(Feb 5, 2013) > GOP Establishment Invites Its Own Extinction by Declaring War on Tea Party and Seeking Compromise with Democrats
February 05, 2013
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RUSH: Eric Cantor is out saying the Republicans have to change. The Republican Party has to change. The Republican Party has to show that we want to help people. The Republican Party has to reach across the aisle.
Karl Rove and his PAC. What is it, American Crossroads? Is that the name of his PAC? There was a New York Times story a couple of days ago that basically said they are gonna end up choosing Republican primary candidates so that they're not "Tea Partied." The Republican establishment has had it with nominees like Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell, Todd Akin, and Richard Mourdock. They say (summarized), "No more! And if we have to, we're gonna run Republican money against Tea Party candidates to keep the Tea Party outta here," 'cause the elites say the Tea Party is destroying the Republican Party.
Let me tell you what really is happening. Either by accident or by design, this announcement and this newspaper article about Karl Rove's intentions is only serving to unite the Tea Party in ways even now it hasn't been. It is energizing the Tea Party in ways that it hasn't been. After the election, everybody on our side faced a bit of demoralization, and this has ratcheted it back up. The conservative base of the Republican Party has now been targeted by the Republican establishment. That's how they interpreted Rove's comments.
So what the Tea Party people now realize is that they got two political forces gunning for 'em. Obama and the Democrats and the Republican establishment. Now, I want to take you back. Grab audio sound bite number one. Once again, folks, I told you this was on the table. I told you this was going to happen. I predicted it almost literally, and I'm not saying this so that you go, "Wow, this Rush guy really knows his stuff!" I'm not looking for kudos. I'm simply saying you can trust what I tell you. You can trust the predictions. I know the kind of people we're talking about.
Let's go to back to October 19th, 2010, before the midterm elections -- and those midterms in 2010, the Tea Party swept the House by a big margin. They took the House from the Democrats. It was a Tea Party, slam-dunk landslide. The Democrats lost seats all the way down the ballot to dogcatcher level. The Democrats lost over 700 seats nationwide, in the midterms. This why so many of us thought that there was a good possibility to win in 2012. So here, about three weeks before the midterm election in 2010, I warned everybody in this audience the following...
RUSH ARCHIVE: This is how third parties are born. These morons have no clue how short their lease on life is, these elites, they really don't. They have no clue how short their lease on political life is. They seem to think that the Tea Party is gonna end on November 2nd. They think the Tea Party's over, and once the election has taken place, then the elites, the Republican Party as well, are gonna now take over and start to manage the victories that have been secured by virtue of the Tea Party.
What will happen is the Specters and the Charlie Crists and so forth will go ahead and will officially become Democrats, the worthwhile Republicans will go to the Tea Party, and the remaining of these insider people, the David Frum, the David Brooks, the inside-the-Beltway, so-called conservative intelligentsia, the "Let's Make a Deal" types who believe that crossing the aisle and compromise and moderates, that's what the American people want, and they think that's what this election will say. They're going to be all that remains of the Republicans. They'll go to the Hamptons or wherever, but they're going to be all that remains of the Republicans. The Republicans could end up being a 10% party if they're not careful here. They could end up being the third party, and they could be the 10%.
RUSH: That was me predicting exactly where we are now today with the announcement that elements of the Republican Party are now going to seek to make sure Tea Party candidates don't win primaries. The Tea Party/conservative base has been energized. It's been a long time since I've seen that. I'm getting feedback, e-mail, phone calls and this kind of thing. People are furious about this, and they're getting focused and they're coming back after having been demoralized by the election results last November. But, again, that sound bite was October 19th, 2010, before the massive Tea Party landslide victory.
It's further evidence that I was right on the money. After that landslide, what was one of the most amazing things? The Republican Party did not seek to capitalize on it at all. The Republican Party in no way sought to capitalize on the birth of the Tea Party, its growth, its energy, its electoral prowess. They sought to minimize and diminish it, which they continue to do. We'll see what the end result of it is, but right now there's a unity and an energy. It may be just short of a rebirth going on. You have FreedomWorks, people like that, and Tea Party groups all over the country. Let's take a brief time-out and we will... (interruption) See? See?
