RUSH: I want to expand on what essentially was a throwaway line right before the end of the hour because a lot of people are confused. I said liberals have their principles, and they stand for their principles above all else, and when they do, it is people who get hurt. It is not people that liberals stand for. And some of the e-mails that I have received, ‘Rush, liberals don’t have principles.’ Oh, yes, they do. They have guiding principles. Doesn’t mean they’re right, but they have them, and they stick with them. If somebody in their movement sort of strays, like McCain, they kick ’em out. They don’t call ’em mavericks and they don’t say, ‘Oooh, this is another way to look at this, this is great, look at the diversity in our party.’ It’s a great illustration, diversity, a great principle. What happens? There isn’t any when it comes down to actual impact on people. They don’t allow diversity in the Democrat Party. They don’t allow diversity of speech. They don’t allow diversity of appearance, yet they stand for it.
But in standing for diversity, somebody’s going to get hurt, because when they enforce their principle of diversity, somebody has to be guilty, somebody isn’t diverse enough, some organization isn’t diverse enough, so the principle of diversity, which means nothing other than the way something looks — and we’re all told we’re not supposed to judge anybody on that basis — the way something looks, liberals have to fix it and change it, people get hurt. Now, all of liberalism occurs under the umbrella of ‘we care.’ And that’s why it’s so seductive to people, particularly ignorant people or people who want to think people care about people. We all care about people. For crying out loud, who doesn’t? The number of people who don’t care is a rank minority, and most of them are in jail or on their way there. We all care about people. We’re the most charitable country on the face of the earth not only for our own people but people around the world. So all this comes under the umbrella of ‘we care.’ Republicans and conservatives, said to be harsh, can’t possibly care, because their principles are never examined substantively. The liberals have a cool game going — let me give you an example.
Liberals have as a principle quality education for all with more and more money every year. May I ask you, what is the state of our public education system? What’s the dropout rate, particularly among minorities and Hispanics? How many people graduate not being able to read their diplomas? Quality education for all? But you have to stay in a failing public school system if you want vouchers. If you want to get your kids to private school, and you can’t afford to and somebody comes along and offers you the chance, guess who’s going to stand in your way? Mr. and Mrs. Clinton and Mr. and Mrs. Gore can put their kids at Sidwell Friends in Washington; you can’t. You have to keep your kids in a failing DC public school system so that the principle of quality education for everybody can be followed. They talk about quality education for everybody, because liberals care. Look at the status of public education. Look at the effect on the people who are subject to this principle. And so liberals, when confronted with this, say, ‘You can’t examine our results; you have to examine our good intentions. We care. We have our principles.’
They also have as a principle, insurance and health care for everybody. However, do we have it? Mandates keep some insurance carriers out of a state because liberals say that those companies have to cover things that you may not wish to pay for. Lower gas prices. Quality lower gas prices. That’s a principle. Except, your gas prices are going through the roof to pay more for an environmental hoax and hoax-based regulations and bankrupt alternative fuels like ethanol. So while liberals say they are for lower gas prices and the principle of everybody being able to afford to get to work and so forth, what’s the truth? The truth is that those very same people have taken a hoax, and what does this hoax involve? This hoax involves putting everything in front of people. Who was it that had the political slogan, ‘Putting People First’? Clinton, that’s right. Putting people first is the last thing liberalism does.
Take a look at God’s creation. God’s creation is the planet and the environment. Liberals have deified the environment to the detriment of human beings. They subordinate the interests of human beings intentionally. We have to save a tree before increasing your comfort in your neighborhood. We have to make sure that some environmental cause is preserved or animal cause is preserved even before saving your life, sometimes even your business. If you are a farmer or if you work on a farm, sometimes your business will be put out of business because liberals will say that whatever indigenous animals or plants thrive on your farm cannot be harmed, can’t be touched, can’t be moved. And so while they talk about all of their principles and the quality of life, they put everything before quality of life. Their principles, when maintained, end up hurting people. The big one is equality. Liberals think that only they are for equality. And they have come up with numerous programs to create equality, and they’ve come up with numerous groups to help them advance it, such as the NAGs, the Equal Rights Amendment, affirmative action, none of these things promote equality at all. They promote punishment.
The liberals’ attempt for equality is essentially punishment. And it’s punishment of people who have had no role whatsoever in creating the harm that liberals claim needs to be fixed. So what happens with their principle of equality? Well, people end up being taxed from those who achieve, they redistribute it to those who are less successful, except that the money and the prosperity they promise never get there. And those they wish to help are continually miserable. The war on poverty, the Great Society, the civil rights movement. None of these have shown any progress whatsoever, despite all the money, despite all the principles, because when liberals hold to their principles, people get hurt. They also say they stand for no discrimination, except it is liberals themselves who discriminate against anybody who says anything they don’t want to hear. They do more than discriminate; they try to silence them. They try to shut them up. They use force, and they use intimidation tactics. These are the people who operate under the umbrella of they care.
Their principles, advancing this utopian, perfect planet, end up harming the very people they intend to help: the black family. We talk about this all the time on this program. All of the welfare programs that liberals started from LBJ forward were designed to improve economic circumstances and help the people who are said to be unequal to achieve equality. And what happened? The black family was torn apart because the federal government’s welfare checks assumed the role of the father, who no longer had to stay home and be responsible. And so the black family’s in a mess. Good intentions, liberals care, but their principle of equality leads to people being genuinely harmed. Education system again, and there are countless other examples of this. So the point of all this is, when liberals say that they have principles and they’re holding to their principles and they want to espouse and expand their principles, understand one thing: The principle counts more than the results and the harm to people.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I have a couple more examples here. Barack Obama. He wants to raise the capital gains tax rate, and he does this under the pretext of spreading misery! (paraphrased) ‘It’s not fair that some of these corporate chieftains only pay 15% on their capital gains and a lot of Americans are paying more. Their secretaries are paying more. It’s not fair! It’s not fair! So we’re going to raise rates on capital gains.’ He acknowledges it will reduce revenue, but says, ‘It is more fair.’ It is going to harm the very people that he wants to help, and those are the people who are employed by these rich people! Every damn time they raise taxes, the people they think are supposed to be made to feel better because somebody’s being gotten even with… like the rich, we’re going to spread the misery.
The rich are going to suffer like you are? No, because the rich are going to keep their jobs. You’re going to get laid off. Thank you, Barack Obama. Principle over people! Nuclear power? Nuclear power. If we had nuclear power… We have no nuclear because of one stupid, stinking movie, The China Syndrome. If we had nuclear power, we would not be as concerned about ‘our dependence on foreign oil.’ We wouldn’t be as concerned about the pollution of coal. But we can’t have nuclear power, because it threatens the environment. We can’t have nuclear power because they say it might hurt people — when not producing it and developing it hurts people! I also think they oppose nuclear because they don’t like the word nuclear. It’s a projection of US power. (sigh)
It’s real simple to understand. It’s hard to believe it if you have been enmeshed in ignorance and have bought for your entire life the notion that liberals are the ones who care — and even if you see the results of their plans and their policies are harmful to people, you still give them a break because, ‘At least they’re trying. At least they want help. At least they try.’ No. If anybody honestly assessed the results of liberalism in the last 50 years, it would be politically dead. There would be relics, two professors in every college just so we could remember who these people were. Most of the wax figures at Madame Tussauds’ would be liberals. That would be the extent of their worthwhile life, if the results were honestly examined. But they aren’t.