Who Benefits from All This Authoritarianism in America?

RUSH: I’ve been thinking about this. I got a note today right before the program started which ignited my brain cells. I want to read you this note, and from this note, I started jotting down monologue outline notes.

Dear Rush:
The effect of the TSA groping policy is to convince the Islamic world — where even touching a woman is a grave insult to a family’s honor — that Americans are dishonorable, degenerate, and cowardly. The fact that Americans would allow their women, children and elderly to be treated this way and the fact it could be accomplished by merely launching a few bombers with TNT in their underpants or in their car trunks shows the entire Middle East that America, whatever its organized military might, is a society ready to do anything to avoid even the smallest risk. The media that treat the TSA’s behavior as just a sensational tabloid curiosity entirely miss the point. What’s going on in the airports probably does more to weaken America’s credibility in the Muslim world than anything that’s happened since 9/11. A country this vulnerable is a country that in Islamic fundamentalist eyes is in the process of surrendering.

And let’s review here. Young male Muslim Arabs use box cutters on 9/11, so now everyone has to be checked for sharp objects. Young male Muslim Arabs have tried to get liquid explosive in on airplanes, so now everybody has to be checked for liquids. A young male Muslim Arab put explosives in his underwear, so now everybody has to be checked for explosives in their underwear. Are we missing the most obvious thing to check for here? We are not checking for terrorists. We are checking for things! Long after we have discovered the things, so therefore they’re not gonna be used again because the enemy knows we’ve already discovered them. So we’re not even checking for terrorists. We’re checking for things.

And as the note I received said, the real danger of all this is that it shows the Muslim world that we will treat our own people like dog doo-doo to avoid even the smallest risk. We treat ’em like garden variety criminals when captured after murdering hundreds of people but put the rest of us through humiliation. We capture these guys that do mass murder and we treat ’em as garden variety, make sure they have their prayer books, make sure they get to prayer, make sure they get their T-shirts or whatever. The rest of us get humiliated. Now, how does that look to Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri? They’re in their caves laughing. Let’s take stock. In two years we are now manhandled at airports, health care has been stolen from us, our children’s futures are being destroyed with Third World-like policies, private property is taken either directly or through high taxes and overly broad regulations. This is the face of liberalism, or authoritarianism or statism, whatever works for you. All-powerful government: destabilizing society and families, spreading anxiety and misery and poverty. This is it. You’re looking at it.

Liberalism, the experiment, it’s un-American, period. None of this was going on two years ago. None of it. To the degree that it’s happening now. Liberalism is destructive. Our country’s being destroyed. Liberalism, as I have been pointing out routinely, destroys the individual. It robs people of their humanity. Liberalism destroys economic security. Liberalism destroys institutions. It replaces that which works with that which doesn’t, and its proponents are liars. Liberalism has to lie. Liberals have to lie in order to be elected to power. If Obama had ever campaigned on the notion that all of this was going to happen he wouldn’t have gotten more than 20% of the vote. Now, we’re supposed to sit back and accept all this because, well, the liberals have good intentions, the war on poverty and the civil rights legislation in the sixties and the Great Society, all these great intentions. Well, I don’t care if they have good or bad intentions. To me it’s beside the point. They are destructive.

We’re careful about how we fight wars against those who kill 3,000 of our fellow citizens and thousands of our soldiers, not wanting to offend or upset them. We proceed with caution. But American citizens are being manhandled at airports. Is this what 9/11 was all about? Is this what we learned from 9/11? That we are the enemy and somehow we have to be manhandled? And what does this show the people in the Middle East, what does it show? We are on the brink of surrender. That’s what they see. Islamic fundamentalists see that we are in the process of surrendering. We are weakening our own credibility. We’ve become a laughingstock. What’s happening in our health care system? They’ve taken our doctors, our health care policies from us. They take our money from us to pay off their political friends and allies, i.e., the stimulus, the slush fund. They steal our property from us in the name of the environment. They destroy enterprises of all sizes in the name of sticking it to the rich. And what do we have to show for it? Who, ladies and gentlemen, is benefiting from any of this? Who is benefiting from all of it? I ask a simple question. Who is benefiting? Politicians, except Rangel, and perhaps Maxine Waters down the road. The bureaucracy, special interest groups, unions, they are benefiting from all of this authoritarianism. The individual is not.

