{"id":14938,"date":"2012-08-03T18:38:37","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T18:38:37","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-08-03T18:38:37","modified_gmt":"2012-08-03T18:38:37","slug":"facts_don_t_persuade_liberals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2012\/08\/03\/facts_don_t_persuade_liberals\/","title":{"rendered":"Facts Don\u2019t Persuade Liberals"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Here\u2019s Lisa in Houston on the program. You\u2019re next. Great to have you here. Hi.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi. Thanks, Rush. I just wanted to say that I am just frustrated and angry as you are when I watch how arrogant Obama is. It just makes me not even want to look at him. And it just makes me so mad. I don\u2019t understand why Romney and the rest of the Republicans don\u2019t throw that “fair share” thing back in their faces. You know, they say that the rich don\u2019t pay their fair share. And I think, sadly, most Americans buy into that, you know, they think, oh, yeah, that\u2019s right, they\u2019re not paying their fair share. And really, what is it, like the top 10% pay 50% of all taxes; is that right?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, let me tell you something about that. We\u2019ve had that number on our website going on five years.<\/a> For 20 years I\u2019ve been making the point on this program that the top 1% pay 40%, top 5% pay 80%, whatever the number, and yet I don\u2019t think if we had never mentioned it, it would matter. This is one of those arguments where the real numbers don\u2019t , \u2019cause it\u2019s never enough. The left is never happy. If you could get them to agree that a tax rate of 50% was fair, the next year they\u2019d want 60. They\u2019re very wise not to demand a number. It\u2019s not about numbers. It\u2019s about attitudes leading to votes against Republicans. That\u2019s the only reason they spout this stuff. I\u2019m blue in the face telling people that the top 1%, top 10%, top 50%, I\u2019m blue in the face telling people they pay their fair share and more. It doesn\u2019t register. That doesn\u2019t cut through the noise. That argument, I don\u2019t think, has ever mattered. It\u2019s never blunted it.<\/p>\n

CALLER: See, I think if Romney were to say that in a debate, you know, if he were to ask Obama, “What percentage should someone who makes $300,000 a year, what should they pay? What percentage should they pay of their salary, what do you think?”<\/p>\n

RUSH: He wouldn\u2019t answer it. He wouldn\u2019t answer it. He would take the question and go off to another talking point making the same point. He would not answer it, I guarantee you.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, then it just irritates me that you have these Hollywood liberals who, you know, give millions of dollars to Democrats, but then, you know, they live in these mansions and they say that rich people aren\u2019t paying enough. I guess I just have always thought, why don\u2019t those people be the first to give all of their money away? Keep three or four million dollars, but give the rest of their money to the government and then they can tell other people.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: You\u2019re making the mistake of interpreting them literally. When they join the chorus that the rich aren\u2019t paying their fair share, that\u2019s not what they\u2019re saying. All they\u2019re doing is trying to tell people who may have trouble coming up with 15 bucks or ten bucks to go to the movie that they\u2019re no different. All they\u2019re doing is trying to relate. I mean some of them are ideologues, some of them are liberals and so forth, but all they\u2019re really trying to do is to form a linkage or a bond with their audience that they, too, are average people. That they, too, think the rich ought to pay fair share. That they don\u2019t want the audience to think of them as the rich who aren\u2019t paying their fair share. So they go out and call for it. It\u2019s how the Kennedys and the Warren Buffetts and the Bill Gateses of the world inoculate themselves from this very criticism. They go out and claim the rich aren\u2019t paying enough. They never offer to pay any more themselves, but they join that chorus, and thereby they never get criticized for being rich.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I know. And I guess I just wish that instead of giving these vague campaign speeches that you hear, it\u2019s just very vague stuff, and it\u2019s almost like, they don\u2019t want to just tell it like it is and why these — you know, why Romney —<\/p>\n

RUSH: You\u2019re asking something impossible. You\u2019re asking for liberals to engage in the debate literally. They\u2019re never going to do that. They\u2019re never going to get specific and attach numbers to whatever argument, because it\u2019s not about what they\u2019re saying. It\u2019s all misdirection. It\u2019s all code. So when you hear them say the rich aren\u2019t paying their fair share, you\u2019re saying, “Well, what is?” They\u2019re not thinking of a number. They\u2019re thinking of a way to relate to most people who aren\u2019t rich and trying to get them to support them, or to let them know that they\u2019re on their side or what have you. The biggest mistake people make is listening to liberals and wanting to engage them literally. <\/a>That\u2019s not at all what they\u2019re talking about when they say these things.<\/p>\n

Let me try again. When Ted Kennedy came out and railed against the rich, that they weren\u2019t paying their fair share, everybody said, “You\u2019re richer than anybody in the world. What are you talking about?” That\u2019s exactly right. Ted Kennedy knows, the Democrat Party knows that the class envy stuff sometimes works, that they can gin up real hatred for the rich. Well, they don\u2019t want to be hated. Yet they\u2019re rich. So? They run out and they criticize the rich, as though they\u2019re not. In the process they inoculate themselves from their own criticism. <\/p>\n

