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RUSH: The Washington Post gives up the game, or the ghost, depending on how you wish to phrase it. Right here it is. “Indiana Law Draws Republican White House Hopefuls Into the Culture Wars.” Exactly right and precisely by design. The only real surprise about this is that the Democrats did this so early on in the presidential process. But they may not really have had much control over it because Indiana did their law when they did it, but nevertheless.

Greetings, and welcome back, folks, great to have you, Rush Limbaugh with the second hour of broadcast excellence here at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.

Now, this story is by Philip Rucker and Robert Costa. Robert Costa? Robert Costa used to be at National Review Online. What is he doing at the — oh, well. There’s actually two stories here. There’s the Washington Post story and then there’s a follow-up here by The Politico, and both of these stories give up the game. Here is the Washington Post first: “The national debate over an Indiana religious-liberties law seen as anti-gay –” By who is it seen as anti-gay? It is promoted as anti-gay by the opponents of the law.

There’s nothing about anti-gay in the law. There’s nothing anti-gay in the formulation or the conception of the law. “The national debate over an Indiana religious-liberties law seen as anti-gay has drawn the entire field of Republican presidential contenders into the divisive culture wars, which badly damaged Mitt Romney in 2012 and which GOP leaders eagerly sought to avoid in the 2016 race.”

Now, the Mitt Romney thing, that was the War on Women. So the War on Women has run its course, and now we get the war on gay marriage or the war on humanity? What’s it gonna become now? And once again, where did this all start? George Stephanopoulos. George Stephanopoulos’ fingerprints are on both of these.

In the Mitt Romney case, it was a presidential debate, primary debate, Republican contenders, and there’s our old buddy George Stephanopoulos asking a question about birth control and conception and so forth in the middle of a Republican presidential debate when the subject had never come up. It was not an issue. It was not being talked about by anybody, anywhere, and out of the blue Stephanopoulos asked Romney what his thoughts were on state sponsored birth control measures and what have you.

And Romney was caught flat-footed ’cause he had no idea (imitating Romney), “George, I’m not even thinking about it. What do you mean George?” And Stephanopoulos would not give it up. “Just give me a yes or no,” he said, “just give me a yes or no. Do you believe that states should have the power to be involved in contraception measures and so forth.” And Romney, “George, I don’t even think about this.” But eventually Romney gave an answer. Didn’t matter what the answer was.

He eventually answered the question, and immediately the War on Women came to life because then the media and everybody ran around saying that Romney, as a Republican, was in favor of governments being involved in contraception this and that and everybody knows what that gave birth to. No pun intended.

So last Sunday it’s George Stephanopoulos again. You’ve got the governor of Indiana, Mike Pence, on This Week and there’s Stephanopoulos once again demanding, yes or no, yes or no. (imitating Stephanopoulos) “Why do you want to put a bill into law that discriminates against gay people? Isn’t that what you’re doing? Do you want state sponsored discrimination. Tell me how people can’t see it there, just a yes-or-no question, governor.”

And Pence hems and haws and so forth, and the birth of an issue happened again right before our very eyes. Then we get this story in the Washington Post: “Indiana Law Draws Republican White House Hopefuls Into the Culture Wars.” No, the media has drawn Indiana law and Republican presidential hopefuls down a sewer, which is what has happened here.

That’s why the Democrats and their media, because they want to cloud, they want to disqualify the entire Republican field right now. Remember, this is how they have to do it. They have to impugn, defame, and destroy the credibility of virtually every Republican. Rather than tout the benefits of voting Democrat, that’s not how they go about it. They don’t have enough people to vote for them to win just on the issues alone, folks.

They have to create a number of people that will either avoid voting Republican ’cause they’re mad at ’em and stay home, which is one of the primary objectives of this, by the way, is to anger the Republican base by exposing Republican candidates as wusses. And even though the Republicans know what’s coming, they don’t seem to be able to have a plan deal with this. Why hasn’t the party already had a battle plan ready to go in case — not in case — for when the Democrats tried to repeat what they did with Romney, with whoever the next Republican potential nominee would be?


Well, here it’s already happened, and Pence is not in the presidential field right now, but it doesn’t matter. They’re trying to drag every Republican into the debate to get ’em on the record saying anything, doesn’t matter what they say, because there’s only the wrong thing to say. There’s no way a Republican can say anything that’s gonna be judged to be right.

Look what they’re trying to do to Coach Krzyzewski. The Duke coach will not comment on it. CNN, a number of other media outlets have been trying to get him to comment on the law. He won’t say a word about it, and so they’re trying to tar and feather him because of that. He’s a bigot because he won’t weigh in the way we want him to weigh in. He’s a bigot because he won’t say what we want to hear.

“The national debate over an Indiana religious-liberties law seen as anti-gay has drawn the entire field of Republican presidential contenders into the divisive culture wars.” Isn’t it amazing how this happens, everybody’s wandering along minding their own business and out of the blue, the Republican presidential contenders all decide to shoot themselves in the foot on the same day. Isn’t it amazing how that happens. And then the media gets to write about it.

This is why the Democrats and their media minions are ginning up — this is a phony crisis about a law that mirrors a federal law written by Chuck-U Schumer, a law was that hailed by Bill Clinton as a miracle from God, a law that has been around for 22 years, maybe longer in certain states, most other states follow this without needing a law to back them up or have a law on the books. Even though 19 other states have enacted similar laws just to be on the safe side, they’re really not necessary, since the Supreme Court ruled that the federal law doesn’t have to be followed by the states.

