RUSH: So I checked the email during the break. “Dear Mr. Limbaugh, what is this about ‘deprogramming’ conservatives? You just have to try to scare people. You have to get ’em all worked up. There’s no deprogramming of conservatives planned. I haven’t heard a thing about that, and I pay attention to the news all the time.”

Really? You have not heard Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez openly discuss the need for deprogramming conservatives? I mean, that’s almost an exact quote. They believe it’s possible. They even cite some religious movements who have tried to deprogram homosexuals — and, of course, that has been deemed irresponsible and not doable and very damaging to people.

You know, if you’re gay, you’re gay, and the idea that you can be deprogrammed? Well, that’s inhumane. Don’t even… But yet they are talking about it. In fact, it’s not just Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Headline from Fox News: “Katie Couric’s ‘Condescending, Elitist’ Remarks Calling to ‘Deprogram’ GOP Retires Journo Label, Critics Say —

“The former NBC and CBS anchor also backed Trump’s impeachment & his Twitter ban. Katie Couric has spent decades on television across the three broadcast networks, but the [comments] she made on Real Time with Bill Maher last week could tarnish her image as an iconic…” No, it’s not! It’s not gonna tarnish her image.

With who? Look, we are a divided country. Katie Couric’s image is already tarnished with the people whose image these people talking about. But the Bill Maher crowd, the American left? They’re not gonna… Her image is gonna be enhanced with this. You know, this is what so many people that report on the politics of America refuse to understand: We are literally a divided nation.

There is no overlap when you discuss things that we have in common. It’s one of the very, very concerning things that I, as a citizen, have. Throughout our history, we’ve had divided politics, we’ve had divided allegiances — Republican, Democrat, communist, capitalist, you name it — but there was always overlap. Even if it was narrow, there was always some overlap, some of our existence that we had in common.

There was a notion that we’re Americans, that being American meant something. That’s gone. Now, 35, 40% of the country believes “American” is a dirty word, that the American founding was illegitimate, that we are an illegitimate superpower because our founding was illegitimate and because our economic system — capitalism — is immoral and unjust.

So, I mean, folks, you don’t have to look any farther than Make America Great Again is controversial. Make America Great Again really ticks some people off. So when I read things like, “Katie Couric has spent decades on television … but [her] highly-partisan remarks … could tarnish her image”? (Snort!) They’re gonna enhance her image with the Bill Maher crowd, with the American left.

So she is calling to “deprogram” the Trump cult. That’s what this is all about. Here’s a pull quote. This is Katie speaking to Bill Maher. “‘It is so shocking. … Not only are they not conceding, Bill, but their thoughts — that there might have been some collusion among members of Congress, some are refusing to go through magnetometers … to check for weapons, they’re not wearing masks during this siege,’ Couric began.

“‘I mean, it’s really bizarre, isn’t it, when you think about how AWOL so many of these members of Congress have gotten. But I also think some of them are believing the garbage that they are being fed 24/7 on the internet, by their constituents, and they bought into this big lie. And the question is how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump.'”

So, A, if you support Trump, you’re nothing more than a mind-numbed cultist and you need to be deprogrammed, and they’re discussing how. So I was simply raising that question: How are they gonna deprogram us? ‘Cause they’re talking about it. They talked about it on the Bill Maher show. They’re talking about it any number of places.

So do not doubt me. I don’t make this stuff up lightly. I don’t make stuff up, period. But I don’t bring it here lightly in any way, shape, manner, or form. You know, I just think you talk about the divisions that we have in the country. And, yeah, divisions. There may be more than one way of defining how we are divided. I just really believe…

I know I’ve said this over and over, but I’m so naive, folks. (chuckles) There are parts of me, I’m still 16 and I’m still taking Government 101 in junior high (“middle school,” now) and I’m still buying into the (sigh) simplistic notions of how our government works. I buy into all the good intentions in my naivete, and part of this naivete — that I have to constantly remind myself I’m dead wrong about — is that every American loves his country.

It’s not true. And that every American would really want his country to be great because a great country affords great opportunity. And “great” can be defined in any number of ways — great economically, great in ways that determine how people are treated and the opportunities that people have to make the most of their lives. We have constitutionally mandated and categorized freedom.

We’re the first country in the history of the human existence that acknowledged our freedom comes from God, not from other people. I have to get a hold of myself and tell myself, “You’re naive. There are at least 30 to 40 % of the country that don’t want this to be a great country ’cause they think the country is a criminal act in terms of its founding.”

