Thursday, September 18, 2014

What is the Republican Party's message other than its candidates aren't democrats?-Rush Limbaugh

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9/18/14, "Give Us Something to Cheer, GOP," Rush Limbaugh transcript

"I haven't spent a lot of time in the nuts and bolts of the election....Can somebody tell me what the Republican Party message is?  I'm getting panicked e-mails about the polling in state after state where it was thought there was gonna be a wave election.

Republicans were gonna win in a big wave, and yet Republicans running against really at risk incumbent Democrats find themselves trailing by a point or two.  Somebody said, "Well, one of the reasons for that, Rush, is that the Democrats have much more money.  The Republicans aren't spending any money."  That's when I said, "Even if they were spending money, what's the message?

"Can somebody tell me what the Republican Party stands for when it comes to amnesty?  Does the Republican Party talk about job creation?  Is the Republican Party talking about economic growth?  Are they talking about anything opposite what's happening here?"  I don't know what they stand for anymore, other than they're not Obama, they're not the Democrats.  I really don't know.  So I don't know what to talk about!

Let me try to explain this. I am not one of these people who is lined up and ticked off and want to blow up the Republican Party.  I don't get into it in that regard.  What I'm saying is, I don't know what to cheer about.  I can remember back in the days, the Reagan years, it was exciting to be a Republican.  We knew what we supported.  We had a president and a political party that we knew were attempting to implement what we believed, and they were winning.

It was something to be very proud of and excited about. You wanted to be part of it; you wanted to help it.  I just don't feel anything like that now.  We've been through all the reasons why.... 

I know what I think needs to be done to fix the country, and you do, too.  That's why there's the Tea Party, and aside from a handful of candidates who've been elected and are attempting to govern in that way, there is no party identity that is associated with stopping any of this stuff
 
You know, I read the political blogs. I read all this.  I read the people who are immersed in the political science of it all.  I read the people who analyze every freaking tab of a poll.  I read the people that analyze to the Nth degree what a poll result here means with this demographic group. I read the analysis, and to me, it all misses the point....I read some of them are very worried, my friends.

How can it be in this climate that, say, a Kay Hagan would be leading in North Carolina over her Republican opponent, Tom Tillis.  How could it be?  And somebody says, "Well, if you take a look, Tillis hasn't had any money, and the Democrats have been spending money all over the state of North Carolina."  Of course trashing the Republican. 

I said, "Okay, fine and dandy, but if they had any money, and if they were running ads, what would they say?"  That's what I don't know.  Some of these consultants, and I really think the consultant class is largely responsible for this chosen posture of the party. Even they are starting to write now. You know, a month ago, two months ago, they were sitting fat and pretty.  They thought they were gonna get the Senate and they're their precious committee chairmanships.

They thought there might be a wave election. They weren't really confident in predicting that be with but they were fairly confident of a big win.  Nate Silver, the poll predictor guru came out and said 65% chance the Republicans win the Senate! The Republicans went, "Yaaaay!" and the consultants went "Yay!"  I kept saying, "Why?  On the basis of what?  Disgust with Obama? Disgust with the Democrats?  Where's the evidence of that?"
Well, you can see it in polling data and Obama job approval, but does that automatically mean people are going to choose Republicans simply because they're not Democrats?  Apparently this is the operative theory at the upper levels of the Republican Party.  Then I think it was Nate Silver who came out maybe early this week or late last week, and guess what now?  It's no longer a 65% chance the Republicans win the Senate.

Now it's a 51% chance the Democrats hold on to it. So now these political animals...Now they're all the sudden worried, paniced. "Oh, My God, what's happening?"

I'm asking myself, just trying to being honest here, folks. I'm not being critical for the sake of it.  Can somebody tell me what there is to cheer about?  Can somebody tell me what it is that makes you want to go to your checkbook and write a check?...I can give you some names of people that inspire that. But the party doesn't have that identity.

The people who are inspiring that actually are enemies of the Republican Party and the consultant class.  Ted Cruz is at the top of the list that they're out there trying to impugn and destroy from the get-go, along with the Democrats.  I'll give you an example:  Immigration/amnesty.  Obamacare is another.  Do you realize, the American people have never expressed majority support for Obamacare? 
 
That is an issue the Republican Party could have zeroed in on in 2010.  When that was passed despite them, they didn't have the votes to stop it, it was clear one party domination, there was no bipartisanship. The Republicans could have forged a majority coalition with people that opposed Obamacare alone.  But they didn't.  And the same thing on immigration/amnesty. 

