RUSH: I can’t emphasize this enough. I had a conversation with Mr. Snerdley. He came in here today, “You know what? This thing with these Democrats going ape over the question on the new census form about citizenship, you know what that’s doing?”
I said, “What?”
“That is exposing for everybody the truth of what you’ve been saying for the last 20 years about this. You’ve been telling people the Democrats only care about this because they want more voters and they want more dependence on the government and they want more people that can’t do anything for themselves, so they’re gonna always vote Democrat.”
I said, “Do you really think a lot of people don’t see that yet?”
“You’d be surprised. You’d be surprised.” Snerdley said to me “most people, Rush, even when they hear you say it, they don’t want to believe it. They want to believe that we’re opening the borders for compassion reasons. That we’re opening the borders to the poor and the downtrodden, the homeless, the hungry, the thirsty, and they want to think that they’re supporting good people, and they’re helping people in poverty, and they’re helping poor people. And when you came around and say the Democrats don’t care about people, all they want to do is register more voters, they don’t want to hear it.”
I said, “You have to be kidding me. You think there’s a sizable number of people who reject the truth about this when they hear it and instead retreat to their comfort zone of ‘it’s only for compassion’?”
“You’d be surprised.” Well, if Snerdley happens to be right about this, this is icing on the cake, because this fight over something as simple as declaring you are a citizen on a census form, that the left is gonna go to the mat opposing that is gonna wake a whole lot of people up. And they might not run around saying, “You know what? Rush Limbaugh has been telling us.” They may not say that, but they’re gonna realize that the Democrats have been scamming them and lying to ’em. ‘Cause this isn’t about compassion.
What’s wrong with knowing whether they’re illegal or not? Knowing that they’re illegal just means we have to help them. Why are the Democrats opposed to that? He thinks that’s gonna be a common reaction rooted in common sense and that when people see it, they’re gonna have no choice but to conclude the Democrats have been misleading them and even lying to them. And there may be a lot of truth to that.
I don’t care where the help comes from. If that’s what it takes — and I frankly think it’d be great if the left acts as their own detriment here. And this is gonna be a fight. They’re gonna fight this like you haven’t seen anything fought. They cannot — (interruption) What? Oh, why do they not want it known who is and who isn’t a citizen? There’s one primary reason and a number of others that you would call ancillary.
What is the census? Among many other things, it counts the number of people who live here and tells us a lot about who they are demographically, any number of ways. And what happens when people find out that the number of illegals here is not 12 million, that it’s 20 or 30, that we are supporting and providing education and health care and all that to, and that they just keep coming. The left doesn’t want the true number out there. They want you to believe it’s 12 million or fewer living in the shadows.
By the way, where did the 12 million number come from? Because it used to be the common number bandied about was 20 million back in the early 2000s. And then this attorney general out in California. There are a bunch of cities in California that don’t like this sanctuary city business at all. They don’t want to be part of it; they don’t want to be in violation of federal immigration law or any other federal law. I’m talking about law enforcement officers. Sheriffs, police officers. In Orange County…
I think it’s Orange County. The sheriff’s department there has decided to announce release dates when illegal aliens in jail are released. ICE is gonna be told so that ICE can go round ’em up because the state of California is not providing the Feds with that information. As you know, the sanctuary laws in the sanctuary cities and the general thinking of the left is to protect and hide from federal law enforcement. So these sheriffs in Orange County and elsewhere have decided they’re gonna help ICE by letting them know which inmates are being released on which dates from this prison so that ICE can be standing nearby.
And the attorney general in California is fit to be tied over this. He is livid over this, and he’s threatening to sue these people for violating state immigration law. Well, now, wait a minute! When Arizona tried to do something along the lines of enforce their own immigration law because the federal government was not enforcing it, Obama sued Arizona — and Arizona lost. Arizona was told by the courts, “Sorry, you don’t make immigration law. The federal government does. So you can’t have your own.”
But here’s California saying, “Screw federal immigration law! We are gonna have our own, and we’re gonna sue sheriffs and other law enforcement who don’t follow state law on this, even if they’re following federal law.” Wait ’til the people around the country see that. This is gonna… The fact there are even some defections going on within California on the sanctuary city business… It may look to you, folks, like the left is running away with everything, and that’s simple because that’s the impression given every day by media. It isn’t the case.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, we’ve been talking all day long about the development here from the Trump Commerce Department and Willlllbuuuuur Ross, adding a question to the census on whether or not you happen to be a citizen. That simple question — the idea that it’s gonna be on the next census in 2020 — has the left blowing up. I’ve got a number of examples here. First up from the… Let’s see. This is the Washington Post and it’s by Aaron Blake.