Snerdley said, "You're not gonna talk about Rove! I know you're gonna try to get away with not talking about him. I just know you are."
Wrongo, pal! Big time wrongo.
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RUSH: Now, to "fair and balanced," ladies and gentlemen: The establishment Republicans, the inside-the-Beltway establishment types... Remember, these are the people who supported Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio. These are the brains. These are the guys who are gonna protect the Republican Party from you. They also opposed Rand Paul. Remember, they supported Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey and on and on. There are countless examples. The bottom line is, they don't have any better record at picking winners than the, quote, unquote, "amateur" Tea Party types do. And even when they pick winners, what do we end up winning?
We get squishy Republican moderates.
You know, my biggest problem with all of this is (and we talked about this before) within Republican Party there is a huge line of demarcation. On the establishment Republican side, they don't see the country at risk. There's nothing really special about where we are. "We've had deficits before. We've had the national debt before. The numbers are just bigger, but there really isn't any crisis here. We just need to start winning elections." They're not really small-government people. They're not interested in a serious decentralization of government or reduction in size. They are more interested in controlling the levers of power.
I mean, that's a lot of money.
The federal budget is a lot of money -- and when you're majority party in Washington, you are in control of the money -- and that's power. The inside-the-Beltway ruling class... That's a term that I have appropriated from that great story in the American Spectator by Angelo Codevilla a couple years ago who wrote about the ruling class. They're of both parties. They are inside the Beltway. They are the New York-Boston axis. They don't see the future as threatened as you and I do, and they don't see the country in crisis like you and I do. Even after that huge 2010 midterm landslide defeat, there was still some embarrassment over the people who won, embarrassment that those people were actually in the Republican Party.
It actually is not new, by the way.
What is new is the birth of and the surging of the Tea Party.
So the elites have finally just said, "Okay, we gotta tamp it down now. It's gone too far. We gotta beat it back ourselves."
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RUSH: I have a little bit of news here from the Pew Hispanic Research Group. "Twenty-six percent of legal Latino immigrants in the US haven't tried or are not interested in attaining citizenship." That's a pretty significant number. Twenty-six percent of legal Latino immigrants don't care about becoming citizens. The reason why that's interesting is because it'll have ramifications for this entire debate that we're having on illegal immigration.
And, more specifically, it'll have ramifications for the Republican Party's heartfelt belief that unless they "reach out" to the Hispanic population with a stated position of clear path to citizenship that might even include amnesty, they don't have any prayer winning elections. In fact, Eric Cantor said the Republicans need to better express why they're doing what they're doing. Cantor said this yesterday. We need to better express...
Don't anybody call Eric Cantor. Please. Do not e-mail or call or fax Eric Cantor. Do me that favor. He says we need to express why we're doing what we're doing. So Cantor says we're not getting our message out. We're not explaining who we are. We're not explaining why we're doing what we're doing. We gotta do a better job of that. He said, "What this is about, is about making sure we can express why we're doing what we're doing.
"We believe very strongly, obviously, in things like fiscal discipline and not spending money you don't have. We also believe in that because it helps people, but we have to do a better job of explaining it." In a sense, he's right. What he's basically saying is we need outreach to the low-information voter who doesn't care about this. Last night, Governor Christie was on the Letterman show. I haven't seen the Letterman show, I'm not kidding, in ten years or maybe longer.
But the television, the DVR was on CBS because the last time I had the TV on was the Super Bowl, which as on CBS. I don't know why but I fired it up last night about 11:30. I was gonna watch something else, but it came up and Letterman was on and just wrapping up with Joe Flacco, the Super Bowl MVP from the Baltimore Ravens. Then Letterman said, "Up next is Governor Christie." So I said, "I'll stick around and watch this," and Governor Christie came out, and the first part the interview was nothing but fat this and fat that.
Why are you fat?
Do you think about diets?
Why do you eat so much?
Have you ever tried to not eat so much?
