RUSH: Let me talk about this business with Chick-Fil-A and Chicago and Boston. I personally am in stunned disbelief over the reaction to this on conservative blogs. What do we have? We have two mayors who are essentially Stalinist, who have had no problem whatsoever — not one problem at all — with going before the microphones and telling an American business, “You are not welcome here. And if you come here, you will be penalized or whatever the hell will happen.”
All because the guy who owns the outfit happens to be a publicly professed Christian who believes that “marriage” has a specific definition. Now, this is a classic example of a government destroying an institution that has promoted the kind of society we have had in the past and the kind of society we’ve always wanted. This is a direct assault. That’s a direct assault on Christianity. That is a direct assault on Christians. With economic punishment thrown in including threats from government officials that are in clear violation of the Constitution.
I read about it on conservative blogs, and I can’t believe what I’m reading! I’m reading intellectual treatises on, “Well, you know, they have the right to say these things, and the solution here is let Chick-Fil-A open a store in Chicago and let’s see if the people will visit it.” That’s not the reaction to have! The reaction to have is, “Who the hell do you think you are, Rahm Emanuel? Who the hell do you think you are? What country do you think you’re in?”
Now, we want to have an intellectual debate here over the First Amendment? “Well, the solution to this is to let Chick-Fil-A open a store”? Yeah, let Chick-Fil-A open a store with the mayor of Chicago threatening anybody who walks into one? Meanwhile, this company hires gays. They serve gays. They don’t discriminate! It’s just that the owner happens to be a publicly professed, witnessing Christian. My God, you would think that he’s the worst enemy Chicago ever had and the worst enemy Boston ever had!
Thirty years ago, if this woulda happened in this country, there would have been an uprising against Menino and Rahm Emanuel — or Daley, or whoever would have done it. Today we get intellectual debates on who’s got the right to do what and say what and say this and do that and do what where. The sense of proportion is all out of whack, and there’s no outrage. So, yeah, I fully understand losing institutions. We’re sitting by, and we are watching, every day, the institutions and traditions that have made this country great come under assault.
Day in and day out.
And I’ve been making that comment for 24 years. Too much of all of this has become nothing more than an opportunity for people to show how smart they are, how open-minded they are when they debate these things. Rather than having an actual, human, real-life reaction to this, which is, “This is outrageous!” The mayor of San Francisco. What is his name? I think his last name is Lee. The mayor of San Francisco got in on this, and he warned Chick-Fil-A, “You better not come here! You had better keep out!”
I am in stunned disbelief.
A restaurant chain that serves chicken sandwiches is a threat that cannot be abided. Meanwhile, I have a story in the Stack here today that on some of the Bay Area Rapid Transit escalators are human feces. People are defecating on the escalators, and the mayor of San Francisco wants everybody to know that he’s not gonna permit any damn Christians in town. Edwin Lee is the guy’s name. He wants every San Franciscan to understand that he’s not gonna put up with any of these Christians coming to town.
And, as long as he does that, people can defecate all over the BART escalators all they want, and it won’t matter ’cause the Christians are gonna be kept out of town. (interruption) No, no, I’m not saying it’s a Christian country, but we can’t deny the founding. Go back and look at anything George Washington ever said — first inaugural, last inaugural, Farewell Address, first Thanksgiving address. This whole country was put together with thanks every day to God, blessings every day to God.
One of the very foundations of this country’s founding is under daily assault by one of the two popular political parties in this country, the Democrat Party. I have a story here in the Stack: “Fewer People Can Identify Obama’s Religion Than Romney’s.” Fewer than 50% of the people in this country think Obama’s a Christian. That means something. (interruption) We wouldn’t have a president… (interruption) Why is it? Well, I don’t think… You go back and you listen to a speech.
Pick a speech at an appropriate period of time, from any president you want. (Except Woodrow Wilson. Throw him out.) Even FDR. You can’t escape presidents quoting the Bible, reading passages from it, thanking God. This guy doesn’t. He gives no indication he’s familiar with it. (interruption) No, I’m the saying he’s not a Christian. Please listen to what I’m saying.
Snerdley asked me, “Why don’t at least 50% think he’s a Christian?”
He doesn’t sound like one. That’s as far as it goes. I don’t know what they think he is. The story I have doesn’t talk about what they think he is, and that’s not the point of what I’m saying. I’m talking about the really cultural transformational changes that have occurred throughout the country just in the last 24 years that I’ve been doing this, but it’s been going on for much, much longer than that. (interruption) Oh, I’m told Woodrow Wilson quoted the Bible all the time. Well, that’s even better for the point. You can’t find it here. It’s not part of this president’s experience. I’m not saying it’s good or bad. It’s just an acknowledgement of what is.
But I have been fascinated — I don’t mean to be redundant here — I have been fascinated to watch the reaction to Rahm Emanuel and Thomas Menino threaten something that’s unconstitutional, threaten something that is illegal, and to just so blatantly do so. You would think that the vast majority of people in the country are gay, and you would think that gay marriage is the only marriage there is, and these guys at Chick-Fil-A represent 2% of the country and, as such, represent a threat. These Democrats have to do some of the most perverted things to appeal to their base that I have ever seen in politics.
They have to say, they have to do, they have to promise, they have to engage. Rahm Emanuel to the murdering gangsters in Chicago, “Leave kids alone. Take your murderous activity somewhere else.” Not, “Stop your murderous activity.” Just take it somewhere, leave our kids alone. What a caring guy. Oh, man, our mayor is really compassionate. He really loves the kids. So, yeah, the government, all out assault on the institutions that promote the kind of society that we have. And buying people off left and right. California is a microcosm. That’s Buchanan’s whole point. If you want to see America down the road, look at California, in terms of party politics.
Let me take a brief time-out here my friends. It’s Open Line Friday, and we’ll come back and throw you in the mix of all this. I’m still working on my iPad trying to get LTE, since they just turned it on so I’ll do that and be back and join you. Just a second.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You have to love, folks, the irony. Here is Rahm Emanuel saying that Chick-Fil-A doesn’t represent the values of Chicago. What are the values of Chicago? Chicago leads the country in political corruption. I don’t know if the murder rate in any other city is what it is in Chicago these days. What was the number I had, 234 people dead in Chicago this year, so far, year to date, when talking about what happened in Aurora, Colorado. But maybe Mayor Emanuel is right. After all, Calypso Louie Farrakhan and Reverend Wright are there. Reverend Jackson, Bill Ayers, Rod Blagojevich, Tony Rezko — yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s Chicago values. That’s Chicago values. Chick-Fil-A, no, we can’t have that, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Now, maybe if the CEO of Chick-Fil-A were a gangster, maybe we’d have a little bit more respect.