{"id":29748,"date":"2008-07-02T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T03:40:12","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T03:40:12","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T03:40:12","slug":"crossing_the_aisle_for_what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2008\/07\/02\/crossing_the_aisle_for_what\/","title":{"rendered":"Crossing the Aisle — for What?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Central Ohio, this is Mack. Nice to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: How you doing, Rush?<\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019m fine, sir. Never better.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well listen, I was on hold to talk to you back in 2000 because I was a supporter of John McCain, found him to be an honorable man, shook his hand, I\u2019m a Navy veteran, and here we are again, huh?<\/p>\n

RUSH: You were mad at me then back in 2000? You had to be mad at me back in 2000.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, I couldn\u2019t wait to talk to you about it, but, you know, some of the things you said proved out. <\/p>\n

RUSH: They usually do.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I agree. I\u2019ve been listening to you since I believe about \u201989, maybe \u201990. I was in Sacramento right when you left.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, that would be \u201988, so you\u2019re almost a lifer.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah, just about, and this is a big moment. I\u2019ve gotten through a couple of times, but I\u2019d like to thank you for standing behind him this time. I think we\u2019ve got the right man. I\u2019d sure like to see him running with Newt, though.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, that isn\u2019t going to happen. But I am hearing that the front-runner now for the veep is Mitt Romney.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hm-hm. <\/p>\n

RUSH: Tell me what it is you like about McCain. You liked him in 2000, what do you like about him now?<\/p>\n

CALLER: I guess just the character issue.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, right.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Here\u2019s a man that, you know, he had a chance to go home early, he showed his bravery in combat, while he\u2019s being tortured. I don\u2019t agree with everything he\u2019s done politically, but —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — I think what he wants to do is reach across the line. If there was one thing I wish he would do, I wish somebody would stand up for term limits for Congress.<\/p>\n

RUSH: (laughing) Fat chance. What do you admire about somebody stepping across the aisle?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I\u2019m very conservative. But I think I\u2019m also like John McCain, I\u2019m a great enjoyer of the outdoors. Now I think we should drill in ANWR. I think we\u2019re capable of doing that. But I think there are some ideas that come from the left that are their weight.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Name one.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I guess conservation.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Wait a second. You think conservation is an exclusively liberal idea and policy?<\/p>\n

CALLER: No, not at all, but I think back, I\u2019m 51 years old, and I remember when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire in Cleveland, and, you know, I think industry needed to be reined in but I think what we\u2019ve done now — and I find it amazing that the left has any credibility with labor because they are the ones that shut the factories down. But something had to be done, and as the pendulum swings, sometimes it swings too far in each direction, but I\u2019m always open for new ideas.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let me tell you something. I\u2019m listening to you with a great deal of patience and a great deal of restraint. We are at a crucial juncture in this country. As the left is currently constituted, there\u2019s not one step across the aisle worth taking. The biggest problem that we face is that too many on our side have a convoluted impression of the success inherent in crossing the aisle, as you have just expressed. There are some on our side, mostly in the media, who want to tout the advantages of a Big Government run by conservatives, that they cancel each other out. There\u2019s no such thing as a Big Government run by conservatives that stays big and is big on purpose and grows. That\u2019s not what conservatism is. The idea of crossing the line, let them cross the line. How come they never cross the line? Why is it always up to us? How come when we start criticizing things in the world, why do we always start criticizing ourselves first? There\u2019s yet another poll out from the McLaughlin Group. I think that\u2019s the group, the actual name of the company, but they\u2019re famous, they\u2019re out there doing a lot of polls, and they\u2019ve come up with another conclusion: Republicans must rebrand conservatism or find a new kind of conservatism. <\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t a new kind. There\u2019s only one. Conservatism doesn\u2019t need revisions. Conservatism is founded in individual liberty and freedom. As such, it will never go out of style. When we start crossing the aisle with these people — and by that, I mean accepting their version of things — if we\u2019re compromising principle in the process, then we are harming ourselves and we\u2019re harming the country. If it\u2019s worth crossing the aisle with them, why don\u2019t we just all become Democrats if that\u2019s the answer? I would prefer to have somebody sit around and say to people on the left, ‘Oh, you want to get that done, come join us, \u2019cause here\u2019s how we\u2019re going to do it. Here\u2019s how we\u2019re going to fix education; here\u2019s how we\u2019re going to deal with being had; here\u2019s how we\u2019re going to deal with whatever problem is on the board; here\u2019s how we\u2019re going to deal with the war on terror. Here\u2019s how we\u2019re going to deal with bloated budgets. If you\u2019re interested in fixing these problems, join us on our side of the aisle. But we\u2019re not going to accept your premise, cross the aisle, work with you, so that we can have a little bit of influence on the policies around the edges.\u2019 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m tired of crossing the aisle. I\u2019m tired of hearing about what a great thing it is. I\u2019m worn out with hearing that as the definition of open-mindedness and so forth. Let\u2019s go back to the Great Society, 1964. This is 2008. So what are we talking, 44 years. We have a 44-year domestic history of failure after failure after failure of the left\u2019s prescriptions for things that need fixing or that need to be addressed, 44 years of failure. Nothing, in anybody\u2019s common sense, should recommend that we go back and do it again or continue to try it on the premise that we just haven\u2019t spent enough money. We don\u2019t even have to just stop in this country. We can go to any country in world history that has been run as a socialist or totalitarian country, and we can see, it doesn\u2019t work. If you define work as having a population with individual freedom and liberty, free to be entrepreneurs, economic opportunity, growth and prosperity, peace, free of crime, threat, this sort of thing, you don\u2019t find that in any totalitarian, socialist, or communist regime. It\u2019s never worked. Not for individuals. It works for the people in power. <\/p>\n

