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JASON: Man, oh, man. I mean, man, oh, man. Was that not nice yesterday to hear Kathryn? I don’t know if you heard the program yesterday. If you didn’t, check out RushLimbaugh.com. But Rush’s widow, Kathryn, was on. She stayed almost the whole hour taking questions on Rush’s career and even his likeness of all of his pets and all the things that made Rush, Rush. It was just so nice to hear.

And what an inspiration, of course, Rush Limbaugh was and is, and that’s why Team EIB is putting together remembering Rush. I could not be happier than to be back behind the Golden EIB Mic in the Attila the Hun Chair keeping the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies going. I am the talk show host formally known as Congressman Jason Lewis from the great state of Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Riots. The rest of us are locked up.

It’s great to be in politics. I served in the 115th, the most productive session in a generation, alongside President Trump. We’ll get to that today. We’ll also get to a few of your calls as we remember Rush together. It’s 1-800-282-2882. That’s the contacting line as always here on the Rush Limbaugh program: 1-800-282-2882. I want to tell you, though, getting back on Rush’s program and getting back into radio coming from Congress?

It feels like a promotion.

You know what I mean? When you spend some time in Washington, you quickly realize you can take the politician out of the swamp, but you can’t take the swamp out of the politician, and nobody understood that more than Rush — and I can tell you from firsthand experience. In the Republican caucus, in the conference meetings we had once a week, I can tell you: Rush Limbaugh was beloved — and to those few who didn’t love him, they feared him.

That’s what made Rush, Rush.

That’s why he was so instrumental in that most productive first two years of the Trump presidency. And let me give you a quick recap on that, because I was there. One of the reasons Democrats focused on identity politics and seek to divide the country is because that’s all they have. If they can’t divide the country and label everybody who disagrees with them — or projecting themselves onto those people by having malice in their hearts. This identity politics is the most toxic element to come around.

Everybody sees right through it. You just call your opponent a misogynist, a racist, a homophobe, a transphobe, it doesn’t matter — and then you don’t have to debate the record-low unemployment under the Trump administration for blacks, Hispanics, for women, the lowest unemployment rate since 1969, thanks to the Tax Cut and Jobs Act which we passed in the 115th. You want to talk about the most sweeping deregulation, giving us energy independence, 16 congressional review acts?

That’s a historic record, prior to the 115th. Only one was enacted to undo onerous regulation. Repealing the Obamacare mandate, reforming Dodd-Frank. Security at the border, which is now total chaos. Oh, yeah, Veterans Administration reform, allowing them to terminate employees at the VA. By the way, if it’s a good idea to terminate employees at the VA, wouldn’t it be a good idea to have the ability to terminate bad federal employees across the country in every department?

Or, better yet, at the state level. We have a teachers union right now that wants COVID relief money. They’re gonna get $130 billion. They want to be paid and have immense benefits, the best pension programs in the world but they just don’t want to work. And when you point that out, what does the head of the L.A., the California union say? “Well, obviously you’re a white supremacist.”

That’s all they have.

They can’t run on the record.

They can’t run on the juvenile justice reform bill that I authored. They can’t run on criminal justice reform, on a growing economy, on energy independence. Instead, they’re canceling Enbridge Line 3 here in Minnesota. They’re canceling Keystone. I wouldn’t want to run on that record, either, and those are the things that we always learned from Rush Limbaugh.

Those are the things that made serving in Congress so much easier because we knew someone had our back. We knew somebody was leading the charge other than President Trump, and other than those of us in the 115th who were working with the president. I tell you, it was an amazing time. I had not seen anything like it since the Reagan Revolution in 1980 and ’81 and ’82, Kemp-Roth and all the rest.

Well, attitude the opportunity in that 115th Congress the first two years of the Trump presidency to change the world, to make it a better place. We did. Now Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Democrat Party is trying to undo it all. I ask you: What would the Democrats run on without identity politics? What would they run on? Subsidizing Obamacare? Well, they’re putting that in the COVID relief bill.

Undoing the tax reform that gave us the greatest economy in a generation? Yep! They’re trying to do that. We regulate the energy marks so we’re energy dependent once again? Undo the Veterans Administration reform? Open borders plus a modern welfare state, which is a recipe for chaos? That is exactly what they’re doing! No wonder they don’t want to talk about it.

And no wonder, as more than ever before, the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies is needed. And that’s why I’m so glad that Team EIB is putting together a remembering-Rush program each and every day so we can hear the wisdom from El Rushbo. You know, I filled in more Rush’s many years ago before I got into politics, and the way the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, folks, treated me — whether it was the late Kit Carson or James Golden/Snerdley and all the rest — is something I’ll never forget.

