RUSH: Ed in Houston. Ed, well known to the EIB Network, sir, you’re next. Hi.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. (laughs) Thanks a lot for putting me on after that guy. If I was ever wavering between voting Libertarian and conservative, I think he just made my mind up. How you doing, Rush?
RUSH: Never better, sir. Doing excellent to outstanding.
CALLER: Well, lifelong friend here. I was listening to you even before you came to Houston and picked you up on the radio between Corpus Christi and Houston, and just used to tell my girlfriend, ‘Turn that loudmouth off,’ and once you got here and I started listening to you, I realized that you and I were just one and the same.
RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.
CALLER: Well, thank you. Thank you for everything that you have done. My only question is: What has happened to all our conservative candidates over the years? How come we don’t have the candidates out there to run on every level: state, federal, city? You would think that after someone like Ronald Reagan laid out the game plan and had the formula to sweep this nation, that,more and more people would come forward and say, ‘Hey, that’s a winning proposition right there. I’m going to follow that.’
RUSH: This actually is an excellent question, and the answer to it will require a little more time than I have here, and it would also require to me to make some educated guesses about this, but I think in a general sense the big culprit is Washington. Even when really solid conservatives go there, most of them end up caving over time to the social and the political and media pressures that exist there. Plus, conservatism was never that thoroughly loved and appreciated by many in the Republican Party. The country club blue-blood Rockefeller set in the Republican Party was never enamored of Reagan. They bit the bullet and smiled while it all was happening, and winning two landslides and so forth. But the fact that the Republican Party did not seek to build on that is clear indication. When I say he was not really universal loved and appreciated in his own party, it’s true, ’cause the recipe and the blueprints for moving the country forward — for actually moving people to your agenda was spelled out and demonstrated over eight years. Reagan moved people to the right. What’s happening now is that both parties nominate people who see where people are and try to get there ahead of the other guy. So there’s an absence of leadership, if you will, and it’s a race to see who can be the greatest and most creative panderer.