See, everybody believes that big businessmen are Republicans. That big corporate CEOs are conservatives, and they believe in individualism and self-reliance, and they don\u2019t like big government and so forth. Nothing could be further from the truth today. The people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett run around, they both do, they run around, “There isn\u2019t enough charitable giving by the rich. They\u2019re not paying enough taxes. The rich ought to be paying more,” and in the process, the richest people in the world inoculate themselves from the hatred for the rich that they are helping gin up, and people leave them alone, and that means nobody\u2019s coming for their money. <\/p>\n

The biggest mistake in the world is to engage liberals literally on what they\u2019re talking about. When Ted Kennedy said, “Robert Bork\u2019s America is an America were women are getting back alley –” that\u2019s not what he was saying. He was creating, trying to sustain an attitude of bigotry and hatred harbored by conservatives, pure and simple. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, the liberals, the American left, the Democrat Party cannot ever allow the country to be unified. They just can\u2019t. They cannot survive without conflict. They cannot survive without chaos. They cannot survive without an us versus them. To illustrate the point, if the top marginal tax rate were moved up to 90%, it would not stop them from saying the rich aren\u2019t paying their fair share. They\u2019re going to say it if we abolish the rich. If we make it illegal to be rich. They\u2019re still gonna run around talking about the days when the rich weren\u2019t paying their fair share and do you want to go back to that. <\/p>\n

Look, for 24 years on my website every day and on this program, frequently, here are the latest numbers: the top 5% pay 44% more in taxes than the bottom 95%. The top 5% pay 44% more in taxes than the bottom 95%. <\/p>\n

Now, what does that mean? Nothing. What are the dollars? That doesn\u2019t mean jack to anybody hearing it. And it\u2019s really frustrating. You could say the top 5% pay 50% of all taxes. It doesn\u2019t matter. Apparently it doesn\u2019t cut through the noise and change anybody\u2019s mind who believes the rich aren\u2019t paying their fair share. All that number does is validate people who already understand it. But it\u2019s not winning any converts. At least I don\u2019t get the sense that it is. Otherwise, they wouldn\u2019t still use class envy. Now, there are arguments. Political scientists routinely argue about the effectiveness of class warfare politics, does it work or does it not, and you get for as many political scientists as there are analyzing it, you get that many theories and that many answers. But the fact that the Democrat Party keeps doing it is proof positive to me that they think it works. In this case, that\u2019s all they\u2019ve got. <\/p>\n

They can\u2019t run on their current record, they can\u2019t run on this economy, even though Obama today was trying to massage these numbers in such a way as to lie to the American people whose lives he\u2019s destroying, that it isn\u2019t so bad out there. That\u2019s a cold, calculating guy to do that, try to tell people whose jobs you\u2019re destroying that things are getting better. I tell you, that\u2019s heartless. It\u2019s pure heartlessness, but that\u2019s who he is, it\u2019s what he\u2019s doing. They live in cliches. The biggest mistake in the world, and I\u2019ve found this over the years, is to engage them literally. As a persuasion technique, I don\u2019t see how it works. <\/p>\n

Remember when Paul Ryan took Obama to school on his own health care plan at that joint session at the White House or maybe it was at Blair House, but anyway they had a bunch of congressional leaders and Obama, the Democrats and Republicans got together, one of these fake pretenses that everybody\u2019s working together try to solve a problem. And Paul Ryan just read Obama the riot act on his health care bill and how he\u2019s destroying the economy and rising deficit all that. The guy was very accurate, it was very true. And even among people who saw it, all it did was validate those of us who already knew what he was talking about, but I don\u2019t think it was pervasive. Not that what he was saying isn\u2019t pervasive, it\u2019s just the literal aspect of this stuff, when we\u2019re talking to liberals, who is it we\u2019re trying to persuade anyway? <\/p>\n

We\u2019re trying to talk liberals out of being liberals. Isn\u2019t that what this objective is? Or we\u2019re trying to depress \u2019em so much that they don\u2019t go vote, whatever. But that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do. But they\u2019re not literal in any way. They live an image. They live in fantasy land. They live in the world of emotion. Realville, they get nowhere near it. They see the sign that says Realville, and they turn around so that it\u2019s in the rearview mirror. They\u2019re out of there, don\u2019t want any part of it. They can\u2019t survive in Realville. They live in cocoons. Studied this. The art of persuasion is a very, very tricky thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Here\u2019s Lisa in Houston on the program. You\u2019re next. Great to have you here. Hi. CALLER: Hi. Thanks, Rush. I just wanted to say that I am just frustrated and angry as you are when I watch how arrogant Obama is. It just makes me not even want to look at him. 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