Obama's numbers on that now are 30% approve, 60% disapprove of Obama's policy. The Democrats were thought to own the amnesty or immigration reform issue.  It's an issue that if the Republicans wanted to forge a relationship with a majority of Americans it's just been waiting to be done, and it hasn't happened

Instead, what do we get?  We get cliches.  Every Republican candidate stands up and says safely, "We need to fix our nation's broken immigration system."

That's supposed to engender cheers, and that's supposed to go, "Yeah, man! Right on! We're with you. We want to fix our broken system."  Imagine if instead of uttering cliches like that a Republican candidate said something along the lines of, "Oh, you want to know my views on immigration?  Let me be very clear: My first priority when it comes to immigration is getting the unemployed in this country back to work and getting the unemployed in my state back to work." 

Now, how hard is that to say?
 
And, by the way, isn't it the right thing to say? 

What in the world...? Why is it that the American unemployed worker is at the bottom of the ladder or the food chain when everybody is talking about the need for businesses and others to find people to do jobs?  There are 92 million Americans not working in this country, and I don't believe that all of them are liking it.  "We need to fix our broken immigration system." 

The thing is everybody knows what's broken about it is, it isn't being enforced.  There's nothing "broken," other than the people in charge of administering it and enforcing it.  The only thing threatening the immigration system is the Democrat Party! What is so hard about standing up and saying so? 

Do you realize how many people are just itching to stand up and cheer and to be part of something that would be victorious and turn the tide -- at least start to turn the tide -- on all this?  Whether you think we've lost the country or we're on the verge of it, at some point you have to work on reversing course.  You could say... A Republican candidate, instead of saying, "We need to fix our nation's broken immigration," and wait for the applause.

After asserting that first. "My priority will be getting unemployed people in this country, in my state, back to work."  Say something along the lines of, "We have 92 million Americans who can't find a job.  But my Democrat opponent, he wants to double the number of people with no skills and no education and will work for nothing coming into the country.  Now, why would you support that, Mr./Ms. Voter?"  How hard is that to say? 

Do you realize how many people around this would stand up and cheer that candidate if he just said that?  The Democrats claim that they support and love the little guy.  The Democrats have made I-don't-know-how-much hay over the course of my lifetime supposedly standing up for the little guy.  If you ask me, the little guy is barely holding after all this "help"!...

How many Democrats do you think are accepting big dollar donations from corporate CEOs and Wall Street financial execs? And that could be pointed out.  When it comes to immigration, it wouldn't be hard to say, "My Democrat opponent is aligned with Big Business CEOs and the Chamber of Commerce that don't want you to get the jobs available in this country. 

"They want low-wage, low-skilled, low-education, illegal immigrants to get the jobs!"  Do you realize how many people would stand up and cheer?   

The Republican Party, I know for some reason, just doesn't look at it this way. But if they want to know why their imaginary poll advantage is starting to dwindle, I don't think it's that hard, and it's not just a matter of money. 

I didn't intend to get into this in this much detail.

I just had these e-mails, "How come you're not talking about the election in depth?"  'Cause I don't know what the message is.  

This guy running out in Colorado, Republican running in Colorado, Cory Gardner. There's nothing sounding like a Republican, on immigration.  His campaign appears to believe that it's unseemly, unwise, or just not gonna do it, to try to win the election by appealing to people who oppose open borders. 

Somehow these Republicans have been made to believe that if you criticize the open-borders crowd that you're a bigot, that you're a racist, that you're anti-Mexican or Hispanic.  A part of me over here says, "Well, can you really blame 'em when the Ninth Circus says that high school students cannot wear an American flag T-shirt on Cinco De Mayo?"... But I don't understand why there isn't anybody that understands voters need something to enthusiastically support, not just oppose and vote out of fear.... 

So I just checked the e-mail, and, as usual, as predicted, there are a lot of snarky...Rush, you're missing the whole point. There's only one message, and it's: Get rid of the liberals."  Oh, I agree with that.  Can somebody show me where that is part of anybody's campaign?  

Others are saying, "Rush, you're forgetting what happened in 2010, and the same thing's gonna happen this time."  What did happen in 2010?  What do you think it was?  I know the Tea Party came into existence, but why?  What was the single reason people voted against Democrats in 2010?...That vote in 2010 against a Democrat and for a Republican was the only hope anybody ever had of repealing Obamacare. 

That is a powerful single issue. 

That is something to get rallied behind, focused on, and cheering and enthused about. The only way possible we even had a chance at repealing Obamacare was to get rid of Democrats in 2010.  And because there was that single understandable message, it worked.  What is the corresponding big reason to vote against Democrats in November?  What is it? Is it Benghazi?  Is it ISIS, ISIL?  Is it Obama?  What is it?  Is it, "Oh, we still have to repeal, Obamacare?"  What is the one thing?  That's my point here.  Immigration?  What is it?"


 

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