RUSH: The Washington Post now, folks, has a poll that shows overwhelming support for it. I’m gonna tell you, there are so many things going on with this, but the focus of attention on gay marriage in Washington is the Supreme Court case where they are hearing the constitutionality of, I think, Prop 8. Gay marriage was voted down in California, and the Supreme Court’s gonna decide whether that stands or not. A full-court press is underway aimed at the justices led by the immovable John Roberts (ahem) and others.
I got a question for the Republican Party rebranders, i.e., the establishment.
Now, stick with me on this. This is not too hard to follow. According to the people in the Republican establishment, Hispanics are Republicans-in-waiting, right? I’ve heard it said (I’m sure you have, too) that Hispanics are natural conservatives. It doesn’t matter what you believe. I’m telling you what the establishment Republicans say. They say that the Hispanic population is naturally conservative, that they’re Republicans-in-waiting, because of shared family values and virtues and religious morality and all that, right?
Well, then why push for gay marriage? I would think that that won’t help with Hispanics. If Hispanics are Republicans-in-waiting, I can show you New York Times polling data, Pew polling data. It’s not even close. Republicans, the vast majority oppose gay marriage. If Hispanics are Republicans-in-waiting, then why would you make a push for gay marriage and amnesty at the same time because theoretically you’d anger all those staunch conservative Hispanics?
Now, that isn’t who they are.
Seventy percent of Hispanics vote Democrat because they believe that government is the source of prosperity, and should be. They don’t think of them as welfare statists. They just think that government’s where prosperity comes from, and that’s the Democrat Party. They’re not conservatives. Not a majority of them. I just asked this as a rhetorical point. I’m just trying to illustrate that the rebranders are not even thinking about what they’re doing or being intellectually consistent.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ari Fleischer on CNN this morning talking about the Republican branding problem. I think this is instructive here. Ari Fleischer is a PR company. He basically tells people how to get their message out. Can I make a point about something, folks? I’ve been doing this 25 years. That’s the number one truth. Number two, it’s the most listened to radio talk show in probably 23 of those years. We haven’t done a dime’s worth of advertising. We haven’t ever done any focus-grouping to find out what I should say when. We haven’t polled anybody to find out what they want to hear. We haven’t done any market research.
We haven’t spent a dime on advertising. We haven’t had meetings where somebody said, “You know what? Why don’t you change the way you’re talking so that you’ll be more inviting for people to listen?” It’s never happened. In other words, this show has never done one thing that the Republicans think they have to do. Now, admittedly, we’re not getting votes here, and I can prosper mightily being hated. Political candidates can’t. But see, I’m really not hated by the people who listen, which is the point. The people who know me, you, do not hate this program, and you don’t even find it controversial. You agree with it. So this program is only thought to be hated by people that don’t listen to it, and why do they think that? Because that’s what other people are saying about it. But it really isn’t.
A program that is hateful would not be number one ever, and it wouldn’t stay number one. A radio show that was, as this one is characterized, wouldn’t exist for very long, and it certainly wouldn’t triumph. And I think this does have application to the Republican Party, or any political party, or movement, to the people who listen. There isn’t any hate. All there is is a good show, a lot of fun, and actually a lot of love for country on this program. But there isn’t any hate of any kind. But people that don’t listen to it think there is.
Listen to Ari Fleischer here. He’s on CNN. He got a question from Soledad, “don’t call me a prison,” O’Brien. “When you look at what the GOP lost by category – Asians, Latinos, African Americans – you definitely have this issue of diversity which is only going to be more of a problem as the nation becomes more and more diverse. How do you manage that?”
FLEISCHER: For the Republican Party what it means is that Republicans need to adhere to a conservative message, a conservative core, but do so in a way that invites other people to join in. We cannot do it in a way that pushes people out or says they’re not welcome. And that’s been a real Republican problem. We give people the impression that they’re not wanted.
RUSH: No, we don’t. My point is we don’t do that. And it’s gonna be a big mistake if the Republican Party thinks that they’re doing that. Who is doing that? The Obama advertising campaign. The media and the Democrats are doing that. The Republicans are not. Mitt Romney was not exclusive to people. Mitt Romney may be one of the most decent, nice guys ever to run for the office. But people that didn’t bother listening to Romney who only paid attention to Obama’s ads about him, they thought certain things about Romney, but they’re not true. And folks, I really mean this. I think these people are close to really screwing up here. Ari says, “You know, we need to adhere to our conservative message or conservative core.” That’s true. And they’re not. They’re afraid of it, the establishment Republicans are.
