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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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