The people who make the country work are not benefiting from any of this. We are the ones losing everything we have, everything we’ve worked for. It is being taken from us under the guise that we don’t deserve it, that we’ve somehow stolen it or come by it by way of ill-gotten means. You want to see authoritarianism, go to the airport today. You want to see authoritarianism, go try and get a home loan today. You want to see authoritarianism, try get a basic health care policy for your son or daughter at college. Look at this. This is from the New York Times: ‘New Rules Tell Insurers: Spend More On Care — The Obama administration issued new federal rules on Monday that will require many health insurance companies to spend more on medical care and allocate less to profits, executive compensation, marketing and overhead expenses.’ We knew this was coming. This was not a surprise. They telegraphed it. They said this was gonna happen.

Some Americans applauded because they hate the insurance companies just like they hate Big Oil, Big Retail, Big Pharmaceutical, big whatever, because the American left has done whatever it can to foment this hate. And Obama says this is justified because this will take billions of dollars out of the evil insurance companies’ pockets and put it into the people’s pockets. So now if somebody steps up and tries to stop this, then the regime will say that you are taking billions away from the people. This is a typical traditional ploy of tinhorn dictators everywhere throughout the world like Hugo Chavez. So the regime today simply issues an executive order and says you are going to spend less, you’re gonna take less profit, you’re gonna take less to spend on marketing and so forth and you are going to spend more on health care.

‘The rules, intended to benefit consumers, vastly expand federal authority to direct the use of premiums –‘ this is a jubilant report and the New York Times is ecstatic about this ‘– collected by companies like Aetna, Humana, UnitedHealth and WellPoint. While some states have had such requirements, Monday’s announcement is the first such mandate by the federal government and grows out of the new national health care law.’ Yeah, so we might be distracted by pat-downs, Dancing with the Stars, or what have you, but Mr. Obama and his minions never rest. They’re simply relentless in their efforts to take over every aspect of our economy and our lives.

”Millions of Americans will get better value for their health insurance premium dollar,’ Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said in issuing the rules. Ms. Sebelius said the rules would protect nearly 75 million people: 10.6 million with individual policies, 24.2 million with small-group coverage and 40 million covered by large employers.’ Of course, anybody who contributed to or worked for Mr. Obama or any other Democrats’ reelection are welcome to apply for a secret waiver. Don’t doubt for a moment that friends of Obama will be granted secret waivers if there are any in the insurance business. So, folks, we are witnessing right in front of our eyes at the airport every day, and if we care to look away while we’re being distracted, our health care is being taken from us. Our doctors are being taken from us. In two years, manhandled at airports, health care being stolen from us, children’s futures being destroyed with Third World-like policies, private property is taken either directly or through high taxes and overly broad regulations. This is the real face of the Democrat Party. This is the real face of authoritarianism. This is the real face of liberalism, and it is un-American.

Seniors on Medicare are being turned away by doctors, because Medicare funds have been siphoned off to cover more Medicaid patients, because Medicare patients are gonna die. Hello death panels, rationed. Medicaid, poor and young, they will vote a lot more often the rest of their lives than the elderly will. So seniors, seasoned citizens on Medicare are being turned away by doctors because Medicare funds have been siphoned off to cover more Medicaid for the poor. Now, these people, Medicaid recipients paid little or nothing into the medical system. Doctors are being ripped off for their services, are being told to take 20 cents on the dollar. Small insurance companies and hospitals and banks — there’s a story 5,000 banks are gonna shut down. The federal government is gonna shut down 5,000 banks. Bank deserts, just like we’ve got food deserts, we’ve gonna have bank deserts out there. They’re shutting down 5,000 small banks. All of these things are being consolidated under health care and financial reform. The insurance companies are going kaput, hospitals and banks are going out of business, hello financial regulatory reform and Obamacare.