That’s what they’ve been taught.

Two generations, 50 years of this in the public education system. So I understand. Talk about needing to deprogram people. You think it might be necessary to, in a very compassionate sense, try to get hold of people who have been taught to hate this country and at least make a stab at telling them why this country should be loved and adored and understood and built on its foundation premises?

That’d be a worthwhile project, as far as I’m concerned. But the effort to deprogram conservatives, that’s just another way of Katie Couric saying she doesn’t want to put up with an opposition. She doesn’t want to have to deal with people that disagree with her. She doesn’t want to have to fight them. She doesn’t want to have to deal with them.

They shouldn’t have any access to constitutional rights because they’re cultists.

But you look at Trump.

Talk about naive. I don’t know if naivete is applicable here. But the Republican Party has got a big challenge ahead of itself. There are already people mumbling and grousing and buzzing about the need for a third party — and it happens every year, every election year, every two years. And it particularly it happens after Republicans lose. And, of course, it’s probably easier to remake the Republican Party than to form a third party.

Because when you start forming third parties you’ve gotta have depth in congressional races, and you’re never gonna have that with a third party. A third party is a presidential party, and that’s it, at the beginning. But if you look at Trump and these four years, there were exceptions, but for the most part he had the backs of every congressional Republican. You go to look at these Trump rallies wherever they took place. Just look at the Trump rallies prior to the election in 2020, 50,000 people here, 50,000 people there, he’s drawing crowds never before seen in politics.

And at every one of those rallies the congressional Republicans representing the districts nearby are there. And Trump acknowledges them, and he thanks them, and in some cases, he brings ’em up to the microphone and has them say a few words. He calls out their names. He praises them. He endorses their reelection. And as I say, he even has some of them speak briefly. Whether they’re RINOs, whether they’re from the Freedom Caucus, he was loyal to the party. And it’s understandable. Ninety-two percent of the party love and adore Donald Trump.

It didn’t matter, though, whether they were Republicans-in-name-only, when they didn’t like him, he still acknowledged ’em. He did his part to promote party unity. But what do they do? They abandoned Donald Trump in a nanosecond, over and over again. And it just illustrates that sometimes doing the right thing doesn’t have a reward, at least not an immediate reward. You go do the right thing, if you’re Trump, you defend these Republicans who are under assault. You’re under assault, you defend other Republicans. They don’t defend you.

Trump was an island unto himself throughout most of his four years in office. But there aren’t a whole lot of people who returned the favor. There aren’t a whole lot of people who reciprocate, who defend Trump. They can see the tide. They can see where the power lies, and it’s very simple, if you want to have a career in Washington, if you want to have any kind of existence there, then the train you have to board is the one that’s taking Donald Trump away from Washington never to return. You have to be on board that.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here is more evidence that they are literally thinking of deprogramming conservatives. They don’t call us conservatives. They call us Trump cultists. This was a montage from earlier this week from a bunch of people on CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post, you name it, on 75 million Trump voters being nothing more than a cult.

ALISYN CAMEROTA: The cult of Trump. Do you consider those people cult members?

STEVE HASSAN: I do, I think they were deceptively recruited by an authoritarian political cult.

MUSTAFA TAMEEZ: A Trump cult that wants to believe whatever the dear leader says.

SUSAN DEL PERCIO: They’re following a cult.

VAN JONES: I don’t like Nazis and cultists.

JEREMY BASH: This was a long…

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Mm-hmm.

JEREMY BASH: …deliberate effort by political leaders led by Donald Trump to brainwash, to create a cult.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: The most fanatic, the most extreme, the most dedicated of the people who really love him still, this cult.

KATIE COURIC: How are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump?

EUGENE ROBINSON: There are millions of Americans, almost all white, almost all Republicans who somehow need to be deprogrammed. It’s as if they are members of a cult, the Trumpist cult.

RUSH: And there you have it again. So how many different media people here referring to the Trumpist cult, gravitas, you know, all of these montages we have been able to put together with all of these people on the left using the same terminology, the same attack lines. It’s the cult of Trump. Millions of Americans, almost all white — this was Eugene Robinson, the Washington Post — millions of Americans, almost all white, almost all Republicans, who somehow need to be deprogrammed. It was Katie Couric before him. How are we really going to almost deprogram — don’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about. They are definitely talking about this, and they are serious about it. Look, folks. They’re Marxists. This is what Marxist have done throughout world history.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Ray. Great to have you here, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Yes, Rush, thank you. “Deprogramming” equals “silencing.” First let me say: Mega MAGA dittos and mega MAGA prayers, Brother Rush. We need you more than ever.

