BRETT: You know, there’s a new Gallup study out talking about the more than 40% of Americans whose 2019 incomes were in the bottom 20% — multiracial, Hispanic workers, and those without a college degree — that “said they’d been laid off during the pandemic compared to 31% of overall respondents. Only 11% of the survey’s top earners whose 2019 incomes were in the top 10% of respondents were laid off, the report found.”

So what does this mean, exactly? Well, essentially it means this: Nonessential workers are the deplorables of 2020 is really what it comes down on to because as Gallup notes, “Working from home during the pandemic widened inequality.” It did in many ways, and Rush talked about this back in May of 2020. Right in the midst of this pandemic, he was talking about those nonessential workers. Go. Cut 13.

CALLER: I’m a small-town theater owner and I’ve been closed down by the state, and so I kind of want to speak up for theater owners. My theater… I live in a town of 1,600. So it’s not really a big deal, but it’s a good thing for me, and our popcorn is pretty good. But I can’t go to work because of the shutdown.

RUSH: You’re upset because somebody has told you that you are unessential.

CALLER: Yes! Absolutely! I want to know… I would like to have the government take all of their people and say who’s unessential there, and they could give me the money that they are all getting.

RUSH: You know, Frank, all government workers are essential. There’s not a one of them that did not get paid. There’s not a one of them that isn’t getting paid. This whole argument, this essential and nonessential, is a replay of 2016, the deplorables versus the elites. Who in the hell wants to be told they’re unessential, and then who gets to decide this?

Well, who is deciding it? Well, it’s elements of the administrative state in Washington who are determining “You’re unessential. What you do is unessential. You, you’re needed.” Now, a lot of it is political, obviously, but I think choosing those terms and using those terms is quite indicative of the mind-set, the way we are seen by our elite betters in government. Where are they? They’re sitting there either in their state capitol or in Washington, and they’ve got lists — essential and unessential — and so you own a theater in a town of 1,600.

“You’re unessential. Your theater can stay closed. To hell with you! To hell with your employees.” Who gets to decide this? This is the kind of thing — and I hope the Democrats continue. The Democrats love making these distinctions between people. Who is better, who is more qualified, who’s smarter, who’s more educated, who’s more necessary… All it means is, “Who’s more like us?”

What you have learned here, Frank, is that your elite betters in Washington don’t give a rat’s rear end about movie theaters because many of them don’t have to go to a movie theater to see the movie. They’ve got other ways and other connections for doing it. But I think this is a potential gold mine for the Trump campaign to play up. You know, lay this one off on the left. Lay it off on the Democrats. They’re the ones coming up with these distinctions. Essential/nonessential. Essential/unessential.

BRETT: It’s the use of words. It’s this trickery that these bureaucrats, governors, unelected, unaccountable types — but all Democrats — are able to deploy against those people who need to work. The same government who shut down the economy never did lay off a single federal or state employee. Not one! That’s the point of that caller. Government deemed who is essential and who is not essential.