RUSH: Let’s go to audio sound bite number 28. This December 6, 2009, the Biography Channel’s Shatner’s Raw Nerve. William Shatner interviewed me and during a discussion about health care reform, we had this little exchange.

SHATNER: Here’s my premise, and you agree with it or not, that if you have money you’re gonna get health care; if you don’t have money, it’s more difficult.

RUSH ARCHIVE: If you have money you’re gonna get a house on the beach. If you don’t have money you’re gonna live in a bungalow somewhere.

SHATNER: Right. But we’re talking about health care.

RUSH ARCHIVE: What’s the difference?

SHATNER: The difference is we’re talking about health care —

RUSH: No.

SHATNER: — not a house and a bungalow.

RUSH ARCHIVE: No. You’re assuming that there’s some morally superior aspect to health care than there is to a house —

SHATNER: No, I’m not moral at all. I want to keep the subject, for the moment, on the health care thing.

RUSH ARCHIVE: All right.

SHATNER: All right. So now it’s the health care —

RUSH ARCHIVE: I’m talking about health care.

SHATNER: Okay. So talking about health care. So isn’t the premise, isn’t this valid, that the health care system today is breaking the country?

RUSH ARCHIVE: No.

SHATNER: It’s not?

RUSH ARCHIVE: I don’t believe it is. And if it is —

SHATNER: But we’re told that it is.

RUSH ARCHIVE: Of course we’re told that because that’s the way to get us to act like sheep and go along with —

SHATNER: Well, but how do you know that? You know, the sum total of what I want to ask you politically is, how do you know?

RUSH ARCHIVE: It’s my job; it’s my life; it’s my career; it’s my passion. I’ve studied this stuff. I want the best country we can have, and this is not the way to get it. We’re going backwards.

RUSH: I want to go forwards. How do you know? That’s the sum total, that’s all I really wanted to ask you here this whole show, that’s all I really wanted to ask you, how do you know? And the answer is, I know liberals. And I know that that sounds simplistic, and you might think I’m trying to be insulting or funny or what have you. No, I’m being as serious as I know how to be. I know liberals. For example, here is a Wall Street Journal piece, and I think it’s Peggy Noonan, I’m not sure, but it’s a piece on Rick Perry. It was the Beltway elite warning Rick Perry, he better tone it down. And I’m told — I had spies while I was gone — I’m told that a lot of people took advantage of my being away to counter what I would say were I here. So people who would normally hold back, fired both barrels.

And one of the things being said while I was gone was, “Mr. Perry, you better tone it down. You had better dial it back. You’re gonna really tick off the independents. You just can’t speak the way you’re speaking.” And yet he pulled away from the pack. Rick Perry stormed away from everybody in polling in the Republican Party. Why? Precisely because he’s engaging in straight talk, not inside the Beltway elitism, not defensiveness, not politically correct talk. And it was clearly refreshing to voters based on the polls that were taken last week that launched him. So the people who don’t want Perry to get the nomination on our side because there are people competing — I talked about this, it’s quite okay for different factions in the Republican Party to want to be the controlling power in the party. They want their nominee, and they want their guy to be elected president so they run the town, run the country. It’s what primaries are all about, perfectly fine.

But in this case with Perry pulling away, and people who don’t want Perry to pull away, “You better tone it down. You better dial it back.” They’re gonna tell him to stop doing
exactly what’s working ’cause they don’t want it to work. Now, here comes Jeb Bush. Now, this is when this job gets difficult because I like Jeb Bush and I’ve met him, the Bush family has been cooperative, nice, over the top with me. The Bush family has been very welcoming, so this is when the job gets tough. I totally disagree with what Jeb Bush said to Politico while I was gone.

“Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush warned the Republican presidential hopefuls against ideological intransigence and knee-jerk opposition to President Barack Obama on Tuesday, saying they risk turning off middle-of-the-road voters.” My friends, middle-of-the-road voters have abandoned Obama. This is the same trick that has been played against our people for years and it really frosts me. The idea that conservatives speaking openly and honestly about conservatism is somehow gonna cause independents to run away, and to where? A party populated by the meanest, most extreme bunch of people in American politics today.

We’re told the independents want bipartisanship. We’re told the independents want people to get along. And so here comes a conservative who’s not combative. He’s just being honest. Independents don’t like that, you’re gonna send ’em right back to the Democrats. There’s no meaner political group of people in America today than today’s Democrats. There’s no more combative group of people in American politics today than America’s Democrats. There’s no more extreme group of people in American politics today than the Democrat Party. Where is it written that these independents are gonna flock to that? They’re not flocking to that. They’re flocking away from it.

Jeb Bush said, “It’s fine to criticize [Obama], that’s politics. But just to stop there isn’t enough. You have to win with ideas, you have to win with policies.” If you’re conservative, you have to persuade. You can’t just be against the president. Conservatism is something. Conservatism is not opposition. Opposition is the result of being conservative. Conservatism is policies. Conservatism is smaller government. Conservatism is responsible spending. Conservatism is belief in the power of the individual. Conservatism is faith in people to be the best they can be. Conservatism is founded in love of all people and a desire for everybody to maximize the great gift they have: being born in America.

Conservatism is not opposition. Conservatism is not obstructionism. Conservatism is action. It’s positive. Conservatism is respect for tradition, the institutions and traditions that made this country great and keep it so. And why can’t we just be against the president? If there’s ever been somebody it’s worth being against, it’s this guy. That’s what this is all about. I am totally opposed to this guy. You can’t just be against the president? Yes, you can. Not only yes, you can, yes, you must. Anybody who cares about this country as founded must be against this president. What was the Democrat platform but being against President Bush during all those years? The Comparisons are eerie here. They said same thing about Reagan and that’s why people started saying, “Would you just get the consultants away from him and let Reagan be Reagan.” Do you remember that? Because the same type of people started trying to tone Reagan down. Other people said, “Let Reagan be Reagan.”

People vote on the basis of likability. This is what the news media fear about Perry and Palin, I’m telling you, they are likable. Nothing dislikable about Rick Perry, and there’s no reason for him to shut up. And there’s nothing dislikable about Sarah Palin, there’s no reason for her to shut up. There’s no reason for any of us to shut up about opposing this president. Duty, if you want to look at it this way, duty demands that we oppose this president. It is it is not ideological intransigence, it’s not knee-jerk opposition. It is the essence of substance. The reason people oppose this president is pure, 100% substance. They oppose this president precisely because of what he has done and what he wants to continue to do. It is not a sign of intransigence or obstinacy or whatever else here.

Conservatism is an idea and the policies flow from a conservative ideological foundation. Jeb Bush says if you’re a conservative, you have to persuade, you can’t just be against the president. Yes, you can. You must be. We have to be against this president. We have to be, because being against this president is being against massive spending. Being against this president is not being against a black guy. Being against this president is not being against a person. It’s being against destructive policies that are destroying people’s children and grandchildren’s future and their opportunities. That’s what being against this president is. And, by the way, that view has majority support including among the nation’s independents.