RUSH: Before we get back to the phones, very quickly, just one thing. I want to put all this in perspective for you.

All this pretense out there. Have you noticed the pretense? The left has dropped the pretense of the politics of the virus. They’ve dropped it now. They’re making no bones about it that the virus has a political component, and they are employing it. This always happens in the outbreak of any kind of a national emergency.

After 9/11, for a while, the Democrats can make people think that they’re dropping politics and that they are unifying and treating this as a singular thing. But they can’t. They’re like addicts to politics, and they can’t. They go into withdrawal if they drop their political agenda with anything, and such is the case with the virus now. They are in political withdrawal.

They have dropped all pretense, which is what they were doing. They were pretending that the virus was a standalone, had no political aspects to it. But they can’t do that. So they are. So they dropped the pretense. They are now full bore, 1,000%, full-speed ahead on politicizing the virus, attacking Trump on the basis of politicization of the virus — and here’s why.

They know that Joe Biden is not viable. Everybody knows. Did you look at that endorsement that Obama gave? Obama gives that endorsement at a time nobody would see it, and it was convoluted. It was like 10-minutes long. It had no enthusiasm behind it at all. So here’s the bottom line. Don’t doubt me. The Democrats, the left, they know Biden is not viable.

They know that Trump was on his way — before all this — to a landslide reelection. They also know this. They know that Trump’s performance during this crisis has been good. They can’t compete with it. They tried. They sent Chuck You Schumer to try to do things. They had Biden on the air from his basement. They have tried to compete with Trump during the virus.

They have used various people, quote-unquote, “on their payroll” to try to diminish Trump even during the briefings. They have sent the press into the briefings with setup questions designed to impress. None of it has worked. Trump is carrying the day. He is dominating the day. He is dominating the news, and he’s doing so within the realm of his campaign of 2016: Make America Great Again.

It’s been handed back to him on a silver platter. Can you believe this? Everybody said, “You’re gonna have to come up with a new slogan, Mr. President, for 2020. You can’t go out there and say, ‘Make America Great Again.'” Yes, he can now! The American economy has been decimated. He alone seems concerned about it. There are a lot of other…

Folks, look, I’m only telling you what I see. The Democrat Party wants the shutdown to go on. It’s how they benefit! It may sound outrageous for you to hear this, especially those of you new to the program. You can’t imagine why anybody would want to continue this pain. You got a few minutes? Why would the Democrat Party openly want open borders?

Why would the Democrat Party want to get rid of oil? Why would the Democrat Party want to penalize America as somehow responsible for pain and suffering in the world? The Democrat Party is not unified with anybody who wants to Make America Great. Now Trump — it’s fascinating to me — has been handed on a silver platter his 2016 campaign slogan: Make America Great Again.

He’s got to do it again. He’s gotta revive the American economy again. He’s done it once. Things that have happened once can happen again. The Democrats have never revived an economy. To expect them to be able to do it is asking for something to happen that’s never happened before. Uh-oh! Don’t want to go there. They know this.

Brutal as it may sound, partisan as it may sound, do not doubt me, please. The Democrat Party and the American left know that a continued shutdown is the only means of destroying Trump’s signature achievement. What is Trump’s signature achievement? The historic, booming economy. In three years, Trump created economic growth we haven’t seen (a lot of people) in their lifetimes.

Here comes the virus.

Here comes the shutdown.

Here comes the lockdown.

The Democrats know that keeping America shut down is the only way of destroying Trump’s number-one re-electable achievement. If they were to succeed in shutting this country down into June, that would give us an economic shrinkage or constriction of 30%, and the effects of that would persist into the fourth quarter, which is when the election is.

They would be demagogued to death. The status of the American economy then would be blamed 1,000% on Trump, even though it would be not Trump who wanted to continue this. See, the old subtext of the November 2020 is no longer subtext. It’s now the transparent, left-wing hope that corona can do what Mueller and Schiff didn’t do.

Plain and simple, brutal as it may sound for you to hear, as strange as it may sound (and as, gosh, you wish it weren’t true), I’m telling you that as far as they are concerned, the Democrat leaders — Pelosi, Schumer, Comey, everybody, Brennan, everybody involved in this hoax to get rid of Trump — are all hoping that this virus can do what Mueller and Schiff failed to do.

The result is that literally all data, all issues — the real lethality rate, the real mortality rate, the rush to get antibody tests, the real occupancy rate of ICUs, the real numbers on all these categories — I believe, have been warped by the gloom and doom agenda. Optimism based on real evidence that the virus is being handled, and looking more like a 2017 than a 1918 flu, is seen with synonymous with defeat, and that’s intolerable.

One more time: Optimism based on real evidence that the virus is being dealt with and we’re over the top… The left is cringing when Cuomo talks about being over the peak. They’re cringing. The virus being dealt with — being over the top, being over the hump, getting on the way, on the downhill side — all of that terminology is seen, by the left, as synonymous with their defeat, and it’s intolerable.

Here is Doug in Winsted, Connecticut. Great to have you. And I’m glad you waited, sir. Hi.

CALLER: Hey, thanks. I just gotta say at the beginning of your show each day when that great music starts, I catch myself recently saying, “Please be Rush. Please be Rush.”