Anyway, it’s clear that the Democrats and their willing accomplices in the Drive-By Media sat down and tried to come up with an issue that would force Republican candidates to go against their base in the primaries or risk losing in the general. There are many objectives here, but one of the big ones that the Democrats have and their media buddies is to anger you, the Republican base, at your candidate.


They want to expose Republican candidates as wusses or whatever, so that you get ticked off at ’em again. So you think they’re a bunch of just worthless, endless politicians that don’t get it, and you end up staying home in a fit of anger and not voting. That’s what they are attempting to do here is anger you so much at your own party that you don’t vote and you don’t donate.

“Most top Republican presidential hopefuls this week have moved in lock step, and without pause, to support Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) and his Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which has prompted protests and national calls for boycotts by major corporations.” And once again we’re back to the left all of a sudden falling in love with corporations. The left all of a sudden thinks there’s nothing in the world wrong about Big Business. Man, oh, man, they love Big Business this week. Man, these corporations, why, they are helmed by some of the most conscientious CEOs, why, we love these corporations, this week.

Here’s The Politico story: “Indiana Law Backs GOP Hopefuls Into a Corner.” Same story, different publication. This is the opening: “Mike Pence just lobbed a grenade into the Republican presidential field.” How did Mike Pence do that? By signing a law and going on television to explain it? What was he doing on TV? Why did he feel he had to go on TV and defend this thing to somebody like George Stephanopoulos, who’s a member of the Bill Clinton war room, for crying out loud? Why do you think you’ve got to go to the Drive-By Media to defend yourself? What is this compulsion?

You’re not gonna persuade them. You’re not gonna get them to see the error of their ways. You’re not gonna convince them you’re a good guy. You’re not gonna convince them the law isn’t what they think it is, because they don’t care. The law is whatever they claim it’s gonna be, and you are the reprobate that they claim you’re gonna be, no matter what you do, how you do it, or what you say.

Now these stories are made to look like all these Republican candidates, minding their own business, walking along one day and then the next Republican idiot, in this case Mike Pence, came along and opened his mouth. And in the process, tarred and feathered every other Republican hopeful because this party is filled with absolute idiots like Mike Pence. This is the tenor of the news coverage.

You never see stories about Democrat candidates worried about being associated with scandal involving the Clintons. You never see this kind of story. You never see a story in the Drive-By Media where any Democrat candidate is disqualified on the basis of anything. This is the game now and the media are writing about the game. They’re writing, they’re giving it up. They’re explaining how they did this.

And one of the things that is assumed here as you read these media stories, one of the things that the media is assuming is that every single member of the low-information voter group is gonna buy hook, line, and sinker what they say. They don’t even think they have to work very hard to persuade their readers.

Now, as I say, this is not anywhere near the first time this technique has been employed. But everybody on the Republican side acts as though they’ve never seen this before and don’t know what to do about it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

Here is Rich in White Plains, New York. I’m glad you waited, sir. Your turn. Hello.

CALLER: Hey, Rush. Thanks for taking my call. With all due respect to the governor, how stupid is it for Mike Pence to even do an interview with George Stephanopoulos, particularly considering the fact that the template of how to deal with the media is happening simultaneously, and it’s Hillary Clinton with her e-mails.

RUSH: Your point being that Hillary is showing the way? You just ignore them. You don’t talk to them. You don’t give them what they want.

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: Stonewall their butts?

CALLER: That’s exactly it. I don’t know why the Republicans continue to voluntarily walk into the lion’s den.

RUSH: I’ll bet you can answer this if you think about it. You’re asked a good question: “Why does Pence even go there?” Now, stop and think for a moment to yourself. Why do you think he did? He did it. I mean, there had to be a reason for it. Why do you think he did — and it’s not just Pence. Why do these guys continually subject themselves, not just to Stephanopoulos, but the entire Democrat Party media apparatus? Why do they do it?

CALLER: Okay, you know why? The only thing I can think of is that they’re afraid of the media saying that they won’t.

RUSH: Well, I think some of that exists. I think that’s partially true. I don’t think that’s the main driver; I don’t think that’s the main answer. I think you have a valid point. They think that everybody knows the media’s rigged, but that’s the way it is. And you gotta play according to the way the game’s being played. If it’s rigged, and you want to win the game, you gotta play the game, and you can’t run away from these people.

You can’t cry, “Bias!” because that looks cowardly. So you’ve got to face them, and you’ve got to face them on their turf and on their terms, because if you don’t, you will be said to be unserious and unworthy. But I think there are other reasons that propel this. And I think they are born (sigh), sadly, in naivete in many regards. I think that there is this belief.

Despite the knowledge of bias, despite that everybody knows that George Stephanopoulos is a Democrat activist, I think there are a lot of guys who think, “You know what? I can change him! I can show him I’m not the kind of Republican he thinks they all are.” I think there is this compulsion. I’m not singling out Pence, but all of them. “I’m not a racist; I can prove it. I’m not a bigot. I can go on this TV show and I can show them, and I can make them like this law! I can make them understand the law in Indiana. I can make them see the light. I can change them.”

They can’t do anything of the sort, because that’s not possible.

The media is not interested in what they have to say. The media is never interested, only to the extent that they can arrange a “gotcha.”

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