{"id":31856,"date":"2009-03-06T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:40:21","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T02:40:21","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:40:21","slug":"stand_up_for_conservatism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/03\/06\/stand_up_for_conservatism\/","title":{"rendered":"Stand Up for Conservatism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: There\u2019s also a great piece from yesterday in the Wall Street Journal by Daniel Henninger. ‘Has Obama Buried Reagan? — The Democratic idea bank of Robert &amp; Robert says it\u2019s safe to unload on Ronald Reagan. Robert Reich: ‘It is the boldest budget we have seen since the Reagan administration, and [Obama\u2019s budget] drives a nail in the coffin of Reaganomics. We can basically say goodbye to the philosophy espoused by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher,” this from a diminutive policy wonk who never accomplished anything in the private sector in his life, like so many others in power now. Bob ‘Shrum: ‘Obama is not only unwinding Reagan\u2019s policies, he is offering a Rooseveltian paradigm that justifies government pragmatically.” Henninger writes, ‘Hmmm. Let us consider an alternative universe. <\/p>\n

‘The stock market has been in a free-fall … dismantling the saved wealth of millions of individual Americans… In reaction, Republicans, true to form, set sail for a deserted island to ponder a dispute between Rush Limbaugh and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele\u2019 about who runs their party. ‘Someone said, ‘A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.\u2019 Why are the Republicans wasting it?\u2019 And Henninger goes on to point out: Hey, you Republicans! You have ideas. You have ideas that won elections. You have ideas that grew economy. They\u2019re called Reaganism. And he says, Rush Limbaugh was trying to say this to the people at CPAC, trying to inspire you to be confident about capitalism. Don\u2019t be embarrassed. He wonders where the hell the Republicans are. And we discussed this ad infinitum on this program. But it is a great piece. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let me share with you a couple more points from Henninger\u2019s piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, because it\u2019s crucial, and it really crystallizes this. The primary objective I had last Saturday in my CPAC speech was to tell conservatives what conservatism is, to tell the nation what conservatism is, to inspire people to stand up for it and be proud of it and understand its superiority — and particularly to what\u2019s happening now. Henninger writes, ‘What Ronald Reagan knew and they don\u2019t…\u2019 meaning these Republicans here that can\u2019t get in gear as well as Democrats, of course. ‘What Ronald Reagan knew and they don\u2019t is that what moves a nation is the vital, teeming life of the private economy — work, ideas, innovation, the excitement of production, getting bigger. <\/p>\n

‘Growth. In the past this world was depicted as blast furnaces and factory chimneys. Today the economy\u2019s sinews are harder to see, but they exist in tens of thousands of small-cap, mid-cap and fat-cap companies. The Republicans — Romney, Huckabee, Jindal, Pawlenty, Sanford, Newt, Sarah and several hundred 2010 congressional candidates — must rediscover a way to talk about the living world of the real economy. Their vocabulary now consists mainly of policy-wonk spinach — ‘fiscal responsibility,\u2019 ‘reduce the debt,\u2019 and even ‘tax cuts.\u2019 True but insufficient,\u2019 and this is another reason that I was trying to make the point here about philosophy versus policy, which has been slightly misunderstood. Maybe I didn\u2019t express it properly in the original speech, but when I said I…<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve talked to several Republicans about the Obama various budget proposals, the stimulus and so forth, they talk about, nibble around the edges in ways that they accept the premise of the agenda that biomedical announces and then they say, ‘Well, we gotta put our little fingerprint on this or our imprint on it, you know, nibble at it around the edges.\u2019 But fiscal responsibility — reduce the debt, tax cuts — those are policy things that have no explanation or dynamic meaning. This is why a definition of conservatism — that\u2019s why I keep focusing on philosophy and principle — is what\u2019s first needed to get all this back, then we do the policy. We can do the policy at the same time, but, gee, people on my side just continue to misunderstand this, and I guess I\u2019m not good enough at explaining myself. <\/line><\/a>Anyway, what Henninger said was, ‘[W]hat Rush Limbaugh was trying to tell that conservative audience in so many words was, don\u2019t be embarrassed, don\u2019t be embarrassed about embracing the world of free markets, competition, entrepreneurship, and profit. If you don\u2019t know how to talk about it, reread the apostles and the evangelists the private economic growth.\u2019 But see, where are you gonna find them? Those are philosophers, along with people that implemented great policies and so forth. But politics is about ideas and language, and the conservative movement is not at a loss for proven ideas. They just don\u2019t know how to express \u2019em! ‘The Democrats don\u2019t want the private economy anymore and conservatives have forgotten how to talk about it.\u2019 <\/line><\/p>\n