RUSH: (laughing)

CALLER: (laughing) Well, Rush, I’m a small business owner — and it’s awesome to be with you. Godspeed for everything you do. I’m a small business owner in Connecticut. I’ve been closed for just over a month now, nonessential. And as a business owner, I believe we’re smart people. I mean, we might not be able to operate with half our brains tied behind our back like you.

But we’ve been listening to the doctors for over a month. We know what to do. I think, as a group together, on May 1st we just all open our small businesses across the country. We stick to the guidelines, we take care of everybody, and make a go at it. That’s what I think we should do.

RUSH: Yeah, I’ve heard others — not in phone calls to the program, but just in conversation — I’ve heard others discussing this, that it’s something that people might eventually, like you said here, just take matters into their own hands, stop waiting for the, quote, unquote, permission from the authorities because it may never come.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: Meanwhile, you can’t go on this way. Nobody can. It’s not doable. So you take matters into your own hands. Now, it works if enough people do it that it becomes impossible to penalize them all. But what if you do it, you’re relatively alone, here come the authorities and they arrest you?

CALLER: You know what? I think there’s enough small business owners in this country that feel exactly like I do. I think, I mean, you know, up hear we have our four governors, you know, the four horsemen, governors of the corona apocalypse basically, you know, if we leave it up to Cuomo and these guys up here, there’s no telling when we’ll be open. And like you say, there’s no possible way we could go ’til June.

RUSH: Let me just share something. While you were chatting there, I just saw — I got CNN on on one of my monitors here. It’s a job requirement. It’s not by desire. And they got somebody on from the Los Angeles board of supervisors talking about the reopening. And the chyron graphic’s no longer up there so I’m gonna have to jog my memory for it. Something like: “Pain, suffering, and misery await reopening in California. Major changes coming for American Daily life until vaccine,” is the second headline.

And maybe if I still have you, they’ll cycle through it. But it was a scare headline to make people not want to reopen in California. It was designed to make viewers in California think it’s not worth reopening. And this is being done purposefully by Democrats who work in the media. So you’re gonna have your work cut out for you. But I think you’re right. I think there are a lot of people getting frustrated, pent up, and the uncertainty, the uncertainty. Yeah, there’s a date out there that gets tossed around, May the 1st, but there’s not a date certain. And there needs to be. But there’s more and more talk about it. And that needs to happen. I’m glad you called, Doug.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: All right. Here is what I saw, ladies and gentlemen. This is the chyron graphic that I saw at CNN. Of course, with a grim face, Anderson Cooper. “California reveals grim blueprint for life after reopening.” Well, who the hell would want to go through that? Who would want a grim life? Let’s just stay shut down, okay? Let’s just stay shut down. CNN says: “California says grim blueprint for life after reopening.” Can you believe this garbage? California reveals grim blueprint for life after reopening?

Now, the maudlin looking Anderson Cooper’s guest here is somebody named Kathryn Barger. She’s the chairman of the LA County board of supervisors, the fifth district. She’s out there, “Oh, yeah, grim, grim blueprint for life after reopening.” I don’t know about you. That doesn’t even occur to me. Life after reopening is a return to normalcy or at least an attempt to. Life after reopening is getting back to what’s natural. Grim?

Now, I didn’t hear the segment, so this babe could have been sitting there talking about all of the new restrictions that are going to be placed on people in California. That could be the grim blueprint, what we’re gonna have to do to keep people safe. So we’ll see what was said.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Sound bite number 26. Remember I told you I saw on CNN this story, the “grim” life awaiting Californians after the lockout’s lifted, after the shutdown’s lifted? Well, here’s the sound bite behind that. Here’s what the grim future in California is, according to LA County Board of Supervisors member Kathryn Barger. She’s being spoken to here by the grim-looking Anderson Cooper.

Question: “What steps are you taking now to ensure that LA County can meet these standards” of misery?

BARGER: We are gonna require anyone going out to, uh, a market, pharmacy, any of the essential services that are still open — are gonna be required, uh, to wear face covering or mask.

COOPER: The idea of tens of thousands of people gathering a stadium, is that unlikely until there’s a vaccine?

BARGER: It is unlikely. We may have limited capacity in each restaurant and ask them to limit the tables that they are, uh, allowing people to sit at and space between them.

COOPER: So things like that bars, uh, nightclubs, gyms, what about that?

BARGER: That’s way out there. That’s probably low on the list in terms of what is going to be open quickly.

RUSH: In other words, this woman — Kathryn Barger from the LA County Board of Supervisors, 5th District — says, “Don’t expect to be having any fun, and don’t expect to be enjoying anything. (snickers) To hell with that! Not as long as we’re in charge! You’re not gonna be enjoying jack. Ha! Bars? Gyms? The hell with that. That’s gonna be so far down the list, you don’t even want to think about that.

“Look, I’m here to tell you that your future is grim, Mr. Cooper, and that’s why I’m here, and that’s what I’m gonna do,” and that’s what she did. (summarized exchange) “What about going to a baseball game?” “Well, everybody’s gonna have to be wearing a mask, covering of some kind. It’s unlikely that we’re even gonna allow that.”

“What about, uh, restaurants?” “Oh, no, no, no! I mean, we’re gonna limit tables. We’re gonna prevent people sitting close together. There’s not a lot of space in there. Nah. Don’t expect to be enjoying yourself. That’s not what we’re about at the LA County Board of Supervisors. No way!”