RUSH: Levi in Brick, New Jersey. Levi, you’re next. How are you?

CALLER: Good. How are you, Rush?

RUSH: Very fine, sir.

CALLER: I just wanted to make… Before I make some points, you referenced about think tanks going on the offensive and what you referenced last week about America being the greatest country in terms of caring for its people. I was by a conference in the summer, a conservative think tank conference, and there was a British philosopher there. I don’t know if you heard of him. Roger Scruton. And he would say he’s an English philosopher, and he was saying how he was in America going hunting a few years back — I don’t remember where it was — and there was some hurricane or tornado, whatever it was, and he saw, you know, volunteers, buses of people helping. He said, “That’s what America stands for.” He said, “In England, the government would have set up roadblocks and make them turn around.” You know, the government’s in charge. The spirit of family and tradition is something that’s wonderful about America. So, you know, in terms of promoting the conservative agenda, there are still a few people doing that.

RUSH: Oh, I know. But the point is, it’s not in Washington. The point is, it’s out where he had to go hunting to find it.

CALLER: That’s true.

RUSH: You had to go hunting in the midst of a disaster to see it on display. But those people have been thinking they’ve been voting for people just like themselves to do things just like that in Washington, and they haven’t been seeing it.

CALLER: Now can I get to my point?

RUSH: Well, yeah. I thought that was it, but if you’ve got another one, have at it.

CALLER: No, no, no, no. That was before. My point is — two points, two quick points. Very interesting. The establishment does not like Ted Cruz, and amazingly so, you haven’t been hearing calls from the establishment for him to drop out. They’re just saying that Kasich should drop out. And I think — tell me what you think — I think the reason is Kasich is not getting too many delegates. They want Cruz to be in the race to get enough delegates that Trump doesn’t get the necessary delegates to win, then there can be a contested convention, and the establishment can push Rubio.

RUSH: Well, you’re halfway there, but the establishment is joined with Rubio in that effort, not Cruz.

CALLER: No, no, that’s what I’m saying, but they want Cruz to be in the race to take away delegates from Trump, and that way Trump won’t hit the threshold 1200 or so, and then they can push Rubio. It’s just a theory.

RUSH: Well, wait a minute, now. You can get to the second point here in just a second. We discuss things theory by theory here. Now, the contra to that is that the establishment wishes everybody would get out and would become a-two-man race because the anti-Trump vote’s being split, and the establishment believes that if Kasich would get out, Carson would get out, Cruz would get out, then it’s just Rubio and the establishment and its money, that they can finally start making inroads against Trump. They look at as many candidates in the race dividing the anti-Trump vote and they wish it weren’t the case. That’s the contra theory to yours. What is your second point?

CALLER: The second point is that you mentioned last week, I believe it was on Thursday or Friday, you mentioned how it’s not because the candidates were scared to take on Trump; they just wanted to inherit his votes when he imploded. Now, if you watch the campaigns, I believe Cruz in the beginning thought that way, but steadily, even before South Carolina he was leveling up his attacks on Trump, and Rubio was still busy trying to team up with Trump and call Cruz “liar, liar,” and, meanwhile, why wasn’t he doing anything about Trump? Now it’s almost too late. I think Cruz steadily did step up his attacks on Trump, and Rubio, I don’t know if he was in cahoots, it was planned with Trump to take down Cruz and call him liar, liar. And now if Rubio loses this thing, he really only has himself to blame ’cause it’s too late. You know, Cruz didn’t start backing Trump —

RUSH: I can’t tell from listening, who are you supporting?

CALLER: Cruz.

RUSH: Cruz. Okay. So you’re trying to tell us how Rubio has screwed up. Okay. I needed to figure that out to put the rest of this in context. Now, what he’s referencing last week, after the debate, a whole bunch of people said, “Where’s that been? How come these guys haven’t been going after Trump all this time? Where’s that been? They could have taken Trump out if Rubio and Cruz –” And the answer to the question was, all this time they still think that something’s gonna happen to Trump and he’s not gonna be there.

He’s either gonna implode, he’s either gonna quit, something’s gonna happen and he’s gonna go. And if that happens, they do not want to have alienated his voters, and that’s why it was kid gloves and hands off on Trump up until the last two or three — I’m talking about last fall and into January of this year, it was hands off on Trump, and it was purposeful, it was strategic, and it was designed not to irritate Trump’s voters ’cause they’re highly irritable. It doesn’t take much to get on their bad side, and once you’re on their bad side, you cannot be redeemed. This is known about Trumpists. And so it was kid gloves.

But now they don’t have time to wait for whatever implosion might come. They don’t have time to wait for Trump to decide, “You know what? I’ve made my point. I’m out.” So they had to launch, and that’s why people said too little, too late. They made a calculated strategic decision that to go after Trump would irritate his voters and they wouldn’t get them if Trump did drop out.