Look, I saw our convention. Our convention, there was nothing exclusive. Our convention wasn’t filled with hate or mean-spiritedness or exclusiveness. That convention was the American dream. That convention was story after story after story of the American dream being realized by people of so-called diversity. If anything scared people about our convention it was the notion of hard work in the era of food stamps and unemployment compensation. “See, that’s what we mean, Mr. Limbaugh, that’s the kind of exclusionary campaign. You’re making fun –” No, I’m not. I’m just telling you the way it really is. But I think this is a key point.
The Republicans are not mean people. They may not be the brightest in the world in terms of how to — they’re just lacking confidence. They’re feeling very defensive and they believe this notion that somehow they are keeping people. It’s not them. So when Ari says we’re gonna have to explain ourselves in a way that doesn’t push people out, that says to people they’re not welcome. We don’t do that. But if these people end up thinking that the way they are and the way they’re talking — i.e., conservatism — is pushing people out, then they’re gonna really screw up, and they’re gonna start trying to sound like moderate Democrats, liberals, or whatever and really mess it up. I think this is a key, key point.
The conventional wisdom in Washington: Republicans lost because they scare people, which is nothing more than accepting the premise of the left that the Republicans oppress people and deny them fun and freedom and the Democrat Party is there to save you and liberate you from tyranny of the mean old Republicans. The point is the Republican battle has got to be to reshape what is thought about them, not who they are and what they’re saying. It’s no more complicated than that. They better not say they have to change themselves. I’m talking about core principles here. You’ve gotta change the perception of you. For example, when Obama’s running ads claiming that you don’t like your dog, you put your dog on the roof. Run counter ads.
There’s a great object lesson going on out there. I know you people don’t like it when I bring this up, but there is a fascinating similar thing taking place in the world of high-tech. Right now, Apple, Incorporated, is literally despised. And people are telling lies about Apple and iPhone sales and iPad sales. They are telling lies about the quality of Apple’s products. And Apple doesn’t know what to do. They’ve never had to do anything. Their brand was automatically gold from the get-go. But now it seems like Samsung, because people have been hoping and praying that somebody would knock Apple off ’cause they didn’t like Jobs. They thought Jobs was arrogant and condescending, and people don’t like people at the top anyway, it’s human nature.
If I had time I would show you the similarities. I read these tech blogs and it is amazing what is being written about and said about Apple right now. You would think that this company has concentration camps. You would think that this company has just shot its wad. It’s got nothing left to offer. It’s been totally out-classed, out-sold, out-designed, out-innovated. Their days are over and they never deserved the number one days in the first place. It’s happening in the tech media. Samsung is running ten times the advertising that Apple is running. Samsung’s advertising is making fun of Apple customers, about how they wait in line. They’re making fun of everything to do with Apple.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Rick in Rio Dell, California. Great to have you on the program. Hi.
CALLER: Thank you. I wanted to say that if the Republican Party supports amnesty and open borders or whatever, I will leave the party. I’m unemployed, and it will make it very hard to get a job if amnesty is granted. I know my vote doesn’t count much many California, because there are so many Democrats here, but I will leave the party. I’ll join, like, some third party or something.
RUSH: Well, the Republican Party in California is pretty much irrelevant now, right?
CALLER: Yeah. Yeah.
RUSH: And you know that’s what’ll happen Republican Party nationwide, right?
CALLER: Yes. Yes.
RUSH: It really won’t matter if you leave it. They’re gonna be outnumbered. If they grant amnesty to 12 million illegals, the math, by polling data alone, nine million of the 12 million will vote Democrat.
CALLER: Uh-huh, and then people will leave the Republican Party, too, like me.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: They’ll lose, too, obviously. The party will lose people.
RUSH: See this is another point. This is exactly the kind of thing that I was talking about. You got these Republicans who think they have to reach out. Let me ask: Did Obama reach out? What is class envy? Obama is one of the most divisive figures. Obama picks groups. See, the Democrats get away with virtually everything they criticize the Republican Party for being. They get away with it. The Republicans, if they’re not careful here, they’re gonna make the mistake of assuming that the reason they are losing these so-called minority votes is because of them. You know, I’m not picking on Ari Fleischer; he just happened to say this. I like Ari Fleischer, don’t misunderstand.
But when he says, “We gotta be conservative but not in a way that pushes people out,” who is? Who’s pushing people out? And don’t say me. Give me candidates. What Republicans are pushing people out? What, are you talking about Todd Akin? The Akin and Murdoch thing? Well, there’s no question that did push people away. Well, okay. Then I’ll tell you what we do. Set up an academy. You know what we do? I’ll run the thing. We set up an academy where newly elected or even nominated or candidates, young conservatives, show up and are taught how to avoid trap questions from the local media trying to screw ’em.
A two-week academy, the Limbaugh Institute.
When they ask you about abortion, move on. Don’t talk about rape! Just move on.
Anyway. Sorry. That’s just me.
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