RUSH: Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate it more than you know.

CALLER: Yes. You are a national treasure, sir. So you’re talking about the First Amendment. I believe weak politicians are gonna allow multinational corporations and these giant tech companies to curtail and eliminate the First Amendment. So it’s not gonna be scissored out of our Constitution, but it will be effectively rendered useless — sort of a virtual First Amendment — if the left succeeds.

And the way they do is they’re gonna let the “hate” standards that are put forth by the Googles, YouTubes, and the Facebook-Twitters, to be the determinant on what is allowable speech. So weak politicians will simply stand back and say, “Look, it’s already been determined that Rush’s Facebook has to be taken down and Rush’s Twitter has to be taken down.

“We clearly need to follow up and take his radio show down,” as well as others like Dr. Gorka. There are many, many wonderful conservative shows out there that are gonna come under attack to secure this route. That’s what I fear, Rush. Help me out.

RUSH: I think you’re onto it. I think you’re on to how they’re gonna do it. I don’t think that they are at the point where they would actually open reprogramming centers or deprogramming centers, and I don’t think they’re to the point where they would openly state that the First Amendment is dead. They’ll do it exactly as you suggest.

In fact, I think it’s already happening, and that’s the one thing that you can probably get unified agreement on, is that hate is no good. Right? “There ought not be any hate out there. Hate is a horrible thing!” So how do you define hate? Well, they’re already off and running on that. “If you’re conservative and you don’t like Biden, you’re hateful.

“If you say the wrong thing about the presidential election of 2020, you could be categorized as a domestic terrorist,” and Big Tech can easily handle this. They can easily change whatever they want. They can get whatever results they want in search or anywhere else. And if it becomes necessary to eliminate certain people from participating because they engage in “hate speech,” all you have to do is define “hate speech” as something that opposes the government, for example.

That’s how most totalitarian regimes do it. If you oppose the government, why you’re dangerously close to trafficking in hate, “and we aren’t gonna have hate,” they will say, “in our society.” So, no, I think you’re very shrewd in terms of how you see all of this coming down.

And again, folks, it’s all rooted in the fact that the people who we’re talking about, the American left, do not believe that they should have to deal with any opposition. It’s beneath them. They shouldn’t have to persuade anybody. What they think, is. If you don’t believe it, the problem is yours, not theirs. So, Ray, I appreciate the call. That’s a very, as I say, shrewd observation.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Rochester, Minnesota, next. This is Kevin. Thank you for waiting, and it’s great to have you on the program today. Hi.

CALLER: Thanks, Rush. Mega Gen X dittos. I wanted to talk to you today. I heard you earlier saying about 75 million people are watching. I think the left knows that and they’ve got this impeachment to be a big kabuki theater to go on for a while, and in the last minute, in the last throw of the game, I think Biden will throw a pardon out to Trump and make him look like the great guy. If you can do this and flip just half a percent of moderates, then you’re talking 375,000 votes out of that 75 million, which could be in touch to go through the next election. That’s my theory.

RUSH: It’s an interesting theory. Oh, there’s that story. I meant to do this. Yeah. Hank Aaron has died. I meant to get into this in the first hour of the program. He took the COVID vaccine two weeks ago. He took the COVID-19 vaccine two weeks and has died. He did not have COVID.

Yeah, I have not stopped to consider whether or not Biden would pardon Trump. I don’t know if that would buy Biden some support among Trump supporters or not, and that would be the only reason Biden would do it. I don’t think there’s any evidence that the country is divided because — well, there is, but they’re not gonna recognize it.

See, your theory is fascinating, but it would require Biden somehow believing that the country could be unified if he did that. And the Democrats’ position is that Trump doesn’t have any support, that everybody hates Trump. They’ve been trying to make that the reality for four years, and they think they’ve pulled it off, that Trump doesn’t have any support.

He doesn’t have any lingering support. Yeah, they’re in denial about that, but their official stance is that the country is not divided because of overwhelming love and support for Biden. Trump’s support is a bunch of cultists, and those people need to be “deprogrammed,” not played to. So it’s an interesting theory. I’m not certain that Biden sees himself as Gerald Ford who pardoned Nixon. But we’ll keep it open as a possibility.