RUSH: CPAC is underway. As I said earlier, I don’t even know why they do CPAC anymore. After my speech, what is there left to be said? But I guess it is a social weekend for the youngsters. They come and hobnob and play around. You know, there are people out there, folks, when I say things like that (snarky imitation), “See, he really means it. He really thinks he’s so big and so important and so smart, that CPAC really shouldn’t even have a convention anymore because he’s made the one speech that nobody ever can top.”
By the way, Allen West was electrifying when he opened the thing this morning. Now, we have West sound bites. We’ve got Rubio, too. Here’s Rubio. We got two sound bites of Rubio standing up for life and traditional marriage and American exceptionalism. Here are the first of the two.
RUBIO: In order to work together with people that you disagree with, there has to be mutual respect. That means I respect people that disagree with me on certain things, but they have to respect me, too. Just because I believe that states should have the right to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot. Just because we believe that life, all life, all human life is worthy of protection at every stage in its development does not make you a chauvinist. In fact, the people who are actually closed-minded in American politics are the people that love to preach about the certainty of science in regards to our climate, but ignore the absolute fact that science has proven that life begins at contraception. (cheers and applause)
RUSH: Now, how many of you Republicans out there think we gotta get rid of the social issues if we’re gonna win? Did you hear the applause there? Here’s more from Rubio, American exceptionalism.
RUBIO: That’s what’s at stake in America’s greatness. This is not just about national pride. The truth of the matter is don’t take this for granted. What we have here is different and special and historic. In the vast history of the world and of mankind, almost everyone that’s ever been born is poor and disadvantaged with no ability to get ahead. What’s made us different is that here people have had the real chance to get a better life no matter where they started out. And do not underestimate what that has meant for the world. Now, as soon as I’m done speaking I’ll tell you what the criticism on the left is gonna be. Number one, he drank too much water. Number two, that he didn’t offer any new ideas. And there’s the fallacy of it. We don’t need a new idea. There is an idea. The idea is called America. And it still works.
RUSH: Right on. Right on, American exceptionalism. I was talking to a couple of young people about this recently, and they were uncomfortable with the term. You know why? ‘Cause they think that people who use the term think that they’re bragging, that America’s better than anyplace else and that Americans are better than anybody else. And I said, “That’s not what it means.” Even though it’s true. Our way of life, we offer more opportunity for people than any country ever has, but that’s not what it is.
“It isn’t?”
No.
“What is it?” they ask.
It’s very simple. The history of the world — Rubio touched on it — everybody in the world is born into total dependence. Almost everybody that’s ever been born has been born poor and disadvantaged, and most every human being that’s ever walked this planet has lived in bondage, in tyranny, under dictatorship. You can look it up. That’s the history of the world, until the United States came along. Now, there were free societies, but none structured like the United States of America, with our Constitution and our recognition in our founding documents of where our natural, God-given liberty emanates.
There had never been a country ever founded on the basis that the individual and his or her freedom is supreme and paramount. It had always been the state that is. Everybody had always been a subject. We were the exception to the rule of tyranny and bondage. American exceptionalism is not a bunch of braggarts saying that we’re better, that our country better, that we’re smarter, that you’re worse than we are, that you’re inferior to us. And it’s not hard. What’s the root word of American exceptionalism? “Except.”
It isn’t hard to explain, but so many people get the wrong idea of it. And it’s amazing how many young people don’t want to think that they live in a country that’s great and greater than any other. For whatever reason. It’s not fair. And this is the product of their education. That there isn’t anything special about America, and there is. And the thing that’s special is not our DNA, it’s not the fact that we are Americans per se. It’s that this place is the exception to the rule of human life before it.
Mike, grab Allen West. Let’s stick with CPAC here for sound bites eight, nine, and ten. Allen West opened it up. He kicked off CPAC today by doing what he does best. He went right after the left, just firing both barrels. We have three sound bites from Allen West. Here’s the first one…
WEST: Folks, I’m speaking from experience when I tell you that there’s nothing on this green earth that a liberal/progressive fears more than a black American who wants a better life and a smaller government.
AUDIENCE: (applause)
WEST: I’m tired of liberals dividing this country up into little groups, setting them upon each other, breeding spite and envy — and then having the nerve to accuse conservatives of hatred.
RUSH: Right. Next, he tackles the whole notion of liberals, conservatives, and fairness.
WEST: In the real world, I see conservatives giving to more charity than liberals, even though their paychecks may be smaller. In the real world, I see conservatives volunteering at adoption agencies, at churches, at bake sales, and the local American Legion post — while the only charity a progressive sends is a smug sermon on fair share and what fairness is.
RUSH: And finally, Allen West from south Florida — a decorated Army veteran and a former member of Congress — tells the crowd that we are going to thrive and survive and prosper beyond Obama.
WEST: When British tyranny besieged our colonies, we survived. When flames danced from the White House windows in 1812, we endured. When the union split itself into two, almost perishing from this earth, we rebuilt. When the soup lines of the Depression stretched down shuttered city blocks, we recovered. When an unstoppable Nazi regime and war machine threatened to extinguish the light of free nations, we triumphed. And, ladies and gentlemen, when Barack Obama packs his bags and beats a hasty retreat back to Chicago, we will persevere!
RUSH: Right on.
AUDIENCE: (applause and cheers)
RUSH: Except he’s going to Hawaii, and the Barack & Michelle Institute for Social Justice or whatever. Now, by the way, Rubio is a Hispanic minority. Allen West is African-American minority. You won’t find two greater men, finer people, good conservatives. These kinds of people get maligned, impugned, and have their characters questioned and destroyed by people that couldn’t hold candles to them. They’re out there taking the arrows. They deserve to be supported, rather than people being afraid of the trouble they might cause.