RUSH: Carlos in San Francisco, sanctuary city, great to have you on the EIB Network, Carlos. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Mr. Limbaugh. Thank you for taking my call. It’s an honor to speak with you.
RUSH: You bet. You bet. Great to have you here.
CALLER: I am an illegal immigrant, and I’m not offended if you call me an illegal immigrant. You know, remember that story about not calling “illegal” illegal?
RUSH: Wait. Wait just a second, Carlos. I want to make sure I get the you. You are calling here and acknowledging that you are an illegal immigrant and you don’t have any problem with that term?
CALLER: I do not.
RUSH: Well, you’re in a sanctuary city anyway.
CALLER: Oh, it doesn’t scare me. It’s just a fact.
RUSH: Okay. All right.
CALLER: I was listening to this Fast and Furious report on Telemundo. I do not watch Spanish television because they are so liberal, so biased, and I didn’t watch the interview that Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas did with Obama.
RUSH: Well, I know that they normally are liberal, but on this… You know, I’ve got a montage of the questions they asked Obama. There was nothing liberal about it. They were going for his throat on this.
CALLER: I was really shocked. I was really shocked. I was really surprised that Jorge Ramos through those screwballs at Obama. And he was really thrown off.
RUSH: I think he was, too. I think Obama walked in there thinking that he was, you know, in a friendly neighborhood, and he didn’t really know what to do. He was kinda shocked. He’s got the kind of personality anyway that says, “How dare you ask me something like that?” meaning a hard-hitting question. The look in his eye was indicative. He was not expecting the line of questioning that he got.
CALLER: Exactly. So we… I don’t know. I speak for myself. I am not in the tank for Obama. Ever since he ran the first time, I knew he was an empty suit. He didn’t have the record to run. He didn’t have anything — anything — to qualify him as the commander-in-chief. This liberal journalist, the liberal media thinks we are so stupid that we are gonna go like drones toward the Democratic Party.
RUSH: I’m sitting here and I’m not believing this. We have an illegal immigrant on the phone — an admitted illegal immigrant — making more sense than the Democrats in this country who are legal! Carlos, how long have you been here?
CALLER: I’ve been here for 23 years, Rush. I started listening to you about 20 years ago, and lately I’ve been listening to Mark Levin and Sean Hannity, and it’s just…
RUSH: (chuckling)
RUSH: I don’t know… I don’t know what those liberals think.
RUSH: Now, Carlos, you I have to tell you that kind of surprised me, because we’ve been told that illegal immigrants hate conservatives; that they’re all liberals who come here for the safety net. And you don’t sound like that at all.
CALLER: No, no, no! No, no! The traditional Latino-Hispanic family is very family oriented. It has a lot of conservative values. We come here for an economic opportunity. We come here for jobs.
RUSH: Well, why haven’t you sought citizenship in all these years?
CALLER: I haven’t been able to. The immigration laws are so confusing and so complicated that, as of today, I haven’t been able to become a legal resident. I’ve been tempted to leave the country but I have a daughter here and she was born here and I cannot leave her with her mom.
RUSH: A-ha!
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: A-ha. That… That…
CALLER: But, see, we come here, as I said, for an economic opportunity, for jobs, for a better life. And I do not know what happened to this beautiful country in the last four years. It’s just so disappointing seeing this great nation going south.
RUSH: You know, I’m sitting here, folks, and I’m a little stunned. We need conservative immigrants to do the thinking that native Americans used to and don’t anymore! You sound like you think more about things than half the Americans in this country do.
CALLER: (laughing) Yeah, and that’s… (cell garbled)
RUSH: You’re doing a lot of thinking that Americans won’t do anymore.
CALLER: That 40% or 43% that are still favoring and approving of Obama? Which world they living in? I’m totally shocked. (cell garbled) Because in reality, the economy is in shambles. Our foreign policy is in disarray.
RUSH: Honestly, Carlos, your cell phone is beginning break up.
CALLER: (cell garbled)
RUSH: I don’t know if you’re on… Carlos, are you on an Obama phone, by any chance?
CALLER: No, no, no. I am not. (laughing) I pay every month for my phone.
RUSH: Well, you’re breaking up and it’s getting harder and harder to hear you. I’m sitting here stunned, folks. We have an illegal immigrant, an admitted illegal immigrant who’s obviously doing a lot of thinking that Americans used to but don’t do anymore (thanks to me) for the last 20 years! Well, we need all the conservatives we can get, and he’s in a sanctuary city. I know a number of you are thinking I ought to call the authorities, but, folks, I’m gonna look the other way here.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I got a couple of e-mails during the break about Carlos. Let me tell you something, folks. For those of you couldn’t hear Carlos or understand him, he was basically articulating conservatism. He was talking about the inept US economy. He was ragging on Obama and his policies for it — jobs, the problem there. He’s been here 20 years. He was sounding like you and me. Now, for the past I-don’t-know-how-many years, every election cycle we’re treated to Republicans wringing their hands over the Hispanic vote and coming up with cockamamie policies designed to secure the Hispanic vote.
And what has been the go-to position for most of the Republican establishment?
Amnesty!