The headline alone: “The Trump Administration Is Adding a Citizenship Question to the Census. Here’s Why that’s Bad for Democrats.” Why is it news that it’s bad for the Democrats? But of course, that is. That’s the prism through which everything is viewed: “Is it good or bad for Trump? Is it good or bad for Democrats?” That is largely the sole determinant in what becomes news. “The once-per-decade U.S. Census will ask about people’s citizenship status in 2020, the Commerce Department announced late Monday.
“The move, which came at the request of the Justice Department, reinstates a controversial question that hadn’t been used on all surveys for decades.” That’s not quite true, by the way. But more on that in a moment. “‘After a thorough review of the legal, program, and policy considerations, as well as numerous discussions with the Census Bureau leadership and interested stakeholders,’ Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross wrote, ‘I have determined that reinstatement of a citizenship question on the 2020 decennial census is necessary to provide complete and accurate data in response to the DOJ request.'”
Now, Mr. Blake here at the Washington Post says, “Although this may seem like the arcane workings of the federal bureaucracy, it is a decision that carries potentially major political ramifications — most notably for Republicans’ ability to gerrymander Democrats into the minority for years to come. And some are crying foul.” Now, granted that is a concern. But I don’t think that’s the primary concern that they have with this. But there has been a running theme for the program.
If you are just now tuning in — a welfare recipient just getting up, for example, or a Millennial still living at home being supported by mom and dad just getting up — the theme here today has been the left/the Democrat Party for years has had to mask and camouflage itself in order to win elections. Because, contrary to the narrative every day in the media, we’re not a majority radical leftist country. Now, we’re trending that way. I’m not… I don’t want anybody to misunderstand me here. I’m not being Pollyannaish. But we’re not there yet.
We’re not majority radical leftist, and the left would not be as strong as they are today if they had been honest about everything they intended to do when they were campaigning or otherwise making promises. I’ll use Obama as an example. If Obama had told you in the 2008 campaign that your insurance premiums would likely skyrocket by $5,000 or more, and that your copay and your deducible would also skyrocket — and that you would not be able to keep your doctor and you wouldn’t be able to keep your insurance plan — would you have supported Obama?
Nope.
Obama had to lie to you. Obama had to tell you that your plan won’t change if you like it, and that you’ll be able to keep your doctor — and that the average, annual premiums are gonna go down by 2500 bucks. If Obama had told you that his plan was to nationalize one-sixth of the U.S. economy and put it under control of the federal government, and if he had been honest about why they wanted to do that, he wouldn’t have been elected, and no Democrat would have been either. So they’ve had this ability to wear this mask or camouflage and convince people that they’re not radical leftists, that they’re just centrists who care about people.
And the Republicans, of course, are radical extremists — and racist, sexist, bigots, homophobes — who hate people. And they have these people that run corporations (CEOs) who want to kill their customers. Well, it’s largely the opposite. But now what’s happening is that because of a confluence of events and the left’s ability to lie to itself, they have now come to believe — and who could blame ’em? You watch the news every day and you, too, would think that this country hates Donald Trump. You watch the news every day, and you would be convinced that the country largely regrets electing him.
And if you watch the news every day, you think the country couldn’t wait for Robert Mueller to find the evidence that Trump stole the election from Hillary. Well, if you report that stuff long enough, and you get leaks and lies that confirm that… If you do that long enough — and they’ve been at it now for (if you count the campaign) 2-1/2 years. I think they’ve come to believe it. Then they won a special election in Pennsylvania, and that told ’em (along with the win in Virginia governorship) that it’s over. They’re gonna win the 2018 midterms. It’s just a matter of time. It’s a slam dunk. Just like Hillary’s election in 2016. Slam dunk.
It’s just a matter of the calendar playing out. This has caused them to feel a new sense of confidence. Whereas a year ago, folks, they were so low that when they looked up they saw the gutter. They had less power in Washington than they had since the 1920s. They were gobsmacked and stunned by Trump’s election, and they had no explanation for it, and they were looking at years and years in the darkness. One year later — thanks to nothing substantive, just a bunch of innuendo and lies — they’re now feeling their oats.
They think they’re on the verge of getting Americans to agree with giving up their guns, repealing the Second Amendment. They’re on the verge of believing that they’re going to get “comprehensive immigration reform” because most Americans want open borders and want the poor of the world to be able to come here and be made whole because the United States has been so mean to ’em over the years. Now they’re on the road to believing that they are dominating the thinking on the Second Amendment and guns.
In the process, they’re no longer worrying about hiding who they are.
They’re not trying to continue this masking and camouflaging of what they believe. And I’m telling you this is a good thing for us. So when John Paul Stevens comes out and says, “We need to repeal the Second Amendment,” the first reaction they had was stand up and applaud and say, “See! See!” Cooler heads in the Democrat Party then prevailed and said, “We don’t think we’re there yet,” and they’re right on this. Now, on this business of the citizenship question.
