That’s the Democrat Party today.

The Democrat Party’s trying to convince the middle class that they are losing ground and “falling behind, and that it’s all Trump’s fault.” But “the economy is doing great, and no amount of denial can change that.” We have historic, 50-year low unemployment.  The problem is, none of the claims they’re making can be backed up anywhere.  Do you know what “gaslighting” means?  I hear this term thrown around, and I’ve never been sure what it means.

Do you know what it is? When somebody’s gaslighting you, do you know…? (interruption) Well, let me tell you the best I have been able to ascertain, and there may be people that disagree with me on this, ’cause I have a lot of people who don’t know what it means, and people throw the term around.  Its meaning is not self-evident.  “Gaslighting?  When do you light gas?  Gas stove?  I don’t get it.”  Gaslighting is, the best I can tell, a tactic in which a person, in order to gain power, tries to make someone question what is undeniably real.

Gaslighting is nothing other than an effort to make you believe that what you know is true isn’t — and that, to me, was the Democrat debate last night.  I think the entire Democrat debate, they were gaslighting us.  They were asking us to believe that the economy is in a virtual recession; a virtual depression is on the horizon.  They know nothing else!  They tried to say the economy is destroying families, it’s destroying transgenders, it’s destroying illegals.  They’re an economic death cult!  The Democrat Party is an economic death cult, and they’re gaslighting everybody last night with how rotten things are, despite everything you’re living and everything that you know.