All of this is killing competition; it’s killing choices and making it easier for the federal government to control these industries and impose its dictates. This is liberalism. Nothing more than big government statism. And despite all the caterwauling and despite all the PR and packaging, liberalism is not about people. It’s about government. At every turn the liberals’ agenda involves more government. They hate the private sector. They smear the private sector and people in it. They seek to control the private sector, and if they can’t control it, they’ll kill it off. Who regulates the regulators? Who gets to tell the people working for Obama that they’re overstepping their bounds? Who? Who legislates against the legislature? Nobody. Go to the airport. You are witnessing the destruction of your country and the rejection of individual liberty, and in the Middle East, Arab Muslim males are excited and laughing. Look at what they’re causing. Meanwhile, all of this has failed to capture even one terrorist. And look what’s happening to the American people. The Fort Hood bomber is treated with respect, might be a mental illness. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, put him on trial. Treat ’em like garden variety criminals after they have murdered thousands of people. The rest of us are humiliated every day in practically every walk of life.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I look at what’s happened to this country in two years, and a lot of it is stuff that I would have said to people, ‘Nah, it will never happen,’ this much loss of liberty, the crashing of the housing market, the indebtedness, loss of private property rights. We’re witnessing the destruction of our country. We’re witnessing the rejection, the assault on individual liberty, right in front of our eyes. Go to the airport, you see it. And even that’s all a trick. That’s designed to get us to agree to go to these scanners.

Meanwhile, the people perpetrating these crimes are ignored. We don’t want to hurt their feelings. The rest of us are humiliated. Those of us who love our country and haven’t done a damn thing to it, are humiliated. Our children, three years old, strip searched. Now, we want strong security, no question, very strong security, but this is not security at the airports. This is harassment, pure, simple harassment. This is the regime telling us our future. This is the regime telling us what it’s going to be like, and it’s interesting that it’s happened only in the last several months, isn’t it? Last several weeks, actually. The same regime that refuses to try a terrorist who murdered hundreds of people in a military tribunal goes to a civilian court and who averted a catastrophe by a single guilty verdict and was found not guilty on 247 charges? A government that refuses to try a suspect like that in a military tribunal cannot be said to be serious about security. Everything’s for show. The regime says, ‘Don’t worry about it, we’re never gonna let the guy go.’ Well, then why have the trial? If the guy had been exonerated, found not guilty of all charges, and we’re not gonna let him go, what does that say about the vaunted American judicial system to Middle Eastern Arab males? What does it say? Why do we care what they think about our judicial system anyway? When did this become a measure of American might, power, all this restraint.

Middle Eastern Arab males kill 3,000 Americans on one day, have killed numerous thousands of soldiers and Americans over decades, and innocent American citizens are humiliated at airport checkpoints. We treat mass murdering pieces of human debris with kid gloves. Law-abiding passengers are treated as legitimate, genuine murder suspects. You cannot tell me this regime is serious about security. That’s not what is going on at the airport. What’s going on at the airport is the humiliation of the American people, and it is sending a signal of a weakened America, no credibility in the Muslim world. We’re sending a message that we are a vulnerable country in the process of surrendering. That is how they’re going to see it. Whether we are in the process of surrendering or not, that’s how they will see this. Look at it through their eyes. They hijack three or four airplanes, they murder 3,000 Americans. Ten years later, nine years later, the American people are strip searched, groped, accused, harassed at our own airports, and they sit in their caves or wherever they are, these Middle Eastern Arab males, and they gotta be yukking it up and laughing and planning further attacks, further efforts that will handcuff American society even further.

