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<\/p>\nRUSH: Let\u2019s start with Steve here in Birmingham, Alabama. It\u2019s Open Line Friday. Great to have you, sir, on the program today. Hello.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Thank you, sir, for taking my call. Good morning. Mega dittos. Mega prayers going back to 1990. I love you.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Thank you, sir. Appreciate it very much.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Get right to my point. So I am perplexed and I\u2019m disturbed by what some of these Republicans are doing primarily with respect to impeachment, and I don\u2019t get it. My case is point is Liz Cheney, whom I used to respect tremendously, but her statement on impeachment could have been written by Nancy Pelosi, and I don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n
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RUSH: Wait, now. Seriously? Don\u2019t misunderstand my tone. I\u2019m not trying to be condescending. I\u2019m just a little somewhat surprised, you really don\u2019t understand why Liz Cheney has the opinion she has?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, no. And not just her. I mean, some of them I do understand, like Romney I guess, but so many of them I don\u2019t. I mean, if they\u2019re trying to unite, they\u2019re doing the opposite. They\u2019re turning off millions of people unnecessarily. They\u2019re currying favor of people who don\u2019t like him in the first place who are gonna throw \u2019em overboard the first chance they get. I don\u2019t see the endgame in doing this.<\/p>\n
RUSH: The endgame, for the people that you have mentioned, the endgame is the destruction of the entire MAGA movement, even if it means the Republican Party is adrift in the wilderness for 30 years. We\u2019re gonna get rid of MAGA, it\u2019s gonna have nothing to do with the Republican Party going forward. That\u2019s the battle within the Republican Party. The Republican Party has its own establishment types. They have members that are as pro-deep state as Democrats are.<\/p>\n
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And the names you mentioned are people who are. And get rid of Trump and now getting rid of MAGA, since Trump is gone, now we\u2019re gonna get rid of Trump\u2019s agenda. That\u2019s what this is. It\u2019s no different than when you go back to 1989 when Reagan left after two terms. What\u2019d the Republican Party do? I don\u2019t know how old you are, Steve. The Republican Party immediately began to eliminate anything that Reagan had to do with anything in terms of policy.<\/p>\n
George H. W. Bush ran for election claiming to be Reagan\u2019s third term. And he got elected on that. But he started raising taxes. He did everything the opposite of what Reagan did, started making deals with the Democrats. And the reason was that the Republican establishment back then had no use for conservatives, no use for us, no use for conservatism.<\/p>\n
Reagan was so popular, though, that they had to hide, and they had to vanish into the tall grass for as long as Reagan was around. But when Reagan\u2019s two terms were over, they roared back and attempted to take hold of the party. That\u2019s exactly what\u2019s happening now. You can talk MAGA, conservatism, the Republican establishment does not like upstarts. And that\u2019s what you\u2019re watching happen here.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Can\u2019t you do that without going all-in with Nancy Pelosi? I mean, you can take a little milquetoast approach to it without being so far gone.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Not if you\u2019re afraid of her. Not if you\u2019re afraid of Democrats\u2019 dominance. Not if you\u2019re afraid of being expelled from establishment, not if you are afraid of being denied the benefits of being in the establishment, no. But, look. The hatred for Trump among Washington establishment types, be they Republican or Democrat, is so virulent, it is so powerful, it\u2019s so all-consuming that it takes precedence over everything else.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s a sign of Trump\u2019s effectiveness. It\u2019s an example of how good he was, how effective he was. They\u2019re scared to death of him still, after he has retreated and is now holding court at Mar-a-Lago, they\u2019re still scared to death of him. That\u2019s why they want to impeach him. That\u2019s why they want to run around claiming he can never run for office again. Everything they\u2019re doing to Trump is unconstitutional, but they don\u2019t care. If they can pull it off, they\u2019ll pull it off.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, I\u2019m disheartened. But I\u2019m hopeful that —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Tell me why. Tell me why. This is interesting to me. And again, as I say, please don\u2019t misinterpret my tone. I\u2019m not trying to be critical at all. I\u2019m just being passionate in my explanation here. What is disheartening about this to you?<\/p>\n
CALLER: It\u2019s disheartening because Trump — President Trump, excuse me — built an enormous coalition that brought people from outside the party —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yes.<\/p>\n
CALLER: — inside the party.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yes.<\/p>\n
CALLER: And we could — I mean, even if Trump, President Trump isn\u2019t going to be the leader going forward, we can build on what he\u2019s done and make it even bigger and stronger rather than completely tear it down and go back to square one.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Exactly right. There\u2019s 75 million, bare minimum, 75 million people who voted for Trump. That\u2019s a political party right there, my man. That is a political party. And it\u2019s got to be dealt with. If you are part of the Washington establishment, the 75 million that voted for MAGA, that voted for Trump, we can\u2019t have that. So not only do you have to take out Trump, you have to destroy his agenda at the same time. You can\u2019t let somebody else pick up the mantle. But there are lots of Republicans who want to. Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, Matt Gaetz. There\u2019s a bunch of them. Jim Jordan. There\u2019s a bunch of them that want to pick up that MAGA vote base and grow it.<\/p>\n
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CALLER: And, similarly, the long knives are out for them within the party.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, there you go. I mean, exactly right. Exactly right. I wouldn\u2019t look at it as a disheartening thing. I mean, you can if you want, but it\u2019s not really new, which is my point to you. The Republican – I\u2019ll look for a better word than “establishment,” but it works. The Republican establishment has always opposed conservatism and conservatives.<\/p>\n
But when it is obvious that conservatism and conservatives are the dominant force in the Republican Party, they are smart enough to attach themselves to it and try to benefit from it for as long as that period of time lasts. But they never convert to conservatism. They do their best to make you think they are, but they don\u2019t and they aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Now, the reason that so many people, the names you mentioned are so bent out of shape is because Trump really is or was the antithesis of what these people think that successful people in their business are. They were royally offended by Trump\u2019s very life. The fact that he was breathing air and was doing with it what he was doing, just offended the hell out of them.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s as though Trump was going to define them, and they didn\u2019t want to be thought of as Trump, they didn\u2019t want to be thought of as acolytes, they didn\u2019t want to be thought of as supporters, they didn\u2019t want to be thought of as kindred spirits because Trump\u2019s mannerisms were so offensive. It\u2019s not even about, in large part, it\u2019s not even about issues, although it is, but some of the anger at Trump and resentment at MAGA exists because of Trump\u2019s personality. Anyway, Steve, I\u2019m glad you called. I appreciate it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSH: The endgame is the destruction of the entire MAGA movement, even if it means the Republican Party is adrift in the wilderness for 30 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":380582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n