RUSH: Ashley in Marshall, Minnesota. I’m glad you waited. Great to have you on the program. Hi.
CALLER: Hi. Thank you for having me. I’m a newly Republican voter, and I seem to be surrounded by a lot of Democrats, including my parents and my fiance.
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: And I have tried to tell them, you know, the different things that I hear on your show, and they just seem to be stuck in their ways. And I’m just wondering if there’s something that you can tell me that I can say to them.
RUSH: Well, there might not be a magic bullet. You’re talking about family. That’s very tough, because it can disintegrate real fast into very hurtful arguments. You know, politics, religion, this kind of thing.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: Your fiance and your parents are both committed to Obama. When you talk to ’em, do you think they know why they’re voting for Obama, or are they just doing it out of party loyalty? Or are they doing it because, for example, they think Obama cares about people and Romney doesn’t? What’s the reason that they like Obama?
CALLER: I don’t know. They don’t really say.
RUSH: See, that’s often the case. I think they don’t even know. See, here’s what you could try. I’m not… You know, I don’t really like busting up families, and this can do it if you’re not careful. But I wouldn’t tell them what you hear anybody else say, because that’s just an opening for them to say, “Well, they’re a liar,” or, “They don’t know anything,” or they can say, “Why don’t you tell me what you think?” I think you need to do it from the standpoint of offense.
An example would be to say, “Look, if you like 47 million Americans on food stamps and climbing, and if you want to pay higher taxes, and if you want health premiums going up — if you want the ‘new norm’ being 25 million people out of work — go ahead. Make my day. Go ahead and vote for Obama. If you like the country as it is and the path that it’s on, by all means, go ahead and vote for him.” Then you say, “I just don’t like the direction we’re headed. I can’t support this. I don’t like it. This is not the kind of country I want to live in.”
CALLER: Is there something I can say…? Because they’re farmers, so they work for themselves.
RUSH: They’re farmers?
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: That means that they probably think that… Do they get subsidies from the government? Are they paid, for example, not to grow certain things? Do they get assistance from the government somehow?
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: They do? Okay, then they think that’ll end if a Republican is elected. You should ask them: “Do you think the country deserves four more years of this? What has the country done to deserve it?” You can tell ’em: “You can look at energy prices. Look at the gas price, diesel price. The costs are skyrocketing.” Ask ’em, “Is that your future, endless increases in fuel prices and the cost of doing business and so forth?”
And if they hit you with the notion, “Well, Republicans don’t care. They’ll take away what we’ve got,” ask ’em to explain to you where that’s written and where they saw that. But I’d just put it in the context of the country, as opposed to them individually. See, most people vote self-interest, and if they think the Democrats are giving them things, you’re gonna have a tough time talking them out of it.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: What have you tried that hasn’t worked?
CALLER: You know, just giving ’em facts about things.
RUSH: Nah. Nah-nah. They’re not dealing with facts. They’re dealing with emotion. You’re gonna have to find a way to make ’em think their feelings are wrong, that they’re investing their feelings in the incorrect way. I’d guilt-trip ’em, Ashley. I’d just make ’em feel guilty. “You guys want to participate in the downward spiral of the country? You want it to continue to get worse like this? Go ahead and vote for it. Fine,” and then walk out, and be happy about it. Be happy.
CALLER: (giggles)
RUSH: You are saving the country. They want to help destroy it? By all means! You know you can’t stop ’em. But don’t take it any further than that. (laughing) They might not let you back in the house. (laughing) Your fiance might take drastic action. You never know. Anyway, I appreciate the call. I really do, Ashley. I wish I had more time to discuss this in detail. Snerdley, get her phone number. Get her phone number. We’ll think about this ’cause I need to get more specifics from her on the real reason that her fiance supports Obama. They’re farmers, but I want to know what that specifically means.