And it is so nice, as I say, to be back here. I call it a promotion, my friends. (laughing) Take it from me. If you ever get elected to Congress, demand a recount. But now I’ve got Ali, Greg on the phones, Crash running the board. Let me see. Ali, Greg, and Crash. Sounds like a bad law firm but they’re gonna get us through today as we remember Rush.

Let’s start with a clip, because the learning never stops with Rush Limbaugh and indeed it never can with all of us. We’re starting to learn more about Joe Biden. He doesn’t know it yet, but we do. And the fact is that’s what Rush stood for: Continual learning and continued vigilance. So let’s run Rush’s audio here, Crash, on what it means that the learning never stops.

RUSH: It’s been a learning process all of these years. I mean, the learning never stops, as I say, and it’s just recognizing what is. And part of it is these are things I couldn’t know when I was 35 or 40. I hadn’t lived long enough. I hadn’t met enough people. I hadn’t had enough opportunities to see and hang around people up close to learn how and who they are and what they do.

It really does require a certain number of years of experience, up close and from afar, and keen powers of observation that you add to the base of knowledge that’s constantly expanding. You go back and listen to this program back in the nineties; there wasn’t any talk of a ruling class, the elites, the establishment. It was there.

The closest we got to it was when we discussed the Republican Party and conservatism and how they really don’t like conservatives ’cause they associate it with the Barry Goldwater landslide loss and how they weren’t big on Reagan. But it’s taken years for me to figure this out, to learn it and to be sure of it myself.

JASON: You know, that’s really vintage Rush, isn’t it? Things change. The only constant… The late Louie Rukeyser of Wall Street Week used to say the only constant is change, that things are never the same in the past. And that’s what Rush would say all the time, too, so you had to continually learn. And now we have — for the first time, thanks to President Trump dragging the Republican Party kicking and screaming into a new era of representing the forgotten man and woman, the working class.

The Democrats have told the workingmen and women (chuckles), “Pound sand. If you’re not a member of an academic, elite institution — if you’re not a member of a public sector union… If you’re a member of a trade union — you’re a millwright, engineer, electrician; you work at a mine up on Minnesota’s Iron Range, or you want to lay pipeline so that we can get cheap natural gas — forget about it. We are not gonna represent you.”

So it’s a golden opportunity for the Republican Party if they grab it.

That was the Trump phenomenon that Rush was so much a part of, that we in the 115th were so much a part of. That’s why it’s so important to understand that this is a new Republican Party, and it’s not going back no matter what the swamp thinks, no matter what the establishment thinks. The Cold War is over. America is tired of endless war; America wants to represent the working class.

And that means American sovereignty. And that means there’s gonna be a cost to sovereignty. just like there’s a defense budget, there’s also a cost to open borders and no tax on trade. You know, I gotta be honest with you. I grew up in the era of Milton Friedman and all the rest and the notion of absolute, 100% free trade — sort of a David Ricardo, Ricardian view. There should no taxes on incoming imports.

But who says there should be no taxes on income? Nobody says zero there. So why should there be no taxes on consumption? We’ll get into this a little later, but it’s really, really important, because there’s been a paradigm shift in the parties. And if the Republican Party can grasp hold of the working class as Trump attempted to do and did, this will be a shift in allegiance and a shift in electoral outcomes, if they are honest.

We’ll talk about that today as well going forward.

It’s just could not be more crucial.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

JASON: I will tell you there’s never been a clearer contrast between what is possible in America, what freedom will bring, what markets will bring, what American sovereignty will bring, and what can be done to destroy it in short order. You know, there’s a great statistic out there called the civilian labor force participation rate.

It’s far better than the unemployment rate. Of all the available pool of labor, how many adults are working? Under President Trump and our leadership in Congress, we got it up to 63% thanks to a massive growth spurt coming out of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act and deregulation. Under Joe Biden and the COVID lockdowns — put forth by Democrats, put forth by the Fauci swamp creatures — it is now barely above 61%.

We’re seeing, in short order, everything we warned about in the 2018 midterms, everything I warned as a U.S. Senate candidate in 2020. These people will do anything for power. Power is the key. They are anointed to govern you. They are busybodies on steroids. And that’s what Rush was talking about time and time again, and that’s exactly what he’s talking about right here in this next clip.

RUSH: You know one of the greatest illustrations of the Democrats’ use of power versus the Republicans’ is look at all the hypocrisy they get away with. Hypocrisy doesn’t even touch them. It doesn’t even attach itself to them. Yet it can destroy a Republican. How is this? In large part… It’s not solely this, but, in large part, it’s the way they have marshaled the use of power.

They’re not afraid to use it, they’re not afraid of the blowback to it, and I really think Republicans are. I think Republicans… Maybe “afraid” is too strong a word. They’re just uncomfortable with the media constantly yapping at their ankles. They’d just not… They’d rather have the media not questioning their motives and their actions and what they’re doing, and so the Republicans do not use power even when they have won it.