Christie grabbed a doughnut in the middle of this started eating a doughnut, and Letterman started laughing. Letterman apparently (I didn't know this) made a bunch of Christie fat jokes over the years and Christie was talking about which ones bothered him and which ones didn't. He said the jokes that aren't funny don't bother him at all. The governor of New Jersey was on Letterman and didn't talk about anything other than fat.
Now, I don't know what happened in the second segment 'cause I didn't watch. When they promoted the second segment and went to commercial break, I didn't hang around. But I can tell you this. The Letterman audience is the low-information audience, and they were eating it up, folks. They were eating it up. My point is, I don't care what Chris Christie said last night or didn't say about issues. The Letterman audience dug the guy, and I think what Cantor is saying...
Well, I don't want to put words in Cantor's mouth, but what he's saying is we need to express why we're doing what we're doing. He's talking about outreach to the low-information voters. The problem with this, though, is when you come up with a marketing plan, you don't tell people about it. You just execute it. Now, I think the Republicans right now are engaged in a bunch of hand-wringing and introspection.
It seems like every day a new Republican goes to the microphones to offer an opinion about what they need to do in order to reverse their fortunes. I think it's time they stopped telling everybody what they need to do and just do it. At some point, when you have a marketing plan, you execute it. But you never tell people what the marketing plan is because then you give people a chance to resist it. You don't. You execute the plan.
What is the purpose of marketing?
Ultimately, everything leads to sales, and what is sales? Separating people from their money. You don't tell people how you're gonna do that. You just do it, and hopefully you make 'em happy to give them your money. Well, in this case the Republicans want votes. (They also want money, obviously.) You don't tell people how you're gonna get their vote. Just go do it! But I guess we're going through this period of introspection now.
There's this great concern in the Republican Party about the Tea Party and the fringe kooks and the pro-lifers and the anti-immigration people and the gun nuts, and the Republican Party is worried, "Oh, my God! What are we gonna do about the gun nuts, the anti-amnesty types, the anti-immigration people? What are we gonna do about these hayseed farmers? What are we gonna do about it?" They're going public with this.
It's an internecine war, and it's been going on for quite a while. One of the things that the Republicans obviously don't do well is explain conservatism. Would you agree with that, Snerdley? (interruption) I don't think they explain conservatism very well. I really think that one of the reasons for that is that many of them are embarrassed of it because of the forces arrayed against it inside the Beltway.
I mean, conservatism is the epitome of uncool.
Conservatism is the epitome of unhip, inside the Beltway and outside.
So they're a little bit reticent, but even the ones who are conservative have a tough time explaining it. That's clearly something that needs to happen before they're gonna be able to make a connection with people. And then, of course, make conservatism part of the pop culture. There are ways to do that, too. But, again, in that instance, you don't talk about how you're going to do it. You just do it. If you talk about how you're gonna do it, you give people an opportunity to resist it.
A lot of people look at sales and marketing as efforts to fool you, efforts to lie to you.
I mean, the used car salesman. Look at the image people like that have, or any salesman. The image is they're never honest with you. They're always trying to run a scam on you. This is just the image. So you tell people how you're going to separate their vote from them or their money from them, and you're giving them just a chance to build up resistance to it rather than just executing the plan. Now, we have some Cantor sound bites. He was on CBS This Morning today.
Norah O'Donnell said, "You got a big speech today asking the Republican Party to change. Is this about tone, or is it about ideology?"
CANTOR: What this is about is about (sic) making sure that we can express why we're doing what we're doing. We believe very strongly, obviously, in things like fiscal discipline and not spending money you don't have. We also believe in that because it helps people. In the same way we've got to address the plight of so many working Americans right now and those who don't have any work and say that, yes, we've got policies that will help you in terms of giving you an opportunity for a quality education, in terms of trying to help you bring down the costs of health care. We've got some real policies that we want to put to work to help people, and that's what this is about.