Exactly my point, Mr. Henninger! Conservatives have forgotten how to talk about it. Conservatives are now more preoccupied with talking about the economy using the language and the terms put forth by Democrats, and that\u2019s what\u2019s got everybody so frustrated. That\u2019s why when you say, ‘These guys come into our neighborhoods and our states and they campaign as conservatives and they get to Washington and they govern as moderates!\u2019 They don\u2019t have the guts to stand up for what it is that wins elections for Republicans. By the way, the White House has made it official. I\u2019m stunned and saddened by this. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Folks, I\u2019m sitting here fighting fatigue, desperately, single-handedly — I don\u2019t mind saying this — as The Last Man Standing, trying to save this country, and I expect to get shot at from all sides with arrows. Politically shot at, I expect this. No, it doesn\u2019t hurt my feelings, Snerdley. It frustrates me. It\u2019s like Daniel Henninger. Why is there such reluctance to stand up for what we believe? Why is there such reluctance to contrast our own blueprint for success with what this is? <\/p>\n

RUSH: This is Altadena, California. Harry, nice to have you on the program, sir. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I feel the Democrat American dream is really a fantasy by the Democrats, and it will kill the American miracle. They feel the dream is that they can raise the poor out of poverty without their participation using other people\u2019s money.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, that\u2019s not their dream.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I see they\u2019re going to kill the work ethic, and they\u2019re gonna kill the rewards when someone starts working, and I feel that\u2019s the American miracle, and so —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, maybe I\u2019m misunderstanding you. I\u2019m reacting to what I thought you said, was the Democrat dream was lifting everybody out of poverty. They want more people, as you just said, with less of a chance to realize the American dream.<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s why I call it a fantasy —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — because it won\u2019t work. It destroys the work ethic amongst the young, or the poor —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Hold it. At some point it won\u2019t work, but who wants to go through ten years of hell to get to where it doesn\u2019t work? Why don\u2019t we try to stop it, is the point? Why doesn\u2019t somebody stand up and try to stop this? Sure, it won\u2019t work, but how long is it going to take for dummkopf American voters that voted for Obama to figure it out? ‘Hey, Rush, that\u2019s really the way to reach out to those people, call \u2019em dummkopfs.\u2019 Sorry, folks, I\u2019m a talk show host, not a politician, and I tell it like I see it. Did you vote for this, you Looney Tunes?<\/p>\n

CALLER: I did not.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I don\u2019t mean you. I\u2019m talking about the Obama voters, the people in Port St. Lucie, Rio Linda, places like that, you know what I mean, Harry.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, thank you. I appreciate —<\/p>\n

RUSH: But I apologize. I apologize for calling you Obama voters dummkopfs. I know you want the best for America, except for the rich, as you can get. I apologize for calling you Looney Tunes. But I do have a serious question. Of course this won\u2019t work. Of course it isn\u2019t gonna work. But why do we want to wait all those years and undergo all of this economic pain and suffering before people realize it? Of course you cannot reward a lack of achievement, you cannot reward inefficiency and have this country prosper and remain a superpower and be able to protect itself and be able to feed itself, you can\u2019t do any of that. But do we want to go through soup lines again? Do people realize this? Do we want to have to go through another terrorist attack that we can\u2019t stop or do anything about in order for people to realize this? <\/p>\n

Of course it won\u2019t work, but I don\u2019t want to wait ten years for people to figure it out. I\u2019d rather spend a lot of time trying to educate people right now that it won\u2019t work and tell \u2019em why and effect electoral outcomes in 2010 and 2012. But I guess that makes me too combative. I\u2019m sorry, folks. That makes me too combative and too rabble-rousing. So forgive me. I take all that back. Let\u2019s just sit around and suffer together for the eight or ten years it\u2019s going to take for people to figure out how all this doesn\u2019t work, and then we\u2019ll get together and have a party when we start to come out of this. See you then. Okay, bye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: There\u2019s also a great piece from yesterday in the Wall Street Journal by Daniel Henninger. ‘Has Obama Buried Reagan? — The Democratic idea bank of Robert &amp; Robert says it\u2019s safe to unload on Ronald Reagan. Robert Reich: ‘It is the boldest budget we have seen since the Reagan administration, and [Obama\u2019s budget] drives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nStand Up for Conservatism - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/03\/06\/stand_up_for_conservatism\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Stand Up for Conservatism - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: There\u2019s also a great piece from yesterday in the Wall Street Journal by Daniel Henninger. ‘Has Obama Buried Reagan? — The Democratic idea bank of Robert &amp; Robert says it\u2019s safe to unload on Ronald Reagan. 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