So this business of crossing the aisle and have that be some sort of resume enhancement, until we get a handle on this and start getting a little confident and telling them it\u2019s time for them to cross the aisle, ‘But, Rush, but, Rush, we\u2019re in the minority.\u2019 No, we haven\u2019t been, just for the last two years. We have the White House, and we had a majority in the House of Representatives, we were going back and forth with the Senate because Trent Lott was giving away Senate seats to Tom Daschle in order to share power to walk across the aisle so they would love us, so they would think that we\u2019re not mean-spirited and all that stuff, they would think that we\u2019re fair. Look where it got us. It got us Harry Reid, who is one of the meanest, most extreme partisans Washington has ever seen, unapologetic about it, and he\u2019s not going to cross any aisle, not on a matter of policy. He\u2019ll cross the aisle when the end result is he gets what he wants. They\u2019re not going to sacrifice what they want, why should we? What\u2019s so fabulous about that? ‘Well, Rush, what you don\u2019t understand is it shows that we can be big people, that we understand a thing larger than ourselves.\u2019 That\u2019s not what it shows. It shows that we don\u2019t have confidence in what we believe. It also shows we have people who are more interested in winning elections doing whatever they have to do rather than actually winning elections on the basis of advancing a movement, which gives you a mandate, which, by the way, at the same time, inspires the American people. <\/p>\n

Which political party would you rather be part of right now, would you rather be part of a party that has to get up every day and tell people how rotten the country is, how rotten their future is and how they\u2019re to blame for it? You\u2019ve earned too much money, you\u2019ve been driving your cars that are too big, you\u2019ve been wasting electricity, you\u2019ve been voting Republican, whatever. This is a party that has to blame you for everything wrong in this country, and then you, when they come to power, are going to get blamed even more, and you\u2019re going to pay the price. There is nothing inspiring about the American left. There is nothing inspiring about today\u2019s Democrat Party. It is just the opposite. They depress. They can turn people to medication. Their portrayal of the country, their portrayal of the US military, their portrayal of our place in the world is one of shame and guilt and rage. How in the world does a movement like that get any votes at all? Substantial enough votes, number of votes to win? It happens when the other side doesn\u2019t do the exact opposite and start being optimistic, talking about American exceptionalism, telling the American people they\u2019re not to blame, they are the reason the country works, that they are the backbone of this country, and more is going to be needed of them, and we need people engaging in commerce, educating themselves, following their dreams, following their passions. <\/p>\n

What our job is to do is to get out of your way when you do it. We\u2019re not going to have a bunch of regulations in your way; we\u2019re not going to punish you when you succeed. The Democrats and the leftists in this country are just the opposite. Now, I realize there are a lot of people in this country who exist on class envy, and you don\u2019t have to improve their lives to make them temporarily happy. All you have to do is tell \u2019em somebody else is getting creamed, tell \u2019em somebody else is getting hurt, somebody else is suffering, you know, put a little schadenfreude on them, tell \u2019em somebody else\u2019s taxes are going up, tell \u2019em they\u2019re not going to be able to drive their big cars anymore, what have you. And people who will have no resulting benefit to them still go, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, you make it even,\u2019 because there are people in the country who want to tear the top down to so-call equalize people. That\u2019s what the left does. The left never seeks to promote equality by boosting those at the bottom. It\u2019s always about tearing down those at the top. There are fewer of them. It\u2019s a much better bet, shotgun approach to try to poison the minds of a bunch of middle class and lower class, lower middle-class people than it is the opposite because there\u2019s a lot of them. But it can be countered, and it\u2019s been shown how it can be countered. <\/p>\n

Conservatism, articulated properly and with passion, love for the country, American exceptionalism will attract a crowd. But when it\u2019s not articulated by elected leaders or people seeking office, then it\u2019s dormant. And then furthermore, when people in the conservatism movement, because they can\u2019t find elected leaders to articulate it start saying, ‘Well, okay, let\u2019s redefine conservatism, and let\u2019s now say that conservatism has gotta find a way to attach itself to things like the New Deal. Conservatism has to find a way to attach itself to entitlements so that the working class knows that we like \u2019em and we\u2019re not against \u2019em.\u2019 It\u2019s going to delay the eventual rebirth and salvation of the country, just going to delay it. I\u2019m telling you here and now, crossing the aisle and working with the left is not going to make this country better, it\u2019s not going to improve, and it isn\u2019t going to do much for you. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Central Ohio, this is Mack. Nice to have you on the EIB Network. Hello. CALLER: How you doing, Rush? RUSH: I\u2019m fine, sir. Never better. 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