They think, in order to get the Hispanic vote, that we have to liberalize immigration policy, open the borders and say, “Come on in,” and find a way to make them citizens even if it’s amnesty. This is what the Republican establishment thinks. And throughout this period, I and others have gotten blue in the face, saying, “No! If you want the Hispanic vote, just go tell them about conservatism. Just go tell them about the American founding. Tell them what this country stands for.”
This guy Carlos was talking about opportunity. Do you know that illegal immigration is down? The latest numbers I have, it’s almost a wash: 1.4 million a year arriving and 1.3 million leaving. So it’s practically a wash. Why would illegal immigration over the past 3-1/2 years be down? We’ve got, ostensibly, a sympathetic president. A big socialist liberal who’s promising food stamps galore. Who’s promising cell phones. Who’s promising giveaway here, giveaway there.
For people who think that the large number of illegals are flocking here to take up residence in our safety net or hammock, could it be that illegal immigration is down because there aren’t any jobs to be had here? You think it might be a possibility, something we should have to consider? But in an electoral sense, if you’re the Republican establishment, why be Democrat light?
If the Democrat position is amnesty and a safety net and a hammock and benefits here and benefits there, why approach the same voters with half of that? It’s really frustrated me, this defensive position the Republican establishment’s always had about this issue. They operate from a base of fear, that if you are opposed to amnesty, “Oh, no, we can’t win!” Folks, I’m not gonna mention any names. It doesn’t matter.
In the last two or four years, I have had elected Republicans say to me, “Look, here’s our next immigration plan. If you call it amnesty, it doesn’t have a chance.”
I said, “But this is what it is.”
“No, it’s not really when you look at it.”
And they try to persuade me that it isn’t. But what it all adds up to is that they don’t want the party to be seen the way it’s described by the Democrats. So they’re always on the defensive trying to prove to people that they are not mean, or that they’re not racist, or they’re not this and that. And that never works. Here you have Carlos. I’ll tell you what: I would trade every conservative illegal for every liberal. We’ll send the liberals to Mexico; we’ll bring the conservative illegals here.
I’ll make that trade any day. But I think the way to approach anybody is as human beings. I’ve always believed that. In my CPAC speech, I said it: Don’t even treat people as members of groups. Treat ’em as human beings. Conservatism is about humanity. Conservatism is about elevating standards of life for everybody, about expanding opportunity. Conservatism is the essence of compassion. Conservatism does not look at people and see incompetence.
We don’t look at people and see inability and stupidity. We don’t look at people with contempt. The Democrats do. Why should we get into that game? From McCain to, you know, you can fill in the names, fill in the blanks. The Republican policy on the Hispanic vote has always been Democrat light. Some form of relaxation of our immigration laws. Then Hispanics are supposed to conclude, “Oh, these Republicans are not so bad after all.” When how do we know that that’s actually what they all want?
What kind of arrogance is it for us to assume that every illegal is coming here for a handout? Now, some do, obviously. In every universe of human beings, you’re gonna have every group represented. But to assume that the vast majority are that way? I’ve always thought it was a mistake. See, I believe in conservatism. I think that it’s persuasive. If it’s properly articulated, with passion and good cheer; if it’s understood, if it’s in your heart and you don’t need a teleprompter to explain it.
This is what Reagan had. Mark “Maxi” Shields was making jokes about how (summarized): “Well, Reagan didn’t have the media; look what he did.” Yeah, because Reagan had the ability. He was a conservative. He didn’t have to get notes made up for him by a staff. He didn’t have to have people advise him what to say every time he went out and made a speech about it. It was in his heart, and your heart never lies to you. So he was able to persuade people, despite the way he was being caricatured.
Reagan did not get where he ended up with any assistance from the media. The media did not make Reagan. Too many Republicans want to rely on — and too many conservatives, frankly, want to rely on — the media being favorable to us and helping us. It’s never going to happen! It’s always gonna be an obstacle that we have to overcome, but it can be done. Person to person, heart to heart, conservatism works. Carlos was just a small anecdotal — admittedly anecdotal, but still — bit of evidence for this.
I have no doubt about it.
It’s one of the most frustrating things. If Romney, for example, would just go full-bore conservative — ignore Obama and just go conservative in these debates — he could wrap it up. I’m talking about philosophically, ideologically conservative as it relates to people and what it means to people. Now, admittedly, conservatism has something that scares a lot of people. It does put you in charge of your life. But that’s the beauty of it! And then it seeks to inspire people. It seeks to motivate people.
Conservatism is founded in many things, but among those many things is the belief that everybody is capable of more than they think they are. Everybody’s better at something or as a human being than they think they are. But there’s so little inspiration to be found from leadership in this country today. There aren’t very many real, inspirational leaders. What we have are leaders who are in contests to see who can be seen as the most giving, or understanding, or feeling; the most understanding of whatever plight this group of victims is in.
Conservatism doesn’t like people being victims, and we don’t want to service people as victims. We want to remove them from victim status, have ’em stop thinking of themselves that way. Because we want a great country, and a great country is comprised of individuals, self-interested individuals seeking excellence to be the best that they can based on their desire — knowing that everybody is different so outcomes will never, ever be the same because it’s impossible for that to be.
See, to me it’s a simple message, but it’s in my heart.
I don’t have to be advised or reminded or told about it.