RUSH: RUSH: The one-hundredth year anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth is coming up. Yeah, it is. And the Drive-Bys and the Democrats, you’ll see it popping up, ‘Oh, what a wonderful time the eighties was. Tip O’Neill and Ronaldus Magnus, yeah, they mighta gone at it tooth and nail in the daytime, but then they went out and had a beer after work.’ That never happened. Reagan never left the White House for a beer. The 1980s were just as vitriolic as they are today. Reagan was called a Nazi, just like Bush was. Nothing’s different. Folks, if you weren’t alive then or if you weren’t old enough to be paying attention, do not doubt me. The hatred for Ronald Reagan was universal in the Democrat Party and throughout the media. These people blamed AIDS on Reagan. Sound familiar? They blamed homelessness on Reagan. You know why they blamed AIDS on Reagan? He didn’t care because he never delivered a speech about it. And because of that AIDS was spread.
They actually wanted us to believe that Reagan had the disease, was sneaking into gay people’s houses night, and impregnating them with the disease. And when he left their houses, he went over to Grant Park or wherever it was, Lafayette Park, and stole the pork and beans from the homeless and took them back to the White House and fixed ’em up and ate ’em. That’s the kind of stuff they were saying about Reagan. Now all of a sudden, in this era of civility, this call for civility, you’re gonna hear about how marvelous things were in the eighties, everybody hunkered down and got along. Why, the Democrats went along with Reagan’s tax cuts; it couldn’t have been more harmonious. It’s not true, and it’s part of a media onslaught, ladies and gentlemen. I’ve been thinking about this ever since I had a call last week from a woman who correctly defined what this call for civility is all about, it’s censorship. She’s right on the money. And what’s really going on now, the liberals are demanding that we abandon our principles and our arguments for our principles. We give up our principles and we stop arguing for them.
This isn’t about civility or any of the rest of it. They are saying that accusing the president of trampling on our liberties, accusing him of trying to transform this society to strengthen the government and weaken the individual, accusing him of destroying the financial health of the nation, that’s all hate language. No, it’s not. There’s nothing hateful about it, particularly since it has the added benefit of being true. And that’s why they’re trying to shut it up. Stuff that they don’t care about they ignore. Now they’re trying to characterize accurate depictions of Obama and his agenda and his intent as hate language. This is how they’ve now positioned things. Obama stands for civility. Obama stands for centrism and governing. We, on the other hand, are hateful, uncivil, and violent. That’s the template. That’s the narrative that’s been put out there, and, of course, the Drive-Bys are all too happy to carry that water. You’re gonna see comparisons, Obama to Reagan. They always find value in dead conservatives, never conservatives who are alive.
I’ll tell you something, this hacks me off like I can’t tell you. The Republicans going along with this joint seating plan the Democrats have put forward for the State of the Union address is so preposterous, even symbolically sitting next to each other at the State of the Union, that’s another rip-off. All that is is the Democrats trying to hide the size of the Republican majority in that chamber that night. It’s not anything else. Like I said yesterday, if the shoe were on the other foot, tables were turned, situation reversed and the Republicans were in a big minority and asked, ‘Hey, you know what? Let’s all sit together,’ the Democrats would say, ‘Sit together? You’re damn lucky we’re gonna let you in that night. To hell with you. Sitting with us, who do you think you are?’ But, you know, since we have the template here: civility, centrism, governing, we’re hateful, uncivil, violent, we have to agree with whatever people put forth as ideas in order to show that we’re not what they say we are. It doesn’t appear, at least on this particular issue, that the Republican stance has changed. We gotta show everybody we’re not who they say we are.
Tip O’Neill, by the way, back to this, called Ronald Reagan the most ignorant man who had ever occupied the White House. He said that Reagan was Herbert Hoover with a smile, a cheerleader for selfishness. He said that Reagan’s policies meant that his presidency was one big Christmas party for the rich. I’ll never forget, 1984, Democrat National Convention, San Francisco, I was there. I was sent there by a Kansas City radio station I worked for. They wanted me out of town. I was the hardest worker they had but they didn’t like the fact that I was controversial. So they sent me out to cover the convention and buried me out there. Well, they tried, anyway. (laughing) The show started at four o’clock in the morning our time. They booked us in a gay hotel. We didn’t know it ’til we got there. Everything was cool, but there were about five of us and there was Tip O’Neill sitting in the mezzanine of wherever this thing was, Moscone Center, I forget where the convention was. I didn’t actually go to the convention itself. I watched that on TV, but I did ancillary stuff, like took the trip over to Sausalito, checked out the restaurants there and did lifestyle reports. You know, yuk-yuk.
At any rate, I’m sitting there and I’m watching Tip O’Neill, looks like Jabba the Hut sitting up there in the club seats, if you will, in the mezzanine overlooking the thing. He was in charge of the whole Democrat Party at the time. This was the convention they nominated Mondull. And this is the first convention where the nominee actually violated what was then standard operating procedure. The nominee’s nominated on Wednesday night and then doesn’t show up until the next night to accept, but Mondull and the family were in their hotel suite, they had the cameras in there and Mondull loved hamburgers and cheeseburgers, that’s what the family was eating when he was nominated, he grabbed everybody, okay, let’s go over to the hall, grabbed the family, got in the limo, shut down traffic. Mondull went over there, just to accept the accolades and so forth. I remember Tip O’Neill sitting up there like Jabba the Hut and they finally dragged him to the microphone, he started talking about the Republicans, ‘When they meet in Dallas in a couple weeks, you’re gonna see ’em showing up in limousines and mink coats and furs and diamonds and so forth,’ the typical cliches. You shoulda seen the receptions the Democrats held that I went to and the limos they were showing up in and all the money surrounding them.
It’s always been a joke that the Democrats are the party of the little guy, and even more so now. It’s the little guy getting the shaft by Democrats, and it has been for quite a while.
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RUSH: You know, as I say, Reagan’s one-hundredth anniversary of his birth is coming up, and his beloved, devoted son, Ron Reagan Jr., to hawk his latest book, is hitting the morning talk shows. And you know what everybody’s focusing on in the book is that Ron Reagan Jr. is claiming his father had Alzheimer’s while he was in office. This is his son on the one-hundredth anniversary of his dad’s birthday, hawking a book. This must be the new civility that everybody’s talking about.
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RUSH: This is Mary in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Nice to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. You’re on fire today.
RUSH: Thank you very much. Every day.
CALLER: Yes, every day.
RUSH: Today is just how high are the flames?
CALLER: (laughing) Say, the reason I’m calling is because of this book that has come out by Ronald Reagan’s son where he states that he believes his father could have had Alzheimer’s disease while he was in office. And my thought on that is, if he was as great as president as he was with Alzheimer’s, my gosh, what would he be like without it?
RUSH: Well, it just goes to show that Reagan could also do his job with half his brain tied behind his back just like I do.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: I mean his dad’s one-hundredth birthday and his son hawking this book with this story, it’s made to order. The left has believed this. They wanted to believe Reagan was stupid from the day he was born. So Ron Reagan, still feeding the left what they want to hear for whatever acceptance issues he’s got. I don’t know. Look, every family has wacko kids, and every family has kids who think they’ve got wacko parents, and some see the need to get even for the rest of their lives. I can’t relate to it, but I guess it does exist. I just think it’s very small.
CALLER: I think it’s small and I think it’s pretty sad, and it just shows you that civility comes in all different shapes and sizes.
RUSH: Yeah, that’s a point I made when I mentioned this in the last hour. This is real civil, isn’t it? Yeah, my dad had Alzheimer’s when he was president. Very civil. Thanks, Mary. I appreciate that.