RUSH: Now, here’s a story at USA Today. Headline: “Democrat Presidential Candidates Are Scaring Off Never Trumpers. Big Mistake.” Now, what this story is attempting to say, and it’s reported by somebody named Robert Robb, an editorial columnist for the Arizona Republic. I guess it’s a guest op-ed in USA Today by an Arizona Republic columnist.

What it is attempting to say here is that the Democrats are scaring off the middle. Here’s the thing about elections. And this is pretty much bankable. You can win elections by gaining votes from the so-called independents and the so-called moderates. And I know they think they exist, and so they do, in their minds, they exist. But I frankly think it’s much ado about nothing.

You know, the moderates, the independents, they love to tell themselves, “We’re not partisan. We go issue by issue. We are not ideological. We are refined. And we are not at all straight ticket people, and we study it issue by issue.” And they are, “We’re not closed-minded. We’re very open-minded.” That’s what they tell themselves, and this is how they’re cast. And in every election the independents are portrayed as the win or lose constituency.

Now, I will happily admit that elections can be won by getting votes from this group of people. But there’s something of greater truth than the fact that you have to get some moderates or independents. That is, if you don’t get your base, it doesn’t matter what else you get. You are going to lose. If you can’t shore up your base, if you can’t turn out your base, all the rest of it’s academic.

Now, in this scenario, the Democrats right now are holding on to their far-left, very radical, wacko, vagina hat wearing, basement dwelling, overeducated radical base. But that is all they’re getting. The question is, then, are there enough of them? I had Mitt Romney tell me and I had — who was it? — there was one other Republican during a primary season some years ago. “Rush, we can’t win with Republican votes alone. We’re gonna have to go out there and get votes from Democrats.”

So standard operating procedure, the conventional wisdom has always been that the Republicans are the ones who can’t win with just their base. I’m telling you, that is more applicable to the Democrats right now than it’s ever been applicable to the Republicans.

Are there enough — this is the question — are there enough of these radical, wacko, leftist, vagina wearing hat, all these other group wacko leftists, are there enough of them who, if they all show up in unison on Election Day, are there enough of them to elect a Democrat nominee?

And I’m gonna submit to you they’re not because you know what’s gonna happen? A bunch of these people are gonna splinter. If their person, if their candidate doesn’t win the nomination, they’re gonna sit it out. Some of Crazy Bernie’s people have even said they’ll vote for Trump if Crazy Bernie doesn’t get it this time.

So now into this column, all of a sudden the Never Trumpers are said to be of key importance? All of a sudden these historically conservative, right-wing Never Trumpers are suddenly the new moderate base? That’s what this guy claims in the piece. For the Democrats. The Democrats have to win some Never Trumpers. Has anybody done a poll?

Mr. Snerdley, has anybody done a poll? Does anybody know how many Never Trumpers there are? I’ve counted about 15 to 20. How many of them are there? Are there enough of them to actually add to the Democrat base to secure a Democrat? Come on! But this is the conventional wisdom. It’s another area where the media simply cannot tell itself the truth!

The media makes the mistake of assuming everybody is like them. So the Never Trumpers, there’s gazillions of ’em to go along with the gazillions of leftists who hate Trump. Here’s a pull quote from this piece.

“Instead of creeping or trotting liberalism, the Democratic candidates for president are virtually all running on galloping liberalism bent on fundamentally and permanently changing the basic structure of the American system of democratic capitalism. That raises the stakes on ousting Trump tremendously.

“All of this illustrates the economic blind spot of liberal Democrats, a lack of understanding and appreciation for the importance of private investment capital in sustainable private-sector growth.

“But the European-style social democracy the Democrats are pledging to transform the United States into can’t be financed just by taxing the rich.” This guy gets it. “A European-style social democracy will require a European-style value added tax, although none of the candidates will openly acknowledge that.

“Joe Biden, the frontrunner, was vice president during the trotting liberalism of the Obama years. But he seems prepared to break out in a gallop as well. At present, how high the Democrats are raising the stakes in this election isn’t clear to the Never Trumpers. As the election approaches, it will become clearer.”

Democrat presidential candidates are scaring off the Never Trumpers because they’re galloping liberals now. The Never Trumpers, they hate Trump, but they’re not liberals. The Democrats need the Never Trumpers. They need to form a coalition with people who also hate Trump. But they’re galloping so fast into extreme liberalism that they’re leaving the Never Trumpers behind, in which case the Never Trumpers are gonna be an isolated voting bloc that doesn’t have the power to make or destroy anybody. Which is about what it ought to be.