For the longest time it has been obvious to I don’t know how many that the sole interest the Democrat Party has in illegal immigration is voter registration. I have submitted any number of proposals. My most recent proposal was proclaimed on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. I said, “Count me in as a supporter for full-fledged amnesty for every illegal immigrant in the country, as long as they can’t vote for 20 to 25 years.” Not a single taker. Over the years I have told people the Democrat Party’s interest in this not compassion, it’s not the poor, it’s not any of that. It is simply a way of maintaining a permanent underclass in America that will always be dependent on government and therefore the Democrats.
And people… I’m shocked by it, but there’s still a significant number of people who don’t buy that, who really believe that it’s all about compassion for the poor and those in poverty, those escaping war-torn countries. Well, now, a simple question on the next census asking about citizenship is causing panic in the Democrat Party. It’s causing panic over the potential for “gerrymandering” or redrawing congressional districts. But there’s another aspect of this too — and I mentioned it a couple of times.
But I think it’s every bit as important, and that is — I mean, what’s the census? It’s a tabulation, it’s a counting of the number of people who live here and what they do and who they are, all kinds of demographic information that’s collected. Well, you add that citizenship question, and now we’re gonna find out how many people who live here are not citizens, if this survives the court challenge that is surely coming. And what if the number of illegal immigrants is not the 12 million being bandied about. What if it’s really 20 million or maybe even more?
That is something the left and the Democrat Party want you to have no knowledge of. From Aaron Blake’s story. “Several states, including California and New York, have announced they will sue to keep the citizenship question out of the census because they believe it would penalize illegal immigrants and infringe on civil rights.” And this is the real reason, it will lower the number of people who still live in these hellholes, taking away their representation and giving it to Texas and North Carolina.
That’s another thing they don’t want people to figure out, is how many people don’t live where everybody thinks they live. Contrary to almost all reports, every census except for 2010 under Obama, had some form of citizenship question. The American community survey, a more frequent government survey done in between the 10 years also includes a citizenship question.
“But why is this a big deal?” writes Mr. Blake. “Because Republicans already have a significant edge on the congressional and state legislative maps, thanks to how our population is distributed and to the GOP having earned the power to redraw lots of the new maps after the 2010 Census. And this could significantly increase their advantages for two reasons: One, It might dissuade noncitizens from participating in the census, thereby diluting the political power of the (mostly urban and Democratic) areas they come from.” And secondly, “Even without that, it would hand Republicans a new tool in redrawing districts even more in their favor.”
So it’s kind of six of one, half dozen of the other. If they answer the question, then the real number of illegal immigrants living here will be known. If they don’t answer the question, if they leave it blank, then that will be fewer citizens, fewer people living in these Democrat areas. They would lose population, thereby potentially lose power, representative seats in various districts around the country.
And I just want you to think about this, a simple question, “Are you a citizen of the United States?” is causing the Democrat and the news media to have conniption fits. Now, if you’ve been one of these people all these years who have rejected the idea that pure politics, Democrat Party power politics is behind their so-called compassion for the poor people of the world, if you have believed that, then how are you going to rationalize, how are you gonna explain their frenzied, panicked opposition to finding out who these poor people are?
Wouldn’t we want to know? If we’re going to feed them and clothe them and give them health care and show them our compassion, don’t we need to know who they are? Wouldn’t the Democrats want to know who they are so that we can reach them and so that we can be compassionate and give them whatever they need? But the Democrats, they don’t want anything of the sort. They don’t want it known. They don’t want those people counted. And people are gonna start asking why.
Now, one thing about the Democrats, public opinion doesn’t matter to them. It rarely matters to anything other than shaping an agenda, but it never, ever would affect their policy changes or their behavior. If public opinion polls go against them, then they find a reason to rip the people in the public who responded as they did, get mad at them, promise to take it out on them some way, somehow. It never causes them to substantively change who they are. In this instance, something as simple as, “Are you a citizen?” is causing mass panic attacks.
New York Times: “Despite Concerns, Census Will Ask Respondents if They Are U.S. Citizens — Critics of the change and experts in the Census Bureau itself have said that, amid a fiery immigration debate, the inclusion of a citizenship question could prompt immigrants who are in the country illegally not to respond. That would result in a severe undercount of the population — and, in turn, faulty data for government agencies and outside groups that rely on the census. The effects would also bleed into the redistricting of the House and state legislatures in the next decade.”
Let me translate that for you. The Democrats want illegal aliens counted in order to get more taxpayer money for their districts and more seats in the U.S. House and in statehouses. The second point being even more important than the first, since the Democrats know once they have the power, they can vote themselves whatever money they want. But they’re caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand they do want the accurate number. On the other hand, they don’t dare.
So we’ll see how it shakes out. But the bottom line is, again, this is causing the Democrats once again to shed their camouflage and shed their masking. And they don’t want to do this. So we’ll see how they deal with this, because this is never anything they have sought to do. I think they’re in a position now where they think they may not be able to avoid it.