{"id":28464,"date":"2008-02-22T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:15:12","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T04:15:12","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:15:12","slug":"a_moderate_on_the_host_s_influence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2008\/02\/22\/a_moderate_on_the_host_s_influence\/","title":{"rendered":"A Moderate on the Host\u2019s Influence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: To Memphis, this is Harry, you\u2019re next on Open Line Friday, Harry, nice to have you here.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Look, Rush, I would just like to have a brief debate with you in the arena of ideas. I am a moderate. I know what you think about moderates. You think we\u2019re all liberals, but before I talk about issues, I\u2019d like to say one thing about being a ‘moderate.\u2019 I think the word is unhelpful, Rush, because it means different things to different people. You think it\u2019s another way of people who are liberal denying it, and that\u2019s not the case at all. I think ‘liberal\u2019 and ‘conservative,\u2019 too, are unhelpful as the word ‘moderate,\u2019 because, if you think whatever the national party thinks this year, it\u2019s not going to be the same thing they think next year, Rush. And I just want to make that brief point to you before I would like to debate you in the arena of ideas on just a few issues, Rush, as a moderate who leans right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, the one thing you said here about the parties will be different from year to year, nothing new about that, but in the case of the Republican Party, there has been a battle for control of the Republican Party for as long as I have been an adult, and it\u2019s been between the country club blue-bloods, the moderate Republicans who are embarrassed of the Christians in the party, and of course the conservatives who finally wrested control of the party from the blue-bloods in the 1980s, and that irritated the hell out of the blue-bloods in our party, and they\u2019ve now gotten it back.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, you raise an interesting point, Rush, because even conservatism, conservatism today is not conservatism 20 years ago. And the same thing goes with liberalism —<\/p>\n

RUSH: How so?<\/p>\n

CALLER: — it\u2019s constantly evolving.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Wait a minute, well, I don\u2019t agree with that at all. How is conservatism different today?<\/p>\n

CALLER: I mean you cannot have principles that never evolve. That\u2019s my point. I mean you can be grounded, but the grounding changes —<\/p>\n

RUSH: But nobody —<\/p>\n

CALLER: — all change, it\u2019s part of life.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, of course the principles don\u2019t evolve, but the issues to which they\u2019re applied do. But the principles, this is the point, remain the same. Conservatism hasn\u2019t changed. What\u2019s happening, there are —<\/p>\n

CALLER: In theory that might be true, Rush, but in actual practice in Washington, that is not the case.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, that\u2019s right, we\u2019re not talking about Washington. Washington is where the competition for the definition of conservatism is taking place because most people think conservatives are the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, in theory you\u2019re absolutely right, but in practice it doesn\u2019t play out that way. <\/p>\n

RUSH: It most certainly does.<\/p>\n

CALLER: You disagree with me. Can we just talk about a few issues, then?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, I\u2019m having trouble understanding what you\u2019re saying. That\u2019s why I\u2019m going catch up with you on my transcriber here. Could you back off the phone — are you on a cell phone?<\/p>\n

CALLER: I am, Rush. I\u2019m on an iPhone.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. Well, I love the iPhone, so go ahead and use it.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay. Rush, it was about three months ago you said the dirty little secret is that you can single-handedly pick the Republican nominee for president. When Mitt Romney\u2019s campaign was tanking, you virtually endorsed him by encouraging people to vote.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yes.<\/p>\n

CALLER: And it was last week or the week before that you said the dirty little secret is that you could single-handedly sink McCain\u2019s campaign by endorsing him. You said two different things in the time span of three months.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yes.<\/p>\n

CALLER: And you\u2019re agreeing with that?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Do I agree that I said those things?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I do agree that I said those things. Of course I do.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Isn\u2019t that contradictory?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, see, you\u2019re getting back now to context, and you don\u2019t know why I said those things. Do you actually think — I want you to honestly answer — do you actually think that I believe that I could single-handedly pick the Republican nominee? <\/p>\n

CALLER: Absolutely, I believe you believe that, yes.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You think I believe that?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes. And I think you probably could, too.<\/p>\n

RUSH: (laughing)<\/p>\n

CALLER: And I think a lot of your listeners would agree so, too. You just can\u2019t do it at the very end of the primary, you have to do it at the get-go.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Perhaps. But the reason for saying it, I love tweaking media people, that is their image of me, and it\u2019s like the other day when I said, ‘Hasn\u2019t it been brilliant how I strategically inserted myself into the campaign to get all of this media coverage,\u2019 as though I orchestrated this. I love tweaking these people. So, yeah, I say a lot of things here, but you have to have a regular contextual listening understanding of the program to understand.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hey, I have listened to you for years. I\u2019m a subscriber of your newsletter and I regularly go to your website, so I understand the context.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, good.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I think you\u2019re one of the best speakers in America today, but I also think sometimes that you get a little carried away behind the microphone and don\u2019t realize the influence you have behind your microphone.<\/p>\n

RUSH: It could be. Because I think of myself as harmless little fuzzball, actually.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, that\u2019s not the case. You\u2019re not just a harmless little fuzzball. Because you —<\/p>\n

RUSH: But I am.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — you can impact public policy. You singularly stopped the immigration reform bill in Washington not too long ago, you singularly and your listeners.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yes.<\/p>\n

CALLER: If it wasn\u2019t for you —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yes.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — that bill would have soared through —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yes.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — and been law and we would have Mexicans running everywhere.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You are absolutely right. This is totally true. It\u2019s just that I don\u2019t want anybody else to know it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: To Memphis, this is Harry, you\u2019re next on Open Line Friday, Harry, nice to have you here. CALLER: Look, Rush, I would just like to have a brief debate with you in the arena of ideas. I am a moderate. I know what you think about moderates. 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