Now, don’t misunderstand me; there ought to be screenings and scanners and even pat-downs. But not like this. Not when we know who the enemy is. We know their approximate ages. We know who they are. We know what they look like. We know what national origins most of them come from. We know these things. That’s why we have intelligence agencies. Those agencies profile those countries all the time. For some reason when it comes to air travel we are to suspend all logic and reality and pretend that everybody is the same regardless of these factors. And then we claim to be serious about security. So again, young male Muslim Arabs use box cutters on 9/11 so now everybody has to be checked for sharp objects. Young male Muslim Arabs have tried to get liquid explosives on airplanes, so now everybody has to be checked for liquids. You have to empty your shampoo, for crying out loud. You can only take three ounces of other liquids. Young male Muslim Arab puts explosives in his underwear. Now everybody has to be groped.

We’re missing the obvious things to check for. And I’ll tell you this. Obama and his family will never experience any of these hardships that he is imposing on the rest of us. Neither will Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid. They don’t fly commercial. They’re already very wealthy. Their children will be cared for. There is a complete disconnect. Haves and have-nots is no longer the rich and poor. Have and have-nots, those who are working for the government and run the government, and those who don’t.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: It has to be said, ladies and gentlemen, we are treating terrorists with kid gloves, and we are treating innocent American citizens with rubber gloves at the airport. Kid gloves versus rubber gloves.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Columbus, Ohio. This is Bob. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello, sir.

CALLER: Hello. Mega dittos and it’s a great honor and privilege to converse with you.

RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.

CALLER: I also wanted to let you know I’ll be thanking for Thanksgiving your existence and what you do for our country and —

RUSH: Well, thank you very, very much, sir, I appreciate that.

CALLER: What I am calling about regards the harassment and humiliation as a form of punishment to the American people. As you’ll recall, one of the few times that Obama is permitted to not use the teleprompter, he often slips up and reveals his true self.

RUSH: Yes.

CALLER: And he did make that point of we have to reward our friends and punish our enemies.

RUSH: Yes, I remember that.

CALLER: And he is suffering so mentally from the destruction that we just shoved in his face by using the —

RUSH: Well, I know. Look, I’ve said all along that the enemy to the American left is America. The enemy is American conservatives.

CALLER: And this is proof, what’s going on with the airline industry is harassment and punishment of the American people.

RUSH: So you think the harassment at the airports is payback for what happened at the ballot box?

CALLER: I believe Obama has a list of things that he’s ready to do, and he just checked this one off and said, ‘I’m gonna be out of the country, I’m not gonna be able to take any flak for it.’

RUSH: Stop and think of this. This guy does not sound like a Looney Toon. This guy does not sound like he escaped the straitjacket at Leavenworth. He calls here and he honestly thinks that this could be the president of the United States getting even with the American people over the election. He honestly thinks that. Whether it’s true or not, this is what he thinks. Rasmussen has done a poll. Rasmussen’s gonna ask the American people, ‘Do you think the government is operating outside the limits of the Constitution?’ Now, whatever the results of the poll, where do you get the question? Well, obviously from me, but I mean the point is at what other point in American history would a pollster even consider polling the question? The Washington Post yesterday polled a phone poll of Bristol Palin on Dancing with the Stars. They actually did. It’s either 31 or 39% of the American people think the government’s operating within the Constitution. The rest don’t. A majority do not. Let me see if I can find it here very quickly. Yeah, 39% of likely US voters believe the government currently operates within the limits of the Constitution. Forty-four percent disagree, say it’s not functioning within the limits and another 17% aren’t sure. So it’s not a majority. Well, it is a majority, but it’s 44%. Still, the question itself, and for the guy from Columbus, Ohio, the new TSA regulations kicked in on November 1st, which is the day before the election. But Obama knew he was gonna get clocked. They knew it. They had their polls out there.