RUSH: I saw a chart the other day, a comparison in the growth of food stamps to the growth of employment. The employment line, as you know, is flat or trends down, you put it on a chart. The food stamp line is heading up at a 45-degree angle. In other words, there are more people signing for food stamps every week than there are people getting jobs. And once they're on unemployment they're on for 99 weeks. I mean, this is a pretty big challenge to explain the values of work, if you don't understand it. You know, said in his so-called farewell address to Congress, his last speech on the floor of the House, he said, "It's amazing how hard it is to sell freedom today." And that struck me, because he's right.
Freedom equals responsibility. That's a hard sell. There's a lot of easier choices out there right now with Obama in the White House and the current make up of the Democrat Party. Food stamp growth, 75 times greater than job creation. Food stamp growth, 75 times greater than job creation. We don't have access to the mainstream media, so marketing is the only way we get the message out for conservatism, marketing and behavior. Marketing and living what you believe. Marketing and putting into practice what you believe.
But Cantor says, "Clearly we need to do a better job of explaining why we're doing what we're doing." Well, one of the things that we're in favor of is people working. Now, how bad is it if, after you state that position, you've got to pause and explain to people why that's a good thing. If we've gotten to the point, for example, where we have to explain fiscal responsibility. If we've gotten to the point we have to explain what we mean by, "You should get a job." If we have to take the time to explain why that is good for you and your country, for you to work, my God. We're raising children, if that's the case. We're dealing with children.
So, anyway, Charlie Rose had to get in on this. Charlie Rose said, "There's this issue that seems to be going in Republican Party circles that the party has to rebrand and reform. Governor Jindal called it, 'The stupid party.' You've got Senator Rubio talking about immigration reform. I mean, is this a recognition that the Republican Party has not spoken to the American people about issues that concern them and how government can work for them?"
CANTOR: Our party has always stood for the conservative philosophy of self-reliance, of faith in the individual, accountability in government. But what we're trying to do is to explain that these proposals of ours actually can help people. And we'd love to see the Democrats join us in trying to set aside differences and seeing if we can come together to actually give some relief to the millions of Americans, frankly, who just want their life to work again. We're trying to be constructive, to help people again, Charlie. And, hopefully, we can bring folks together on both sides of the aisle, something that has not happened too often here in Washington, so we can provide a path to a better future for more Americans and make their life work again.
RUSH: Well, okay. We have to convince people that we don't want to hurt them. We have to convince people that we want to help them and our ideas are good for them. Our ideas can actually help people and we've got to get the Democrats to agree with us and cross the aisle so we can all work together on this.
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RUSH: I don't think there's any doubt, ladies and gentlemen -- I don't say this happily at all -- I don't think there's any doubt that, even now, a whole bunch of Republicans don't understand what the Democrat Party is trying to do. The Democrat Party, from the White House on down, is literally trying to, in a political sense, in the political arena, annihilate 'em. The Democrat Party is trying to wipe 'em out. The Democrat Party wants the Republican Party to be extinct. They want it to be a vanishing species. They're not interested in helping the Republicans get their message out. They're not interested in making government smaller. They're not interested in promoting self-reliance.
The Democrats have no interest whatsoever in promoting individualism or self-reliance, accountability in government. Smaller government, there's not one Democrat anywhere who's interested in any of that, and thus there is no Democrat who's ever gonna cross the aisle and work with the Republicans to make the Republican agenda a reality. The Republicans are going to, at some point -- they may never get there -- but they're going to have to realize that if they are going to prevail they are going to have to engage in a political fight that results in the defeat of the Democrat Party, not bipartisanship, and not crossing the aisle and working together, because they don't have anything in common.
There isn't any common ground between what Eric Cantor said the Republicans hope to do and want to accomplish and what the Democrats want to accomplish. There wasn't any common ground in the fiscal cliff negotiation. There's no common ground in the debt limit deal. There isn't gonna be any common ground when we get to the sequester. There isn't any right now. There just isn't. There's no area for compromise. This is a political battle to the death. The Democrats are on the march. They don't want to have to wake up every day and even deal with the existence of Republicans. They want to wipe out any effective opposition, not get along with it, not compromise with it.
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