RUSH: I want to start in Minnetonka, Minnesota, with Andrew. Hi, Andrew. I really appreciate your patience. Thank you very much for waiting. Hello.

CALLER: Thank you, sir. I don’t think the Republicans are suffering at all from PTSD. I think it’s a classic case of the Stockholm Syndrome. They’ve been held captive for such a long time by the media, scared to death of them, and along comes the rescuers in the form of the Tea Party, and instead of embracing their freedom, they turn on them in the hopes of currying favor with their captors.

RUSH: Hmm. Hmm! Well, even if I acknowledge — and that’s some good thinking out there, Andrew, I gotta tell you, but there’s still some PTSD involved there, there’s still some fear involved there. But you’ve got an interesting take on this. The Tea Party as the rescuers are rejected. Look, it is all over the place. There’s a story I have in the Stack here today. I don’t think I printed it. Some hack who used to work for McCain. There’s video of this guy talking to some Republicans and he’s ripping into the Tea Party, and he’s warning all these Republicans to stay away from them. They’re nothing but anti-government, anti- this, a bunch of Ross Perot types.

Now, that was interesting, because this guy probably represents the thinking of a lot of mainstream establishment Republicans. To them, the Tea Party is no different — they’re called “hordes” by this guy — the Tea Party is no different than the people who supported Perot, the anti-debt, anti-spending, small government, dedicated constitutionalists. The Perot people were looked at as a bunch of hayseeds. They were looked at as single-issue, tunnel-vision hicks to one degree or another. The Perot types were not necessarily the Christian right or pro-lifers.

Perot, back in 1992, was on an anti-Big Government, government involvement, government getting too big campaign, and he did attract millions of people, and the Republican Party establishment absolutely hated it, despised it, and they equate the Tea Party today with that, at least this guy. I’ll have to find that. It’s somewhere in the e-mail that I didn’t print out. But there’s an all-out assault of the Tea Party at the Republican establishment level. Boehner has engaged in it. And it’s a fascinating take that the Tea Party are riding to the rescue of these guys that have been kidnapped by the left. And the rescuers are sent away. Stockholm Syndrome. I like it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here it is. Here it is, folks. Somebody sent me a video of Rick Davis, and the note here: “If you want to get your blood boiling, watch the first five minutes of this with Rick Davis of the McCain campaign, describing the Tea Party movement as burn the government down Republicans, warmed over Ross Perot wing, close-the-market protectionists.” Rick Davis of the McCain campaign. And that’s an accurate depiction of what they think.

It’s the Republican Party base. These are people who’ve always been out there. I am stunned. I literally am stunned on one hand. On the other hand, I’m not; I understand it all. But people who’ve been voting Republican all their lives, just simply outraged at what Obama is doing, cannot believe it. They’re watching the Constitution be obliterated. They’re watching debt pile up. They’re watching their kids’ and grandkids’ future evaporate. They think that their party sees the same thing and is as appalled as they are. They get involved in things in politics besides voting, for the first time in their lives start going to town hall meetings, and in 2010 they deliver, in a midterm election, the biggest landslide defeat nationwide down the ballot the Democrat Party has had in our lifetimes, outside of maybe 1994, when they lost the House.

But this was akin to it, they lost 56 seats, and the Republicans gained the House. And after that, the Republicans made no effort to connect to that group of people, and in fact wanted distance from them. It’s been a frustrating and confusing thing ever since. The Republican Party has had I don’t know how many chances to connect at a gut level with majorities of Americans. Just take a look Obamacare. There has never been a majority in support of it. There has always been a majority opposition to Obamacare. The Democrats have been sweating this out, scared of it ever since 2010, and the Republicans have made not one effort to connect to that majority.

It’s not all just Tea Party types opposed to Obamacare. There’s a lot of moderates, independents, Democrats opposed to it, waiting to be led, waiting to be connected to by political party with leadership helping to stamp it out, roll it back, get rid of it, preserve the future. And nothing. Literally nothing. And it’s gotten worse now. Now, this Rick Davis is simply speaking for the entire GOP consultant class, folks. “You Tea Party people, you want to burn the government down. You want to burn the government, you protectionists!” That means you are for anti-amnesty and you don’t like spending and all. You’re the kooks and oddballs and you represent a bigger threat to the Republican Party, they think, than the Democrats do. It’s that convoluted.