The Democrats are totally different. They’re not afraid at all. They’re not afraid of the backlash against it. They don’t care. It’s all oriented around the fact that they, in their minds, are entitled to power; that we aren’t, that unity is only defined by us accepting they are the legitimate people entitled to power, that we’re not. That’s what “unity” is. Unity is us conforming to them.

We have to be a bunch of conformists. We have to agree that “unity” means them in power and using their power. So there’s a piece I could illustrate this with before we get back to the phones. There’s a piece here at Frontpage Mag, which is David Horowitz’s magazine. “When Resistance Became Sedition and Sedition Became Resistance.”

This is simply a story on how the Democrats get away with rank hypocrisy.

Here’s the pull quote: “The difference between resistance and sedition, between protests and insurrections…” For example, none of what Antifa did is ever called an insurrection, none of what Black Lives Matter ever does. That never is an insurrection. But when the people protested at the Capitol, it was not a protest. It was an insurrection, and those people need to be flogged!

They need to be put in jail and they need to be tried, and they need to be convicted and they need to be sent packing. “The difference between resistance and sedition, between protests and insurrections, is who’s in charge. Democrats resist Republican elected officials. Republicans however,” they don’t resist. They are said to be “committing sedition against Democrat elected officials” when they criticize them.

Oh, yeah.

This is how it works.

“Democrats protest; Republicans riot. These are not distinctions in law. The only real distinction is who is in power and who’s on the barricade. Political hypocrisy is not a new phenomenon, but the Democrats have weaponized the national security state to suppress political opposition over the same behavior they engage in as a serious threat to the survival of the country…”

The very things they do are said to be no big deal. They are simply practicing dissent. When Republicans do those same things, it is said to be a serious threat to the survival of the country and the people of this country. What do you Republicans think you’re doing! And they gin up even more hate. And this is all about knowing how to use power when they have it to define us.

When is the last time you ever heard a Republican seriously try to define the modern-day leftist, liberal, or progressive? I mean, they throw around words like socialist or Marxist or what have you. But actually explaining to people how they are bad for the country? Why, they…

If any of them try that, you know what would happen to them. And yet they get away with doing that exact thing to us. And we’re left to have to defend ourselves and to explain it or to say that, “No, the charge is bogus. You don’t understand.” You boil it all down, and it comes down to power and the use of it and how they are not afraid to use it.

JASON: You know, Rush is so right about that. Back with me, Jason Lewis. I’m remembering Rush today. It’s 1-800-282-2882. We’ll get to some calls when we can. But we’re hearing The Great One talk about power, and the real danger, of course, that Rush alludes to is, when you believe you were born to exercise power — when you are an elitist and you think you’re a busybody and you want to control other human beings — you can’t have limits on power.

That becomes an obstacle — and, therefore, you can’t have the Constitution — and therefore, you start to talking about packing the Supreme Court — ending legislative filibuster, undoing the Byrd Rule. You know this debate on the minimum wage is a perfect example of what Rush was talking about, ’cause the Democrats tried to throw in a minimum wage bill for good or ill.

I actually think that Amazon and all these Big Tech companies who have their employees on public assistance because they’re not paying them enough, deserve the minimum wage. It’s the mom-and-pop, Main Street stores that can’t afford it. It ought to be: needed to be at the least. But the bottom line is forget about the issue.

They tried to throw that in budget reconciliation so they didn’t have to sub it to a filibuster or the Byrd Rule. They are going to undo the filibuster, and then they are going to try to pack the Supreme Court because judicial review — the separation of powers — stands in the way of absolute power. That’s, my friends, the Democrats I saw in Washington, D.C. They have no interest in comprising.

The whole “unity” garbage is a media gaslighting tool to make you conform — and the dirty little secret is most people would rather conform than put up a fight. Most people are not individualistic enough to lead. We’ve all got that conformity gene.

We’ve all got that “Karen” in us lecturing somebody else on, “You’re not wearing your mask.” It’s all there, and that’s what they exploit. But the purpose of Constitution and the republic was to make certain that the individual wouldn’t have to conform. And man, oh, man, is that ever needed more than ever right now, and so is Rush.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

JASON: It is my distinct honor to be here today and take you through some of these old clips remembering Rush Limbaugh and the impact — the profound impact — he really had in so many ways, in so many ways. You know, when you talk about power, as well, I want everybody to remember: The Democrats are not shy, as Rush said, about using it.

This minimum wage bill… Remember, they want to undo the legislative filibuster, the last check on the mob. We do not live by mob rule in this country. We’re a republic, not a pure democracy, where you get 50.1% of the people and they can do anything they want to the other 49.9%. We have with checks and balances, horizontally and vertically, called federalism.

We have filibuster in the Senate, a contrast that makes certain we have a consensus not a mere, mere, tiny temporary majority. They want to undo that so they can ram through H.R. 1, so they can pack the court. And then every right, quite frankly, is in jeopardy. And that’s what Rush is talking about when he talks about political power and third parties and why the latter is unnecessary if we just stand up to power.

RUSH: I made a point that the Democrats know what to do with their power. They use it when they have it, and, for the most part, the Republicans do not — and I mean raw power. I don’t mean the power that you have in majority votes in the Senate or in the House. Clearly the Republicans will use that kind of power.

But they will allow it to be watered down during debate, and they’ll make every vote close or what have you. It’s why so many Republican voters are constantly nervous. The Democrats, however, when they win and when they acquire power — and even when they’re out of power — they use it as though they’ve won it. You know, people ask me about a third party.

A third party would not be necessary if the Republican Party would simply coalesce around principled conservatives who don’t fear anybody, especially radical leftists in Washington. And this is part and parcel of using power when you have it. Now, we’ve got some people on our side who know how to do this. One of them is Kristi Noem.

She is the governor in South Dakota, and she said in BizPac Review that the “Republican Party needs to toughen up [and] ‘self-evaluate’ for not following through on key issues.” Now, here’s an elected Republican who gets it. This is the blueprint. This is using power when you have it, which is what we’re up against. The Democrats use it constantly.

They bludgeon us with it.

Greg “Kelly moved on to former President Donald Trump, touting his accomplishments despite tough Democratic opposition before asking Noem to respond with her thoughts on his term. ‘President Trump did things of great magnitude for this country. What he did on tax reform, on trade deals … his support of Israel, his protection of our national defense, his enforcement of our laws,’ Noem said.

“‘This man [Donald Trump] got up every single day and fought for the common everyday American so that they could have a chance to be successful and pursue the American dream,’ Noem noted further, adding that she believes Trump’s ‘legacy is going to be remembered as one of the greatest presidents’ in the country’s history.

“That is due to ‘the actual policies he pursued and the fact that he actually did what he campaigned on and he followed through on it.'” So she believes that the Republicans need to toughen up, and what are the Democrats doing? Try this: “Democrat Lawmakers Introduce Bill for Nationwide Mail-in Voting: Necessary to ‘Make Real Progress.'”

JASON: Wow. Well, I tell you what: We’re gonna get into election integrity and voter reform in the next hour with more clips from Rush. All you can say on some of these clips is, “Right on, Rush.” He hit it out of the park there. I know. I was there in that Congress with Governor Noem, and we did all of these things and got this economy going.

We had 1.9% growth for a decade under Bush and Obama. Everyone said that 3% growth is impossible. Getting the unemployment rate down to levels not seen since 1969? Impossible! Energy independence? Why, Jimmy Carter put on his Cardigan sweater decades ago and said, “Turn your thermostat down. Put on your sweater. We will never be energy independent.”

We were energy independent. The policies, as Rush alluded, are what drives Democrats crazy. They know they’re on the wrong side of history, so they focus on everything else. And they know that if there’s a debate over these policies they’re gonna lose. So they have to codify them permanently with things like H.R. 1, which would codify mail-in balloting, which would codify the COVID sham of an election.

When I say “sham,” I mean the process.

I mean the process in Minnesota, when the secretary cuts a deal with a liberal outfit suing him under a consent decree to allow ballots to come in after Election Day, to allow ballot harvesting as the Supreme Court is hearing, finally. Boy, Johnny on the spot, that Supreme Court of ours, right? Where were you when we needed you? You know, this is what they do when it comes to power. That’s what Rush is talking about.

Now, I’ll give you Exhibit A. Obamacare. The Democrats knew they would probably lose power when they passed Obamacare. They rammed it through anyway. Sure enough, they lost one legislative house. But it’s still here. It’s still here. Now if they could undo the legislative filibuster requiring 60 votes in the in the United States Senate, they can cram through anything they want, including…

The plan was always this: Get control of the Senate, which they did, and then undo (through Senate rules) the legislative filibuster, the super nuclear option, and then literally draft another law to pack the Supreme Court. It passes with 50.1, or I should say 50-plus-one, Kamala Harris. Now, fortunately Manchin and company are standing in front or as an obstacle to the legislative filibuster being undone. So now they’re trying to throw everything into something called budget reconciliation and that’s the Byrd Rule.

That says if it’s nonrelated to the budget, you can’t put it in budget reconciliation. That’s where this minimum wage bill got stymied, and that’s why it was thrown out. But they’re doing everything they can to accumulate permanent power. And anybody who wants permanent power and will do and say anything to attain it is precisely the sort of individual that should never, ever see it.

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